So, we had our first IVF consultation a few days ago, where we were given the results of my sperm test. The lazy little fuckers are apparently asleep on the job; in fact the result was so bad, I have to do another one in a few weeks just to make sure it wasn't just a one-off. If it isn't, then we're going to have to have the procedure that most people think of when you say "IVF", ie direct injection of a sperm into the egg.
On the plus side, that particular procedure actually ups our chances of success, so in a way it's a good thing.
I want my house back
We're redecorating with a vengeance at the moment. That means lots of bare plaster walls, half-finished doorways as doors and frames are removed then replaced, missing skirting board, bare floors, dangling wires - you name it, if it makes the place look like a building site, it's happening. It'll all be worth it by the time it's finished, but I really can't wait for that time to come. Still, the woodworking and electrics will be finished in the next few days and the new flooring is being fitted a week or so later, and I'm taking some time off next week to get the decorating finished. Not long now; then there's just the upstairs rooms to do...
Upgrade trials and triumphs
I finally got my upgrade ordered. With a little deft swapping around of exact models of components, I managed to afford both the pair of hard drives and the two gig of RAM, thus satisfying all of my technolust for a full on geekgasm. I couldn't get a new case like I'd wanted to, but that can wait.
The final spec was:
- Gigabyte K8N PRO SLI motherboard¹
- Athlon X2 4400+
- two gig of Corsair Value RAM in a matched pair
- two Maxtor DiamondMax +10 250GB SATA2 drives
- a GeForce 7800GTX
- a Hiper HPU-4K580 modular PSU
I had a frustrating couple of evenings trying to install XP to a striped RAID array. I had slip-streamed the required drivers into an XP Pro install CD, and it installed, but blue screened on booting to Windows. Everything was fine installing to one of my old IDE drives², so I tried installing to a single SATA drive. That was fine, and appears to have revealed the problem - on logging in to Windows, it bitched about a missing source file for the NVidia RAID driver. Looks like I fucked up the slip-streaming process. Never mind, I'll give it another go at the weekend.
2 apart from losing some data I actually meant to keep in the process - d'oh!
Apart from that, the system is fantastic. I've not really put it through its paces, but in a brief play with UT 2004 it handled everything at max at 1600x1200 with no noticeable slowdown. In fact, at first I didn't believe that the resolution change had taken effect.
Now all I have to do is get the damn thing set up properly...
Tonight
Tonight I'm taking a well-earned rest from work, DIY and the PC and meeting up for drinks 'n' dinner with Cute Receptionist. Now I know what you're thinking, but her boyfriend and my fiancée and daughter will be there, so you can cut that right out. Should be good though - we've been meaning to meet up for absolutely ages, but could never seem to find a time when we could all make it.
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