Posted on 17 Comments

shiftless

Mint mocha iced coffee smoothie

look at this.  it’s made with frozen coffee cubes, and mint chocolate non-dairy creamer – an idea i based off of this one.  sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?  don’t let its innocent appearance fool you.  as it turns out, this drink is pure evil in a cup.  or maybe it’s the cup itself that’s evil?  this heavy-duty mug, with the slippery sides, which, when full of a delicious icy drink, may slip out of ones hands, if one happens to be adjusting one’s grip?

while it may be argued that adjusting one’s grip on a slippery mug, over a laptop computer, while sitting on a couch in one’s favorite pj’s is not the smartest choice one can make, i still prefer to blame the mug itself, or the icy liquid inside, for my fumble.

friday night, while finishing up my last little bit of geekification before stargate atlantis was to come on, i dumped iced coffee into my keyboard, onto the couch, and all over my favorite pajama pants.  i am now quite literally shiftless, as the left side of my keyboard is full of keys that either don’t work at all – shift, ctrl – or work intermittantly – z, x.  notice i used dashes instead of parentheses here.  parentheses require a shift key.

given the fact that this messed-up keyboard isn’t the only thing that’s problematic with this computer, i’d much rather run right out and buy myself a new laptop than retrain myself to use the shift and ctrl keys on the right-hand side of the keyboard.  unfortunately, it seems my bank account is getting a good laugh about all of this and saying ‘suck it up, kid – there are two shift keys for a reason.’

sigh.  my hands used to just fly over this keyboard with nary a concern.  looks like those days are over until my wealthy benefactor turns up an bequeaths me a new laptop.  wealthy benefactor, if you exist and you’re reading this, i’d also like it to have a widescreen monitor, please.  thank you.

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Posted on 17 Comments

17 thoughts on “shiftless

  1. Bummer!!!! BTW – if you find that wealthy benefactor, I could use a laptop myself. I am needing to be out of the basement when I am on the computer and would like to get a laptop. My first one and all that!

    See what Michele has been blogging about: Outtakes!

    1. Well, let’s hope he or she is reading this and we all get lucky. Having a laptop has been so freeing for me. The ability to sit anywhere I want and not be exiled in a remote part of the house is of great value! The flip side of that, of course, is that I am always dropping crumbs into my keyboard. I guess it was only a matter of time before I spilled a liquid in there.

  2. Exact same thing happened to me a couple of months ago. (Well, not exactly… I was drinking a much less yummy-sounding Diet Sprite.) After carefully prying each key off, hoping to get out any residual moisture that could be causing the weirdness, I thought I’d have to resign myself to using an external keyboard for the rest of my poor laptop’s life. Fortunately I thought to look on eBay, where they had replacement keyboards for my model. Cost maybe $15 with shipping & worked like a charm. So you might look into that… Good luck!

    See what Angela M. has been blogging about: More BOH Publicity, A Public Crafting Poll

    1. Ooh, excellent idea! I was having visions of trying to juggle my laptop and an extra keyboard on my favorite comfy chair. It didn’t look too do-able.

      Neil thinks I should find a USB keyboard to borrow first and make sure that my problems are definitely with the laptop keyboard itself and not with something internal in the computer. But once I do, I’m all over eBay. Thanks!

  3. ooh, ouch. i did this at work once and was so embarrassed that i just dealt with a sticky keypad for months!

    See what melissa s. has been blogging about: before + after

    1. Funny that what embarasses you has me blabbing all over the internet, LOL!

  4. If we are wishing to the wealth benefactor don’t you think we could wish for more then a computer…. hmmmm lets see how about a large stash of wonderful fabric…. a new fancy does everything for you sewing machine, a weekend free of kids so you can sew all day and watch stargate and all the other great shows out there, …. Oh I could go on for ever;) Sorry I had to use all those parentheses, did not mean tease you;)

    See what zoe has been blogging about: Praying Mantis

    1. Hey, if we’re wishing big here, why stop there? I’d love the big fabric stash, but my dining room is already bursting at the seams. I’d want to add a nice, spacious office/studio/craft room combination to the list. I’d have a corner for my desk, a corner for my clay table & supplies, and a corner for my sewing machine & supplies. If I had a room like that, I’d never come out, LOL!

  5. Oh NO!!!

    I’m so sorry to hear that!
    If it makes you feel any better at all, I once spilled red wine all over my husband’s laptop. It fried the whole thing.

    My littlest also spilt milk on my keyboard and had me without the letters h, i, j, u and y for sometime.

    Sorry about your keyboard. That’s such a pain.

    1. Oh, ouch! I think it would have been worse if I’d ruined someone else’s computer. At least these inconveniences are my own fault and nobody else is being bothered by them.

      Not sure how I’d get on without h,i,j,u, and y!

      On another note, though, I really loved your coffee idea once I added the mint creamer to it. I just need to play around a little with the ratio of creamer to coffee – I don’t want to overdo it!

  6. Hi Just a note. Just yesterday my nephew told me if I spill anything on my keyboard to put it in the dishwasher no soap and no dry cycle and of course this does not work on a LapTop. When you take it out let it air dry and it should be ok. He was told this by his instructor in school. Havent tried it myself but I trust my nephew.

    1. I’d heard that, too, but of course, it’s not exactly appropriate for a laptop 😉 I just ordered a new keyboard from eBay – it was much cheaper than I’d have thought initially.

  7. yikes! hope your benefactor shoows up quickly

    See what Jen has been blogging about: Oak Island – the beach house

  8. I haven’t had my laptop long enough to spill anything on it, though I’ve come close with cups of tea! Spilled coffee on my keyboard at work a few times though, but sshhh! Don’t tell anyone. =)
    The keys are kind of sticky, even though I’ve popped the keys off and cleaned. Not sure how well that works with laptops…=P

    See what Laura has been blogging about: Vibrant necklace – karmabeads

  9. Oh Wealthy Benefactor … Please send Lisa a new laptop and widescreen monitor … and for my thoughtfulness in contacting you for a friend … please tell AT&T we need DSL in the boondocks. I’m gonna get fired for reading Polka Dot Cottage at work.

    Hope your keyboard becomes unstuck ’til the benefactor answers all our wishes 😮 No parens in a show of solidarity.

    Denise

    See what Denise aka Wiggy Sister has been blogging about: First of Day of My Favorite Season

    1. Are you saying you’re on dialup at home?! Wow. I thought my town was one of the last to get high speed connections, and we got it seven years ago! If my sugar daddy ever shows up, I’ll put in a good word for you 😉

      1. Yup! Dial up! I live in a very rural area, 4 miles outside of the city limits (pop. 5k for the city proper, 15k for the county). DSL is less than 2 miles from my house, and less than that as the crow flies, but we’ve waited for over 3 years for them to come on out to the country.

        I can’t do very much internet at home. I usually write my posts and fix my pics at home, then upload at work.

        It’s frustrating, but I wouldn’t give up my acre yard which backs up to my dad’s 60 acres for anything, not even faster internet!

        Denise

        See what Denise has been blogging about: First of Day of My Favorite Season

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