Happy New Year, All!

   
It’s been a hectic and exciting holiday season for us, and if you’ve noticed we’ve been gone for a while, it’s not because we didn’t miss you or that we didn’t feel like doing the whole “Best and Worst Fashions of 2007” thing. 
   
Actually our absence has been for personal reasons, and we suppose we should just go ahead and tell you about it before you hear it from someone else.

The truth is—if you MUST know—we’ve been going through a rather messy breakup that has been demanding a disproportionate amount of our time lately.  And even though the change was long overdue, taking that final step was anything but easy.
After all, we’d been together for almost twenty years, and  one doesn’t just throw that all away without a lot of agonizing soul-searching.   But the fact of the matter is, our once-powerful and charismatic Beloved had become arrogant, bloated, cranky, and—worst of all—just not cool anymore.  Who wants to be stuck in the 90’s when it’s 2008?  We can forgive a lot of things, but being behind the curve isn’t one of them.  Sadly, it was clear to both of us that it was time to move on.

So we’ve done it.  We’ve gone Mac. 
And not just a little bit: We’re talking desktop, laptop, and—pending the next generation-the Iphone.  And while this might not seem like big news to some people, for us it’s nothing short of life-altering. 
Sure, we’ve always lusted in our hearts for the sleek design of Apple computers.  We’ve never been able to figure out why PC manufacturers continue to produce such butt-ugly machines when Apple so clearly dominates in the visual appeal department. (Seriously—how is it that not one of the dozens of PC makers—or MP3 and PDA makers, for that matter—even comes close to offering something as elegant as the Ipod or the Imac?   Does every brilliant product designer work for Steven Jobs?) 
But, until a few months ago, we never saw ourselves as the Mac type.  As far as we were concerned, Mac people were artsy, liberal, and probably from the west coast, while we were businessy and conservative.  And then there were those irritating  PC v. Mac commercials, in which we found “PC”, with his nicely tailored jackets and genteel demeanor, to be far more appealing than some smug, scraggly little dweeb in a hoodie.

It wasn’t until we borrowed a Macbook from one of our Top Secret Correspondents that we realized how much better life could be. 

    A system that started up immediately!  No freezing! No error messages! No grinding CPU!
We were hooked. 

    And then… we saw the IMac desktop and fell even harder—No ugly tower!  No cube!   And, with the wireless keyboard and mouse, practically no cords!

And now here we are, Windows-free and lovin’ it, ready to roll into 2008 with a vengeance.   Our only fear now is that we’ll start turning into one of those annoying Macolytes without even realizing it.  So if you ever see us wearing too much black or hanging out at the Genius Bar, or listening to Bono, or—God forbid—standing in line to buy the latest I-Thing,  please make us stop. 
Because we may not have our PC’s anymore, but we still have our dignity, right?