When It Rains ...

Aside from our trip to the drive-in, this weekend was kind of blah. I spent almost all weekend grading, which is one of my least favorite chores. Plus yesterday was the first Mother's Day without my mom, so it was a sad day. However, I had every intention of having a great week. I planned a productive day at the office -- returning student papers, submitting grades, and finishing my presentation for the IASSIST conference. Then the rest of the week will be spent in Montreal at a laid-back conference, with great friends, in a fun city.

Alas, my attempt at a mood change has been thwarted all day by progressively worse technical difficulties. It started when the University email system went down this morning, and then my computer crashed in the midst of finishing up my presentation. But the icing on the cake was when I tried to reboot my computer after the crash and it started whining and smoking. I have little faith that the machine is salvageable. While I have most of my hard drive backed up, I will have to manage without certain software and files for a while and this is going to mess up my short-term research plans. I am now really looking forward to listening to some good music while I drive through the Adirondacks tomorrow on my way to Montreal. It should be a good way to clear my head and lower my stress levels.