It’s all my sister’s fault.

I bought a new laptop last night, and yes, I am blaming my sister.

Ok, need to back up. Seven Eight years ago next month, my niece and nephew were born. Waaaaay too early. They were born at like 24 or 27 weeks. Cole weighed a whopping 1lb, 11oz when he was born. His sister came in at 1lb 1oz. Unfortunately, they’ve been dealing with issues every since.

Don’t get me wrong… they are happy, and for the most part, very healthy kids… and being twins… well, I don’t know if I could pull off what Kathy and Troy have with these two and remain.. sane. (Ok, I have doubted my sister’s sanity since we were kids, but that’s a whole ‘nother story). Anyways, there are issues that range from tube-feeding to mild autism and cerebral paulsy and paralyzed vocal cords and well, the fact that they are twins and get in to the usual trouble twins get in to.

So she calls me last week, asking about laptops, cause some of the special ed teachers and such have been encouraging her to do some talks to teachers and other groups about the stuff they’ve been doing to help Sarah and Cole lead happy, normal lives and all that… and how they (her and her husband) deal with all the stuff that they have to deal with. And so they are working on some power point ideas, and my sister is thinking there are other groups she could go speak to about these things, but asked if she would need a laptop and such to go do this sort of thing.

As we’re talking, I’m giving her some basic info, but I know she can’t afford a laptop… it’s just not in their budget. However… I’ve had it in the back of my mind to get a new one for awhile… so I tell her this. She doesn’t need anything right now, just looking for ideas and what not. And I also tell her about the software from Open Office for doing presentations so she wouldn’t have to buy power point, etc. And I tell her that maybe if I take the plunge and get a new one, she could have my current one.

My old laptop is an HP, it’s about five years old or so, and it works great. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not dumping a crummy laptop. It was bought as a desktop replacement when it was new. It was one of the best Best Buy carried at the time… and it still runs great. About a year ago I had wiped the drive and reinstalled XP and keep the software on it to a minimum.. cause all I really need the laptop for these days is for working on docs, spreadsheets, checking email, etc when I’m out of the office. The problem with it in this regard, the thing is a brick. Ok, at 512k ram it could maybe use some more.. but I run AutoCad on it occassionally for minor stuff with no problems. It’s more than up to the tasks my sister is looking to use it for.

So… I check out Dell and Gateway and some other stuff online…course the smaller the more expensive in some regards. To shorten out this long story, I saw a decent Gateway on sale at Best Buy, $599 – had 3gig ram, decent hard drive, and a few other extras like a webcam. This was on Friday…  I figured I would think about it. So yesterday I sat on the idea, and decided to go for it. I hit the one near my house just before 9pm… wander over to the computer are and ask about it. They’re sold out. Shoulda figured as much.

So I figure it wasn’t meant to be at this point. And just kinda wander about the computers a bit… and spotted the Acer 4420… 2gig ram, 1.9GHz Dual-Core AMD, 14.1WXGA display, 160gig HG, 4 usb ports, SD card slot, PC slot, b/g wireless, for the sporty price of just $499. And this sucker is pretty light. Just over 4 pounds. Like a feather compared to the HP. But of course… they’re out. “What about Woodbury?” – sold out. “What about Roseville?” – they have 2.  Check the time, 9:15.. it’s 20 minutes there… I can do that. So off I go.

And just as they were closing at 10PM I’m walking out with a box that feels way too light to have a computer in it, and it’s all my sister’s fault.

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