Serious dark smoke starting coming out of the brick around lunchtime, and I unplugged the thing. Then I got on the phone again, talked to two more Apple store people. The one in Palo Alto said the Valley Fair store usually had a few ‘refreshed’ adapters around. Did that mean the same as ‘refurbished’, I wondered. They assured me these had been opened by customers but returned unused. Now why would they do that?

A call to Valley Fair: they had two refresheds this morning, but they were gone now. Time to try Fry’s.

A very helpful salesperson (either they’ve all been whipped, or the old staff was fired, or they’ve been completely retrained) spent a large part of his afternoon searching for something that would work on my G4 laptop. First he found an adapter with too little wattage, then one that seemed awfully powerful. Finally, there was the Goldilocks moment. He would leave it at will call. Thanks, Jay!

Tonight I dashed over. There was no adapter at will call. My heart sank at the idea of doing this all over again with a different clerk, because wouldn’t you know it, Jay was gone for the day.

A guy in a suit tried to help. I could remember part of the name of the manufacturer and the price. He took me to some shelves where the products looked familiar from Jay’s descriptions earlier. Nothing. Then I said the magic word: universal. Jay had mentioned that it would work in cars and airplanes. The suit headed for the laptop section and within seconds, it was in my hand.

My battery was at 0 when I got home. Now it’s up to 43% and life is looking okay again. Micro Innovations. $70. I still have an Apple adapter on back order, I’m thinking it’s a very good idea to have two.

I decided it would be prudent to call ahead before showing up at the Apple Store. Good move.

Turns out there’s an unexplained shortage of their Powerbook adapters. The person at the Apple Store suggested I go search the shelves at Fry’s or buy the Kensington one that costs more. He added that he personally had gone through four (!). And that I should stop using my adapter because “it could burn my house down”.

Scary words. Real scary.

So I’ve had my nose to the grindstone without much relief for the past few weeks, hence the lack of posting. Before that I had the awful upper respiratory. That is still not gone, but I don’t cough at night. Not unless I’m out in the weather for more than a few minutes at a time.

My Mac started making slight crackling noises from time to time. Poor thing, it hasn'’t had much rest lately. Then one day in the thick of work, I saw that the adapter was not lit as it should be when it’s charging, and that the battery was really low. That’s when I noticed that where the cord goes into the adapter (brick, it’s called), there was some fraying. Yesterday, a couple of sparks appeared. After jiggling it a bit, the charging light came back on. I couldn’t stop working due to a deadline or two.

It gets worse. Soon I had to keep manipulating the cord to keep the light on, and the part of the cord going into the brick was disintegrating more each day. Sometimes when I picked up the brick, it was really, really hot.

Today after I moved the brick a bit, a puff of brown smoke came out. Tomorrow, I’m going to the Apple Store to see what they can tell me.

Actually, I had some soup earlier, ran out to Costco, got the 19-lb turkey. Faced with another hour or so of work, I need a little something. This is, to be honest, not typical. I don’t take pictures of the ice cream so much. Or the Cheetos.

But I got these giant avocados at the Palo Alto farmers market Saturday, and knowing that if I don’t pay some attention, they’ll sit quietly in some corner and lose all their volume while the turkey gets all the glory.

If you haven’t picked up a turkey yet, better hurry. The line of cars was daunting enough, but inside, it was crazy.

Yes, I wish I had a more powerful lens or two. The geese have been flying over too, not quite as noisy as these guys though.

A military idea with a couple of serious flaws.

The crazed beast emerging from a tunnel in Kurosawa’s “Dreams” is said to be one.

Bye, Rummy, Bye!

But he’s mum on how he cast his vote.

After suffering through severe gastric distress yesterday thanks to a persistent bug, I decided a frozen pizza might be just the thing today.

Too late, I realize the thing is way overcooked. So my lunch is a round piece of heavily salted cardboard with multicolored bits on top.

The excuse was a good one: nasty cold, need something entertaining, not choosy at all. The food: leftover chicken pot pie from Costco (not bad). Result?

Surprisingly good despite some confusion. The dog part was a little strange. I would have cried at the end, except I think I’m dehydrated from all the nose blowing.

I don’t think I’ll answer the phone again today.

Now if she or Robert had tips about beating a cold, I might listen. But I’m afraid they might get started on plastic surgery issues.

Many voters now know exactly what it’s like to have him utter political somethings in their ear.

And the last, if I had my druthers. One son got me a Jamba Juice card for my birthday, the other just ran down to get me a giant Coldbuster, which I am testing immediately. I’ve been told that the Farscape two-parter I began watching last week is not a good idea for someone who is prone to nightmares during colds.

I’ll never forget the last flu I had when I picked up a Harry Potter for some light reading. That night, a host of dementors appeared in the bedroom while I cowered against the wall trying to hide from them.

By the end of the evening, we had upwards of 20 kids, which we didn’t expect, it being a school night. By 8:30, there was some concern that we might run out of candy, especially since our kids no longer have stashes of unopened gum and other such in their rooms.

The Halloween enthusiast down the street had great success with his maniacal laughter recordings and mechanical wonders, because every few minutes we’d hear kids screaming.

I didn’t get to play the Das Parfum soundtrack and other music as planned. For the full effect, doors must be kept open, and it was cold. At some point after dinner, I realized I was coming down with something awful, and was dealing with chills of my own. But next year.