*there*

I did it. Most of it, anyway.

After spending a large chunk of my week online and at brick-and-mortar stores, I decided on what I wanted, and we're on our way to getting it.

First, from bestbuy.com -- because it was $25 cheaper for both than anywhere else I could find and because I could save the shipping cost by picking them up at the store --

HP C3180 Printer/Copier/Scanner (http://tinyurl.com/qmra8)

Canon Powershot A530 Digital Camera (http://tinyurl.com/qt3dr)

I'm going to go pick them up on Sunday.

CompUSA had a Viewsonic 19" LCD monitor for $190. That seemed pretty reasonable to me, when all was said and done (since I couldn't find a 17" for much less than that unless I went with a no-name brand), so I'm going to go for that.

I still haven't decided on the flash drive. But I will do some more looking for that when I pick up the other stuff.

The friend whose help I bartered for (I'm making her a lap quilt [g]) will be over on Monday afternoon to help me set up all my new toys.

I haven't done something like this in, well, 13 years. I feel like a kid doing the Christmas Eve thing.

speaking of bartering

The quilt I'm making for my friend the computer geek (it really is a more fair trade than people seem to think) is another Warm Wishes quilt (http://tinyurl.com/nggu8). Only I hand-dyed a color wheel for it. Muted, not bright -- it shades from yellow at one corner through orange, red, purple, and blue to green at the other, twelve gradations in all. The striped blocks are a muted black pattern, and white. It looks very graphic (I finished cutting and sewing the blocks on Wednesday) up on my design wall. But it shouldn't take me long to put it together, considering that it only took me about three weeks to finish the baby quilt in the same pattern.

I'd never dyed a whole color wheel at once before. That was *fun.* I'm glad she gave me the excuse to do it [g].