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ILONA ANDREWS

#1 New York Times Bestselling Author

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Birthday Fun

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Yesterday was my birthday. Gordon bought me all sorts of coloring loot and Kid 1 got me flowers. Kid 2, who is in New York, wished me happy birthday.

Also my computer’s mother board quit. The PC froze in the middle of something, which it had never done before; I restarted and ran straight into the dreaded no video output. Light are on, fans are on, nobody home.

Did a hard restart. Held down the power button to drain the residual power. Nope.

Turned everything off, drained residual power, checked RAM one by one. Nope.

Removed video card, tried onboard video. Nope.

Removed the battery to reset CMOS. Nope.

Tried a different power supply. Nope.

Realized I hadn’t heard any diagnostic codes. Removed all RAM, restarted… and no beep. Without RAM, the motherboard should beep continuously. It didn’t. It might mean there is no beeper is installed, but a quick search told me my model should have had one, so it is likely the motherboard.

So we took the PC to Best Buy. The iBuyPower unit is less than a year old. We bought it in March. We get to Best Buy’s customer service, explain the problem, and the customer service dude says, “No problem. We are not going to fix it. We will just replace the whole thing. Go get a different one.”

So we went to go and get the different one, but they didn’t have that particular model in the store. So I picked out BB953, which has slightly higher specs and liquid cooling and is identical to Gordon’s PC.

We bring it to the counter. Everything is proceeding as planned, until the customer service dude says, “We can’t see it to you.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. Let me call the corporate.”

Fifteen minutes later it is determined that iBuyPower has issued new barcodes for that particular model, and until every Best Buy store nationwide sticks all the stickers in the right spot, none of the units can be sold.

Bummer.

I ended up picking out an air-cooled system that was slightly lower on specs than the previous PC, but at that point, we had no choice. I need a working PC. I have a working computer again – yay! – and my backups made sure that after an hour of tinkering, all my programs are loaded, all my cloud services are synced, my bookmarks are back in Chrome, so I am good to go. 🙂

Then we came home, and my Dobbie decided to have a bout of sickness. She laid on her pillow, refused to get up, and looked mostly dead. She has drastically improved by the evening and is back to her old safe today, so it must’ve been a stomach or some other weird bug. She is a senior dog, so we are used to slight sickness that comes and goes. So we dodged a bullet there.

Despite these potentially disastrous things, I had a lovely birthday. It was laid back and fun and I got to do all of my favorite things, including knitting and playing Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.

Today is back to work day. 🙂

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Comments

  2. Bummer with the computer!!! My email was hacked right before Christmas break, so now I can send but not recieve??? That makes PERFECT sense!

    Happy birthday!! Glad it was a good one!

    • The hacker may have edited your settings to have your incoming mail go to a different address. Maybe check your account settings. Good luck with that!

      • Thanks! My genius IT dept (seriously, they are that good) figured it out and fixed it. Now I know why Christmas break was so quiet! ?‍♀️

  3. Happy belated birthday! I’m glad everything worked out in the end. The thought of an Authorlord without a PC is too horrible to contemplate! Here’s to a wonderful new year for all concerned.

  8. Happy belated birthday to both you and Catalina. I suspect hers was much more dramatic than yours. Still, sorry to hear yours had inconveniences, but very glad it was a good one anyway!

  9. Happy belated birthday to you ,and happy new year.
    So glad you got a new computer. And especially glad your doggy is better.
    My cat got sick New Year’s Eve, spent the day at vet, not his usual one , but the one that was open. Had tons of tests, he was constipated and needed 2 back teeth removed. Very scary for him and me. But he is home and better now.

  13. Happy B day and new year. My husband use to say, ” If you aren’t having problems then you aren’t doing enough business.” Sounds like you are busy all the time. Glad your dog baby is better.

