On the whole, my dad has taken the lack of UT pretty well in stride. Of course I think the fact that he gets permission from my mom to go off to the pub and have a few beers more often has something to do with his placid demeanour. But he's starting to sound really insistent (and whiny) the last couple of days about how he is the only one in the household with no computer game tailored to his needs.

And my sister does not seem to understand the concept of "formatting" the computer. I will rephrase that. She knows what formatting is, but as usual, her mouth runs away with her before her brain can process the information. Every time she opens a folder, she wonders where her saved files are, aloud. When she wonders where her MSN messenger buggered off to, she starts to make that clucking noise that denotes annoyance before realising it. And she grumbles about the loss of her bookmarks in the favourites folder every time she surfs the web.

My usual reply to the poor put-upon baby of the house is, "Which part of the meaning of formatting the computer do you not understand?".

These days, she is able to complain about her missing programmes and files, and supply my usual answer in the same breath. That speaks for itself on the frequency of her complaints.

Of course, I deserve it. I crashed the computer. But then, my basic instinct is to preserve my peace of mind. Complaining about someone else is the best way to go about it. Why aren't I surprised?