Well, after one short-lived revival, I finally laid to rest my dear laptop. It has served me well for three years and Akihiro for one year prior to that. The short revival, interestingly enough, happened after I put the laptop in the freezer for several hours. I had heard that sometimes computers can be salvaged in this way. Well, at first when I got it out of the freezer, it started up for about 8 seconds rather than the previous 2 seconds before whirring and shutting down. We decided to let it thaw out a bit and try again. Low and behold, the thing worked! Thankfully I had backed up my pictures and Word documents, but hadn't gotten very proficient at backing up my email program. So, Akihiro helped backup my contact lists and calendar. We breathed a sigh of relief when that was accomplished! It kept working until late this am when it refused to go on. I tried the freezer trick again, but it didn't work. So, may it rest in peace! I am keeping busy putting my "brain" (calendar reminder system) on Google on the web instead of on Outlook. Hopefully that will be safer. I'm stealing Akihiro's laptop now and enduring those awful Japanese messages. I know the choices are yes and no--I can read that--but what is the question. Oh well, I'll just hit yes. So far it is still working, so I guess it is ok!
Akihiro has his real estate test tomorrow. I pray he can pass it. He has been studying very diligently--about six to eight hours a day recently. He said it reminds him of his medical student days.