The iMac cometh.

I did it. I switched. I am now the proud owner of a big daddy 24" iMac. My Yuppie status is complete. Everything about this machine is so ridiculously simple and intuitive. I love it. No futzing, no "what the hell do I do now?", it all just works.

Case in point - I don't know if anyone out there has tried to pair their Motorola phone with their PC. It's a nightmare. First of all you have to buy Motorola Phone tools and install it. Then update and restart 20 times. If you're lucky it won't crash when you start it up. If you're trying to connect it with bluetooth, add in another dash of aggravation and increased complexity. Be sure to set aside an hour or more trying to get it to work. With the mac I opened the Bluetooth app, paired Q's Motorola Razr phone, then opened iSync, clicked on the picture of the Razr and hit Synchronize. End of story. Transferring pictures back and forth was a breeze too.

It wasn't without going through hell and back though. Q and I braved the Boxing Day shoppers to go to Best Buy and check out their deals. They had all Apple computers on sale (along with all others), along with a 24 month, no interest option if you use your Best Buy card. You still have to pay the retarded $99 "administration fee" but with the sale price it mostly balanced out. If I tried to finance it anywhere else, I'd pay a lot more. Let's face it, after the $$ spent this year on the house, it's my only option.

After hitting a Best Buy and Future Shop by our house, we headed down to the Apple Store in the Eaton Center to see if they had any Xmas specials on - which was a big, fat no. So we decided to go to the Best Buy around the corner. Let's just say the we were in there for hours. If you wanted a computer you had to line up for the service desk in the computer section. You couldn't just pick one off the shelf and take it to the cash. This meant waiting for over an hour because there was only ONE CASH REGISTER!!!!! Not to mention that everyone (including me) wanted to put it on their card which meant calling the credit department and verifying or upping the limit which meant the associate was waiting for 10-20 min (or more) on the phone. It was hell.

Eventually after children in the store had grown up, got married, had children of their own and died off, we got to front of the line. The sales person (who turned out to be a manager) brought me over an iMac that was in an open box. Normally I'm not keen on that, but considering he was taking $200 off the price, I went for it.

Of course I brought it home and it didn't work. The backlight didn't come on. So I called him and he was more than happy to replace it for me, even though they don't do exchanges until the new year. In fact it was 10 minutes before closing, but he said if I came within the next 30 min, he'd let me in and give me another one. It was another open box, he plugged it in with me there and all was well. That's what I call customer service.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention, just to further my Yuppie Guppy Tuppy Dink status, I also got an espresso machine for Xmas. I'm never giving up coffee again. This thing not only does espresso, but also instant hot water (for my americano's) and has a steamer for frothing milk for the cappuccino's that I'm apparently going to be making for Q. I'm never going to sleep again.