If you haven't been following my Twitter this week, then you might be wondering why I missed Monday's post on both of my blogs, and also pretty much vanished from Raverly.

Remember that old, old laptop that I managed to resurrect just in time for NaNoWriMo? The one that really just needed some TLC and a new battery?

It died. I'm officially calling it. The software is so outdated that it keeps freezing, especially when I try to get online, and that three month old battery is no longer taking a charge. Since it's a Mac, it's too expensive to fix, and at eight years old, it's not really worth it, anyway.

My "good" laptop? The newer one? No change there. Still broken, and probably too expensive to fix.

The desktop? My wireless card is fried. It died on me this week. Even moving the computer closer to the router couldn't get me a decent connection. Since it is not practical to move my entire desk or even my computer out to the living room, I'm calling it a loss. At some point in the future I will look into getting a USB wireless receiver, but that's not happening this month. We're at the point where we are taking food where we can get it, wondering if we're going to have water and electricity next month, and pretty much collapsing into a glibbering heap at the thought of another $600 fuel oil bill. We are trying to think of things we can sell. Sadly, those computers and my car are the sum total of things I own worth anything, and I need the car to get to and from work. I'm thinking about posting knitting, crochet, sewing, and embroidery classes on Craigslist, but am generally distrustful the people who use that site (myself included). Oh, and if anyone needs a 119 gallon water heater, we've got one for sale.

I am trying to be optimistic. Other than the wireless issue, the rest of my desktop still works. This is good, because it means that it doesn't really inhibbit my writing or designing, I just need to move my chair over to my television and type in my lap. No big deal.

I've also put several more rows in on the London Calling Cabled Cardigan, since a good deal of the last two days has been sitting around waiting to see if the internet is working on the computer, or if the substitute computer (borrowed from Missouri; that's another story in itself) will boot, or waiting for various software patches and updates to download and install. Basically, I've been sitting in front of the computer and not doing much else.

But, I was able to join the pockets on the cardigan last night. And I keep telling myself that I was spending too much time on the internet, anyway. Yes, I've been trying to promote my writing and patterns through social media, but really, there was a lot more time spent looking at cat pictures.

In fact, I'm pretty sure that the only thing that's going to improve this month is Googling "kittens." Repeatedly.

Like right now.