New Laptop

I hesitated writing “new toy” but this was really a necessity – I didn’t want to spend over $700 on a whim.

For some time now, my laptop has been randomly rebooting. I have been trying to organize it & take unnecessary things off, defrag & all that stuff trying to make sure it only had to work as hard as it needed to. A few weeks ago, I was in the process of editing my kid’s fantasy series & cleaning up all the old copies. I tried joining one version with another, erased one & as I dumped it into the newer copy – my computer rebooted itself. Yes, I lost all that work. I appreciate all the facebook support & cheers and “It’ll be better next time, AB!” but really, I secretly told you all to stick it and pouted anyway. I was still to cheap to go buy a new laptop and put up with it for a while longer, just being careful to back up with every few lines.

Friday it happened again, only this time I got a screen I had never seen before & knew I’d better do something before it blew up and all was lost for good.

Yesterday we drove to Best Buy and got my new beast. That would be the one on the right.

I liked that it had the 10-key on the side like a keyboard but it is already driving me crazy. I suppose I’ll take time to adjust. I also see I have a webcam but have yet to find how to access it. I am trying to get things moved over from one to the other and am not having fun. Even getting into all my website e-mails was a challenge. I had everything auto-stored & they just popped up… I’m so glad I didn’t let the old one die – I’d be really dead in the water here.

I had a Best Buy Rewards card that I never use but it saved me about $30 off. I also used my Barnes & Noble credit card because I got a notice for July. “Double Barnes & Noble points for July – just spend more than $200 on your card & you get them automatically!” $200? Srsly? pffft. Gimme a challenge Barns & Noble. I’m already excited over the new AWer books I can buy with the gift cards! Squee!!!

Oh… and the little dude on the right? The Grimm Reaper looking guy? That’s Mal. He’s making sure all evil stays away from my new baby. (To learn more about Mal – go 2 posts back or just click here.)

I should also mention, I told the sales guy that I wrote and the only thing I really cared about were having Word on it and internet. We talked for a bit – turns out his wife is a librarian & writes too, loves MN authors & has a kindle. I officially pre-sold Dustin Time to a total stranger! How cool is that?