it seems we have the attention spans of OH LOOK, SOMETHING SHINY!

And that something shiny just happens to be a shiny, lovely, amazingly designed and artfully crafted brand spanking new, iMac.

The general busyness and hubbub of the holiday season notwithstanding, it's been pretty quiet on the ol' blog front as of late. This was certainly due in large part to said general busyness and hubbub of the holiday season, however it was also very much to do with a certain laptop computer that suddenly gave up the ghost. What we hoped was a mere (mere!) corrupt Windows file turned out to be more of the your-hard-drive-is-completely-toast kind of a problem.

Even before the Mighty Crash of 2009, we'd been scanning the fliers weekly and reading various online review sites in an effort to prepare ourselves for what we felt was quickly coming (ie. our computer dying). This premonition of pending doom did not, however, lead us to backup our files. No, that would've been too proactive. at all since early October (related: BACKUP YOUR STUFF, folks!). Opening your computer to a screen void of anything except a simply yet ominous error message is enough to strike terror into the heart of even the most seasoned computer user. ESPECIALLY ONE WHO HASN'T BACKED UP THEIR FILES FOR MONTHS.

For those who don't know, I take lots of pictures. I know I'm lazy about posting them, but trust me, I take them. A lot of them. I'd even done a few photo sessions in that time -for friends (of the non-paying sort *wink*), but still. I should have backed them up. I should have known better.

Lesson learned.

All that to say that we found ourselves faced with buying a new computer a bit sooner than expected (ie, before getting our tax return). We did a bit more reading, visited a few stores, talked to friends and sales people, then sat down to crunch some numbers.

At one end, the more basic PC model that was suggested to us that would have easily met our needs, in (what we thought was) the middle a PC with upgraded memory and video card, and at the far end of the spectrum -tantalizingly out of our reach- the iMac.

The something shiny.

We knew it would be easy to talk ourselves into a Mac and all the delicious features it has to offer, but felt the price difference was just not justifiable. Although we did manage to pay off all of our non-house/ non-van related debt last year, we are always conscious of how important it is to be good stewards of our money (we are a one income family after all). But because a PC purchase would also require the purchase of the MS Office suite AND yearly anti-virus protection, the difference between the budget model and the iMac ended up being less than $100.

In a lame attempt to make this already long story less long, it is suffice to say that we are now the proud and loving owners of a new iMac. The honeymoon period is still in full swing and we are head over heels in love with this beauty. No sooner did we plug this baby in than our old faithful Dell was completely forgotten amid a chorus of oohs and aahs and is-it-my-turn-yets.

Clearly we are a fickle bunch.

And to prove it, here's a love letter drawing I found in Liam's notebook yesterday:

We're all smitten.

Now back to blogging.