I Am A Dope

So here I am, five days later, working on my restored laptop.  Last Thursday, I was doing about forty things at once, including updating my antivirus software.  I kept getting error messages that said that the updates couldn't complete because of my internet connectivity...

Thanks, Comcast!  YOU ROCK!!

when I got an update that said that because my updates couldn't finish, I needed to download a special web-based scanner to make sure there was nothing naughty on my machine.  Turns out that the only naughtiness on my machine was the web-based scanner, which, after reboot, disabled both the touchpad on my laptop and the USB wireless mouse that GPOM got me for Christmas.

Lovely.

I took the machine to Gigaparts and the technician told me, eighteen hours later, that he couldn't get a USB wireless mouse to work on my laptop.

Really?  Eighteen hours later you notice that the problem for which I turned over my laptop was a problem?  Gosh, thanks.

That general crankiness aside on a Friday night, I suffered through the indignity of no internet for three more days.  I now offer many thanks to the technician at Gigaparts, because my computer seems faster and much happier.  However, I am now about five hundred dollars lighter after paying for repairs and a product key for Microsoft Office.

Thanks bunches, Best Buy, for making me buy a new product key.

Lessons learned:
1. Don't trust a pop-up antivirus scanner, even if it LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE one you'd get from the manufacturers from whom you already get updates.
2. When your significant other is as internet/computer addicted as you, please share the joy. Otherwise, you might get a glare and a potentially passive-aggressive comment.
3. Thank the people who help you repair the problem.