Giving Thanks for Technology

Here is a lovely list I quickly put together of things for which I am grateful:

I am grateful for my family, for my coworkers, for my job, for the wonderful support and friendship I have with Wil, for the lessons I learn every day, for the close relationship I have with my dad, for the time I get to spend with him in the mornings on the way to work, for my sister's support from California, for close friends, for board games, for email, for the internet, for education, for firesides, for books, for libraries, for hard workers, for sleep, for a warm bed, for warm weather, for pants, for comfy shoes, for funny people, for cell phones, for my mom's cooking, for music, for pianos, for Rachmaninov and Ben Folds (among others), for my ward, for health, for my sight, for toothbrushes and toothpaste, for chocolate, for prayer, for Kota, for ING Direct, for my Grandpa, for blackberries, for all sorts of fruit and fruit juice, for art, and for Natural Ice chapstick!

So on Thanksgiving morning, I dug through hundreds of ads, circling, comparing, and narrowing. Then Uncle Scott and my cousin Jake helped me narrow even more. I came to the conclusion that I should buy a Casio Exilim for $169 (7.2 MP, 3x optical zoom, etc.) and an HP Pavilion Notebook. The CompUSA ad turned out to be misleading. At first I was planning on going in the morning at 5 (no one would go with me), but then I saw that the store was also open from 9-12 that night. It looked like only the things on the front and back page were for sale at those times, so I decided to go scope out the store so I'd be ready for the morning. Unfortunately, actually everything in the ad went on sale at 9 (which would have been easier to wait for than 5 AM), so when dad and I walked in, it was a madhouse and both items were gone within the five minutes it took us to find the computer section. So much for that. I just want a good deal on a basic laptop that I can take with me to wherever I'm going in life!

Luckily, I did find the same deal on the camera on Sears.com and it's on its way. Also, Dad agreed to pitch in on it for a Christmas gift. I'm still looking for the laptop . . . Amazon has something similar, but with less memory.