I am so sick of computer problems

 I have probably spent 20 hours this week trying to get my computer to do what it used to do - just simple things like talking to my printer (solved), acknowledging my second monitor (solved), playing the audio for my Japanese flashcards (solved but it took about 3 hours), playing sound for Skype/Zoom calls (eventually solved although it still wants to reinstall Zoom every time I take a call) and re-installing lost software as I remember it.  For example, you can't actually get a free version of Photoshop any more like I used to have, so I am trialling a Photoshop-alternative called Affinity. Then the downstairs laptop (which we were using to talk to my son on Discord while the broken computer was still broken) decided it didn't want to use its webcam or second monitor - perhaps it felt left out from all the drama. It wanted to install a big Windows update instead but after that it calmed down and is once again behaving more or less.  The kaput drive remains inaccessible - the SATA to USB cable didn't help.  I will hang on to the dead drive for a while in case I remember something vital that is trapped on it, but so far nothing seems worth the couple hundred pounds that data recovery firms want.  Now the case fan on my PC has stopped turning and I just can't face getting down on my knees and fussing with wires any more, at least not for a while, so I've just taken the sides off the case for ventilation. Let's hope the cat doesn't electrocute herself.

Meanwhile the car people called to ask permission to take the gear box out of the car - like are we going to say "no, we fancy a big four-wheeled paperweight!" - and to deliver dire warnings about how many hundreds of pounds it is going to cost if they decide the issues aren't covered by the warranty.  And DH has been to the dentist who will be extracting his broken tooth in exchange for £380.  I'm starting to feel like I should just post my bank details on the front door so people can help themselves.  When the hose fell off the front of the hoover, it just seemed par for the course - but I did manage to work out how to reattach it, so that was alright.

After losing a week while on the holiday, I've been trying to do three passes on the quilting frame every day after lunch.  This got me to the end of the main part of the quilt, so now I've turned it and re-attached it to the frame so that I can quilt the other two borders. My steering is becoming more smooth but I am still getting inconsistent stitch length. I've also spent some time fine tuning the height of the roller bars and in trying to get them as parallel as possible. This is because I noticed I was developing some fullness on the right hand side as I rolled on, and when I measured I found the bars weren't parallel - so therefore the quilt wasn't rolling evenly. It makes me wish I had a proper professional set-up instead of my home-made adaptations. And it would also be nice to have a larger throat size so I could do bigger patterns.

Another stalled project was the Tannenbaum Quilt but I put in a few hours yesterday, and today about another 3.5 hours while listening to the Zoom call that Chookyblue organises for her international quilty friends.  I finished the recent row and attached the rows to their backgrounds and to each other.  I'm not happy with my piecing on this project: lots of floating points and a few chopped off as well.  Accuracy has never been my strong suit and I guess it's been a while since I made a quilt top that actually needs a lot of precision - plus changing between two sewing machines to sew with hasn't helped.  But the quilt still looks good from a distance so I am not going to obsess about it. (I haven't smoothed it out very well on the design wall - please excuse the puckers).

Also while in the Zoom call, I sewed the binding onto the little charity quilt that I quilted first on the frame. So I just need to hand stitch the binding to finish it.

And of course I am still plugging away at the Australian BOM.  They've already shipped the block after next so I think I am about a full month behind at this point.

I managed to find some netting needles to go with the book on netting that I bought on holiday.  They are not very common, as you might imagine. These are actually called a 'filet needle' but they match the picture in the book.  The forks at both ends of the needle are open to hold the cord wound around between the two ends, like a shuttle.

Another money pit yawning open this week was the builder finally showing up to replace our cracked shower tray.  I can't remember if I blogged about it before, but basically several months ago DH noticed a big crack in our shower tray - which was only installed five years ago and had a lifetime guarantee.  Of course, the manufacturers didn't want to honour the guarantee and blamed our builder for improper installation even though he installed it according to their directions.  So it went back and forth for weeks until they finally coughed up a new shower tray.  Of course, the guarantee doesn't cover any labour costs for replacing the tray.  It's not really the builder's fault, but it's not our fault either.  The labour cost has become the elephant in the room that we are tiptoeing around with nothing agreed yet - I'm hoping we can get away with a 50/50 split. In typical builder fashion, he came Thursday and got a lot done, but couldn't come Friday so hopefully we will see him again on Monday.

The former location of the shower was on the left where the floor is exposed.

And I've also spent several hours this week hacking back the garden - when you really looked into the beds beyond the pretty tops of plants, it was armageddon.  Weeds three feet high, self-seeded opportunist thugs staking out territory, roses and geraniums to be cut back, foot-high lawn lurking underneath plants where DH doesn't mow, brambles and nettles sneaking in from the wilderness next door, clematis tendrils waving wildly in the breeze and needing tying back.... and DH wonders why I can't just relax when I go out into the garden.