Happy Hump Day!

I'm keeping pretty busy during this period of unemployment and am trying to not become as isolated as I felt last winter when I wasn't working. Julianne & I went to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra the day after Thanksgiving. They hooked us from the first hair-flip. Go if they come to your city. They are AWESOME!!! And LOUD!!! I love it! I did some volunteer work (Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Winter Wonderland) on Saturday and enjoyed that a lot. There was even a cute guy volunteer to talk to. I need to put more effort into job-hunting but I think I will focus on cleaning my house this week. It needs it! I think tomorrow I will dig the Christmas stuff out of the closet and concentrate on the living room. It's still a little disorganized from the construction we had at the house a few weeks ago (and the contractors need to come back--grrrr!). Then I will visit monster.com. We have a new internet service but I'm having issues with it. My computer says it's online and when I run diagnostics it says there is nothing wrong with my connection but no matter which browser I use I get the message that it can't connect to the server. So, basically I'm online but I can't open any websites! I can text message from the modem so I guess I am connected to something. After numerous calls to Tech Support and two trips to the Cricket store (where the modem worked just fine) and several re-installs, I think I've figured out that I have the wrong driver installed for my operating system (Vista). At least that's the conclusion reached the last time I was on the phone with Tech Support. That's weird since it worked fine the night that I first installed. The trouble started the next morning. They told me to download the correct driver. I don't know how in the world I'm supposed to do that if I can't get online! But it turns out that the driver that came with my modem works perfectly on Julianne's old desktop. Her computer is so slow and the setup in her room is not real comfortable--besides she does not particularly want me to hang out in there while I surf--but at least I'm online! Of course, I also have to be more generous with the internet time since it is her computer and her room! Tonight I hijacked her school laptop. I can get on the school network if I sit at just the right angle on my bed. Most of the places I want to visit are blocked on their network but at least I can check email and hang out at a couple of knitting sites, but not Ravelry and not Margaritas By The Pool. Dang! Blogs are usually blocked. I am expecting someone to discover that they have become unblocked soon. I guess I'm entertained enough to keep me from knitting, though! I got the short-row heels done on Aubrey's slippers this afternoon. Obviously they didn't get felted yet! Maybe they will be a good Christmas present along with a felted toy for Blackie (who became an inside cat after I left that weekend).