The latest news from the world of annoying things:
The touchpad on our laptop does not let me left-click anymore. One minute it worked, and as I was actually midway through doing some work on the computer two nights ago, the tap-to-click feature (which I use mostly) stopped working. The left click button was also not functional. Right click still worked, so I swapped the button functionality (I reinstalled drivers, etc., so I'm fairly certain this is a hardware problem).
Now I'll need to get us a USB mouse (unless a new touchpad is easy and comparabile in price), since all of the external mice that I have in my box-o-computer-junk downstairs are PS/2 or serial, and I don't have anything but USB ports on the laptop...