Oh, what a weekend!

Last week, my good friend called in a little bit of a panic. Her laptop had up and died, potentially taking all her needed work data with it. While receiving various bits of advice, none of which were truly accurate, she did manage to remember me chastising her the last time something happened for not consulting me. No, I am not Steve Jobs, or Bill Gates or even the guys I work with who posses so much more knowledge than I do. I am, however, a geek with experience in the real world and I do know a few things. So my advice to her was simple: Don't talk IT with non-IT people!

Now, that was not meant as a slur against anyone who was truly trying to help her. It was simply a matter of fact from my point of view. IT people know things, have experienced things, or have access to things that the everyday person typically does not. You may ask your friend who knows something about cars their opinion on what that noise is but when you WANT to know what it is you go to a mechanic or someone with enough mechanical knowledge to make a difference.

Anyhow, I knew the laptop was beyond my meager talents but I knew I could save her data for her. I have a 2.5" drive enclosure that I could put her drive into and, barring any corruption or issues with the drive and data itself, I knew I would be able to get it all of so she could access it while the laptop was being repaired.

As it turned out, this was but the beginning of the task as her HP had virus issues, her IBM had sluggish speed and the Cicero, well, it was simply fracked and refused to stay booted as it reset over and over again. We considered this a working weekend so after she got here, we went downstairs where DW and I set about getting what we can fixed and most importantly, getting the laptop drive out of the laptop and imaged to a safe place.

In the course of this work, where not much sleep was had, we decided to take a break and join my other friend, DoubleD and his wife, at the Good Food Festival. The best way to describe this place is that it is like One of a Kind, but only with food and absent of the high-nosed crap that accompanies it. You pay twelve bucks entry and almost every stall had a free sample. Let me tell you, we ate and drank very well for the money.

On top of the regular fare (we picked up some meat, some bread and some skewers of shrimp), there was a stand from Weber promoting their BBQs and how to properly BBQ seminars. Not too far from them, Kahlua had a stand where they were blending a mix (cup of Kahlua, cup of milk, fill blender with ice) which they sold in shot like plastic glasses for a buck with the money going to charity. Well, we donated a number of times. We donated enough that they using us to sell it to other people coming up. They thought we were blitzed but we were just having a really good time being out together.

Afterwards, we really needed to head home to finish the machines so that they could go back home. DoubleD and his wife invited up to their place in Newmarket, but we simply had to get back to it. We did invite them to come down though if they could get a sitter since we would be able to drink and work at our place. Alas, only DoubleD could come as they were sitterless and the wife's feet were super tired. So, we checked out Kahlua stocks and realized that a run to the LCBO was necessary immediately as it was 9:45PM and they close at 10. Thankfully, we live five minutes away so that was easy enough. Let the blending begin!

To shorten the next series of events, suffice it to day that various levels of change were effected in the recipe and we tried them all. One 750 and half a magnum later, life was good. A couple of Def Comedy Jam shows and it was time to break up the party. DW, who was already long gone, headed to bed. MTL, who was mostly gone and slightly toasty, headed off as well (she would soon be back up as her son wakes early and he had homework to complete). I, on the other hand, had work to do and sports to watch so I headed back into the dungeon.

Lots of work, mostly successful except for one stubborn machine (the Cicero) which has a hardware issue, and the group left a happy group. The main HP home machine was operating properly again and a new, working AV application installed. The laptop drive was reinstalled into the laptop so it could be handed in for service while the image of it resided on the HP for access by MTL. The IBM was re-imaged and working fine with a clean install. And the frozen items were in a collapsible cooler bag so will survive the 5.5hr trip home.

Great weekend. Now, sigh, on to trying to do the same for my father's machine.

Peace.