Apper problem

[Bill vance]

Howdy folks;

The notifier button in the panel told me I had a bunch of updates waiting,
so I clicked it, and the apper window opened.  I looked them over, clicked
on, "apply", and it down loaded them.  When it was done, it locked itself
into this mode that required me to check for new updates, not allowing or
doing anything else.  So I clicked on the check button, and it displayed
a list of software, and said something to the effect that it couldn't deal
with setting them up, and completely locked up.  Now it won't do anything
at all, and won't allow anything else, (apt-get et al), to do anything either.

So now I apparently have a bunch of updates frozen up somewhere on my
machine, and have no idea what to do about them, or the latchup.

Anyone got a clue?

Bill