Vacation

Dallas and I took a much needed, last minute jaunt to Hawaii. He had never been and we were there for 4 days and 4 nights. And although we both tried our hardest to not work, it was inevitable that we checked e-mail and had to make a few phone calls. Nonetheless it was nice to be back on the islands. We are thinking of making it a Thanksgiving tradition. Here's a few pics...I'll post details later (including how on the flight over we reinacted 'Airplane' and the flight attendant asked "Is there a doctor on board?" A first...even for me.

I'm converted

I officially became part of the I-Pod ownership club a few weeks ago. May I just say that if I knew what I had been missing out all along, I wouldn't have taken nearly this long to get one. I got the 30G video version in black. I love it. In fact, I am obsessed with it for several reasons:

1. I grew up on music. It is nostalgic. In fact, tonight as I was driving back from Fresno to Sacramento listening to "Out of Africa" by Toto, I remembered that song being on the "demo tape" that came with our Ford Econoline tan van with 12 seats when I was a kid. Previously we had only had radio, so a tape player was a big deal. Dallas is not in love with music like this and there is probably something to be said for sitting in silence and thinking. However, I remember that when Alan and I broke up, Ryan made a CD for me that represented exactly how I felt. It was perfect. Sometimes music can say what we can't.

2. For as much as I travel, it gives one some feeling of being "home" with your own music. The radio converter travels with me and it has been amazing. When you are playing certain songs in certain parts of the country, they sound better. Juice can probably explain this.

3. Podcasts. I've been subscribing to everything ... "60 second Science" ,"Harvard Business Review", "Podrunner -- Music for Spinning, Running, Etc", "Nova", "Live Stand Up Comedy Hour", etc. They are free. I love them.

I have a soundtrack for my life and I love it. If you don't have one yet -- get one.

Back From The Dead

Wow. I can't believe it's been this long. Suffice it to say that I have been working about 80 hours a week for the past month and visiting half the states in the union. Okay, maybe that's a bit of an exxageration, but that's what it feels like. I'm home now for 10 days and I find myself excited to vacumn and dust and eat my own food. Dallas has been travelling for work to and our relationship has basically just "existed" with phone calls. Glad that part is over. Although I wonder if my married friends can comment here on if their life sometimes feels like that even living in the same house.

I was in California for less than 15 hours and found time to sneak away and go to the Pumpkin Patch with Lucas. Here he is with his mom Suzi above. That kid is 3 1/2 going on 25. I feel a little bit sad when I listen to him and wonder if he's missing out on his childhood. On the other hand, it is hilarous to hear him correct his mother's speech. Interesting note on that story, I was in PA and scheduled to fly home to UT but Dallas was stuck in Idaho and there wasn't anything else going on, so I changed my flight to fly from Philly to LA to Sacramento. FYI -- the direct flight from Philly to LA is 6 hours and 10 minutes. I flew Southwest....ewwwww The only good thing was there were only about 25 people on the plane. The bad thing was that i got stuck sitting across from a guy who decided to take his shoes and socks off for the flight. Gross. Just a word on airline etiquette -- Shoes stay on. Socks stay on. I know security makes everyone take them off and that's foul enough. Seriously people.

Patience....

This is my wildflower garden...Dallas rigged the homeowners association sprinkler system :) and ran two extra sprinklers up the mountain to water the seeds. The first time we planted, all the birds ate the seed in a matter of about 3 days. We did it again and I would go outside every day to see if there were flowers. I have no patience. This is not a revelation...

After a few weeks I had given up. There was nothing. And then, I went away for a few weeks. When I came home, this had appeared. Patience. I need more of it.

Just when you think you've seen everything...

I flew from Lancaster PA to Pittsburgh PA to Las Vegas tonight. The flight from Lancaster to Pittsburgh was on a 19 seat prop plane. For as much as I fly, I've never been on a plane this small. The co-pilot did the safety speech and there was no door to the cockpit. And although the plane seated 19, there were only 4 passengers. Curiosity combined with paranoia made me pay attention to what was happening in the cockpit. As we started to descend, there was a light above the instruments, on the "dashboard", that lit up along with an alarm that went off....and the co-pilot SMACKED THE DASH like I used to smack my alarm clock in college to turn it off. Seriously...is this what pilots are doing in the cockpit all the time???

And one more thing...for all the terrorist activites that seem to litter the news lately and the extra security, how am I able to take these pictures with my camera and not have anyone think I am "suspicious'??? I know it's not a jumbo jet here, but it took 4 people nearly ONE HOUR to get screened at this airport that looked like a WWII bunker and then I'm snapping photos on the tarmac and in the cockpit. Just makes you wonder...

The 36 hour weekend

My travel schedule has been ridculous. I was home for 36 hours before I left this morning (Sunday) to fly back east. We did find time, however, to play 18 holes of golf at this course -- rated #3 in the entire state of Utah. They don't let you walk becuase the course covers over 4 miles. Both Dallas and I had some great drives. I really wish we could get out more -- pretty soon this course will be covered with snow. Again, we need a vaction.

