My iBook arrived yesterday! Apple, apparently, had screwed up when they told me they'd shipped the AirPort - they'd actually shipped the computer. And I do mean they'd screwed up - they only charged me for the AirPort.

I got an e-mail yesterday saying they've shipped the iBook.

...I wonder what I'll get?

And what will I do, if they've sent me a second iBook, instead of the AirPort?

So you can guess how much work I got done, after it showed up around 11. I read through all the documentation (most of it stuff I already knew) and then packed up and scooted home around 3.

The new (well, new to me, as they were still on OS 9 when I bought my previous computer) Mac-to-Mac firewire file transfer that they run with the setup program is really neat.

It ran, screen by screen. "1. Connect a firewire cable to both computers." I happen to have a firewire cable, because it came with my iPod a couple of years ago. How much cooler would it have been for them to include a short, standard cable with my iBook, along with the SVGA connector and the phone line?

"2. Reboot the old computer into Firewire Transfer Mode." And it gave explicit, idiot-proof instructions.

"3. Select files to transfer." It showed files in four groups, and (after a minute of calculation) the sizes of each chunk. I left them all selected, even the 12G "Elizabeth Brooks' Files and Folders" group. (That would be the group containing all my MP3s and photos.)

It ran the transfer. For a total of about 14G of stuff, it took around 3 hours. Matt got home just in time to give me a fresh battery for the Powerbook, and the files finished transferring just as Penny was finishing up her dinner.

"4. Disconnect the firewire cable." I am vastly amused that they felt the need to tell me that.

And then the computer finished booting up, and voila! - it was exactly like the Powerbook. It had kept my screen resolution preference, my desktop background, my color preferences, the collection of applications in my Dock, my Startup items... Everything.

I did have to poke at it a bit to convince it to find our network (the AirPort base station I ordered is a replacement, not really a necessity) but that was just a matter of telling the network preferences that I really did want to use the AirPort and not the inbuilt modem.

I'm still working on re-organizing my files. The file transfer thing was really awesome, but I had almost been looking forward to cleaning up and cleaning out all my stuff, so I'm doing that anyway.

But the computer is pretty and shiny (white, instead of black - it matches my iPod!) and while I don't exactly use my home computer for heavy processing, things do seem to run more smoothly. And the monitor is both brighter and more color-intense than the Powerbook's had been; I can see shades on Neopets, for example, that I could only make out before if I already knew they were there, like the glow around ghosts.

So, yeah. All full of new-computer luv.

Will I skip the gym today in order to go home and play? Probably... not. But you can believe I won't be wasting any time chatting on my way out the door!

Don't know how late I'll be staying up tonight to play, though... Last night was rough.

Matt had insomnia. He got up rather than disturb me with his tossing and turning, but I still woke up a few times to note that he wasn't in bed.

Around 2:15, I woke up to note that he'd finally come back to bed, and then Penny started coughing. She never quite woke up, and the coughing wasn't bad - but it went on forever. She would cough once or twice, then fall silent for a couple of minutes, and just as I was on the verge of sleep, she'd cough again. If I'd been asleep when she started it, I probably would've slept through it, but since I was awake... Bleh. She didn't settle back into a deeper sleep until nearly 3:30.

And then at about 4:15, she woke up and started crying. I went in to soothe her back to sleep. She went back under fairly quickly - as soon as I'd pulled her blanket out from under her and handed it to her again.

She woke up again at 5:15. Pretty much the same story, though I also had to scoot her back down the mattress, because she was banging her head against the headboard of the crib.

She didn't stay asleep that time, though. She was awake again at 5:25. I gave up and got up so Matt could get another half-hour's rest.

So it was a less-than-restful night. It's a good thing I don't have anything really demanding to do at work today.

--Liz