The New MacBook Air

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This week turned out to be a two laptop week.  I was already thinking about selling my existing 2010 Macbook Air and upgrade to the new i5 2011 Air’s that just came out in July  when I convinced M to order a new Macbook Pro but I finally pulled the trigger on the new Air today.

I was waffling for a while since the 2010 model is still perfectly good.  The big drawback for me was the processor wasn’t anywhere near a desktop or even a bigger laptop’s speed.  That changed when the new i5 Air’s came out.  After figuring how much i could sell my old Air for i decided to make the jump and upgrade.

I have bought lots of stuff at the 5th ave Apple store but today was actually the worst experience i have ever had there.  It was super crowded and it took forever to find someone to help me, only to have them tell me oh you need to find a free computer and tell the ipad sitting next to it you need assistance and then you will go into queue to get help.  Problem there is everyone is on these laptops for hours surfing Facebook and two no one tells you that is the process.  I have bought more than one computer from this store and this is the first time i have ever had to do that.

Drama aside i was able to get the model I wanted and headed home.  Well after more minor train drama i was able to get home but that is another story.

I had already taken a backup of my old Air using Carbon Copy Cloner so setting up this computer was as simple as plugging in the backup hard drive and saying yes restore from an external hard drive.  For that function alone i have to love Apple!

 

 

Another Convert

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Today the unthinkable happened.  I ordered M a new computer.  Since 2003 M has had the same HP laptop.  Long ago I gave up making fun of her for it.  For me I like something new, and I know that most people don’t.  For her even though the laptop was old by any standard it worked for her.  If she was happy, I was happy.

Recently however M has been rebooting the laptop constantly and commenting on how slow it is.  I am not sure if something changed recently or if it was just that she has been using my new iMac and noticing the difference in speed.  She was hesitant to spend the cash on a new one.

I finally convinced her to take the plunge.  I was pushing a Macbook Pro, but I really didn’t know her usage requirements so I wasn’t sure if she could do everything on a Mac.  After running a test of the one app in question I ran into a snag.  A remote desktop app she used required an activeX control and couldn’t be used on a Mac.  After talking with M I realized that app wasn’t used that much so using VMware was an option.

With the activeX issue squared away we ordered the entry level Macbook Pro 13″.  I am hoping M will be a happy Mac convert.  She is not the first person I have converted to the Mac.  Besides about a dozen friends or more I finally got my parents converted to an iMac also.  I think everyone has been happy as a convert with the exception of Jayson, but Jay is now looking to get another Mac so I will have a 100% conversion rating.

We await the new Mac to arrive later this week.  Then I have to figure out how to migrate all the data from the HP to the Macbook Pro.

Beginning a Gift Registry

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Today M went with one of her brides maid’s to look for a dress.  I got to lounge around in the morning.  Afterward I went to do some shopping at Macys.  M meet up with me and we went to work on our wedding registry.

The registry process (at least at Macy’s) was kinda fun.  We went and got a scanner gun and walked around scanning things we wanted.  They would immediately be visible on my iPhone.  We spent a few hours going through looking for items we wanted.

We found a bunch of stuff we were looking for but we are no were near complete.  We need to goto a few other stores in the next few weeks before we can tell people.

Meetup’s with Friends and Family

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Today M and I went upstate again to visit a different friend. One of her best friends since growing up was visiting her parents lake house and we decided to go up and see her and her kids.  She is not around too often since she lives near DC.  Getting there was as painful as going to Jayson.  It was 90 minutes on Metro North.

The house was amazing.  it was right on the water with a pool.  We had a great afternoon.  I will say that houses with kids pack the best snacks.  M and I were very well fed.

After the lake afternoon we headed back into the city to meet up with M’s oldest nephew, and in 6 months my soon to be oldest nephew and a friend of his who were in town for the weekend.  We ate at the Shake Shack.  As always it was delicious.

