Odds & ends

• I am typing this on my brand new laptop! As I wrote a while back, my 8-year-old Toshiba laptop has been crashing with increasingly alarming frequency.  I asked my sister's boyfriend K. to keep an eye out for a good deal on a new one, and last weekend, my sister sent me the links to two models on sale at Best Buy.  Dh & I went there on Monday & picked one out. It happened to cost just $50 more than I paid for my previous laptop, 8 years ago...! I've spent the past few afternoons/evenings on the phone & on screen with K., setting it up, transferring over programs & files from my old laptop, etc.  I still have a few more things on my to-do list, but am happy to have my new toy mostly operational! ;)  
• The new laptop will take a little getting used to. For one thing, it runs on Windows 10 (my old laptop uses Windows 7). 
• It is a "slim" laptop and weighs considerably less than my old one -- just 4.4 pounds (much to dh's relief, since he usually winds up carrying it when we travel...!). 
• The power cord outlet is on the left side of the laptop;  it's on the right on my old model. 
• My old laptop had ports on both sides;  on the new one, they're all on the left. 
• The new one doesn't have a CD/DVD player (although I didn't really use that feature much on the old one anyway). 
• The keyboard includes a number pad on the right side, which my old laptop does not have (but the computer I used at work did, so I am somewhat used to that).  
• The "delete" key on my old laptop is in the upper right-hand corner of the keyboard. On my new laptop, that particular key happens to be the power (on/off) button. (Just guess how I figured THAT one out...!)
• I've been sad that the odds of me getting "home" to visit my family this summer are not that great, because of FIL's failing health. But -- I had said to my parents that maybe we might come for (Canadian) Thanksgiving (in early October), and that's increasingly looking like it might happen. I was dreaming of/drooling over my mom's turkey, gravy & stuffing anyway... and then my sister called me with an additional reason to come home then: Paul McCartney. He is NOT scheduled to do a show in Toronto on his upcoming tour (yet), but he IS appearing in Winnipeg in late September -- and my sister managed to snag a pair of tickets.  She has already seen Paul twice;  I haven't, nor have I been to a rock concert since Bruce Springsteen in about 1992. Given that the man recently turned 76 years old (!), how many more opportunities am I going to get to see one of the two remaining Beatles??  This will be the most expensive concert ticket I've ever paid for ($300, when you factor in taxes, fees, etc. -- plus my airfare!), but I think it will be well worth the price. :)  And in the event that I'm not able to go (because of FIL or other reasons), she should have no problem getting someone else to take the extra ticket. 
• Louise Brown -- the first "test tube" (IVF) baby -- will celebrate her 40th birthday later this month. And a group of childless-not-by-choice bloggers & activists (including yours truly) have something special in the works to mark the occasion. More to come on this soon!  :)