The Computer Force

My computer is now frozen like Han Solo's carbonite prison.  Apparently I ran out of memory and it locked up after I was desperately trying to save the guild newsletter as a PDF.  I had saved it, sent a test copy to be proofread by Sharon, and she looked it over as we chatted on the phone.  "Just one little thing--can you change the email for me to the [alternate] email?" Apparently the alternate is more reliable, especially with attachments.
"Sure," I say, opening the document again and making that minor adjustment.  I tried to save it as a PDF again and that's when the problems began.  And the computer's life began a slow 24 hour descent to the underworld of the Galactic Alliance.
I shut it off, thinking that a good reboot to the backside would help, and it seemed to for a few minutes, until I realized that it had come back at its factory settings.  All the files I had been working on were no where to be found.  'They're still on the C drive,' Kelly assures me, and I was able to open one or two of them up, but I couldn't get anything that required opening a program--they were all not to be found.  Publisher...gone.  Email...vaporized.
I was able to get on the internet, still.  I checked my email through the server's web page and checked Facebook for updates, and most everything gets sent to my phone, so I haven't missed anything, but Kelly had run some Windows updates, so I had to reboot again tonight.  Unfortunately, when I did that, it locked me out completely.  "Access Denied" it smugly proclaims in tiny print. "These are not the droids you're looking for...".
It is a laptop and has been around for at least 5 years...not sure exactly when I got it, but it was before we moved here.  These things don't usually last that long, so I suspect that either a new laptop is in my future (if we can find the money to get one) or Kelly will have to surgically extract the offending parts and replace them, patching it up like the Millenium Falcon.

Yesterday, just for fun, I went to the Equestrian practice for the SCA, which is held at the same horse farm we've visited a few times for lessons.  Unfortunately, I missed the memo that you had to let them know four days in advance that you want to rent a horse, which I realized *that* morning, but I thought I'd go anyway, just in case they weren't too booked.  As I suspected, they didn't have any available for use when I got there--several birthday parties and trail rides were already underway, so all the uninjured and well-behaving horses were in use.  I was OK with that, and then (the new) SIR Thorkjll, one of the men running the practice, said that they would be able to let me borrow one--not everyone rides the entire time. 

In the meantime, I learned how to be ground crew, picking up weapons that are dropped (wooden swords and lances and one large wooden spoon), putting the heads back on the pikes so they can be sliced off again, and watching for other hazards.  After about three hours, and with an hour left to practice, one gentleman asked if I would like to ride.  He dismounted his rented mare, Seraphina (Emma rode her for a lesson once and I remembered she was a little tempermental) and allowed me to climb on.  He adjusted the stirrups for me, and I was able to qualify for two of the four horse games; ring joust (use the lance to snag white rings on the tip), and "heads" (weaving in and out of the pikes and slicing the heads off that are held on with magnets). 

There were two other games--one I attempted was like in the movie "A Knight's Tale" where he has a lance and hits a small shield on a T bar, which swings around and hits him in the head with a bag of sand.  I forget what it's called, but that thing...minus the bag of sand.  Unfortunately, the horse was being a dork and refused to do any more; Seraphina wasn't even trotting anymore.   It was the end of practice anyway, so I was OK with quitting then.  Unfortunately, the next regular practice isn't until October.  Darn it.  The last game involves riding up, tossing a stick through a hoop and catching it on the other side. I didn't get to that at all.
Today, Avelyn and I got together to work on the yurt.  We got all the rafter sliced up for her yurt, and we started drilling my tono, but the holes were starting to go in at different angles.  I need to make a new jig or figure out how to do it on the drill press.  I'm frustrated.
Started some work on Adeliza's thistle socks again.  I finally got her to try them on at July Coronation, so I got the pattern and the socks together in one place and put a few rows on it tonight.  It still has about 20 rows of thistle left on one sock, then about 3" of yellow on the top of each sock.  I won't get them done tomorrow, but it'll be nice to be able to pass those on soon.

G'nite.
And may the force be with you.