My New Laptop -- My Baby

I ordered a new Dell Studio XPS laptop in October as soon as they started offering laptops with Windows 7. It took over six weeks to arrive. They changed the estimated delivery date twice, then actually canceled my order and put it in again so that it wouldn't seem as though they were taking 6 or more weeks to send out orders.

That was all fine once the laptop arrived, because I really love it. It's a nice compromise between size (16" screen) and portability (it's relatively light to carry around). It runs fast, the keyboard is smooth and easy to type on, and everything on it works well for the most part.

The only problem is that I want to play Sims 3 on it. When I first installed it, it ran very choppy and kept hesitating and freezing up for just a few seconds every 30 seconds or so. Tech support helped me by reinstalling video drivers and helping me with some other things to help speed up my computer, and now the game runs passably well. They also assured me that this computer exceeds the specs for the game. (My specs: Core i7 720QM processor [1.6 - 2.8] with 6 GB memory.)

But...it still runs a bit slow when playing this game. On their website right now, a lot of the features for which I paid extra are now standard and the faster processor plus 8 GB memory are now somewhat affordable.

I called Dell to see if I could return this computer and either exchange it for one with the faster processor or buy a new one. They said they'd charge me a 15% restocking fee (which they said amounted to $230 or $240, but when I computed it myself, it came to over $300).  Instead he offered me $100 to keep the computer.  lol  I took it rather than lose the $200.

I feel like I got kind of screwed on this, though. On the packing slip for this computer, it says: "For returns, see Dell's 'Total Satisfaction Return Policy'. Contact customer service for an authorization."

If I click "return" on the order page, it says you have 21 days to return and item and it would be subject to the 15% restocking fee, but I searched the Dell website for the "Total Satisfaction Return Policy" and that says: 

"Total Satisfaction" Return Policy (U.S. and Canada Only)

If you are an end-user customer who bought new products directly from a Dell company, you may return them to Dell within 30 days of the date of invoice for a refund or credit of the product purchase price.

Way to be confusing, Dell. :-(  When I bought this computer, I figured if it wouldn't play Sims 3 well, I'd return it and look for something else.

I also wish I'd waited for Christmas sales, but I didn't think of that. I was just thinking "Windows 7 & Sims in my bedroom and/or hotel room!" hehe I also wish I'd done more research on this processor. I thought I'd done enough research about the computer and the processor and all of that, but apparently not.


Ah well, live and learn. This is a $2000 mistake that I'll be living with for at least four or five years.



OTOH, I do love this computer and it is very pretty. I'll be very happy to have it on my next trip instead of the clunky, heavy, old laptop my husband and I have been sharing for the past nine or ten years. (I think we bought it in 2000, but it may have been 2001.)

Ack. I was talking to Dell technical support via chat, and they were really nice, but I felt like an idiot. Everything they asked me to try didn't work. *sigh*

Also, my husband's truck is making weird noises. I'm not sure what's wrong with it. I'm not sure if he knows either.

Time to play Sims 3.

Vegan Cupcakes!

I made some vegan cupcakes yesterday for my husband's birthday. I used two recipes from the book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero:

Your Basic Chocolate Cupcake, page 37
Chocolate Buttercream Frosting, page 44

Mmmm....  I love this book.

I took a few pics:

30 Seconds to Mars, Christmas Shopping, and Birthdays

We got started late with Christmas shopping, but shopping online makes it easy. We decided to go with the "one big gift" philosophy this year.

I just bought the new 30 Seconds to Mars album, and I love it so far, though I'm still listening to it now, so I haven't heard it all. Some music has to sink in; some music I like right away, but it doesn't last; some music I like right away, but there is still something there to sink in over time, so that I'm always discovering something new.  30 Seconds to Mars music is like that, I think.

Edited to add: I bought  the new 30 Seconds to Mars album on iTunes, but I just noticed that Amazon has it as one of their $3.99 specials. These specials usually only last a day or two, so if you're interested, get right over there. You don't get the bonus tracks, but they are sort of novelties anyway--alternate versions of songs already on the album.  I sort of wish I'd seen this before I paid full price at iTunes. *sigh*  


Amazon also has the new Switchfoot album, Hello Hurricane, for $5.00, Night Castle by Trans-Siberian Orchestra for $7.99, and The 99 Most Essential Christmas Masterpieces or $5.00. 



