AtomicMrX

I’ve been doing a ton of research into the pricing and options for the new computer I want to get. I’m down to trying to decide between two sellers: MacMall and Apple Store. I would like to go with MacMall because they are the cheapest and the only reason I may have to go with Apple Store is if MacMall can’t customize my purchase. So I’ve sent an email to a sales representative from MacMall asking a bunch of questions and I’ll see what response I get.

It all boils down to the Graphics Card upgrade. Apple Store shows the option on their web site but MacMall does not show it as an option on their web site. I’m hoping it is an option that you can have done, they just don’t advertise on their MacMall web site. So if MacMall does offer the Graphics Card upgrade, I’ll be going with them for the purchase of my new iMac.

I’m still waiting on my income tax return. I turned it in to the Tax Guy last Monday and they said it would take between 10 to 14 days for them to work on it. Then I go in and sign some paper work and pay them the money to do my taxes. Then there is the week or two before the automatic deposit shows up in my account. If it isn’t enough to buy the computer with and my eye glasses then I will have to hold onto the money and combine it with my “raise” in a month or two.

Speaking of glasses (how’s that for a transition). I finally got Shannon to go with me and try on eye glasses at the Optometrist. I went in a couple of weeks back and a nice girl helped me but I can not see a darn thing without my glasses on so trying on new frames is almost useless. So I dragged Shannon along to take a look and give me an opinion of what looks good on me. I got about six pair picked out and then we narrowed it down to two pairs that look good and that I like. I think I have pretty much made up my mind and will go with the Black pair that has a square ear bar and has gray and white squares on the the ear bars. The other pair is kind of a copper or dark gold look and it just doesn’t fit as nicely on my face and I think I like the black frames on my face more. Both are the kind that have the frame along the top of the glass but nothing along the bottom of it.

Now I just have to wait till income tax or raise money to come in to get my eye exam and then purchase the frames. Oh, and both frames are very close to the estimated frame expense she made for me the first trip in. So everything should still cost about $450.00. That is for: frames, lenses, computer anti-glare coating, no-line bifocals, eye exam, and scratch resistant coating.

Now it is just a waiting game.

Well a “dusting” turned into a few inches of snow. Probably around 2″ to 3″ of snow here in Raytown. So I had the joy of shoveling the driveway and front side walk, again. My back is not too happy with me right now. Lucky it was a light and fluffy snow this time and we didn’t drive over it to pack it down. I really should invest in a snow blower - but the money, ugh!

Mom and Dad (okay, mostly Dad) will be sad to hear that a favorite restaurant in Kansas City closed (suddenly) this week. Stephenson’s Apple Farm restaurant was closed on Valentine’s Day without a notice to anyone, including the staff. This smells fishy to me. Here is the story covered by our local news.

You may also notice that my blog is now “Snap” engaged. This is a cool little ditty that when you user positions their curser over a link a pop up window will show them the content of that link. In other words the view of the web site the link goes to. Very cool. The only problem is my blog theme has a nifty drop shadow it ads to images that I post and it seems to think the pop up Snap windows should have this same drop shadow… so that is why they look a little chopped up around the bottom and right side of the pop up. Sorry. I’ll try to figure out what code to plop into the header to make it go away.

My friend Jim and I are going to an expensive Mexican restaurant tonight - La Bodega. I hope I find something within my budget that is tasty as well! This will be the first time Jim and I got together since we went out for my birthday in January.

Shannon was surprised and happy to get the Madonna CD/DVD. He gave me a fantastic card and a gift certificate for Bed Bath & Beyond! He spent more than me! Plus we went out to eat and got to the restaurant around 4:30 PM and there was already a half an hour wait. The food was great and I have enough for another meal. I got the KC Strip and Shannon got a surf and turf thingy that had a lobster tail and steak combo. He loved it.

All in all a great Valentine’s Day.

Here’s wishing everyone a great Valentine’s Day! So far mine has been pretty good. The roads to work were nice and clean (no ice or snow) unlike yesterday.

I’ll see tonight if Shannon likes his gift or not. I think he will. It’s the CD/DVD of Madonna’s Confessions Tour Live. He recorded it back in October when it was on TV and listens to it a lot (through the TV). I also downloaded it on iTune’s which is probably what he’ll use most on his iPod Nano.

Here are some images of the 20″ iMac that I want to buy with income tax return money. If you click on the smaller image a larger image will appear.

This is the front of the computer. Yes, I said the computer. This is it… no tower, this ain’t “just” the monitor… it is the whole computer and only about 1.5″ deep.

This is the side view which shows the CD/DVD port. Yep that little slit is where the disks go. Way cool!

Here is the back view and shows the connections. I could opt for a wireless keyboard and mouse ($60.00 more) and then there would be even less cables… but then again there is the money. I’ll stick to the tethered keyboard and mouse that comes with… free.

The slit along the top on the back view is the heat vent. Also I might add it comes with speakers - you just can’t see them in any of the pictures. The speakers are on the bottom edge of the “monitor” and are designed to bounce the sound off the desk surface. I know… cool!

I wish I could get the 24″ but that would be about $600.00 more. However it would be a better graphics card - a whole step up in fact.

The more research I do on Vista, the more I just want to get XP Pro installed instead. Cost is one thing, but even my IT PC friend Greg is having a headache over Vista Home Pro. That is what scares me. He had to send his partners Del laptop back because of weird stuff happening to it.

I have a couple of months to decide so I’ll keep looking at the research. I’m hoping to time it just right and get the new Mac OS 10.5 installed on the iMac. It’s suppose to be launching (in the rumor mills) February 20th, so that is another key factor in the waiting game. I would love to have Mac OS 10.5 and Vista Home Pro along with Parallels all pre-installed when I purchase. We’ll see.