Hear that?

You don't, do you? That's because the rumbling, gurgling noise of the 5-year-old Toshiba Satellite that I've been using has been replace by the whisper soft hum of my brand spanking new Compaq Presario. I'd been contemplating getting a new laptop since I sold the book, but I was able to talk myself down from the ledge successfully. Then the old computer did it's part. The CD/DVD drive conked out months ago. That was around the same time that it started moaning and groaning like the ghost of Christmas past. Then the casing cracked. The hard drive was so small, I couldn't enjoy the fruits of this cable modem without having to delete stuff every other day. The playback on big video files was so choppy, I may as well been just listening to them. The battery was so old and worn down, that if you unplugged the AC adapter, you had about 15 seconds before the computer just shut down. Then there was the wireless aspect. While I was tied to my desk at all times, I was forced to look on in envy as my wife carried her Powerbook all over the damn place; taunting me. While I was sitting on the couch watching basketball, she would browse LA apartments on craigslist. Once I started giving the woman I love dirty looks over a computer, I knew something had to give.

A few days worth of research later, I'd figured out everything that I had to have and what that was going to cost me. I got tired of waiting for one of those Dell coupon deals. Not to mention the fact that it takes up to a week before they even ship your computer. If I was going to lay down a grand, I wanted that thing to at least be on the way to me the next morning. So, I hauled my ass over to CompUSA and got the least expensive laptop with a Pentium processor that they had. I hadn't totally made up my mind that I was going to do the deed until I walked in and heard Steely Dan playing in the store. If that's not an omen, I don't know what is.

Next time...our LA apartment hunt has begun!