Now why was I not surprised that after waiting all afternoon for Nicu, Mechanic # 3, that he did not show up? So, another promise, tomorrow at 10 a.m. I am not holding my breath.

But I finally have some good news. I am typing this from my broken down and given up for dead 2007 HP laptop…. I had several “experts” looking at it in Germany and the verdict was that once again the hard disk had failed and there was no way to fix it. Son #2 is sending me a new lap top. So, yesterday, in total boredom, decided to take my two broken laptops to a shop. The young man speaks reasonably good Italian. The main problem apeared to be with the key board. He sold me an exterior USB connected keyboard and installed Windows 7 all for 140 Lei ( $ 43.50). Now we may have cheated Bill Gates a bit in the process but, what the heck, he owes me a few for not being able to get any answers on how I can reinstall my MS Office that I have paid for a couple times too often.  And now the original keyboard works as well, after all. Now I can do something else than reading books. I have a bunch of writing and photo organizing projects. I have found two nice warm wireless restaurants and now I do not have to pay the internet cafe and be squeezed between the rug rats playing their war games. The morning/lunch restauarant/cafe has a waitress and the owner who speak English well.

So, things are looking up on one front.

I have been taking pictures of boat names, starting on the Chesapeake where every “waterman” ‘s boat has a woman’s name. So, today I sorted out a number of them and you might be lucky and get yours sent for your desk top back ground or, if you’re not happy with the way you look, you can use it for your Facebook profile picture.

This one is for daughter # 1.