Christmas Presents

Thursday we continued a tradition. Every time we visit Peg's, we also make another visit - to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store to get our Apple laptops repaired.

In this case, it was LK's 16-month old Macbook Pro which made itself more or less a decorative item when the trackpad became insensitive to touch and the cursor would not move. While we were in Vermont, the laptop was repaired and once back in town we went to the mall to pick it up.

At the mall, we pretty much followed our normal routine. First we bought a couple of duffels to take home the stuff LK had bought here in the States. Then, after a brief (but not brief enough) visit to the Pandora shop, LK made what for her amounted to a surprising tactical error. Because she wanted to go to another store to check out fabric colors, she gave me the receipt for her Apple laptop and asked me to pick it up for her.

And that's how I ended up alone in the Apple Store.

Now, given that most of my trips there have been to fix broken Apple products, you might think that would discourage me from buying more. But if you think that way, then you are obviously immune to the power of Apple marketing, for this is a company that has perfected the art of getting you to forget how crappy their stuff is that you've already bought and instead focus on how cool and wonderful is the stuff that you are going to buy next.

Fortunately my Macbook Air was working this time so I was not in the least interested in swapping it for a new one. You cannot play online poker on the iPad, so that is off the wish list, and having to pick up a Macbook Pro that wasn't built to last kind of killed the urge to look at one of those.

But this is the holiday season, and what better time to buy great gifts for that someone special.

So I bought Apple TV for myself. 

Despite its name, this is neither a TV  nor an Apple, but a tiny black hunk of electronics that hooks to your TV. You can buy or rent movies and TV shows from iTunes with it, or use it to wirelessly play stuff on your computer on the bigger screen. So cool and yet under $100!

Now that I was in the spirit of the season, I thought I would do even more shopping for the one I love. This time I bypassed the Apple logo and bought myself an accessory from Jawbone named the Jambox.

No, I have not painted my nails gray. This picture of the Jambox is from Jawbone's website.

And what is that, you ask. Well, it's simply the smallest, best sounding wireless speaker and speakerphone on the planet. Those are the company's words, mind you, but I can confirm they are accurate.

I can confirm it, of course, because I tried it out when we got back to Peg's.  Super small, no wires, enormous sound with great clarity playing the songs from my iPod which is across the room from it.

If I hadn't been so eager to check my new gifts out, I could have looked like a great guy and given them to LK as Christmas gifts, but now they have to go on the list as my gifts to myself.  Watching me open them up and fool around with them, LK obviously thought of the things she had chosen for herself at Tiffany a week ago.

"At least I haven't opened one of the boxes my presents came in," she sniffed.

I suppose she's right, but since I bought them myself it's not like I'm ruining my Christmas morning surprise. Besides, it's that time of year. What kid, no matter how big, wouldn't open up their gifts early if they could get away with it?