Disaster befell the Peoria Chronicle technology department on Sunday, March 11, 2007.

My beloved one-year-old son James found a glass of soda tonight and proceeded to dump it onto my laptop keyboard this afternoon — a cold-blooded execution of the most expensive and data-sensitive electronic gadget I own. My only hope is that the hard drive and the data it contains are salvageable.

Please observe a moment of silence for my departed Dell Inspiron 1100. It served me and my wife well these past several years and did not deserve such an ignoble death.

I’m posting from my work computer this evening. I came in to look at new Dell laptops online, how long they take to ship, and what the credit terms are. I won’t be posting much in the next few days — just what I can post from work before/after working hours. I’ll still be able to get my e-mail over the web at work and other various computers.

R.I.P., my faithful laptop.

UPDATE (3/12): On my lunch break, I bought an enclosure for my laptop’s hard drive and I’m happy to report that all the data is intact.