  15. Ilona happy Belated Birthday…
    I do enjoy your blog….
    Still do not know if I really like Unlikeable Demon hunter…or if it’s a twist on Buffy…I like Buffy but clones not to much…
    My back is still killing me since Dec 1….off to Dr. this afternoon for test referrals…first must ride or exercise Horses after the Freezer replacement gets here….Freezer went belly up Christmas….what fun…and so it goes….
    Juni

  18. Glad you had a happy birthday and received lots of love from your family. 🙂
    Happy that Dobbie is feeling better.

    Wishing you all 12 months of success, 52 weeks of laughter, 365 days of fun, 8760 hours of joy, 525600 minutes of good luck and 31536000 seconds of happiness in 2019 :

  20. Happy Belated Birthday! I’m sorry about the computer crashing, that always sucks and of course, your pup being sick even if it is expected. Glad you had a good birthday despite that!

  22. Happy Birthday Capricorn! So much makes sense now knowing you are a goat…..Happy New Year too!

  26. Happy belated birthday! And a Happy New Year to you and all the family! And to the Bdh, too! I’ve really enjoyed being part of your reader group.

  27. Happy belated birthday! Glad you managed to sort out the various trials and tribulations if the day!

  33. Happy birthday and hope your year only gets better from here! So glad your backups were all saved!

  34. Wow – you were so thorough in checking your computer!! My work laptop died a few weeks ago – it was a blacked out screen, so we couldn’t do anything, and help desk couldn’t remotely help either, so after basically turning it on and off a bunch of times and maybe at one point shaking it like a gift box, I just asked for a new one!
    Belated Happy Birthday! And a Happy New Year!! 🙂

  35. Happy Belated Birthday … After all the Bad luck you will have heaps of good luck, sunny days the Rest of the year!????

  38. Happy birthday Ilona.
    You’re not alone with computers ringing in the new year by promptly dying! My motherboard went TITSUP (Total Inability to Support Usual Processing) last week. Since I always build my own PCs from scratch I’m reduced to a tiny laptop until I get a new MB. I’m waiting on a promised roofing job next week that should fund a major upgrade, so silver linings and all that.
    Hope Dobbie is OK.

    • By the way, as someone who builds computers, Ilona did every single step exactly right. No beep means either the MB has taken a dive or a power supply failure. You should get beeps even with no memory or video card, bare board.

  39. Happy birthday! A day knitting and playing Assassin’s Creed sounds awesome. I really liked Black Flag but it only worked for the first few levels and then their buggy DLC borked the game. So beautiful, though. I was playing it just to see some color in the depth of a Moscow winter (used to teach English there) and the water and beaches were enough to get me through February.

  42. Happy belated birthday <3 I´m glad that, despite the "kinder surprise eggs", you had a nice day. Best wishes 🙂

  45. A belated Happy Birthday to you and Happy New Year to you and family. Bummer on the PC, but hurray for Best Buy guarantee and oh my goodness, I was impressed at all the tech checks you knew to do on the old one. I hope 2019 is a wonderful year for you and yours.

  46. Happy birthday! Mine was on Monday – I never realized we are so close. <3

    I'm very glad to hear your Dobbie bounced back. Those senior illnesses can be very nerve-wracking – my own pup is having similar issues. Happy New Year to you guys and your family!

  50. Happy Birthday. I love that you called your gifts “loot”! Enjoy it. And don’t be so hard on the new computer… poor things, all that typing you do…

  52. Happy Birthday! Glad things worked out and your dog is feeling better. Hope that trend keeps going!
    Happy 2019…

  53. Happy birthday! I’m glad that despite some potentially unpleasant things happening, nothing spoiled your day. I hope your coming year is filled with love, laughter and good health and that all of your troubles are small.

  54. Happy birthday! I once went thru 6 motherboards in a year… In a computer I built myself from a kit. MSI corporate and I had a talk about replacing fairly expensive bare boards with refurb trash and I finally got a board that worked (and is still working on my son’s desk as the laptop backup).
    The machine on my desk has a not-MSI motherboard and it has been a day in day out workhorse for 6 years. I thought about replacing it this year… But it’ll be $1500 to get similiar spec. I might bite the bullet and do it anyway because little things are starting to fail… but it just keeps chugging along so we might make it the laptop backup machine until it loses the magic blue smoke.
    Good luck with the new one. And thank gods for cloud backup

  59. Happy Birthday! Happy New Year. Happy not seriously sick puppy dog. Happy new computer. So happy you had a good day. As Leslie Gore used to sing (yes, I’m older than cars) I wish you, “sunshine, lollipops and roses.”?

