yay hooray! the computer, she is fixed! after a few late nights and lots of grumbling and file transfering and blue screens of death and registry errors and drivers not wanting to load, i am finally up and running again. and i am a very happy camper. all i need now is ms office so i can write my darn papers...so i'll be spending a large chunk of my weekend in my office @ school, it looks like. oh well. the end is in sight.

in other news, i almost lit myself on fire today after trying to fix a home-made propane heater. because, you know, doing research means you have to be part electrician, part carpenter, part handyman, part landscaper, part whatever needs to be done. and today, getting the propane heater to not leak propane was what needed to be done. 'cept it was apparently still leaking propane when i was done 'fixing' it, because whoosh!, big scary flames! i am happy to report, however, that my eyebrows are still intact. thank god for small favors.