*double sigh*

[donutsweeper]

Well, the motherboard of dead laptop is apparently fried. According to people at the fix-it place there is a chance of getting all my stuff (4 or so years of kids' photos and genealogy research/documents) off the hard drive if I bring it back in along with something they could scrape the data into. I've ordered a new laptop since the old clunker is old and terrible and maybe once it arrives (2-3 weeks) I'll bring the two of them in and spend some $$ to see if they can work their magic.

Don't be me. Back up your stuff!