  60. Happy belated birthday!! You, like my auntie (age 102) get to have a grand parade in Pasadena to celebrate your day. Or that’s what Auntie used to tell us in our more gullible years. ?

  61. Happy, happy (NY & BD), Ilona!
    Glad you could get the new PC working in a timely manner.
    Take care. The weather is crazy these days and so are the drivers.

  63. Happy New Year ( I thought I would say it the other way round!) and of course Happy birthday. I am glad you enjoyed your day. It sounds as if you have sorted out your computer. It is amazing how reliant we all are these days. At least you are a backup fanatic Ilona, I know it is your livelihood.
    I hope your senior dog continues to thrive. We seem to lurch from minor ailment to minor ailment with our senior cats..
    Best Wishes for a good 2019 to you and your family and the BDH.

  64. Happy belated birthday to the one who spreads joy to the entire world! At least you understand computers. We are plodding along with only an AT&T hotspot on my IPhone. Nothing will download or update. Need a Mifi but until your stories are being posted inertia has settled in. Can just re read everything you’ve written. Stay well and happy and relax?

  66. Belated happy birthday wishes Ilona and happy new year to the whole family. I hope 2019 is a wonderful year for you all!

  69. Technical question. How do you do your backups so that, when you buy a new computer, all your programs are reloaded and data bases restored? I am getting to the point of needing a new computer and have been dreading it because I would have to look for and reinstall each of my programs, one by one. Some of them might well be irreplacable. I have all my data bases backed up. My niece tells me it is possible, but she uses Apple and I don’t and she can’t help me. How about you? Can you refer me?

    • From your post i take it that you use windows windows has a built in back up program how to get to it depends on the version of windows you use but if you can find your way to the control panel you should find the backup program.your gonna want to do a full backup so you will need either enough dvd disks or usb drives to hold all your data or you can get an external disk drive wich i think is the best choice for close to 100 dollars. Good luck

    • Yes, you can transfer programs from one PC to another. I didn’t. Because I am a heavy computer user, I pay for the online versions of the programs I use most, such as MS Word and Adobe Photoshop. These programs save my preferences online so when I download them to my PC, it’s almost like I have never switched. However, you can shift the entirety of your programs to your new computer. Most people recommend using PC migration programs specifically designed to facilitate the transfer. I have never used them, but here are a few articles about it.

      https://www.easeus.com/free-pc-transfer-software/transfer-programs-to-new-computer.html

      https://www.maketecheasier.com/transfer-programs-from-one-pc-to-another/

      Because I didn’t use any of these, I can’t tell you if they are good or not. I simply googled it for you. 🙂

  71. Happy belated birthday.

    I too recently sent a kid a go NYC. I get texts along these lines:
    Where is there a public bathroom?!
    Does this city not have bathrooms?!????
    That was a disgusting bathroom
    Other than the bathrooms not being up to her standard, she’s having a really wonderful time. I hope your kid is too. 🙂

  72. Happy belated birthday! I love the stories you and Gordon tell, and I hope you have great fun spinning new ones (and enjoying many other things in life!) in 2019!

  73. Happy Belated Birthday. Glad I everything worked out to get you back online with a replacement computer. Also happy you got to do stuff you liked for your bday. ???

  75. Happy belated birthday! ??? When stuff like that happens, I always ask myself “What am I doing right?” Glad everything and everyone went well.

  77. So glad you had a nice birthday ?? and could spend it with your family.
    Food for thought — did you know that you can have an Apple and partition it and run Microsoft based software on it? And with AppleCare, they will even log into your computer with you (while you talk them through your problem on your phone) and fix it for you. I am telling you this, because we had lots of problems and 3 computers crash while we had non-Apple products. We’ve been an Apple house for about 15 years. Before solid state hard drives, and before iCloud, I burned out an old hard drive and they were able to retrieve everything, including the three tech books I had written and all of my photos. We’ve had no problems that couldn’t be fixed with a phone call to AppleCare since then.
    Anyway, I hope you have no more visits from the gremlins that live under the bridge. ?

