Hello there.  I'm back.  Did you miss me?  I've been having issues with my computer and haven't been able to go online or open any files or do anything, really. It's very sad.  The worst part about it is my computer isn't even that old.  I got it a year ago for Christmas and the warranty just expired.  Actually, that is the saddest part.  Stupid one year warranty.  Right now I'm at Matt's house and we're running diagnostics on it to give some info to HP, and even that is causing some trouble.  That has been our project for this weekend so far.

Last weekend, I arrived back in Albuquerque and began to deal with my other problem.  The day before I left for Michigan, my car battery died.  I didn't have time to do much about it at that point, so I put it off until I got back.  There was a lot of corrosion so at first we thought that might be the problem.  We took out the battery and cleaned the terminals with water, baking soda and a toothbrush.  I was the flashlight holder. We also took the battery in to be tested, and the voltage looked good.  So we put the battery in and it still didn't start, so it was back to AutoZone.  They are super helpful there.  I've been there for other problems and they are honest and never try to scam you into buying things you don't need.  We tested the battery again, and in this case, decided that I did need a new battery because the charge was low.  We installed the new battery and the car started up right away.  Yay!  The entire process took about 4 hours.

So far, 2011 has been the year of technical difficulties.

On a happier note, today was a really nice day so we decided to take Matt's dogs for a walk in the foothills.  They loved it!  Star was super excited, as you can see here.

At first, they had lots of energy and took off ahead of us up the trail, chasing rabbits and bicyclists and rolling around in the little patches of snow.


Toby mostly just wanted to eat the snow.

After a while, though, they began to get tired out so we finished our loop around the trail and headed home where both dogs proceeded to pass out on their "beds."  They had a fun day!