Wow, it’s been some week and a half! We had a lightning strike here at the office, and that ended up killing the office server — I saw it hit and flash the server (twice) — and a variety of other equipment. Note to self: insurance claims take time … to fill out, to organize, to drop off faulty equipment, yadda, yadda, etc. Hopefully I’ll hear back next week about a potential payback for the losses. And “little” things are annoying … like when the power adapter for the new USB hub was faulty, and then I had to call for a new one, and then I had to wait for it to arrive …

Given that the equipment died, I decided that I didn’t want it to happen again, so went ahead and purchased three Belkin power boards (kind of like these Belkin ones). One of those was faulty, so that required extra travel back-and-forth to the shop. Anyway, the office is now fully re-wired, and we’re good to go for another lightning strike (just kidding, I don’t want that again!).

On top of that, my MacBook Pro started playing up … seriously. If ever I was ready for a new machine, it was yesterday. But … my buddy Kent suggested that I erase the disk (after backing it up), and do a fresh installation of Snow Leopard. That was the path I took, but it was about a days worth of effort. The MacBook Pro seems a lot better now … so here’s hoping it can hold out for another 6 months. I’ve had this machine for almost 3 years … which is the longest I’ve ever had a laptop for.

In the midst of the tough times, there have been some good things too. A Microsoft business partner purchased 40 copies of SharePoint Roadmap for Collaboration (yay!). I sent those off yesterday. And then I went to the pool to celebrate, and swam 80 lengths (2km total) without stopping. I haven’t done that for a while … it was great!

So … some good things, some tough things. Hopefully … back to book #3 next week.