My wife rules!

I just got a new laptop a couple days ago, and of course I had to wipe off the OS
currently on it so that I could install XP Pro.  In one swell foop, I eliminated
scads of marketing-ware from the machine (phew!). 

However, the wireless – that had been working fine – did not work with
the new installation.  All the appropriate updates and software bits were installed,
but I just could not get it to work.  I struggled with this for like four hours. 

Finally, Gina says to me, “did you try the disk that comes with the computer?” 
Well, of course I didn’t need to try that, because I’d downloaded everything
that looked related to WiFi from the Toshiba web site and WindowsUpdate.  But
I figured “what the hey”, and popped it in.  It listed a bunch of
software that seemed unnecessary, including the marketing-ware mentioned above. 
Just in case, I installed a few more bits that didn’t seem too ominous –
although in my mind they clearly had nothing to do with wireless.

Well, wouldn’t you know it – that fixed it.  The wireless now works
fine.  It was Gina’s finest moment – I believe the glow of that victory
lasted her the entire next day.  I’m happy that my wireless works, although
it may take a while for my geek ego (“geekgo”?) to recover.