Still no laptop, but there's light at the end of the tunnel.  My hard drive is completely corrupted and unsalvageable, meaning that I lost everything on it.  But of course I backed up everything, right?  Um, no.  Yeah, I'm one of those people.  I ordered system recovery disks and I'll have to buy a new hard drive, and then hopefully my old laptop will be good as new.

Here's what I've gotten done on the house so far (imagine photos here and there):

I cleaned the spindle trim on the side porch and painted it, which was way more tedious and time-consuming than I thought it would be, but it looks much better clean and with a new coat of paint.

I summoned up all my courage and climbed up on the front parlor bump-out to scrape and caulk the front gable with the blood pounding in my ears and my hands shaking.  And when I finished that, I was too scared to climb back down.  Carl and WTB had to talk me down.  I vowed not to ever go up there again.  I'm not sure how the front gable will get painted, but I ain't goin' up there again.  No how, no way.

I finished painting the inside of the front porch screen panels and re-hung my matchstick shades.

Mare showed up unexpectedly and helped me toenail in those porch brackets that have been piled on my dining room chairs since May.  And when we finished, we had a nice little conversation:

M:  "I'd like you to think about us maybe getting back together."
Me:  "Okay, I'll think about it."  Pause.  "No, I don't think it's a good idea."
M:  "You didn't even think about it!"
Me:  "I did too!  I gave it at least 6 or 7 seconds of my careful consideration."
M:  "Well, gee, that's not very much time."
Me:  "Well, gee, that's all the time it took to make that decision."

I'm thinking I might have to find someone else to help me put up the picture rail in the front parlor this winter.

And then he went home and I put the second coat of paint on the last two windows on the west side, which makes the west side of the house almost completely finished.  After that, I planted four big clumps of Siberian iris that my mom gave me and in the process uncovered a little scrap of old sidewalk.  Then I painted the outside of the front porch screen panels and scraped the last two windows on the east side of the house.  Slowly but surely, the house is getting closer to being finished.