Another long day (Friday)

Up early again and on the road again and another hour of traffic to get back to my client in Paris. I got there for about 09:45 this time...

This was one of those installations where "If it can go wrong... it did go wrong". Dell delivered a brand new beautiful Dimension 9150 computer with a wireless keyboard and mouse as ordered. The new Dimension series don't have mouse and keyboard PS/2 ports. But they have tons of USB ports. As the vast majority of keyboards and mice one would purchase today are USB-based this actually quite logical. However the Logitech wireless Desktop set they sent us only had PS/2 connectors (!). I had to send someone out to buy a new USB mouse just so I could continue with the installation.

Then it turns out that the version of Easy Media Creator I had wouldn't work with the new DVD burner that came with the new computer. Luckily I got the person who was already out getting a new mouse to get a new version of Easy Media Creator.

The backup of the old computer took practically all morning. The restore went well but with a few hiccoughs.

It was a real challenge to get this whole thing up and running, perfectly as always, by the end of the day.

Just to make things more interesting, in case things were actually going well, the client announced that they had just purchased a new Mac laptop and that it needed to be installed and configured by the end of the day as I would be travelling as of tomorrow as would the client. I therefore configured everything on the new Mac laptop at the same time as installing the new Dimension.

By the time I crawled back in to my car at about 18:45 I felt like I had been through a boxing match... I'm not sure who won but I felt like a champion.

I was actually quite worried about having to drive home at that time on the Friday night before the holidays and expected traffic even worse than I experienced. It didn't take me a lot more than an hour to get home.

When I did... Alex and Desney were busy yelling and screaming up and down the stairs as Desney was preparing Alex' bags. I therefore decided to do my job which is to keep out of Desney's way and get my bags ready for the next day. We were all all packed by about 20:45 and sitting down waiting for dinner to arrive. Jessica had gone out babysitting so we ordered Japanese again as we didn't want to chance anything else the night before travelling.

We sat around watching what must be at least the 20th night of Les Enfoirés on television and then early to bed for all of us...