2:03 a.m. So, I'm still standing. I'm also running out of appropriate photos and the ones in the camera will have to stay there until tomorrow, when I should be done my first batch of printing. It's just too risky at this point to jiggle around with the scuzzy ports and Chooser settings and risk upsetting my delicate system.

It's all connected by a thread of goodwill and a skittle of luck and if you move one iota, it all falls apart. And they're studying this very thing at Princeton, believe it or not. You know how some people always seem to break every computer they touch? And conversely, how some people seem to have a magic touch when it's crisis time? Scientists are trying to figure out why.

Meanwhile, just one false move and I might not be able to get the printer back on line and I'm > < this close to finishing. No thanks to me, I might add. I begged and whimpered and threatened physical harm and Igor took pity on my plight and sat at my machine for part of the day and hammered away on the shaky bits and now I have a sturdier structure and yes, the panic has abated.

On the other hand, it could be the full moon what's causing all the upset. That's always a possibility.

Meanwhile, here's the coolest thing. I figured out how to pop off the keys on my keyboard! Up until now, I'd contented myself with blowing out the dust or poking at it with the edge of an index card, but of course, there was much more smitz and crud under the actual keys.

Then, yesterday morning, as part of the whole panic of the day, I spilled an entire glass of water right into the keyboard. It didn't short out, but it did dry out funny and certain important keys were sticking and I remembered a photo I'd seen on Robot Wisdom that he'd posted from the Jennicam -- she was typing on just the stumps because she'd put all the actual keys into the dishwasher.

This obsessed me, of course. How do they come off? So, I chose a key I hardly ever use ... it's over on the side, in the group above the arrow keys, and it's called "end" -- and so far, I've never used it. So I took a butter knife and a wedged it under the key and rocked it back and forth and wonder of wonders: the key just popped off.

Lots of gunk to clean up and then, indeed, all you have to do is push it back on and it snaps right into place. Wonder of wonders. There are a few caveats, however. A few of the more demanding keys -- the shifts, the space bar, and the return key -- have little metal bars on them. These must be sort of inserted back, exactly from whence they came, and it's a little tricky, but not too tricky.

Also -- don't just pop the keys off too many at a time or you'll end up putting them back in the wrong places. You'd think, after all these years, that you'd remember that the option key goes between the control and the command keys ... but like so many things in this life, we look, but don't really see.

So now I have a nice, clean keyboard and yet another interesting, time-consuming, nonproductive activity to perform here at the desk. While waiting for inspiration to descend. If I knew how to knit, I'd have a nice warm lap blanket finished by now.

But I do have a few lovely photos of all my effort from these past few weeks lovingly laid out on the long door that is now a work table. Quite impressive. Soon it will be in the mail and I will be free! Free to trim the bushes that are threatening to entangle the mailman in their enthusiastic tendrils.

Free! To download some new photos so that I can put away my vacation snaps. Better yet -- free to wander about and get some new photos entirely. From what I can glimpse between Control-Save and Control-Print, it looks as if the seasons have gone and changed while I was otherwise occupied.

But the control key doesn't stick anymore, so these days have not been entirely wasted.