It's so FLUFFY

As those of you who are my friend on Facebook or who follow me on Twitter (@hokgardner) know, I got a new computer this week. And I am beyond thrilled.

For the past two years, I've had all of my work, contacts, photos, data, and whatever stored on two different machines - a desktop back in our room and an ancient laptop. The desktop is the better computer, but it's hard for me to use and keep an eye on the kids, especially after B installed the door that closed off the back of the house. All of my important stuff like financial info, pictures and blog archives is on that computer, but I don't use it very often. It's performance also took a sharp dive after the great spring virus attack.

Most of the time I float around the house with my ancient laptop, working during nap times and quiet times. All my work is stored on the laptop, which is beyond risky because it could die at any moment and everything on it would be lost forever. I spend a lot of time e-mailing things between the two machines because neither connects to the network well enough for me to transfer data wirelessly.

I have wasted more time than I care to think about on computer issues.

On Wednesday B left the house, saying he was going to buy a new printer for the office and came back with a beautiful, fluffy new laptop for me. I was stunned.

He decided to get me the laptop after using the old one for work one night and finding out just how slow and decrepit the thing is.

Most days, I set up the laptop on the kitchen counter, turn it on, and then make coffee, clean up the kitchen, and pack lunches while it boots up. If I'm lucky, I won't have to restart it to get the thing to connect to the Interwebs. Having two programs open at the same time was about as much as the laptop could handle. It was really, really pitiful.

B has spent the past two days getting everything set up on the new machine, transferring all my files and wrestling with iTunes, which makes it insanely hard to move your music library from one computer to another. It's been torture having my beautiful new laptop sitting there with backup drives hooked up to it and not being able to use it.

But now! Now I have a laptop the starts immediately and doesn't take ages to switch between windows. And all of my information and work is on one computer - no more having to sprint to the back to frantically get work done on the big computer while the kids are otherwise occupied. No more e-mailing files back and forth. No more worrying that I'm going to lose all of my work when the computer hiccups.

Plus, the new laptop is all shiny and fluffy.