It's really a Love/Hate kind of relationship...

I LOVE/HATE my Mac. Doesn't that just give you all warm fuzzies?! I know that a lot of you have heard pieces of my story recently, but I'm telling it again. So there! It's my blog, so I'm going to write about it! I've had my Mac for almost 8 years now. It came at the tune of $3000, so we're pretty attached. When Jason would hurl threats at the computer like, "WHY WON'T IT JUST PRINT?!" I'd patiently show him again how to select the drivers and such because I LOVE my Mac. I've been using a Mac for my design work since college, and a PC just isn't an option. In fact, if you could hear me, I'd laugh at the notion. You just have to design on a Mac. It's been such a little work horse. Sure we'd have our little problems. Like when I tried to downsize my photo collection in iPhoto and my Mac not only deleted my photos from the program, but also from my hard drive. I lost a lot of photos of Andrew right after he was born. But I eventually forgave my Mac. And I was able to rescue about a quarter of those photos. When we came back from our Colorado trip this summer I found my Mac seemingly injured. It wouldn't boot up when I pushed the power button. I tried to fix it myself, but I ended up breaking down and contacting Apple. After some very feeble corrective steps the representative finally said, "I can guide you through some more troubleshooting, but it's going to cost $50 an hour." OK...say what?! But at this point I was desperate enough to know that it wasn't fried, and I passed over my credit card info. FYI, it ends up that there is a tiny, tiny little red reboot button on the inside of the computer that is a little fix all. So, yes, I'm the lady that spent $50 to hear about the little red button. (If any of you end up using this knowledge for yourselves, you owe me 50 bucks.) So let's flashforward to now.

I bought Jason one of the new nano-chromatic ipod's for his birthday. We bought him one for his 30th birthday, but it's has since fizzed out, so we bought the spiffy new one. We finally get it delivered (that's another funny story) and I get this great idea to open it up and download his songs on it. The way it played out in my head is like this: Jason opens his present and acts very surprised (he already knew he was getting it). We all gets hugs and "thanks" and then he says, "I can't wait to put all my songs on it and use it." This is where I promptly reply, "I already did it, it's all ready to go!" And this is where he gushes that I'm so thoughtful and I'm the best wife ever. The title of "best wife in the world" is MINE and it's in my sights! So, I plug in the pretty new ipod and I'm...error...my computer doesn't recognize the ipod. That's weird. I'll just open up iTunes and access the ipod from there...error...apparently I don't have the latest version of iTunes for my new ipod. (Little warning flags waving in the wind....) OK, I'll just download the new version of iTunes and...error (!)...This version of iTunes is not compatible with my operating system.

*Flashback* A few days before this, I'm talking with Jason about how old my computer is getting. It's virtually obsolete NOW. We can update some of the software, but in another couple of years it will be toast. So we start talking about when and how we'll be able to afford another system. It went on the list after painting the house, getting new carpet, gutters, and eventually a new car for Jason. I'll probably get my new computer after the boys graduate from college! Yippee!

Ok, so la la la, back to the story, my operating system is old. I bought a brand new ipod that I CAN'T USE! Nuts. Well, let's check out what a new operating system costs. Well, it's more than the ipod cost, but it's still under $200. So, wait, I spent this money on a new ipod, but I have to give Apple MORE MONEY to use it?! I'm getting ripped off! But I'm also kind of backed into a hole. So, I buy the operating system. Here comes the very sarcastic....Yippee! So, I get back home with the new operating system. It doesn't hurt too much, because we really needed to do this anyway. After the long, long process of clearing enough room on my hard drive to upload the new OS, I finally install Leopard onto my computer. Ooohhh, it's pretty. And the crowd cheers, because now I can use my ipod! So I download his songs to it and charge it for him, and hey presto, gift complete! Jason's happy... I working on getting happy...

Later, I'm checking out my new features that come with the price tag, and it's not too shabby. Then I begin to think, "Hey, I bet I've got the new iPhoto on here! I want to check that out!" I click on iphoto and I'm so excited when....error (!)...iPhoto 2.0 is too antiquated to run on my pretty new Leopard operating system. AUUUUGGGHHHH! I'm almost incoherent when I call Jason to tell him that I can't use half of my photography software, unless I shell out another $80 to upgrade more programs! I don't feel comfortable publishing exactly what he said, but it was to the effect that Apple has me in a corner, bleeding money, and they brought buckets.

Well, I'm not spending more money on Apple...this month...so they can just forget it! So, I'm looking the other way on upgrades right now. So, as I'm working today, I go to open photoshop to look at a file when I see...error...it won't open. I can open my other adobe products, just not this one. I'm kind of hoping I'll just have to reinstall it though. I'll just work around it and I'm in one of my other programs that is, thankfully, working when I go to create a pdf and...error...WHAT THE?! I can't generate pdf's, which is basically my job, to generate pdf's all day long. Apparently my program has some glitches in the system that prevent it working with my new operating system, unless I WANT TO UPGRADE there's really nothing I can do! AAAAUUUGGGHHH! So, now I want to take my Mac outside and RUN IT OVER WITH MY VAN!!!