Stimulating this horrible economy

Well, I'm doing my part to stimulate this economy by spending a bunch of my federal tax return.  I decided to go even more Apple this past weekend by getting an iPod at Costco.  I got an 8G one and I decided purple based on Elena's suggestion.  She loves purple and I like it as well.  Anyway, she'll be getting this iPod when she gets older anyway so it works to my advantage.  I saved $10 by getting it at Costco which covers the sales tax.  It would've been cool to get the free engraving Apple is offering but oh well.

Of course the biggest purchase of my new Macbook Pro 17".  The screen is awesome and it's really light for how wide it is.  It's not a big hassle carrying it around but man it's tough to get used to the new OS.  I'm still trying to find out how to "cut" files and "paste" them rather than just "copy/paste".  I'm sure I'll find it. The files I backed up from my PC don't work though.  Stupid media player built a bunch of wma files and those aren't readable on the Mac.  Luckily, I had only purchased 3 albums so it's not that big of deal.  I can try to convert them via Itunes on Windows but my PC is pretty messed up.  The graphics card is almost dead as it only boots in VGA mode.

Some things are really cool like this "Expose" feature which zooms all windows to fit the screen so you can find one easily.  I have a bluetooth mouse and keyboard that's really cool.  The best thing is I turned it on and selected my wireless network from a list and entered my password.  It was that simple.  No selecting which type of wireless password crap that XP has, etc.

Elena and I also went to Ikea and bought a desk for her room and I even upgrade to a normal desk.  The folding table disintegrated when I took it down.  Good times!  This desk is nice and it's all clean now.  We'll see how long that lasts.

I get to Europe next week well I have to is more accurate in the description.  It's going to be a brutal trip because I have to leave on Saturday and I don't get back to the following Saturday.  Plus on top of that I'm missing a tour of the White House that Saturday.  It pays to know people but I can't take advantage this time around.  Elena, Amber, Joe and a couple others are getting a tour and including the West Wing.  Amber says they might get to peek into the Oval Office.  Bummer for me.  Oh well...

It's fricking cold here still.  It snowed 6 inches yesterday.  This is compared to mid 50s last Thursday when I took my bike outside for the first time since October.  Crazy...it wasn't too bad of a 27 miles.  The legs definitely felt weak but not totally dead.  It was 66 on Friday but it rained plus Elena had a half school day so I didn't get out on the bike.  Now there's snow everywhere and it's like 20 something degrees.  ARGH!!  This is hurting my heating bill although I'm still keeping it cool in the apartment.

The swimming is continue to stay at my new faster pace.  This is cool and was able to bust out a sub 1:40 for my last 100yard interval yesterday.  Sweet...  Of course this is all tempered with not being able to run at all.  I even bought Aleve at Costco.  I took one on Saturday.  I haven't had an Aleve in easily 5 years not counting the drugs they were giving in the hospital last year for the collapsed lung stuff.  The knee is still sore.  I'm also trying some glucosamine supplement to see if that helps.  I'll try to run on Sunday in Zurich for 30 minutes and see how it goes.  The run last Wednesday was 4 miles and I kept a decent pace even though the knee hurt.

That's just a quick update of stuff going on...I'll try to be more active but I've gotten super busy at work.