Today is my husband's 50th birthday. His birthday is today, my daughter's is Friday, and mine is next week. Now that we are old, we usually celebrate all the birthdays together. We started this when my daughter was at college, because she was usually not home for her birthday, but was home sometime within the next week for Christmas vacation. This year she's at home, but my son is away at college, so we'll wait to celebrate until he gets here.


Even so, I want to do something for my husband today, because it's his 50th and that's a huge milestone. Perhaps I'll bake some cupcakes or make/get him something for dinner. I have a bunch of errands to do tomorrow, though. Perhaps I should bake cupcakes before I go to bed, but if I do that, he'll see them before he goes to work.


David Cook performed Lie on a Carrie Underwood Christmas Special tonight and...wow!

Computer Stuff & Another Blog

I think I'm ready to start another blog I've been thinking about for a long time: technology for technologically clueless. I think I know just enough to be dangerous. I love gadgets and mildly techy things, so I thought it would be cool to write reviews of some of the things I have (not every cool thing, certainly) and maybe sift through info about other things I'm interested in.  I don't know if it will work, but I'm going to give it a shot.

I'm currently having some tech problems of my own. I believe the data drive on my desktop is failing. This computer is only about 8 months old, so I need to contact Dell and find out what I need to do. I backed up my data to my husband's external drive, because I was having problems with mine.

Also, my new laptop is having issues. It has an iCore7 processor and 6GB ram, but it often runs choppy and acts like it's running out of memory, especially when I try to play Sims 3. Grrrr...

Cirque du Soleil & OliveGarden

Tonight we went to Cirque du Soleil. It was very strange. I loved some parts of it, but didn't like other parts. It was the show in which a lot of the performers were dressed as clowns or were wearing quite garish facial makeup or masks. I know it's a style, but I just find it creepy. OTOH, I loved the main singer and the music, and I also loved all the acrobatics and all of that. It was a lot of fun to watch. They also do not abuse animals as part of their show (in the show or behind the scenes), so they get a lot of imaginary points for that.

We went to dinner first at Olive Garden. Our companions suggested it, and we tried to find someplace else, but we didn't know the area well, and couldn't find anyplace on short notice. On their website, Olive Garden is not vegan friendly at all, which was why we tried to find someplace else to go. My husband called them early in the morning before we went, and the manager was very nice and tried to be accommodating, but basically what they have that is vegan is salad, bruschetta, or bread sticks (which you must request be served without butter, because they brush the tops with butter).

I ordered the bruschetta and some bread sticks without butter. What they call bruschetta is esentially toasted bread with a side dish of chopped fresh tomates, olive oil, and fresh basil. When I was growing up, the Italians that I knew that made bruschetta actually cooked the tomato stuff on a fresh dough--essentially a thick pizza with tomato stuff on top, or they'd put it on thick slices of Italian bread. In the grocery store here, you can buy a jar of bruschetta topping to put on bread and you end up with something similar. What Olive Garden called bruschetta is exactly the same thing as what California Pizza Kitchen called "checca."

It wasn't bad, but if I'd known they'd toast the bread, I'd have asked for it untoasted, only because it was toasted hard, and I don't really like dry, hard toast like that. I brought the bread sticks and most of the bread home with me. I would have taken the checca/not!bruschetta home with me, too, but we were going to the show after, so I didn't want to leave it in the car all evening.

Oh wow. This blog is boring. heh I think I can boil it down to:

Olive Garden is not vegan friendly even if they try to be nice about it. Cirque du Soleil was interesting and fun; I'd consider going again to a different show that didn't have clowns.

Marinara Sauce

New day, new post.

Later today, I'm going to make a marinara sauce from a recipe in the book: California Pizza Kitchen: Pasta, Salad, Soups, and Sides by Larry Flax and Rick Rosenfield. Most of the recipes in this book are not vegan, but it has some great recipes. I usually only buy vegan cookbooks nowadays, but I made an exception for the two cookbooks that I bought from CPK.