  78. Wow! Happy Birthday! So happy your computer programs and hard work weren’t lost! Go backups!

  83. Happy belated Birthday. Enjoy the new computer and hopefully it will last for you.
    I had similar problem with iBuyPower, and it’s replacement. Now I get my computers custom built from Falcon NorthWest. Plus they will do custom paint jobs that are really cool. I can just see an elaborate arcane circle glowing on the side of your computer. Too bad it is to late to get it for your birthday this year. 🙂

    https://www.falcon-nw.com/

  84. Wishing you all the best in the next year. Glad you can find the humor and joy in the day to day crap!

  85. Happy Belated Birthday & Happy New Year 🙂 I’m glad that you were able to switch up all of your stuff onto the new computer 🙂
    I have a new computer still in the box because I am dreading re-installing all my favorite apps. But the computer I’m using keeps shutting itself off without any input from me…Maybe my new years resolution should be to just bite the bullet & fire up the new pc 😉

  86. Happy Birthday Ilona!!!! ????
    So sorry you had problems on the day but glad all your programs were saved.
    Poor dobie! ☹️ I can commiserate because after suffering with the flu for two weeks I came down with some 24 hr stomach bug. It must be my year. It seems that every 4 or 5 years I get everything going around! The only blessing is, if true to form, I will now be illness free for a few years.
    Also Happy New Year! ?? May this be your best year ever!

  90. Happy Birthday young lady. Sorry to hear about your computer. Mine is getting to the point it will be held together by some duct tape and a piece of bubblegum under the fan. Hope all is going well there otherwise

  96. Happy birthday!! ???So glad it turned out to be a good day. Also glad to hear your oldest pup is doing better. I hate scares like that with either of my doggies. I hope that Kid 2 is having a good time in NYC, and has a safe trip home. I am glad everything finally worked out with your computer. I confess to a very limited knowledge in that area. I only understood about a third of what you said regarding your computer! ? Many good wishes for a happy and healthy New Year to you, your family, and the BDH! May this be the best year yet, for all of us! ?

  97. I get so depressed everytime you tell us about your computer blips & blurps

    You get through my total denial that nothing will ever go wrong …

    Oh well, Ain’t life grand! when in the midst of things being burpee, it works out. This gives me hope, a) that l will leave De Nile and, b) that nothing will go wrong. o-0 aha yeah

    Joys of your day from love of your fams, thanks for sharing

  98. Many warm wishes … May all the spheres of your life move smoothly.. may you have good health, wealth and cheer..
    may your mind, heart,comp ,hands be in peak condition
    ….and may you never have a writer’s block
    Brightest blessings on you coz ur words make my world bright..
    ..lots of love

  99. Im glad you had a good day over all. You and Gordan work hard and deserve some me time now and then. I have an older dog too and worry that i may have to put her down soon im glad that yours is ok for now..
    Many happy returns

  105. HAPPY BIRTHDAY AS YOU LEAD US INTO A
    HAPPY NEW YEAR 2019 !!!

    As one of the Author Lords, the year is yours to rule!
    Party on ! Live on…. WISHING you many, many more !

  107. Happy birthday to you! Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is amazing! (I’m one trophy away from platinum, but that damned pirate questline is glitched so I can’t finish on my main save 🙁 )

  109. Happy Birthday Ilona!!

    So round about the beginning of December, I lost my Kindle. So my Christmas present was a new Kindle. I’ve been nursing a dying battery on my phone for several months now. Starting the week after Christmas, it commenced with dying all the way. So I also got a new phone for Christmas (at an excellent price for an iPhone 8 through our provider, but an excellent price still = 125€). I’m extra glad from a financial point of view that we didn’t spend the extra 100€ to get my new Kindle with 4G. I’m still unhappy that I lost my older model that HAD 3G. Now I’d better load up on WiFi before I head out for the day, and no changing my mind when upon finishing whatever I was reading when I left the house puts me in a mood to read something else.

    /first world problems. (Mine, not yours. Your job is the computer. Also, that bar code thing is up there with the stupidest excuses I’ve ever hear from a company trying to screw you out of your warranty).

