2 posts tagged “computers”

I'm sure it's a combination of factors (significant weight loss, aging, happiness quotient, etc) but my taste in clothes has changed quite a bit of the last year or so. It's hard for big girls to find cute clothes, much less really big girls. Starting this spring though I fell into a comfortable shopping routine that revolved mostly around a store called Avenue. I only like about, oh 35% of the stuff they sell, but I really like that 35%. I've gotten several really, really cute peasant style tops, floral skirts, a few blouses and a couple other things there. Turns out I'm kind of hippie chick when it comes to clothes. Who knew? The problem is that soon I'll be too small (such an insane statement, I'm going to be too small for something, insanity I tell you) to shop there. I'm already in the smallest size they carry in both shirts and skirts. I've still got a couple pant sizes to go (thanks hips!) but soon enough even that's going to be an issue. As I said it's a challenge to find cute clothes as a very large woman but if you're a large woman who doesn't really like to shop it's actually liberating in some regards. Basically you have the Misses or Women's Departments in department stores which carry plus size clothes that your grandmother might wear or you have shops that cater only to plus size women like Lane Bryant and Avenue. So if you're like me your shopping consists of going to either Lane Bryant or Avenue and if you're really desperate then maybe both. Now though most of the clothes in those stores are too large for me. This puts me in an uncomfortable situation, namely I have to find new places to buy clothes. B has always been smaller than me so her exceptionally impressive weight loss put her in the "find new clothes stores" position a while ago. So I've now been in to several of the stores I never even glanced at before. B has found J Jill to be her mecca. It's a bit expensive but it's the exact kind of clothes that B loves, it's a match made in clothes heaven. She and I are also liking a small percentage of things at Cold Water Creek (though that store tends to skew toward a more middle aged demographic). So that's two stores to go to but neither have the hippieish-wear I'm digging of late. Now clearly I can't wear flowing hippie skirts and peasant tops all the time so not only do I need a supplier of those things but I also need to find more clothes in general. Suggestions anyone? I guess I'm going to have start looking in department stores and all the other stores in the mall I've never been in before. Seriously, any suggestions would be great, online stores would be good too. Thanks in advance for any help. Also feel free to recommend any young, hip clothes and very cool t-shirts. I need clothes people.

I'm writing this to you from my brand new MacBook. I decided many months ago that my next computer would be a Mac. I'd grown tired of Microsoft products for many. many reasons and wanted to make a switch to Apple products. I'd planned to buy a MacBook a couple months ago but money grew tight so I decided I would wait until the holidays to buy a MacBook. Because I have the very best baby in the world I don't have to wait. I turn 31 on Friday and for my birthday B bought me a MacBook. She gave it to me early because it came early and she couldn't help herself. First impressions:
- Insanely quick and simple setup. I was up and running almost instantly.
- Beautiful packaging and a beautiful machine. The operating system is beautiful as well and everything from applications to websites is much more beautiful than on Windows machines.
- It's going to take some getting used to some of the different things and more importantly I think I'm going to have to buy a book to help me learn some stuff. Normally I just figure things out on my own but some things are very, very different from Windows and I'd like to decrease my learning time as much as possible. Jason recommended The Missing Manual series of books so I think I'll check them out.
- I got an Airport Extreme Base Station. Setting up a new wireless network with including wireless printing from the MacBook and wireless printing from the Dell laptop was entirely painless. It was about 6 million times easier than setting up a wireless network with Windows. It was so easy I'd like to send flowers to the Apple Corporate offices.

I'm buying a MacBook. I've used Windows forever. Naturally, I have some questions. If you've got Mac knowledge and have answers/opinions for these questions please drop it on me.

1. Do I need anti-virus software for my Mac? Do you have it on yours? If so what?

2. Does the iWork suite cut it for you if you really only use Word for basic word processing and Excel for basic spreadsheets? Can you open Office documents easily and can Office users open your iWork files easily?

3. What's the best Mac browser? I use Firefox in Windows.

4. I'm going to have a MacBook & a PC laptop. In your experience is it easy to network the two? I'll be buying the Airport Extreme Base Station.

5. Is Quicken the best financial software for Macs? I've used Quicken forever and would like to continue to do so but I don't know if there is a better option for Macs.

6. Any thoughts on the best, easiest way to transfer my iTunes library over to the new MacBook?

Thanks very much in advance for any answers/opinions you can give me. I'm sure there will be another round of questions coming soon.

Love,
M