OK, Murphy, now you're just running up the score

Everyone is familiar with Murphy's Law- anything that can go wrong, will. A common response to something going awry is that Murphy is alive and well. I think Murphy earned overtime for his interactions with me as I prepared for my Board meetings this week (Sunday and Monday). Thursday- picked up my loaner laptop. Was it ready in the morning as promised? It was not. When I got it after lunch, did it have a battery (which I specifically asked the help desk to confirm, since the laptop they loaned me for my last meeting did not have one, and I found that out by having someone turn off the power strip into which the computer was plugged while I was taking notes)? It did not. I did gain back some points from Murphy by checking the computer myself, which allowed the IT guys to have time to find me a battery. Thursday, later- After having saved almost all of the presentations and committee support documents to my thumb drive, I planned to transfer them all to the hard drive of the laptop for back-up. Since snow was predicted for Thursday night, I figured I would take everything I needed for the meeting home with me, just in case I had to work from home on Friday. That would have been a very good plan, except for me leaving my thumb drive in the USB port of my computer at the office. I had not copied the files to the laptop. Friday morning- DH's alarm went off, and the snow was falling quite steadily. "Turn your alarm off," he told me, "we are not going in today." A couple hours later, the snow had stopped. He did not have work, DD did not have school, DS1's preschool was opening late and having a non acedemic day. Was my office open late? It was not. So, after cleaning off my car and shoveling the driveway so I could leave, I dropped DS1 at daycare and went to work (2.5 hours late.) As I drove down the highway, I noticed my windshield wiper looked odd. Then I noticed it was not really attached, it was merely dangling. I pulled over to remove it before it flew across three lanes of traffic and I continued on my way to work, pulling over periodically to manually squeegee my windshield. Friday later- Those final documents? Not so final. Changes! Updates! Email to Board members! Can the members open the documents? No! Convert them to pdf and send them again! Print copies of all of the documents, make copies for the members, in case they didn't bring them along. Will the copier cooperate? What do you think? More points to Murphy. Friday, mid-afternoon- The phone rings, it is DS1's school. He's having a bad day, and was sent to the office during rest time for being so disruptive. He needs to be picked up within an hour, and DH's cell phone is going directly to voicemail. So what do I do? I leave a sobbing message on DH's voicemail and on our answering machine at home. Murphy, again. Friday, one hour past my normal quitting time- get a voicemail from a Board member who cannot properly print the documents I emailed earlier. Can I fax them, or overnight them to the hotel she is at for the meeting she has to attend before our meeting? Points to me for being able to get back in touch with her and her being able to get her support staff to get the stuff printed. Friday, after dinner- I want to decorate the tree, because that usually makes me happy. About 30 seconds after we get the tree situated, there is a knock on the door. It's BIL- did we know he was coming? No, we did not. He, as he so often does, decided to just show up at our house. So, instead of having time to myself to hang the ornaments I want, where I want, I had "help." DH and BIL start taking ornaments out and handing them to the kids (or to me, for the glass ones) while making jokes and comments about the ones they unloaded. Saturday morning- call from car dealership to get specifics for service to be performed. who is my service technician? Why, it's the sexist one who attributed the alignment problems with DH's old SUV to "Maybe the wife borrowed it without you knowing and ran over a curb or something." He promised that the car will be done by the end of the day. Took DS1 to ice skating lessons, and on the way home, he suddenly heaved all over the backseat. (A couple points to me for his coat being all zipped up and him still wearing his track pants over his regular sweats- at least he puked onto waterproof gear.) Yippee, I'm scrubbing upholstery in 30 degree weather! One more upchuck after lunch, and he was fine for the rest of the weekend, thankfully. Saturday, later- it's almost time for me to go to church, I have not heard from the car dealership. DH calls, they tell him it will be done within the hour. It is physically impossible for us to make it to the dealership to pick it up before closing. DH does not think to pay them over the phone so we can pick it up later. Sunday, time for the first round of meetings- The room is set. Not with A/V, as requested. The food is set in the wrong area, and we have no sideboard table. Sunday, after dinner- I have a sudden realization that my security badge for work, which I need in order to get into the building on Monday morning (two hours before our lobby opens) is in my car. At the dealership. Frantic call to a co-worker who is close enough to lend me a badge. Monday, really early- Grab laptop and purse, head to friend's house to pick up borrowed badge (which she will retrieve from me when she arrives at work at decent hour.) Get to work and notice that laptop case seems awfully light. Unzip case to see, not my laptop with all of the pertinenent Board stuff, but DH's laptop which he cannot function without. Monday, still sort of early- arrange with DH to meet in a parking lot along his route to work, call badgeless friend to explain situation (she agrees to do without badge for the day, since someone will be at the office to let her in.) Monday night, rapidly approaching closing time for car dealer- call to pay for car. Get cut off multiple times. Finally manage to give them money. DH comes home, we load all kids into the car and he drives me to the dealership to retrieve my car. We cannot find my car. We ask for help from service employee, who takes 25 minutes to locate my car. DH informs me that he forgot to tell me that my sporadically-opening window was not fixed because he told service technician not to do it at this time (because the cost of the motor was more than he thinks I want to spend at this time.) DH says he figures that, with the weather being so cold and all, I don't open my window much anyway. OK. I surrender.