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I have posted previously on my love for my sexy MacBook. Technically, I bought it for my freelance work, and I’ll be using it for a deduction on my taxes, but I have to admit I use it for my personal stuff as much as work. There’s nothing better for editing movies and photos (I have some awesome footage of my daughter from last weekend to upload soon). I also got a game for it, The Sims Life Stories, which to be honest I’ve only played once so far. (Jeez, who has time?) This past weekend I finally bought Parallels, and started installing a Windows XP VM. Once I have it up and running, I anticipate using my Windows PC even less than I do now! Maybe it really will become a gaming-only machine.

Unfortunately, the extra copy of Windows XP that I had available (from a no-longer used Dell tower that I bought a few years ago) was only SP1. So I tried to download and install SP2 from Windows Update. What a hassle! I think I really screwed the thing up, as it’s not behaving right at all. So today I bit the bullet and ordered an OEM copy of Windows XP SP2 from eBay, in order to start over again. And since I was already in the upgrading mood, I bought more RAM. The black MacBook comes with 1gig to start, which is generally enough, but when you’re running VMs, especially Windows VMs, it always helps to have more. I got a great deal from MemorySuppliers, 2 gig of RAM for only $130! As I recall, that’s cheaper than it would have cost me to upgrade when I bought the laptop!

I’m also in the process of setting up my home office again, with much help from a professional organizer (who just happens to be a friend!). Once I get it set up, I’ll be able to hook up any of my laptops to this phat 22-inch LCD that my husband got a great deal on from Office Depot (somehow he got this thing for like $200). He tried it out, but the game he plays obsessively (Battlefield 2142) won’t support the widescreen resolution he wanted to use properly…so he went back to the old 19″ that he’s been “borrowing” from me for the past two years! Is he crazy, or what?

In more unfortunate developments, the office thing is sort of on hold while I figure out how exactly to reconfigure it. It’s a large spare bedroom that I’m using, so I’m going to set it up as a combination office and craft room. I plan to have two walls full of shelving, and multiple work surfaces. However, figuring out exactly how to do that is challenging. I’m trying to plan an elfa system from the Container Store, but they are overdue getting back to me with a plan/estimate, so I’m stuck. I don’t want to just go ahead and get ClosetMaid stuff from Home Depot until I’ve seen the estimate from Container Store, so now I must wait. And while I wait, I shred…and shred…and shred. Wow, I had a lot of useless paper laying around.