Jan 18 - eh ? eh ?

I have a sound problem on my Florida computer.  Even though it's exactly the same as the Cottage computer, part for part, I can't get the sound to work.  For a while, I didn't have any sound on either but then Google found a solution for me and I changed the default from digital to audio and all was well, up north.  Here, in the sunny south, I had no such luck.

I did some more googling (why is that word not in the dictionary yet ?) and most of the discussion was with respect to a later version of Ubuntu, my Linux base, so I decided that it was time to upgrade.  This is always a hassle and this time was even more so.

It took most of the day, for the computer that is.  There were several points in the upgrade that prompted for answers and of course I wasn't sitting at the computer.  Eventually, however, it finished up and then I rebooted ... and got an error message.  This has happened to me before -- upgrade takes place on my root disk but it's not the first disk on the system, boot loader update takes place on the first disk ... voila, nothing. 

Ugh.  I messed about for a bit, finally figuring out that I could turn off the external disk, boot from the first disk, turn on the external disk and then update the boot loader on it.  Whew.  I'm rolling again without a full install or restore from backup.  I'm well backed up so it's all just a matter of time.

Then I ran VMware.  Of course it needed updating as well to the latest kernel.  That's usually pretty routine but not this time.  It wouldn't compile.  Rats.  I decided to reinstall, since there was a more up to date version out there but VMware wasn't sending emails, it seemed, so I couldn't validate the download.  I tried several things including different email addresses and then, a half-hour later, bang, I got eight emails from VMware.  Ok, do the install and I'm rolling again. 

The object of this exercise, other than staying up-to-date ?  The sound ?  Nada.  Figures.  I'm still working on that.  Rats.

That was boot disk number 1.  I should probably do boot disk number 2, my backup, while I remember what it took to do all this.  If I leave it a couple of months, I'll forget and have to re-re the entire process.  Of course I could also simply do a full restore of the updated setup to that disk ... might be less painful !

So ... what else ... we looked after Zoe while the rest of the gang went to Daytona for some shopping.  Zoe wasn't feeling top-notch, had a bit of a fever that a drop of tylenol fixed, but the end result was a nap that went from 1pm to 5pm.  At that point she was cool as a cucumber and calm.  Good work J&J !

I did some more mangrove trimming, always best done just before the Monday pickup.  I removed some dead leaves from the bananas as well.  That was about it for activity, activity. 

Sheryl came around 3pm or so, had a couple of hours with Sandy before Zoe woke up and the gang returned.  They've always got a lot to chat about.  I'd put a ham on the barbie about 1pm and we ate at 6pm.  Sandy added scalloped potatoes and green beans. 

I like a slow-cooked ham because it drains out a lot of fat.  I now have a lot of luncheon meat as leftovers abound. 

That's about it.  The gang, less Zoe again, heads to Universal today and stays overnight.  Our plan is to stay around here today and go to Disney tomorrow with Zoe.  She's young enough that she's free.  We've got passes.  Even if she tires after only a couple of hours, it doesn't cost anything other than gas and parking.

Onward !