The good news is that my computer problem is solved. It was merely a dead video card, which is relatively cheap to fix and entails no loss of precious data. I also acquired a marvelously inexpensive 40GB hard drive for quick and easy soft backups.

The bad news is the French Hill bombing , which you probably already heard about. My father lives in French Hill. He and his wife were out walking their dog and heard the blast a couple of hundred yards away. My family are all fine, just pissed off. Dozens of other families are now coping with death or serious injury.