<p>My D has been very happy with the Mac laptop she got from Smith. I don’t remember the spread between their price and what we could do locally being as high as $500 though. The “buy it here, get it serviced here” aspect was compelling and has worked out very very very well.</p>
<p>The complexity of move-in is largely dictated by the cost/time/distance ratio of bringing stuff with you versus buying locally. I came armed with a three-page spreadsheet of items and tasks, segregated by type…everything from bedding to cell phone and bank account and refrigerator. (The refrigerators that you can lease from the company that has a flyer in the info packet suck dead fish with a straw, or so I’m told. And they’re relatively expensive to lease. D’s cost about what leasing for two years would run and was a better refrigerator. Though after all that she doesn’t actually use it <em>that</em> much, I don’t think.)</p>
<p>For the image of me going through the checklist over three days, cue Slim Pickens in “Dr. Strangelove.”</p>
<p>Mini, I got your PM’s. I’m holding tight until things become definitive. In the words of the fortune cookie that appeared once upon a time unto Duke in “Doonesbury,” there is great disorder under the heavens and the situation is excellent.</p>