wherein Quark earns his name yet again

And he has. I'm still getting all my personal programs and settings back - Jaws and Real1player are good to go, AIM will be shortly, MushClient's got a fault so not yet grrr, my favorites list is being slowly put together again - but the fact remains. As of now I can safely say...

I have my lovely laptop back! :D :D :D

Talk about always coming through in the end. :) Considering what it's been through, maybe the phrase should be something closer to 'takes a licking...', but Quark's a laptop, not a watch and anyway, I like the original description too much to change it. Besides, it still fits better than anything else. :) *is a happy, happy Chanter* Currahee! *coughs* Ahem. Yes. :)

In addition to being paid for saving my bum again, Adam the computer savvy family friend has a literal armful of basil heading his way today. Apparently he's a pesto fan; when I offered him basil and/or rosemary in thanks for his help, he said yes to as much basil as I could send him. So that's what he gets. He's earned it, too. :)

Right, now off to make a phone call or two, then see about redownloading AIM.