      • agreed! A “wrong” barcode and needs to be located in a specific place….such a load of crap! An insult to anyone with a brain. And we’re supposedly doing “better” and are “smarter” with things now “easier” than ever before because of technology. Yeah, right, unless you still have obviously ignorant humans involved.

  110. Happy New Year, and Happy Birthday! Glad to hear you had a nice day and that yarn was involved. 🙂

  114. Happy birthday, Ilona!

    I finished Odyssey two days ago and I was genuinely sad it’s over. I’m having AC blues now.

  116. Happy Birthday! Glad you enjoyed your day, despite minor bumps. Mine was the 20th of December and Hubby’s is Jan. 5th. We like to have relaxed days as well. Mine is usually napping, intermittent reading and not eating food that I prepared. His is usually family video gaming time and steak for dinner.
    Happy New Year to everyone as well.

  119. Woot! 🙂
    Happy Birthday!

    I’m glad you at least got up and running with the new computer… though that was a lousy excuse from the tech 🙁

    Keep cool!
    TD

  121. Happy Birthday, happy to hear it was an enjoyable one! Hopefully all the computer issues have been resolved for at least six months, you need time to finish the next masterpiece!

  123. I was wondering if you guys could update your release schedule for 2019? I know things got pushed back when you were sick so the schedule had to be revised. Please understand I very much appreciate how prolific you guys are, I’m just curious and looking forward to some good story telling. Thanks for everything and again happy New Year and Happy Birthday.

  124. Glad you had a wonderful birthday, despite the computer death, and that you are back up and running. Hope you have a happy, fun, and profitable 2019 🙂

  126. Happy Birthday! It sounds like you had a nice day. May every day continue to inspire and delight you.

  128. A belated happy birthday, glad the minor hassles couldn’t spoil it for you and I hope 2019 is wonderful! My birthday (in December) was spent walking in the woods, for work if you can believe it, so very enjoyable. Enjoy the coloring stuff, I really love doing coloring art. I give a lot of my favorites away, and then end up missing them!

  131. Yes that’s right (buffs nails) all the best people are born in January 😉 !!
    Sorry to hear u got to touch but not buy the liquid cooled tech (“but, but, it’s right there!). Good 2 hear u are back up & running! Happy color-dyeing birthday!!!

    • I. Laughed. So. Hard.
      Thanks for this, the stereotypes were spot on and brilliant, and very much still relevant!

  135. A very merry unbirthday to you! I was thinking about you this morning as I rode the
    airport shuttle in Atlanta. It was pouring rain and I got to trying to remember if you’d
    ever included a bucketing rain in any to the KD books. I don’t think so but I’ve now got this picture in my head of Kate arriving home, drenched and riding Cuddles who is insisting on trotting. 🙂

  136. My birthday is 29th December. I had lunch with friends and family. In the evening friends and family came around for drinks nibbles and more talking. A lovely day

  137. So glad you had a great birthday you certainly deserved it! Also glad to hear from your activities that your hands are much better…yea…… You are able to color, knit and play computer games again. I was VERY impressed by all the diagnostic s you were able to do in your computer! Wow just wow!

  138. Happy belated birthday!
    Wishing you the very best for the coming year, especially health, happiness, and many, many ideas (lol)!
    Blessings!

  139. Happy belated birthday. Back to work on Monday after two perfect weeks of gluttony and sloth. Looking forward to an amazing 2019 and some amazing books for my library. I hope your and your family’s year is happy healthy and wealthy.

  143. Whew! So glad after all that it ended on a positive note. I was terrified, yes, terrified you lost all your work in the initial big fry down. I should have known you would have it all backed up. Equally glad and relieved Dobbie bounced back.

    I’m glad you were able to spend some chosen leisure time doing what you like to do. That alone is cause for happiness.

    A belated Birthday hug is coming your way.

  144. Belated happy birthday Ilona! So glad your birthday was not humdrum and boring. Especially glad that your Dobie started feeling better.

  145. Happy Belated Birthday, Ilona! ?????
    Glad everything turned out ok, and Dobbie is doing better. ?✨?

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