28 F 18

The last entry for F and GREAT NEWS to report. I truly LUCKED out and now am the proud owner of a ROARING HP ZedBook. The ZBook ROCKS. I found the place by a convoluted story which I will share most graciously.

Yesterday on my trip out I was cruising looking for little shops in the strip malls of McK for small computer repair shops and was not having much if any luck. So I decided to head to Frye's in Plano to buy a new HP laptop. But first I stopped by the USPS branch in McK to drop off a card to a friend wanting the fastest possible snail mail delivery.

Well, who do I run into but Gail. Local artist, computer wiz, former EDS & retired HP employee but aging quickly. Recall she helped me install photoshop app knock off last summer called gump. Very nice of her to do that. I never used it after that day but thought about it since and it was starting to make sense.

Anyway, we chatted while she waited in line and I disclosed my mission for the day and she KNEW a place to go & check out.

So I axed her where this place was & she spun around like a whirling dervish a couple of times, stopped with a puzzled look before saying she didn’t know & for me to follow her over there. So I did.

When I asked her how she was doing, she said ‘not good.’ Her house burned down 7 Dec around her but she & all of her animals were OK. Animals as in 'rescued horses', dogs and probably cats. I found this sobering & knocking the mood down notch or two.

Anyway, the place she lead me to was an apple joint & mac only HOWEVER this guy pointed me to Rodi’s in Allen. I called on the way over & spoke to Rodi himself, told him I was on my way and he sounded nice enough and when I arrived, what a treat.

Rodi is a Kurd and runs a stellar business. He had just gotten five (5) HP ZBooks lease units from the corporate world. They come to him with the previous owners hard drives removed and he puts in new ones, THEE latest, fastest rockingest beasts imaginable. Loads software, transfers data files and all I can say is wow. As in WOW !!

He wants me to write up a review which I will. The zBook new retails for over $3K but I got it for considerably less and couldn’t be more thrilled. I got more done tonight in an hour than I got done all LAST WEEK on the blasted & broken old thing. I mean the hinges won’t break on this one. They are all metal. I was extremely lucky to find such a place.

Anyway, that’s where I am at.

I was able to gather some intel on a show in Houston today between stops thanks to cellular technology. The Spring art show & festival in the Woodlands has been canceled which is a small set-back but the date for the Fall show is late September. I got a name, person to contact so some good skinny. Enough time to build a HUGE inventory. Mike, my source, gave me ‘good vibes’. Lots & loads of wealthy people that don’t even ask how much something is. If they it, they BUY it. How sweet is that ?

It rained all day here today so when I got home I wanted to work on jewelry. I neglected to mention that while I was waiting for Rodi to finish prepping the machine, I stopped by local bead haven NY6 for some odds & ends and THAT stop turned into a thrill. The lady instructed my how to overcome some HUGE obstacles hanging some of the beads I bought Sunday at the show in Grapevine. The holes go horizontal but the bead MUST HANG vertical. I BEAT THAT problem and am going to be super productive with jewelry this week. Earrings, pendants & necklaces.

Also, another profitable stop, I opened a two-pack of large canvases to use the first one and found the second one underneath had a gaping hole. I made a quick stop at local Michael’s, spoke to the clerk first, then the manager and my choices were a two pack of the same size OR, my exercised option a single larger canvas.

ANY CHANGE ON THE BLIP ?

OK. We scrambled an F-18 Tomcat which arriving on station found nothing. The large gas cloud was the blip. The gas was analyzed, identified and non-threatening. Think of it as a fart in space. No one hears it, it doesn't smell and it it is just there. It just takes a little longer for it to break up in deep space with no winds or air movement.

Now you KNOW the rest of the story…

Bill still out.

See you later in March. I am LOVING this machine ...