Man, today was great for me. As it’s tax-free weekend, I went first thing to Circuit City to check out what specials they had, since they weren’t advertised yesterday. There was one that had two gigs of RAM and a dual core processor, DVD burner and a decent graphics card, normally about $900, on sale for $750 after a $50 rebate. There was a lady there talking to a sales guy about an Acer computer, and he was working on convincing her to buy the one I was talking about and I jumped in to back the guy up. Acers are generally considered to be crap. Quite a few of them got sold while we were talking.
I went outside to talk it over with Scott and with Amanda. I told Scott that if he was going to get me an iPhone, I probably wasn’t going to get the laptop. He thought about it and thought that since most of our clients have Windows machines, it probably would be easier for me to support them as it is now with me having a PC. So in light of that, I decided not to save up for a Mac, at least not for now.
Then I talked to Amanda. She said if it was a good deal and we could swing it to go for it. I applied for a Circuit City card but got denied, which I think is BS. I’ve owned a house for over a year, and before I could do that I had to get everything on my credit report taken care of. I was talking with the sales guy and the woman who he was still showing laptops to, and she agreed and gave me some tips about checking up on my credit report.
Since I couldn’t get the Circuit City credit card I went and took a chunk out of our savings account and came back to get the laptop. I gave them $800 and got a penny back, and I’m typing on that very laptop now.
While all this was going on I talked to Scott off and on. He told me he had decided that the iPhone would be the most useful tool for me, so he was going to get that. He figured out which plan to get and went to his local Cingular/AT&T store and asked if he could buy it there and let me pick up a phone here in Wilmington, but they said they could do it. He picked it up and we’re trying to figure out if he’s going to ship it or if we’re just going to meet up. He told me that since I got a brand new laptop and an iPhone it was like Christmas in August for me. He was right- what a great day!
Work wasn’t too busy, but I didn’t let myself open the laptop until I’d cleared out the Support desk, since I knew I’d want to remove all the crap off of it that comes with new computers and put on all the stuff I’ll need for work. The laptop is kinda big, but it’s got a nice wide screen, good audio from what I can tell so far and it’s pretty. The top is very black and shiny. It’s so shiny I’ve been loathe to touch with for fear of putting smudges on it. It does have Windows Vista on it, an operating system that is, from what I hear, an inefficient memory hog. I’m hoping updates will make it better before too long.
After work Amanda and I went to a shop at Mayfaire to get something for someone. Yes, that was intentionally vague. It was something for someone who I know for sure reads this site from time to time. I called Adam to see if he and Renee would like to grab something to eat while we were out there, and they were going to give us a call after they got back from the park where they were walking, but Renee ended up passing out on the couch so Amanda and I, after doing what we were going there to do, just got some Atlanta Bread Company and went on home.
When we got back Amanda worked on what we bought and I worked on Andra’s wedding pictures. Amanda helped too- we looked through them all and she helped me toss out some of them. It’s always good to have a second eye, because sometimes I end up saving a picture that’s really not very great just because it goes with another if you know the story, or I’ll like one over another because of the composition without noticing something on the other one, like someone not smiling or looking off somewhere else.
We’re planning on going to see the Body Show or something like that- I forget what it’s called. Karen Mercer, Amanda’s mom, went to see it with Aunt Joanne yesterday and she raved about it. It’s this thing where they’ve got all these bodies they’ve turned into, well, art I guess. We were thinking about going next weekend, but Michael wants to go too but Chris Flowers will be in town next weekend, so it wouldn’t work for him. We figure we’ll go the next weekend. It’s at The Streets of Southpoint in Durham, so I mentioned it to my parents too in case they’d want to go.
Zach Dotsey