We picked my new Macbook up tonight. I was excited and just couldn’t wait a day. So, I rushed home from my acupuncture treatment and immediately hopped into the JackRabbit. Kender deftly drove all the way down to The Mac Store in Clackamas. Thanks to his skill, we got there with a few minutes to spare.

I knew that my friend Ducky transferred to this store awhile ago, but I never figured that I’d be seeing him. But as I pushed open the doors there he was… sitting behind the Support Desk. I pretty much ignored the sales guys (no offense, guys) and walked up to him with a big grin on my face and said, “Gimmeh Macbook!” He smiled back and waved his finger at me in that “I’m on the phone, give me a second” way.

Kender wandered around the store as I waited. He tested out the speakers and played some songs from across the room, just to verify that the speakers in the new lines were, indeed, louder. When he was off the phone, Ducky took my order. We caught up on life, current events, and general geekery. It was good to see him, it’s been awhile. And it felt like old times. Ten years ago, when I first arrived to PDX, he and his store sold me my first 12″ Powerbook. And now… here we are… with him selling me the latest body model for my Smudge.

Once we got home, kender took a few posterity pictures of me and my new beloved. I’ve done the whole “photograph the first unboxing” thing with my first iMac, Sage. But I decided that after owning about 10 different laptop systems, I really didn’t need to do that with this system. It’s not that big of a deal to me… more like this system is just a shiny new body for my existing Smudge.

Instead, we set to work on swapping the 250 gig hard drive that came with the system with my powerhouse 320 gig drive. And now, without further ado, ladies and gentlemen… welcome to the new smudge: shinier, faster and with more memory. And with a backlit keyboard *squees*

Here’s to many more years of use with this new system.