Blogging in Bed with Tea and Sophie!!

I'm in bed with a snoring Boston Terrier and a cat pestering for more morning treats, writing this from my...shiny new MacBook! I did it. Apple made me do it. I've been saving my pennies here and there for many months, throwing an odd $20 into an online savings account for this purpose, and was halfway to my goal of $1400, when on Black Friday morning I happened to click onto the Apple website from the 10 year old iMac in my office, and saw that Apple was having a one day sale, offering a $150 e-gift card with some Macbook models, and 0% financing for 18 months. I already had half the purchase price in cash. I applied for the financing and was approved in five seconds, and then I spent the rest of the morning dithering over whether I should go ahead and buy, and which model, etc. I ended up with a 12 inch MacBook with the Retina display. It's so tiny and light it's ridiculous. I bought my last MacBook in 2007 and it still works, but it got so old that I can no longer update the OS so its functionality is very limited, to say the least. It was at the time a basic MacBook like this one, nothing fancy, and boy, they've come a long way in the last decade. AND I have an e-gift card for $150, which is going to be put toward a new iPad in a month or so. My iPad is likewise from an earlier era and still works, but is too big and heavy to carry around on a daily basis. I think this Mac might actually weigh less.

I've already prepped the HP Stream I bought a year or so ago for sale, and I'll list it on Amazon today. Someone will want it, it gets a lot of very positive reviews, and of course, one can't expect a $200 glorified netbook to hold a candle to an actual MacBook. It's a good tiny PC for the price, and my lightly used purple Stream will come with a sleeve and a mouse and make some kid happy. I'm loving this little machine so hard already - the keyboard is so big and responsive, the track pad is excellent, it's fast and amazing.

My blog updates should become more frequent as I can now do them from the couch, the dining room table, or the back porch. It was really hard to come home from sitting in a chair staring into two large monitors all day to sit in a different chair and stare into a third. And though this screen is only 12 inches, the retina display makes a huge difference for me in vision comfort. At one point yesterday I had this Mac and the HP Stream side by side on the dining room table, while I looked up how to reset the Stream to Windows factory default for resale, and the difference in the screens was so incredible, no wonder my eyes got tired and I hated using the Stream. This small screen is so crisp and bright and easy on my terrible eyesight.

Delaney spent the night Friday night, and an exhausting time was had by all. She helped me decorate the Christmas tree.

She's such a kid now, a non-stop talker, thinking out loud about everything, sorting out big questions about life and trying to understand how the world works. At one point she briefly got upset about something, I can't remember what, and I taught her a bit of meditation - breathe in, breathe out, just think about breathing - and it calmed her down. She was impressed with how it did work for her, and I'm now thinking that one of those children's meditation books I'd been previewing might be a worthwhile Christmas gift. She FaceTimed with her NC cousins for a bit, and held her first real conversation with her cousin Willa, who is almost two and talking. Of course the older girls did 98% of the talking before it devolved into being silly together; it's hell to be the youngest trying to get a word in.

It was a fun almost 24 hours of decorating, Christmas specials on Netflix, hot chocolate with marshmallows (though the AC was on Friday night) and talk, talk, talking. She woke up way too early on Saturday. I was exhausted by the time her dad came to collect her at nearly noon. (So was she; her mom reported that she had a screaming tantrum and then passed out for a nap later in the afternoon.)

Ellie hid under the bed. She came out in the night to use the litter box and eat something, but mostly she hid. She's a big coward, and she likes her quiet life with her Mom and her dog sister. Company upsets her strict routine of eating, watching birds, and napping in the middle of my bed. She hides from all company now, and I told Delaney not to take it personally.

There's much more to say and do. I have lots of thoughts about our new Orange Overlord and the future of the country, and voices of sanity I've found, and ways I'm trying to take better care of myself. Expect more regular updates now that I have this delightful little gadget! Christmas came early for me, whee!