It could have been worse, of course, but:
1. The phone line, which was supposedly fixed, went dead again yesterday. And then came back this morning. Then it was dead again. And now it’s back up again, but for how long?
2. My printer is officially also dead, which means I need to buy another new one. I’ve tried everything I can to get it back on its feet. Although this one lasted me two years and worked wonderfully when it was operational, so I shouldn’t grumble too much. I seem to replace them every two to five years, and while that seems horribly wasteful to me, it’s probably the lifespan of what’s made these days. (Which disappoints me on a whole other level. I don’t like thinking of small appliances and electronics as disposable.)
3. The new umbrella stroller I bought yesterday at half price to replace our old tatty one (a canopy! reclinable!) was missing two wheels, and I didn’t discover it until I unpacked it after dragging it and the baby in our other stroller home. So I have to take it back again today.
4. My rickety Windows laptop finally bit the dust. It won’t even boot up now.
So I baked chocolate shortbread bunnies. They were very good. And I made veggie-cheese nuggets and froze them for quick Owlet meals, but it took great strength on my part not to eat them all myself.
I highly recommend HP laserjet printers. Mine is over 6 years old and still working beautifully. They are expensive if you need colour, unfortunately, but the black ink only ones go on sale for $100.
My youngest sister bought these crazy brocoli / cheese nuggets from the store that Lily was eating and they were AWESOME .. I can’t even imagine how much better homemade ones would be!
I briefly considered a black and white printer, but we do print photos now and again, and with the boy of school age doing research and needing colour prints of pictures and things for projects, we do need a colour one. I picked up another Canon inkjet, and bought the service plan this time, all for a decent price.
When I lived in NDG my phone would die every time it rained. This was the age of dial-up, too, so it meant their highly helpful “Please check our website” message on my pay-by-the-minute cell phone had a particular irony.
Over the course of the 4 years I lived there, I had techs visit three times. “I’ve never seen a telephone box that old” said the first, referring to the thing on the pole outside; the second determined that the box was overloaded because of all the new lines in the area over the years; the third figured out that the box had been installed upside down, with the rain cover BENEATH it.
All this to say, I feel your pain. Hopefully your phone issues will sort themselves out, sooner than mine did.