#MicroblogMondays: The dog ate my #MM post

Okay, I don't have a dog. And I AM posting today, albeit later than I usually do on a #MM.  

However, I do have an excuse. 

I'll be honest, I didn't have anything drafted or planned in advance for a post today. I figured I'd have plenty of time today to think of something to write about.... and then write about it. But morning drifted into early afternoon...  

I was enjoying a large mug of tea (with milk and sugar), sometime before 2 PM, when... disaster. The half-full mug slipped out of my hands, sloshed all over my brand new WHITE top and yoga pants, onto the chair (fortunately, leather and wipeable) -- AND onto the keyboard of the laptop, sitting in my lap. (Thankfully, only a few drops got on the floor.) 

I sat there, stunned, for a moment. Dh sprang into action, unplugged the computer & took it over to the kitchen counter. I recovered my senses, got up and turned it upside down over the sink, to try to drain as much of the tea as I could out of the keyboard. Dh got the dishcloth & started wiping it down, then my wooden lapdesk (which the laptop sits on in my lap), and the chair.  

Once we'd mopped up most of the liquid we could see, I (finally) turned it off. I wiped down the keyboard with a cotton pad soaked in rubbing alcohol, and cleaned around/between the keys with cotton swabs also dipped in rubbing alcohol. (Note to self: must do this more often... ewww.....).  

I grabbed my phone and Googled "spilled tea on laptop keyboard" to try to figure out what else we should be doing. One post suggested turning it upside down over a towel. I think this would apply more to a conventional (desktop computer) keyboard vs a laptop -- I was afraid that opening up the laptop too far/wide might damage it (more than I might have already) -- so what I did was open it up, set a towel over the keyboard, close it and then turn it over, so that the keyboard part was facing down into the towel (and when I checked, there was a little more wetness coming off the keyboard, so it was obviously the right thing to do).  

Then I went to the bedroom and changed out of my wet clothes, spritzed my top with stain remover, and hung them up to dry (before putting them in the laundry). And then I called my personal Geek Squad -- i.e., my sister's techie partner -- for advice. 

I was relieved when he told me I was on the right track. He suggested that I should open the laptop up, turn it on its side (like an open book), and set it in front of a fan to help it dry out faster. I asked him how long I should keep it off before trying to turn it on, and he said a couple of hours should do the trick. He said the likeliest problem would be the keys getting gummed up.  

I held my breath, plugged it in after about 5 hours, and pressed "start."  

So far, so good. (Fingers crossed.)  I even managed to reopen all the tabs I'd had going before I shut everything down and pick up where I left off. (Thank you, Chrome History!)  

Next on the agenda:  That backup I've been procrastinating on doing... (I DID do one a month ago.)  

(Please tell me I'm not the only klutz this kind of thing has happened to...)

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.