Organizing your writing life

WEEKEND UPDATE: The broken dryer saga has some resolution. A co-worker just renovated her home and has a fairly new dryer that they are letting me have for next to nothing. However, my apartment complex won't let me dump the old one next to the trash compactor, so I have to haul it to a recycling center on the other side of downtown Atlanta. Sounds easy except no one I know owns a truck. So, I'm renting a truck for a couple of hours and BFF Brent is helping me get rid of the old one and pick up the new one tomorrow. I'm saving hundreds of dollars and that makes me very happy, because...

I got a Macbook!!! After being outbid on three or four laptops on eBay, I found one I simply had to win. A guy had bought it for his wife just after Thanksgiving, but she didn't like it and wanted a PC laptop instead. In the meantime, they had let their dog chew on the box, which they forgot also had the receipt inside. I love that dog. It's so new that it has Leopard installed and they had splurged and purchased the iLife 08 suite of software. I know people who own Macs are kinda loony, but you would not believe how many people were put off from bidding because they wanted the damn box it came in. People are actually selling the empty Macbook boxes on eBay. What's that all about? If I had the box, it would be in the storage closet or probably in the trash. So, because people are crazy and dogs like to chew cardboard, I got a brand new Macbook for hundreds of dollars less than retail. I've been doing the happy dance all weekend. The picture above is the actual laptop I'll be receiving later this week.

Of course, this elation was slightly dampened when I started moving stuff off my old PC and getting it ready for the afterlife. I realized that my printer, which connects to my laptop via a parallel port, will not work on the Mac. I'm not even sure laptops and printers are made with parallel ports anymore -- it's all USB now. That means I'll be buying a new one, and since I'm going for broke I might splurge and get a wireless printer. I haven't decided if I'm going to keep the old laptop for emergencies, use it at my office or donate it somewhere. I'm leaning toward using it at the office. We use a PC-based application to update the company website and the desktop I use at work is ancient. The laptop would be an upgrade for sure.

After a week of nearly summer-like weather with temps in the high 70s, winter returned over the weekend. It was in the 30s yesterday and the 20s overnight. Last night, I met up with Cecilia Woloch (in town for a visit), Kodac Harrison, Theresa Davis and some other friends at Brickstore Pub in Decatur. We then went over to Java Monkey for the open mic and to watch Theresa's awesome feature. She got a standing ovation.

I cannot believe we're just eight days away from Christmas. Where the hell did the year go? Although I swore I wasn't going to buy any gifts, I still have to buy a couple for family. My friends and I decided to do a gift-less holiday and just meet up for dinner and drinks. Everyone seems to be splashing out on gifts for themselves this year, and why not? We're worth it.