Small successes and disasters

The Caroling Party went pretty well, although it was smaller than usual, probably because of the rather considerable snow and wind. There were 20 or so guests, which is enough to keep the singing coming. We didn't attempt the outside portion of the event. Besides not really having enough people to split into two viable groups, it seemed a little unkind to expect the neighbors to stand with their doors open and beam appreciatively with wind-driven snow roaring into their houses.

The new stove performed wonderfully, but the refrigerator stopped working. However, we didn't actually notice until the next day (Christmas Eve) that the refrigerator had quit. We had sort of vaguely noticed that it wasn't rattling anymore, but...

Oh well. Now that Christmas is over, I guess I'd better try calling somebody to come fix it.

Still trying to fix my computer

Which mostly works fine, except that a couple of times a day it seizes up and has to be rebooted. I've checked for viruses, deep-scanned the hard disk, and now I'm defragmenting the main disk. The defrag program has been running since 4pm yesterday and is only 63% done!!

Christmas Eve

December 24 was a lovely day. ambertatge arrived in the wee hours of the morning, got a few hours sleep, and was game for a little cross-country skiing in the afternoon. It was a gorgeous day - sunny, nearly windless, about 20 degrees with several inches of fluffy new snow. We went to Como Park, where Amber could rent skis. It was perfect. There were enough other skiiers to keep the place lively, but plenty of room in the parking lot. The trails were great, with a pair of well-set classic ski tracks alongside the ski-skater track. I think the trail is better laid out this year than I remember from past years. There's a big flat loop along the bottom of the valley, then three loops up and down a modest hill before the trail finally snakes off along the ridge to a slightly more challenging hill (which I prefer to avoid, frankly). The beginner hills were great - just steep enough to build up a little speed with no big worries about losing control. We skiied for about an hour, just enough to tire me out pretty thoroughly.

Christmas Eve was relaxed. Most of our presents were wrapped, for a change, so there was no Christmas eve frenzy. In keeping with our usual tradition, we each opened one present. I think I opened up some socks first, not terribly exciting but what I'd asked for. Nice warm Smartwool socks. I wore one pair on Christmas day and I'm wearing another pair now. They are doing the job of keeping my feet warm without falling down. Smartwool is great stuff.

The present I had the most fun with, however, was one I'd gotten for Richard (and of course suggested that he open right away so I could play with it). It's a fabulous new universal remote that is supposed to replace the 5 or 6 remote controls lying around in the attic. I've tried universal remotes before and been disappointed, but the technology does finally seem to have matured. I picked the Universal Remote Control, Inc., RF-10, which is the low end of the URs aimed at the home theater market. This one can control a mere 8 devices - the fancier ones control up to 20! It turned out to be easy to set up (at least for the basic functions). Richard (who is kind of an electroniphobe) was a little dubious about having to learn a new device, since it had taken him months to get comfortable with the controls we'd been using for the DVD. But the new controller really has a much more intuitive button layout than the Sony ones, plus it lights up. I find the new controller to be much easier to use, and Richard did fine with it. I have hopes that he will now be able to operate the VCR/broadcast TV arrangement, which had confused him so much that he wouldn't even try it. Turning that combo on required two different controllers, each with button layouts as different as they could possibly be from the Sony controllers, leading to many mistakes of the "oops, I was trying to lower the volume, not change the channel" variety. And then the VCR remote broke, which made things even worse. This is clearly going to be an improvement.

Richard made latkes on the new stove, using the grill that fits over the 5th burner, and kept them warm in the warming oven. So the new stove was a big success. Kind of a pity that the fridge was broken, though. We had to throw away the meat and fish, a few leftovers, and eventually all the milk. However, it is the middle of winter, which means we can use the front porch as a large walk-in fridge. The trick is figuring out whether things left on the front porch overnight will actually freeze solid, and if so whether it will hurt them.

Once I had the new remote control working we went up to the attic to try it out with something Christmasy. Unfortunately, all we had that we hadn't seen was "Elf," which started out sort of cute but became increasingly stupid as it went along. I bailed after the first half hour, but R and the kids stuck it out to the end. Everybody but Richard went to bed, and Santa came in the night.

So there were ups and downs, but on the whole it was a very pleasant Christmas Eve.

Waiting for the Electrician or Someone Like Him

Preferably someone more like a refrigerator repair person, actually. The fridge is only 5 years old, which is infuriating and pretty much convinces me never to buy another GE appliance, but since it's pretty much a new fridge the question of whether to repair or replace clearly comes down to repair.

So all I have to do is call a repair service and hope they show up, right? I even found a local applicance repair service (Appliance Express) that offers same day service. Specifically, their site says: "Appliance Express provides dependable, same day service throughout the Twin Cities Area. Talk to our live friendly operators and experience our knowledgable, courteous service technicians." That sounds good. So I called this morning at about 11am. The "live friendly operator" turned out to be a recording. I left my name and number and waited for a callback. It is now 3pm and still no callback. Great. I wonder if there is even anybody in their office this week.

Okay, Plan B. Since it's a GE refrigerator I went to the GE Repair Service site. I had to work my way through an online repair scheduling form to get to the information that the next available service date is Friday afternoon. Since I'm beginning to doubt that Appliance Express is even picking up their phones, I went ahead and scheduled a repair date with GE. If Appliance Express calls back first and offers to get here quicker I should be able to cancel the GE call.

This is not shaping up well.

Not only that, my plugged up ear feels worse today than it did yesterday and I'm beginning to think I may have to go to the doctor. Another scheduling nightmare, I'm sure. They are probably short-staffed this time of year like everybody else. I think I'd better call them, though. It's about time for the ear infection that pops up every 3 or 4 years. I'm getting tired of not being able to hear out of my left ear. *sigh*

At long last - wireless!!

Off and on for about the last 4 years I've been trying to add internal wireless access to my existing home LAN (which is served by DSL). This has proved surprisingly difficult. I started out trying to set up some old wireless equipment I got at a yard sale, with predictably unsuccessful results. Then I bought a Linksys home router that almost worked, briefly, before it just disintegrated like the piece of worthless junk it is. My third attempt is a Netgear (a brand I've had much better luck with) but it's been sitting around for a year waiting for somebody to muster up the enthusiasm to try and install it.

This is probably fairly easy to do if you don't have any kind of home network to start with and are planning to connect to the Internet through something that might conceivably be described as a "DSL or cable modem." If you already have a DSL router that is managing a small LAN with addresses configured the way you want them, the instructions and setup wizards that come with these home network devices are essentially worthless. I am also unreasonably resentful of the requirement to uncable my computer from the Internet, disable my static IP address, and plug my 'puter directly into the new device so I can fight my way through an insufferable browser interface just to change the IP address.

It took me a couple of tries this time, because I kept trying to use the "Internet port" to connect to my local LAN. I finally found a page on the Netgear Knowledge Base on "Using WPN824, WGR614, or WGT624 Routers as an Access Point." The secret is: don't use the "Internet port" for anything. Just cable to one of the 4 Ethernet hub ports, assign the port a static address on the LAN and disable the DHCP server. Once I'd done all that, the wireless network popped right up, and the computer in Amber's room can now go through the wireless network onto the Internet!

Now I'm trying to figure out how to set up basic security. I tried enabling WEP and entering a "passphrase" on the router, but couldn't find anyplace in the wireless setup on the client to enter the same passphrase. Also, online info indicates that WPA is "newer and better" than WEP. Should I use that instead? Or will it be too new for the USB wireless adapter I'm using on the client computer? What security do you people use for your wireless networks??