Well, money comes and money goes. The day I got two months worth of grant funding, my computer broke. It works, but with the Airport dead, the casing battered, the battery dead, the power cord bent, I just decided to invest my newfound fortune into a Macbook Pro. It came yesterday — I saved about $500 by getting the 2.4 Ghz model off Amazon rather than the 2.5 Ghz model from Apple.

Of course, it was a while before I could enjoy the thing. Before even typing my first letter, I had to:

Set up an initial account on OS X 10.4.

Transfer over the wife’s stuff, which Mac make ridiculously easy with their migrate utility.

Log in as her and transfer my stuff, because it required over-writing my account. I usually, when getting a new computer, prefer to transfer stuff piecemeal. I’m mildly obssessed with computer clutter and hate to transfer over the organic mess of files. I prefer to pick applications, files, folders and leave everything else to be deleted. But Mac’s migration function — plus the intimidation factor of moving 33 GB worth of music and family photos — nixed my little neurotic quirk.

Of course, then I needed to download all the 10.4 updates, which required several reboots.

Then I upgraded the powerbook to 10.5.

Then it was time to download and install all the 10.5 upgrades.

Finally, I needed to reinstall iWork and some of my professional applications, which require licensing, etc.

All of this was interspersed with the wife poking her head in the door every half hour and starting the following conservation.

Sue: So how do you like it?

Me: I’ll let you know when I’m done updating it.

Sue: Still?

I eventually went out into the living room to watch John Adams with her while the Mac churned away.

I finally finished everything after about six hours. And after one day, I’ll just say that it’s sweet. The installed iSight rocks. None of my applications stall or die. I haven’t seen the spinning beach ball of death yet. I’m even enjoying Spaces and Front Row. And it’s nice at work, since it’s a 17″ model and I no longer have to hunch over it.