First off, I want to thank Seth and Seth for stopping by on their lunch break to help me out on this unfortunate day.

Here is a picture of me enjoying a nice, smooth Guinness in Dublin. If only everyday could be as relaxing as that one...

On a normal day, that is what my home office looks like. As you can see, I have the essentials of any office

• keyboard
• mouse
• phone
• magazines
• printer
• picture of me and the wife in San Fran
• some Georgia Lottery tickets
• a laptop sporting a fresh In-N-Out Burger logo
• a souvenir paper weight with a drop of Guiness from the Guiness factory in Dublin
• a couple flat panels
• random stack of quarters
• etc...

My wife, Aimee, will be quick to point out that on any normal day, my desk has a little more clutter on it than what is pictured. Guilty, your honor. That picture was taken after I had cleaned up after the incident.

Around 9:45am, I decided to hook up a DSL filter to the phone line. ( I had just decided to switch from cable modem over to Bellsouth's Extreme DSL plan and signed up the day before) The wall plate is behind the hutch, so I knew it would be difficult getting back there. I didn't feel like moving the whole desk, and I had a few inches of clearance to reach the wall plate, so I took advantage of my wing span and tried to plug in the filter. Unfortunately, I have very large biceps, so my arm got stuck in the process. I had to lean against the wall to get my arm back there, and now that my arm is stuck, I have no good way of pushing away from the wall. So I moved the hutch a little to the side to try and slide my arm up the wall. That didn't work, and I so I leaned in a little to get some leverage and must have leaned a bit too far because the hutch then slid off the opposite end of the desk and fell forward onto the desk.

Now I know what you're thinking, yes there are two expensive flat panel monitors on the desk. So after the hutch crashes into the desk, I look over where my monitors used to be. First thought it is that they are underneath the hutch, sandwiched between it and the desk. That never bodes well for LCDs. Did I mention that my arm is still stuck ?

So I make my way around the desk to inspect all the damage. Amazingly, the monitors are sitting on the floor on their stands. One of them has rotated 90 degrees after being pulled by the monitor cable as it fell off. These monitors rotate 90 degrees, so that isn't a problem. I would love to show you a picture of the desk/hutch at this point, but my camera is in the hutch. So, all the pictures you see were taken after the hutch was put back in place. I can't lift this up by myself, so I call a neighbor (Seth) and ask him to bring a coworker (Seth) to help lift the hutch back into position. After all, I do have a job and need to get back to work. The monitors look fine except a few scratches on the 20 incher that I was able to wipe off.

I mentioned earlier that my camera was in the hutch when it fell. I've noticed that my camera now makes a funny sound whenever the lens moves in or out.

Now, somewhere underneath the hutch is my cellphone (which just sounded an alarm indicating I have a dentist appointment in 30 minutes), laptop, printer, cordless phone and base, and ah yes, my plastic letter tray ( see picture ). This was one of those stackable systems with four trays - until something went Mr Myagi on it. I know everyone has heard those stories about how, after a tornado, you will find weird, physics-defying phenomena like straws poking thru tree trunks and such. I was totally expecting to see something like that here, and the letter tray comes close. The reason is, I don't know why the letter tray was demolished and the phone and laptop were untouched. They were right next to each other!!!

After me and the two Seths got the hutch back up, I was able to retrieve my camera to take all these wonderful photos. The next picture is what my desk looked like after we moved the hutch back into place. During which, about $26 worth of change fell onto the desk and floor. There was a lot more mess on the floor. There were CDs and magazines thrown all over the place that had to be moved so we wouldn't slip while putting the hutch back into place. The scanner you see was inside the hutch, until it was hurled at the ground. So now, I have a few questions going thru my head...

• does the 19" monitor work ?
• does the 20" monitor work ?
• does the scanner work ?
• does the printer work ?

The answer is Yes to all. But, here is what the 20" monitor looks like when turned on. I have been using a dual monitor setup for a couple years now and could never go back to a single monitor. Now, I'm down to one and a half monitors, so I'm not quite back to the single monitor setup.

Since this doesn't qualify as a warranty repair, I am not happy that I will have to shell out a couple hundred bucks to have my monitor fixed because I was too dumb to fasten tie plates to the hutch and desk. I knew that I would be the only person moving the desk, so I never figured it would be a problem for the hutch to just sit on the desk. It is heavy enough, so as not to move, unless pushed.

After spending a couple hours on hold with Dell, and being transferred to no less than five different departments, I have been told that Dell doesn't repair flat panels. They only issue refurbs or new replacements for warranty claims. In case you missed it, Dell doesn't repair flat panels. I was told by the support person that there wasn't anything they could do, and she suggests that I buy a new monitor. She was kind enough to tell me that the monitor is still on sale for 25% off, so I could get one for $562.

Well, that is nice and all, but I already paid $562 about four months ago. I want to pay around $250 and have this one repaired. I know there is considerable markup on these, since Dell runs them up to 40% off on occasion, so a replacement LCD for my monitor shouldn't cost more than $200. Apparently, that isn't the case as I have been unable to get any repair info from Dell on this. If you know of anyone that can replace the LCD in these monitors, please let me know.

Update: A few months after I put up this page, a guy in Canada asked if I would sell him the busted monitor. He had the same monitor as me and the internal power supply on his had stopped working. It would cost him a couple hundred dollars to get his repaired, so I sold him my monitor for $100. He later told me that he successfully replaced his power supply with mine and the monitor was working fine.