Motherboards and butterflies . . .

Sad news in the Cheatwood/Sime household this week... our laptop died, dropping our human to PC ratio to a paltry 3 to 2 (but still 1:1 only counting humans with the manual dexterity to use a PC). When Joe explains it, it's that I killed his laptop, but don't you believe him. I was simply uploading photos when ziip... screen disappears and won't turn on. After Joe spent 30 minutes online with the Gateway tech, taking the battery out and jiggling cords, the verdict came back that it's likely the motherboard. I'm not entirely sure I know what that is, but as the only mother in this house, I'm taking it personally.

Otherwise, a good past few days. We ended up with a fair amount of halloween traffic, including some late-night partiers who shared their toilet paper with our trees. Joe was ready to call the police in the morning, but I convinced him it was just the neighbor kids' way of saying welcome. Besides, they used quality TP which was fairly easy (for Joe) to remove. No harm, no foul. Calla enjoyed her opportunity to be a butterfly and asked for more opportunities throughout the weekend to wear her butterfly sweatshirt.


We stayed up late last night to watch the returns, and cracked the champagne after the Ohio projection was made. Joe wanted to wait until it was official, but I'm too old to start drinking that late! It was a fun night to watch, at least in this house. We went to bed feeling optimistic, hopeful and excited. I know cynicism and frustration will come later - it's probably inevitable with a complex system - but for now, hopeful is good.

Finally, instead of posting to this blog, I should be writing a speech I'm giving this weekend for a Lutheran Social Services of Illinois Advocacy gathering. It's a pro-bono thing that sounded like a good idea when I accepted. I mean, sure - why not? Why not? I'll tell you why not... because now I have to write the darn thing and drive to Bloomington on Friday night. It's not even my job anymore, so I can't believe I accepted the invitation (well, sure I can... ego, privilege, it's a cause that's important to me, blah blah blah). I'll enjoy it once I'm there, but for now, I'm being a grumpy (yet still overall hopeful and optimistic) writer.

Enough procrastinating... off to write a speech...