Boot the computer to the CD and take a test drive. You can try out Ubuntu without installing it.
Triple check to make sure your beloved files are backed up on an external hard drive then follow the prompts on the CD to install Ubuntu. [If your hard drive is big enough, you can run Windows and Linux. Mine isn't. I wiped the drive clean and started over, Windows free. FREEDOM!]
Realize that you don’t actually know how to use Linux… start Googling… It’s not that hard.
So far so good. The only problem is they don’t have a Google Chrome for Linux yet. Oh well, I’ll wait. There is a Chrome theme for Firefox and a few extensions that make it act a litle more like Chrome… but it’s just not the same. Sigh.
We’re headed to Texas today! Thanks to Geiko and Enterprise, we’ll be driving a rental car with Sirius Satellite Radio, heated seats and lit cup holders. :) On the 15th, a car slid on the ice and hit us doing about $3,000 of damage on our Buick. No one was hurt and we get to take a sweet ride to Texas and Tenessee so I guess all is well.
Since it is now OFFICIALLY the Christmas holiday, I’ve put my humbug on the back burner. Speaking of burners, I think I’ll burn a CD of Bebo’s Christmas album.
Long time readers, I hope you’re not too disappointed that I didn’t post a typical Christmas rant this year. It’s because I’ve carefully guarded myself from the two month insanity. I try to avoid Walmart at all costs in December… And believe me it really costs more for groceries! I also knew instinctively to change radio stations back in the middle of November. The Wind FM will be back to normal in January, Praise God!
We did put up our first Christmas tree in 13 years of marriage. FedEx gave a free tree to all the soldiers at Ft. Wood. If you read my facebook status post you know it was quite the adventure…
On December 3rd, I wrote:
Amy is being forced to participate in Christmas Tree activities against her will…
Amy just heard her son say, “maybe we just shouldn’t have a Christmas tree…it’s too much trouble for us.” After it fell over… AGAIN.
We gave up and went to bed. The next day:
Amy has the Christmas tree standing again… and is reapplying the Decor.
Amy has repaired and Decorated the pagan pine. She will now pay penance for yesterday’s humbug by serving her kids hot chocolate when they get home from school.
And thus on December 4th, 2008, Amy Jo Maxwell coined the term: Pagan Pine. Ok… I googled it and it was randomly used once or twice in atheist messageboards. But it is mine now. Thank you very much.
Instead of writing a lengthy life update, I’ve decided to post my December facebook status updates… it’ll give you a general idea of what’s going on in my life… or at least demonstrate the extent of my facebook addiction.
In my backpack: notebook, pen, Bible, wallet and passport… a change of clothes and a couple granola bars. Burt’s bees and St. John’s Wort. Digital camera and maybe a cell phone… maybe not.
Where would I go? I don’t know. Anywhere but here, I guess. Somewhere cheap I suppose. I guess I should take a 29 dollar flight to Orlando then fly from there to somewhere else… Germany maybe? That would be nice. Or Colorado maybe… no I’d rather go in the summer. I’d love to see Ireland… Greece would be amazing but I don’t speak the language. [Unless the year of Koine Greek that I took 11 years ago counts] … Seattle would be wonderful but again, not in the winter.
But I’d miss Christmas. Yeh, I don’t really like Christmas anyway.
Egypt… maybe I’ll go to Egypt and live with nuns in caves… or not. I’m too fond of jeans and I don’t want to stay that long…. and again with the language problem.
Besides, I don’t have that much money. I’d have to get a job… what would I do? I could get a job putting children’s bicycles together. And vacuum cleaners. Definitely, I’d just go to a toy store that says, “free assembly” and then I can spend my days connecting part A to part B… I like that. A lot really. Or I could learn how to fix motorcycles… I always wanted to be a motorcycle mechanic anyway.
I should go somewhere warm where thrify-green beach people ride motorcycles in December but don’t know how to fix them.
Yes, definitely. That’s a good plan. I think I’ll do that in Greece though… they have better coffee and seafood. And olives, I’m sure they have great olives. Better pack some lactaid… cause really the feta cheese will be too tempting for me.
Maybe I could get a job on one of those tour boats… where people tour the ancient world… from Israel to Greece and Rome. Definitely. I could be the person who makes the beds or serves the great coffee or lectures about trireme battle strategy.
Definitely… where ever I’d go to… my children would stay here… I’d send postcards and cute t-shirts. Or necklaces made out of seashells or old moped parts.
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Additional thoughts and questions:
Do you get conjugal visits if you run away from home?
I told Joel I’d take him with me, but he says that if he runs away with me he’s bringing the kids. I told him he can’t come.
Maybe I should just buy a motorcycle instead. [If we were out of debt, I could get a job and get this bike in time to ride it this summer.]
But it is mine now. Thank you very much.
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