I want to apologize for not having rambled in the last few days. See, my mother, bless her heart, spilled some coffee on her laptop, causing the laptop's keyboard to leave the land of the living. That means part of my time over the last few days has been spent trying to get the gosh forsaken thing to work. It's a futile effort, but it makes me feel as if I'm doing something. The keyboard is now the cleanest non-working keyboard west of the Mississippi.

It just a few drops spilled, to where she hadn't even realized she'd done it for several minutes... precious minutes in which I might have been able to save the keyboard before the damage was done. But, alas, it was not to be.

So, for now, she's using an external keyboard -- which, incidentally, is missing a key, but that one is my fault... lost it a few years ago. And has been strictly admonished to keep any and all beverages well away from the keyboard. Preferably not even in the same room. As I type this, of course, I have a glass of Pepsi sitting on a shelf directly above my own keyboard, but let's not tell my mother that.

The replacement part will be at least $80, but it's going to have to wait until such a time when one of us can afford it. And to think she once balked at the idea of using a computer, utterly convinced she would somehow damage it. I had assured her repeatedly her it would be fine. I'm obviously stupid.

Did I mention she also got coffee on her mouse? A cordless optical mouse? But it is still working, although I did have to take it apart to clean the little clicker under the right button. Twice.

To be fair, we've all done the same thing. I've done it. Just once. A pretty good track record, considering I've been using computers for many years... much longer than my mother. But I believe my mother has learned her lesson, and will be a good girl from now on.

So now one of us has to acquire some money with which to pay for the replacement keyboard. Send all donations to... ;-) On a serious note, if anyone knows where I can get the best deal on a replacement keyboard for a Toshiba Satellite 4020CDT laptop, I'd be most appreciative. With shipping, the cheapest I've found is a little over $80.

Now I'd best be off. Tango the Wonder Kitty is presently in my closet, so I need get him out before he does something strange in there, like try on all my clothes. I put nothing past him. He's the reason my mother has that cordless mouse, after all. He used to play with the cord of her old mouse constantly. I love my Tango, but he certainly has... uh, issues. Yeah. Issues.