The Best (Buy) Experience

I have been in the market for a new computer since before Paulo left for the desert in '07. My hard drive just died one day. I didn't even get the blue screen of death. Just dead. Since then, Paulo has gotten a new laptop to get him through a 5 month tour of the desert, and a new desktop in celebration of returning from said sand box in the same condition he left in. And also since then, the laptop has gone through three power cables. THREE. And I don't think it could take another one. It's allergic or something. Since taxes came back, and I had finally HAD IT with the D*ell, I told the hubs that I thought it was time to get a new laptop. And I actually had an even better reason than "I hate the one we have". When we move in (gulp) 12 weeks, we will only have the one laptop, for 6 weeks. And the hubs and I, we CANNOT share a computer. It doesn't work, and sometimes, lives are threatened with violence. Since we "need" a second computer, and I have been in the market for one anyway, tax time seemed like the perfect time to make the investment. I have been wanting a Mac, for their simple awesomeness for a while. And now that our local Best Buy has a Mac section, what better place to go get one, right? Well Holly needed me to go with her to pick out new glasses, because she is blind without hers, and wouldn't be able to see what she looked like. That and I'm mean enough to tell her to her face if she looks stupid. We stopped at Best Buy to pick up a new Macbook White. Finding someone to harass you at Best Buy is never hard. Unless you actually NEED someone to help you. We had to look for someone. And then that someone took a million years to decide to come and help. The first guy that came over, looked like the guy from the Verizon commercials who "works" for Sprint. The one with the big afro, even though he's whiter than my baby brother. We seriously had waited 20 minutes for anyone to help us, and as he brought out the laptop in the box, a second sales guy came over to "complete" the sale. The conversation with the guy isn't nearly as funny as the facial expressions that accompanied it. It was one of those times where you think, why don't *I* have a reality show on E!? Everyone else does! When he started his "sell" of the computer the first thing he did was say, "So are you a student?", immediately taking 8 years off my actual age. When I said no I wasn't, he asked what I did for a living. And I thought his eyes would fall out of his head when I said I am a preschool teacher. I haven't been hit on in a long time, let alone by someone really young. (Other than the seniors at the portrait studio, but that doesn't count. At least this guy was out of high school!) And can I tell you that I looked a hot mess that evening? It was after 8, I had worked all day, and was ready to go home and crash. I feel MUCH better about myself after that. I came home with this beautiful piece of technology. It is tiny. At a screen size of only 13.3". But it's fantastic, and Paulo is happy, because it brings Mac OSX10 to our collection of operating systems. (We are already running Windows XP, Vista, and Linux) It is quite the geek house we have here. On the home front this week, we have another illness at Z house. Little Z went to the doctor Wednesday morning, and was diagnosed with croup. She sounds like a seal who smokes 3 packs a day. But she looks like she's getting better...except, she was in a fight yesterday. With a parking lot. And the parking lot won. She tripped on her shoes. Which just means she is really related to me, as I fall off my flip flops if I'm not careful. And Big Z doesn't have croup, but she did wake up with a cough and sniffles, so she stayed home from school to annoy me today. She's so pretty, I have to post her picture too!

At least it waited till 5!

Yesterday, my daycare should have been closed. Because of new construction we had no running water from 9 in the morning until 5 at night. But because this is the military, we hoarded up some water, and dealt with it. (I spent most of the afternoon at Holly's. Because I had to potty, and was not using the port-o-potty that was lovingly placed in my front yard!) While we were at Holly's, Little Z lost her lunch in the playroom. But missed all the kids in the room. Thankfully. When we got home, I kicked out all the daycare kids. (All two of them...) and sent the sickly baby upstairs with her daddy. I went back and got *Z* from school, and started to feel terrible myself. I chalked it up to the four cups of coffee and not eating much. I was lying to myself. The baby and I were sick. Luckily, we waited until almost 5, so that we had flushing toilets, and water to rinse the buckets. I sent *Z* up to hang out with unsick daddy, but that didn't last long. She opted to get sick at about 9:30. I got MAYBE 2 hours of sleep last night. And my children KILL me with how pathetic they are when they are sick. Absolutely kill me. This morning, all seemed better. The BRAT diet is working it's magic, and we all took a 3 hour nap. but now, *Z* has a fever. The sick last night did not have a fever with it, even though I was so cold, I would have welcomed some extra heat. But she has one NOW? Ugh. I am so glad it is a random three day weekend, so that I didn't have to take a day off work to deal with this. (It was contracted from a daycare kid.) Dinner tonight will be applesauce. Dessert is bananas. And that bum husband of mine? Not sick in the least bit. Lucky.