Christmas Wrapping
Wishing all of you a day full of smiles, laughs, hugs and love. Merry Christmas and thank you for caring enough to read my nonsense. :-)

Last week I wrote about my shiny new iMac. What I didn’t mention is that when I brought it home I transferred my files from an old iBook that I had bought used and was my primary computer (it's slightly faster than my old graphite iMac). Macs come with a cool program (Migration Assistant) to transfer all your files, programs and setting from your old Mac to your new one via a Firewire cable. It’s very handy and very simple. It worked well for me, and literally in the nick of time since my iBook’s hard drive died soon after the process was complete. In addition to not working, the hard drive made a very loud clicking sound, kind of like a grandfather clock tick hooked up to the amplifier from “Back to the Future”. Not a good sign. Since I hadn’t paid much for the old laptop, I wasn’t too upset and figured that I had gotten my money’s worth from it. Then after a week or so I decided, on a whim, to see how much laptop hard drives cost. My first search showed prices a little higher than I was willing to pay, so I wrote off the idea. Then, on one of my daily looks at dealnews.com (their slogan, that for some reason is no longer on the page: “How to go broke saving money”) I found one cheap on Overstock.com. I ordered it and it promptly arrived on Saturday. I found a good how-to guide online and was surprised how much work was going to be involved. I had to disassemble the entire laptop to get to the hard drive, which is buried under layers of other components. As you can see, there were quite a few parts that had to be removed. Fortunately, I had my supervisor watching me from the other end of the couch to make sure I didn’t lose any pieces and the operation was a success.

Say hello to my latest computer, a shiny new iMac. It's the first new computer I’ve bought in seven years if you can believe that (not counting the PC I built from components I bought). I made the trek up to the Apple Store in Providence on Black Friday to get it (and save $50 off the regular price). I gotta tell you, computer have come a long way in seven years. That last new computer was also an iMac - you might remember those translucent CRT cases - mine was actually a “graphite” colored SE (Special Edition) version. The introduction of that model (which came right after Steve Jobs returned to the company he co-founded) was the beginning of the Apple popularity wave that is now in full swing with iPods and iPhones. My new Mac, which cost less than the one I bought years ago, is remarkable in that the computer is contained within the spectactular 20" widescreen. It's amazingly thin and yet the computer is blazingly fast. I can run as many programs as I want at once (including video) and it never so much as hiccups. It will also run Windows, though I must say I haven’t bothered to install the copy of XP I have laying around. If you've never used a Mac before, I suggest you try one before you buy your next computer. In truth, it's not much different than using a Windows PC, but it's the small touches (and sense of style) that make a surprising amount of difference. Plus, there's those great “Get a Mac” commercials.

I consider myself a fortunate person for a number of reasons, but one of the most obvious to me is that I have been blessed with wonderful friends. This year, some of my best friends have been blessed with beautiful baby girls. I've already written about my brother (and close friend) Steve's adorable little Sara, and since she was born there have been a couple of new additions to my world; Chrissy gave birth to Sophia and Jf’s wife Noreen gave birth to Sylvia. They are all so beautiful and it's wonderful to see my dearest friends positively glowing in parental rapture (I'm guessing it's not delirium caused by lack of sleep). I recently drove up to New Hampshire to visit with Chrissy, Peter and Sophie and had a great time catching up and making friends with the little one, who smiled quite a bit at her “Uncle” Tony. Jf & Noreen are anxiously awaiting Sylvie’s first smile, which is sure to come any day now (if it hasn’t already). I’m sure it will be a moment they’ll never forget. Now, you may have noticed that all the baby girls have first names beginning with ‘S’. This just can’t be a coincidence, and I have a theory as to what it means. I think that the girls are destined to be great friends and that they will start a singing group that will use their ‘S-factor’ to come up with a great group name. Sophia will probably be the lead singer, as she is the only one with a parent (Chrissy) that has any musical and vocal ability (not counting Steve & Jf’s guitar “playing”). Perhaps by then the Spice Girls songs will be considered classics and the S-girls will jump start a "Girl Power" revival. We can only hope.