I love it love it love it love it

A lot.

Got home from Lawrence last night to find it on the kitchen table, securely wrapped in its pristine white box all the way from China. Opened it carefully and extracted from a thick plastic sleeve 4 1/2 pounds of integrated wizardry, a peach of an apple, a sleek self-contained unit engineered to give pleasure and, most importantly, never to be used for "real" work.

In short, my new Macintosh laptop has arrived. It greeted me when I opened it (in several languages), instantly recognized my wireless network and within minutes I was productively farming, messaging, creating new imaginary friends and caressing my pleasing-to-the-touch backlit keyboard.

Material items should not be allowed to give one such ethereal pleasure.

I recently came into a bit of money--"came into" is a bit of a stretch as I sold a part of my ownership stake in my company to a new partner. I loaned most of it right back to the company (I'm told that it's a capital investment), repaid some kids' school debt and am having the kitchen remodeled (believe me, it needed it). What's left after capital gains tax (i.e. not much) was mine mine mine. I decided to buy the mac laptop to start to separate my work and play. And I might have orthodontics.

Might being the operative word here.

So, I sit here on my WORK laptop (the stale old Dell Latitude) creating effusive prose about my new obsession, Midge the Mac. I vow not to wear off her keys with my finger acid, clog up her keypad and cooling fan with cat hair, spill coffee on her or subject her to extreme temperature fluctuations when she's on my lap and I have a hot flash. I promise to love her and cherish her and be faithful to her as long as we both shall live. Unlike my marriage, it will be a permanent relationship. Unlike my Dell, Midge will be cat-free. Unlike the rest of my life, Midge will be orderly, functional, predictable, hairless and paid for.

Back to work...I'm not getting paid to blog....