Once we were full from burgers we pondered about were to go with the out of town college kids.  Once we realized that Ryan’s friend never has been in a tall building we headed to The View at the Marriot.  Even for people who live in NYC, having drinks on the 48th floor in a revolving restaurant was pretty cool.  We had a good evening and it was fun taking the “kids” around the city.

We cabbed it home since it was late and we were pretty lazy!

Wednesday 8-10-2011

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Wednsday was a pretty good day.  I was really busy, but nothing massive happened at work so that was a nice change.  Well on retrospect i did get word that some system was getting a last mintue redesign but it honestly didn’t phase me to much so that was good.

For dinner we made sandwiches.  I had peanut butter.  I know so glamorous.  I also donated to the Colbert SuperPAC.  The email and photo I got back was so funny it was totally worth the money I donated.  Now I must wait to see when I get my name on the air!

We didn’t do that much wedding planning tonight.  We were just tired and hung out.  Tomorrow is engagement photo day so we are going to be off to Central Park with the photographers.

Trying Outlook 2011

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Busy day at work today. I took a call at 8AM at home and then ran to the office after that. Full day of calls later I am pretty tired.

I did eak out some time to try using Apple Mail with exchange. I couldn’t really do it well before getting migrated to Exchange 2007. Now that I am moved over I gave it a try. i did so also a few weeks ago briefly but played with the settings a bit more today. Short summary for me is i like the ability to see threaded conversations in all folders in one view like in Outlook 2010, but otherwise not very happy. I will continue to use Outlook 2011 when running on my Macbook Air or Outlook 2010 in a VM.

Monday 8-8-2011

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I worked from home today. It was hot out and I was glad not to have to go outside very much. I had calls almost all day and then I worked till after 7PM catching up on mail.

M brought home swordfish to grill. We ended up eating some really good cheese and some bread before just sharing one of the swordfish. I am thinking we may do that again tomorrow. It was that good.

Rain Day

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Today was a lazy Sunday! Well lazy in the fact that we stayed in, but we did do work. We worked on wedding stuff, as well as household stuff. We were originally going to take some engagement photos with the wedding photographer but due to the weather we all agreed to reschedule. It is now going to be after work on Thursday.

We cooked some ravioli for dinner. I find it kind of funny that the stuff we get at the grocery store down the street that can last for like 30 months in the fridge is almost as good as the stuff we get at the fancy grocery store in Grand Central Market. Of course since it is around the same price we can switch between the two but i still find it sort of amusing.

Saturday Visiting Friends

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Today M and I went to visit a college friend of hers upstate. It was a generally low key day. She had 3 small kids and is recovering from some surgery so we just hung out and talked. Then took the kids to the park for a bit. It was a bit muggy out but the park was fun.

M & I were going to buy stuff from Grand Central Market and cook but I was feeling lazy so we went to an Italian place in Grand Central and had Calzones. They were really good.

Wedding Planning Update

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July was a busy month.  We picked a date for the wedding and set the venue.  We are set for January 8th, 2012 at The View on The Hudson.  We are very excited.  The View looks fantastic and the view itself (of the Hudson) was spectacular.

As the month came to a close we also decided on a photographer.  Well actually it is two photographers.  We were very impressed with Shelley & Keith and are excited to see how awsome they make us look!

M is also pretty sure she has found the florist she likes for the wedding.  I say M has done that since officially I don’t want to be associated with a decision on a floristh.  Ok, he does look pretty fantastic so we are excited.  As luck would have it who we are ending up with is someone M has used for years, and if it wasn’t for his website we would never have found the View on the Hudson as a venue.

We also spent some time with Jayson working on engagement photos.  Jayson is over achieving as the best man and took us out to the campus of Vasser College when M & I were visiting for Seth’s birthday party.  We got some great photo’s around the campus.  We may still get photos with our wedding photographer duo since the package we picked included it but the pic’s Jayson took came out fantastic!