Sophie got her stitches out! Yay! She was such a good girl. She doesn't have to go back for another check up for 3-4 months.

Yesterday, my on campus PC was fried when I arrived in the AM. A widespread electrical problem happened on Monday. The woman who has the office on the other side of my wall heard a "pop," her machine shut down, and soot came out of the surge protector. A campus electrician checked it out but initially found nothing wrong, and her PC worked when she turned it on. 

There was an electrical burning smell in my office, but no other indications of a problem (aside from the broken PC). So the computer staff took away my CPU, and the electrician checked everything again, this time finding the problem. The GA office was the source - their computers were on and were fine but mine was off and was dead (go figure). So I used the student lab downstairs which was OK but I don't have access to the network and can't print from there. Productive day! (Not.) And right at the end of semester. If I was capable of it, I'd have been in a panic.

They swapped out a power supply from a computer in the student lab to my machine and I should have been back in business, but the woman who originally reported the problem on Monday turned on her desk lamp, the bulb burned out and soot came from the outlet again. So we unplugged everything while they re-checked. They also swapped out the power supply in her machine, just as a precaution. By 3:30 everything was back to normal, but I unplugged my computer before I went home last night, just to be on the safe side. I have to get to my last day of classes before losing the machine again! After that they will have until January 20 to sort it out. (I am just remembering my computer crashed right at the beginning of this semester and needed a new hard drive...)

It's amazing to think how dependent we are on these machines, to the point where it is a waste of time to be there without one! I had my blackberry, so although I could use email, it was not my work account.