Technically challenged, and Easy Baked Brie

Spent a week with my mother and stepfather, then back home to find all our computers unable to connect to the Internet.  Something to do with our new laptop. Took me three hours on the phone with a tech support person, who first asked me what my first name was, then asked if he could call me by my first name, and thereafter referred to me as Sushi. When I finally corrected this, he said, “oh, I see”, and I then morphed it to Sachi, who I remained for the duration of the call. Whatever.

Recently we just got our first laptop. I know, there are Brontosaurus’ out there that live more in the present then we do, but nonetheless. The first one we ordered finally came. It was built in China, and after an interesting trip  which we followed on the Internet, was routed through Alaska and parts unknown, arriving at our front door.

Neither of us ever having owned a laptop before, but me being the only person in the house with some technical knowledge of the workings of computers, the setup fell to me. I opened it, got it running, when a blue screen displaying critical error messages showed up. I called a friend of mine who’s an IT wizard, and asked about this. He referred to it as “the screen of death”. That didn’t sound good. His diagnosis was that the patient was terminal, which was later confirmed by a second opinion of the manufacturer’s tech support group. They asked us to return it, but informed us that we now needed to pay $156.00 in taxes for the replacement. At this point my other half went postal and I left the room to realign my karma. They finally decided they would pay the taxes, as they sent us a defective product. You think? Sigh. Once again we ran through how we wanted it configured hanging up an hour later.

The following day we boxed it up and sent it off in a FedEx truck, assured that a new one would be forthcoming. After quite some time and nothing in our emails indicating it had shipped, we once again contacted the manufacturer. It appeared that they had refunded our money instead of ordering a new laptop, but if we wished to place a new order they would build it and have it to us in six weeks. However, the 20% discount offered at the time of the original purchase was no longer in effect so we would have to pay full price, plus, of course, the $156.00 tax .  There’s no need to tell you how my other half responded to this.  I believe the words are still circling in the atmospheric continuum, most probably disrupting the ebb and flow of the universe. 

Undaunted, we began our search again for a laptop we envisioned.  Deciding on one, we placed the order, crossed our fingers, and left it to a higher power.  It arrived, and miracle of miracles, it worked.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the WIFI to work because the gentlemen who set up my system passed away shortly afterwards and I didn’t have any of the security codes.  Ach.  Off I went to the local computer store to inquire about fixing this problem.  After looking at it, they said they could come to house for $140.00 and set it up.  Help.

I came home, and resisting the urge to put the laptop under my back tire and hit reverse, opened up my desktop computer and searched the Internet for answers.  Voila.  I located the modem number with their help and used that to connect, and we had liftoff.  Yeah.  What an amazing tool the Internet is.  I even found the instructions for our automatic sprinklers, which were put in when Eisenhower was in office, on some obscure site.

That’s it for me today.  Nice to be hooked up again.  Sachi Nelson.  Smile.

I made this twice during my trip and it disappeared both times.

Easy Baked Brie

2 baguettes
1 round of Brie cheese
1/8 cup chardonnay
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1 1/2 Tbsp. golden brown sugar

Slice the baguettes diagonally in 1/2″ pieces. Store in plastic bag until ready to serve.

Carefully remove the rind from the cheese, leaving some traces for flavor. Place in ramekin or small baking dish sprayed with cooking spray (slightly large enough to hold the brie with about 1/2 ” on all sides). Sprinkle brown sugar on top of cheese and top with almonds. Pour wine over all.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake for about 20 mins. or until bubbly. Let stand for 5 mins. until slightly cooled. Serve with sliced baguettes. Really good and really easy.