Apple, Decisions and News

I would say that I have spent too much time lately at the Apple Store, located conveniently only eight miles from my home, except that I love the Apple Store and the geniuses who work there. And I think that there is something in the air, as there must be in yarn shops, that makes me w.a.n.t to buy something. That's easier to do at a yarn shop; yarn is way less expensive than any iThing. Even if I buy a lot of yarn. 

However, I needed a new computer. While my old one isn't completely dead, it's been coughing up blood more and more frequently. It freezes; it shuts down, it takes forever to boot up. I went to Apple and looked at computers and then asked the saleswoman if I couldn't replace my laptop with the new iPad. We compared both products and I bought the largest screen iPad with a Logitech case/keypad.The combination is genius and I loved it. Really, really loved it. But over two days I realized that it is still an iPad, not a MacBook. I could not format it so that it was easy to use for what I needed. I had 14 days to return it so I thought and thought and thought.

Do I have trouble making decisions?  Well, yes and no. 

I did finally manage to make a decision and two days after I bought the iPad and genius Logitech case/keyboard, I returned it and bought a laptop. Not as exciting and shiny but it works the way I want it to and it is WAY faster than the old laptop. 

This is the charging cord for the old computer:

It has been repaired with electrical tape, repaired again, shrink wrapped with electrical tape and this is always the eventual result. I had priced a new one and it was in the vicinity of $80. I knew that if I bought a replacement the computer would die the next day. I'm glad I resisted.

Today I go to the store again to have them wipe the old laptop and then I'm done, I think. I hope. My husband seems to think that my new laptop is the last one I'll ever buy---'cause I'm so old, you know.

I hope it lasts years, and I hope I outlast it.

I have only one complaint: when I got the new laptop running, and I checked out the sites I usually read, THE NEWS WAS STILL THE SAME. I expected more from a new computer.

Tomorrow I get to go to the swearing in of my Russian friend when she becomes a US citizen. THAT is good news.

Congratulations, Marina!

OK, iThings,

SHAPE UP!

I was going through my iCalendar this morning, looking for a medical appointment I was certain that I had scheduled.  Nope.  Not there.  

I looked on two of my iThings and still, no luck.

I gave up, called the doctor's office and asked to schedule an appointment. The scheduler asked if I wanted to change the appointment I already had.

iEmbarrassed.  

I explained to her what had happened, that I couldn't find the appointment I had apparently already made, she gave me the date and time and we laughed together.  Hah Hah Hah Hah hah hah hah

I entered---again---the date and time in my iCalendar and it asked if I wanted it in iCloud or in my Mac Calendar. When I chose iCloud, the appointment was already there! I had assumed, incorrectly, that putting something in iCloud meant that iCloud sent it to all Things i. 

Apparently it does not.

So I entered the appointment in my Mac iCalendar, and now it is in all of my iThings.  

I figure that by the time I understand how all iThings work, Apple will change how all iThings work.  

And this will be me:

Update:

I have spent over 3 1/2 hours this past week with various geniuses at Apple and have finally:

A.  Successfully downloaded Mountain Lion.  I thought I already had, but it turns out that our completely undependable internet service had gone down during the first attempt at downloading and I am not computer savvy to have known that.

B.  Successfully backed up the computer BEFORE I downloaded Mountain Lion.  I thought I already had but it turns out that I am not computer savvy enough to have realized that I hadn't.

As a result of finally being successful, I am now emptying the trash.  I tried to last night, but I kept getting a message saying that I couldn't because "trash is busy emptying trash."

I am not computer savvy enough to understand what it was trying to tell me.

However, even though I am now successfully emptying trash, this is what it is telling me:

I did not put 28, 016 items IN the trash.

I don't know what is going on, but I hope that I will still have all of my photographs when this is finished.

If not, though, I have them backed up.......I hope.

Hope Springs Eternal

in the human heart (or something like that).

I've been working on this Owlet sweater since Thursday evening's knit night, and it's going along really quickly, in spite of the fact that I had to start over six inches into the first attempt after I discovered that I wasn't even close to getting gauge.

It still looks small, but measures out to the specifications, so far. I am counting, as always, on the miracle of blocking to make it just the right size for granddaughter Elizabeth. Otherwise, I'll ask her mother to send it along to someone smaller. I'm not taking it out! Again!

And now, for something completely different, this is an albino alligator I saw last weekend at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. Creepy? Fascinating?

I vote fascinating, but it's a good thing someone put him in the aquarium. He sure could not survive in the wild for long---he's not good at camouflage!

And for inquiring minds---these pictures were taken with my iPhone and when I opened my computer after Friday's class at Apple, there they were, in my computer! It's magic, I tell you, pure and simple magic!

And a little help from the Geniuses at Apple.

Letter to my daughter, who owns a Mac and knows EVERYTHING about them

about my new Mac, with which I am not yet in love:

I can't open excel spreadsheets with my Mac...whine...

I can't sync my Mac and my Iphone....whine...

I can't find the tutorials in my Mac....whine...

Help????

(I should wait for Tuesday morning's private session at Apple?)

But I want help NOW!!!

whine....whine....whine....