My favorite recipes from the book mentioned above:

Checca (page 4)**
Tusccan Hummus (page 7)
Marinara Sauce (page 93)
Focacciass (page 90)

I've been making tomato sauce of one kind or another all of my adult life. I grew up in a neighborhood with a lot of Italians who called it "gravy." My mother made sauce and many other Italian dishes and I also married an Italian guy and learned from my mother-in-law as well. Those were the days of long-cooking sauces that you might simmer over low heat for a few hours, sometimes adding in meatballs that had been browned to cook further in the sauce. When I go back home, this is the type of sauce that most still make.

In the 90s, I used to watch Emeril and...oh, I am not sure of her name, but it was something like Bebe, an Italian chef with her own show. I learned from them both how to make a quicker-cooking sauce, and over the years I played around with that, adding different veggies or sometimes making it plain.

Anyway, today I'm making the marinara sauce (made with fresh tomatoes) from the California Pizza Kitchen book, and, while it's best fresh, I am making a big batch and will freeze it in small, single-serving containers.


**The authors recommend serving the checca (essentially some chopped tomatoes with basil) over the focaccias (bread), but in the restaurant, they also top the Tuscan Hummus with a bit of checca and serve that with freshly baked pita bread (which I believe may actually be plain pizza dough, but it's very yummy, served soft and warm).

When I make hummus, my favorite way to serve it is with tabouli salad on pita bread or in the pocket of a pita, but it's also good on freshly baked french bread as well. When I don't have the time to make the tabouli, checca also works. It makes the hummus just a bit more fancy.

I use much less olive oil in the checca than the recipe calls for.

NaBloPoMo & Vegetable Soup

Damn. Second day into NaBloPoMo and I blew it. I was just sitting down to post when I realized it was already after midnight.

Damn!

Ah, well, I'm going to keep going anyway, and see how I do, then try again next month.

Today I wanted to post about this lovely, lovely vegetable soup recipe. It's from a book called The Vegan Table: 200 Unforgettable Recipes for Entertaining Every Guest at Every Occasion by Colleen Patrick-Goudreau.** This book is not just for entertaining and every recipe is not overly involved or requiring a zillion ingredients. Some recipes are very simple, like the soup I've made twice in the last week.

It's a basic recipe that includes sauteing onions, celery, and carrots in a little olive oil, then adding some tomatoes (canned or fresh), then broth or water, then zucchini and broccoli. In other words, it's very similar to the soup I might have thrown together with whatever veggies were in my fridge at the moment. Somehow, though, when I followed this recipe, it came out even better than it usually does. I think it might be the addition of fresh herbs or maybe the particular blend of herbs.

When I made it, I added fresh garlic while sauteing the veggies. The second time I made it, I added just a tiny bit of diced red pepper when I was adding the tomatoes. I didn't add broccoli either time. I love broccoli, but not in soup. The author included some suggestions for additions to make it more of a full meal.

It's yummy, yummy soup.


**The link above goes to this book at Amazon. I don't have an account set up with them at this time, but I provided the link for convenience.

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Now playing: 30 Seconds to Mars - Kings and Queens
via FoxyTunes

NaBloPoMo, New Laptop, & Windows 7

I haven't used this blog much as I'm more of a LiveJournal addict, but I thought it would be fun to do NaBloPoMo using this blog, since nobody reads it. The goal is to stimulate writing, creativity, and the thought process, and to free me from thinking too much about who might be reading. I also want to start up a couple of other blogs (not for NaBloPoMo) and get them going as well, and just see what happens.

I'm writing this on my brand new laptop, which is cool, though it's not easy to get used to the keyboard. I've been busy installing things on this computer and transferring/duplicating some things from my desktop.

I also upgraded my desktop to Windows 7 last week, so I'm still working on getting that up to spead again as well. My goal on both computers is to keep them streamlined and only install what I really need and will use.

Okay, off to install The Sims 3. Secretly I'm hoping that Santa will bring me Sims 3 World Adventures this year, but I doubt it.