Apple bytes, square donuts and snow

We have a beautiful Mac Notebook. It's fairly new - acquired last year to replace our old laptop, which had died a slow death. This newer version is a thing of beauty, and her name is Sabrina, but that's a long story.

Last week, the power adaptor stopped working. I plugged the cord into Sabrina, but no little lights came on to indicate that battery-charging was taking place.

This may or may not be related to the fact that moments earlier, I'd found Miss Pie with the small end of the adaptor in her mouth. She'd been suspiciously quiet - for about half a minute - on the other side of the the kitchen counter, from where I'd been making breakfast, unaware that she'd managed to reach up, pull the cord out of Sabrina, and started slurping on it.

After being told about this, and some investigation, J came to the conclusion that the fault may actually be something to do with the battery itself, and not the adaptor. My software engineer husband was in denial.

We'd also had a minor issue with Sabrina's screen - it was coming away from the frame in one corner - and we hadn't got around to getting that sorted out. She was still under warranty, so this was the kick up the bum we needed to take her in to the local Apple Store.

On Saturday morning, J rang up and made an appointment at the Apple store. The only time slot available was 4.30pm.

I'd been running errands - alone (bliss!) - all day and had no intention of going in (again) with him, but when 4pm hit, the girls were going stir-crazy from being at home all day. It seemed a good idea for us all to go in together.

As soon as we arrived at the mall, I regretted it. Late Saturday afternoon at the mall, on a cold, stormy day? I'd never seen the place so packed. Duh. What was I thinking?

We pushed our way through the half-gallon-slurping throngs and finally made it to the Apple Store. The technician's verdict was that it was indeed the adaptor at fault. We may or may not have mentioned the slurping toddler factor. A new adaptor was promptly issued, but Sabrina had to be left at the store for a few days so her screen could be repaired.

All under warranty, though, so we were happy.

Mission accomplished, we did not want to spend a minute longer in the crowds so made our way back to the car. It took another fifteen minutes of mayhem to exit the car park.

When we did, the sky was doing crazy things. Did I mention this was the same afternoon that snow fell in Burbank? As in, snow fell within this City of Angels?

Have I mentioned that we live just three miles from Burbank?

We noticed that some of the closer mountains appeared to have had a dumping of icing sugar on top - something we hadn't seen before, as these particular mountains aren't as high as the usual ones near L.A. that get snow each year.

The sky in that direction looked bruised and swollen, yet the sun setting in the west was casting all sorts of peachy beams over a clearer sky. There were individual clouds, piled on top of one another. We noticed one large, pillowy cloud with a hole in the centre - clearly resembling a square donut. There were simultaneous cravings and stomach-grumbles in the car as J, myself and the Faery began visualising more donuts, Homer Simpson style.

Half-way home, sitting at a red light, a couple of cars drove past... with snow on top. WTF? We couldn't believe what we'd just seen, but managed to catch up with one of the cars at the next set of lights, ogle, and confirm that, yep, it was snow all right.

By the time we parked the car at home, we were pretty happy. We'd just seen snow (it takes very little snow to make this Aussie family excited), and it felt like there were possibilities of more to come. Stranger things have happened, right?

And we had a new, functioning adaptor for Sabrina.

On the way out of the car, J grabbed the water bottle from between our seats, before we began our synchronised efforts at freeing the girls from their car seats.

We walked in our front door, J set Miss Pie onto the floor... and water dripped from his bag. The water bottle's lid mustn't have been on tight enough.

Buggering bollocks.

Sabrina's new adaptor was in his bag. It. Was. Soaked.

Back to square one, then.

Maybe that was the universe having a laugh at us? Telling us that next time, we should just hand over money for a new adaptor, instead of wheedling one from the warranty when we know better...