Okay Walt, try this ( you may want to get some paper and a pencil so you can take notes )
- Start Machinarium
- Now, anywhere on that opening screen (where you see the city in the background) right click your mouse
You'll see something like this:
- In that Flash Player settings menu click on the icon of the green arrow entering the yellow folder and make sure that the setting for Local Storage is 100KB at the very least
- Once that's done click "close" and give it a whirl.
Your progress should be saved from now on.
Also ~ and this is just for you, my friend ~ if you'd like to start again from the "Arcade" level, what you need to do is type the word "rebol" while you're on the main screen of Machinarium (again, that's the one with the city in the background).
You won't see those letters appear anywhere but what'll happen is that you'll see a bunch of numbers appear across the bottom of the screen.
Click on number 13. (that will take you directly to the "Arcade" level)
Then, once you're there, type "rebol" again... this will turn off the "secret hyper-level jumper gizmo" and you can proceed to solve the Arcade level at your own pace.
(just don't forget to save often as you progress through the game!)