"Ok, Ok - What Had Happened Was..."

My hard drive died.

It died a slow, painful (to me) death.

At first, we thought there was a software glitch, something simple.  Something that the geniuses could quickly bypass with their genius-y ways.

But no.

No genius tricks would work for me.

So I did the best I could to back up what had not yet been backed up (this is your warning, friends, get thee a back-up drive) and then I waited until I could procure a new hard drive.

Much prayer and petition played into this.

Prayers were answered - hard drive came and was installed.

And then it died, too.

No, I'm not kidding.

So I tried again.

So far, so good.

But I write this with my toes crossed, just in case any crazy bad hard drive voodoo is lurking around, waiting to pounce.

In the meantime, we've had some grand adventures.

Like hitting up the homecoming fair at Furman -

...and Miss Betty's Halloween party...

...a book-release party for my friend Katie...

...for which I had the honor of making this cake - chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream...

It was my interpretation of the cover of her book, Keowee Valley.

(The inscription means"Best of All" in Cherokee, which is related to the book.)

And of course trick-or-treating with friends.

And that was just October.

So now that I'm back up and (mostly) running, maybe I'll catch up.

Wish me luck!