Ken got a new laptop last Saturday. He did some online research, narrowed his decision to 2 models and walked over to [1] Future Shop to compare them in person. The Future Shop is somewhat notorious (at least in our family) for being a difficult location in which to attract the attention of sales people but it is within walking distance and it did have the laptops Ken wanted. After waiting to be noticed for 10-15 minutes - remember Ken is 6′2″ - Ken came home. He decided on his laptop and ordered it online with an in-store pick-up. When I went to pick it up
the next day, they’d pulled the wrong computer off the shelf and I had to wait while they retrieved it. Ken was happy to see it but noted that
if only [2] CompuSmart had had one, he’d have bought from them. Strong store loyalty, eh.

As he was showing the laptop to Reid and me, I teased him that I still had lots of stickers from the [3] Emerging Technology conference in San
Diego (remember the [4] San Diego stories?) and also from [5] BlogHer 2007 in Chicago (oh, and the [6] Chicago stories were good, too) and said I wanted to be the first to add a sticker to the shiny case. Ken said that, while he didn’t intend to be using the enclosed polishing cloth to keep the case shiny, he didn’t understand why people feel the urge to put stickers on their laptops. Reid didn’t seem to be paying much attention to the exchange but was busy at her easel. She walked over to Ken’s computer and stuck a purple foam fish onto the case. I guess she listens even when she isn’t looking at us. If you can imagine one the laptops advertised in the [7] Hewlett Packard advertisements “Get your shine on” with a purple foamy on it, that’s what Ken’s new computer looks like.