Last week, I had the supreme honor of filling in for Lizzie Skurnick at Fine Lines. Now, I’m on a pretty strict Internet diet and stopped reading about myself months ago, but I thought I could bend the rules a little and check the comments. Funny thing happened: my Safari browser began shutting down every time I did this.

Now, on one level, I thought this was evidence of some Divine Intelligence – “You are NOT allowed to read about yourself, Laura!” At the same time, I sort of forgot about the power outage Thursday night that had turned off everything in the house with a very loud, nasty pop. Instead, I decided I needed to upgrade my OS so I could upgrade my browser. In general, I avoid upgrades. But I checked to see what was recommended . . . and, oh, you see where this is going. I now have a laptop with a blinking question mark, which means that it can’t find its startup disk and I can’t repair it, no matter how many troubleshooting tips I read on my office computer. (I have had the blinking question mark before, in 2004, on my first iMac, the clamshell version.)

There are two pieces of good news. I backed up my work and the laptop is under warranty. In fact, I was so overwhelmed by the whole incident that I spent the weekend writing and managed to finish the third draft of the novella, The Girl in the Green Raincoat, which isn’t due for a week.

Meanwhile, because I’m not registered at Jezebel, I’d like to respond to its commenters here:

1) Yes, my mother is awesome.
2) Yes, food should be part of the COVENS equation. Has butter and bread ever sounded better than it did in that final chapter of THESE HAPPY GOLDEN YEARS?
3) Harry Potter does, in fact, fit the COVENS standard, but I was always underwhelmed by Harry. I think it’s because I read Edward Eager and E. Nesbit, so the Potter books didn’t seem particularly fresh or original to me.
4) I know that BALLET SHOES is probably the best “Shoe” book, but I adore DANCING SHOES.
5) I was so queer for the Great Brain that I read the author’s nonfiction memoirs about life in Utah.
6) Yes, WOLVES is over the top, and yes, so is JANE EYRE. And I love them both. Remember how Jean Rhys wrote about the life of the first Mrs. Rochester, in THE WIDE SARGASSO SEA? I’d like someone to write about Jane from the POV of Mr. Rochester’s love child, get her take on life at Thornfield.

Obligatory memory: Whenever I hear Jezebel, I think of the first time I saw a photo of the young Bette Davis. By my childhood, David was playing pretty hideous-looking people -- Baby Jane, Charlotte (as in "Hush, Hush . . .") and the title roles in DEAR RINGER. There was a photo of Davis as Jezebel in some old Time-Life book and it was one of the most shocking things I had ever seen.