I am now the proud owner of...

an HP laptop!

Although far from my dream machine (I would have loved a faster processor), it will have to do. Hopefully once I get online and see how fast it is, I'll be pleasantly surprised. Although from what everyone told me, I should have held out for the faster processor.

Unfortunately I got a $1000 bill for propane for the lake house. The lake house we've kept at 45 degrees since October. The lakehouse we spent two or three days at since then, days when we ran the heat up to a whopping 65 degrees until it went off when the woodburning stove or the room heater heated up enough to shut the heater off.

That $1000 was NOT expected; I was sort of thinking $700 or $800, so there goes the extra $200 or $300 for the upgraded laptop...

It does have the memory I was looking for (4GB/500GB) and I bought a wireless router - useless, by the way, until we get internet back. Internet, TV, and phone have been out since Saturday night, thanks to Mother Nature's hurricane-without-a-name! (That's what the weather stations are calling the storm - 75mph gusts = F1 hurricane!!!) I did call the house and the machine answered so I'm hoping that's a good sign, that all things cable-related are back up and running. We were lucky enough not to lose our electricity; neighbors on the street behind us have been without electricity since 6pm on Saturday night, and they have children and lots'o'food in their refrigerator and freezers.

I wonder, all you techy readers, if I can upgrade a processor later on... or is it simply cheaper to get a new laptop in a few years...

Well, gotta run - am posting this during working hours so I don't want to spend too much time on it...

Later, dudes!