A note about vacations. There is an unwritten rule at my firm that you don't take vacations. It takes weeks to catch up. Some of our clients need 24 hour accesibility. Your e-mail inbox fills up with thousands of messages. It's not worth it. A collegue of mine, who has worked for our firm for 2 years less than I have called yesterday to say that he is taking 10 days off to visit Hong Kong and China. I can't decide if I'm angrier that he is going or that I didn't have enough guts to do it first.

One more thing..
I can't believe Ryan hasn't commented on the article below yet.

Forbes has pissed off women everywhere....

This article was posted on Forbes.com and has subsequently been taken off by their editors. However, there are enough bloggers who caught it, and pasted it. I'm posting it here. The slideshow text is listed first, without the pictures. The article follows...Geez. Who let's people write this crap?

Nine Reasons to Steer Clear of Career Women: Slideshow

1. You are less likely to get married to her.
So say Lee A. Lillard and Linda J. Waite of the University of Michigan's Michigan Retirement Research Center. In a paper, "Marriage, Divorce and the Work and Earnings Careers of Spouses", published in April, 2000, they found that for white women, higher earnings, more hours of employment and higher wages while single all reduce the chances of marriage. "This suggests that (1) success in the labor market makes it harder for women to make a marital match, (2) women with relatively high wages and earnings search less intensively for a match, or (3) successful women have higher standards for an acceptable match than women who work less and earn less." Some research suggests the opposite is true for black women.

Source: "Marriage, Divorce and the Work and Earnings Careers of Spouses," Lee A. Lillard, Linda J. Waite, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center, Working Papers, April, 2000.

2. If you do marry, you are more likely to get divorced.
In 2004, John H. Johnson examined data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation and concluded that gender has a significant influence on the relationship between work hours and increases in the probability of divorce. Women's work hours consistently increase divorce, whereas increases in men's work hours often have no statistical effect. "I also find that the incidence in divorce is far higher in couples where both spouses are working than in couples where only one spouse is employed," Johnson said. A few other studies, which have focused on employment (as opposed to working hours) have concluded that working outside the home actually increases marital stability, at least when the marriage is a happy one. But even in these studies, wives' employment does correlate positively to divorce rates, when the marriage is of "low marital quality."

Sources: "A Treatise On The Family," Gary S. Becker, Harvard University Press, 1981; "Do Long Work Hours Contribute To Divorce?" John H. Johnson, Topics in Economic Analysis and Policy, 2004; "Wives' Employment and Spouses' Marital Happiness," Robert Schoen, Stacy J. Rogers, Paul R. Amato, Journal of Family Issues, April 2006.

3. She is more likely to cheat on you.
According to a wide-ranging review of the published literature, highly educated people are more likely to have had extra-marital sex (those with graduate degrees are 1.75 more likely to have cheated than those with high school diplomas.) One April, 2005 study, by Adrian J. Blow for the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy summed it up: "If a woman has more education than her partner, she is more likely to have a sexual relationship outside of her primary relationship; if her husband has more education, she is less likely to engage in infidelity." Additionally individuals who earn more than $30,000 a year are more likely to cheat. "In a more general sense, it appears that employment has significantly influenced infidelity over the years," Blow said. "The work environment provides a host of potential partners, and individuals frequently find themselves spending a great deal of time with these individuals."

Source: "Infidelity in Committed Relationships II: A Substantive Review," Adrian J. Blow, Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, April 2005.

4. You are much less likely to have kids.
According to the National Marriage Project, the incidence of childlessness is growing across the socioeconomic scale. In 2004, 20% of women over 40 remained childless. Thirty years ago that figure was 10%. But the problem--and it is a problem because the vast majority of women desire children--is much more extreme for career women. According to Sylvia Ann Hewlett, an economist and the author of Creating a Life: Professional Women and the Quest for Children, only 51% of ultra-achieving women (those earning more than $100,000 a year) have had children by age 40. Among comparable men, the figure was 81%. A third of less successful working women (earning either $55,000 or $65,000) were also childless at age 40.

Sources: The State of Our Unions 2006: Life Without Children, The National Marriage Project, July 2006. Creating a Life: Professional Women and the Quest for Children, Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Miramax Books, 2002.

5. If you do have kids, your wife is more likely to be unhappy.
A 2003 study published in the Journal of Marriage and Family concluded that wealthier couples with children suffer a drop in marital satisfaction three times as great as their less affluent peers. One of the study's co-authors publicly speculated that the reason is that wealthier women are used to "a professional life, a fun, active, entertaining life."

Sources: "Parenthood and Martial Satisfaction: A Meta-Analytic Review," Jean M. Twenge, W. Keith Campbell, and Craig A. Foster, Journal of Marriage and Family, 2003; "Money doesn't mean happy parenting," USA Today, July 21, 2003.

6. Your house will be dirtier.
In 2005, two University of Michigan scientists concluded that if your wife has a job earning more than $15 an hour (roughly $30,000 a year), she will do 1.9 hours less housework a week. Of course, this can be solved if the husband picks up a broom.

Source: "Data Quality of Housework Hours in the Panel Study of Income Dynamics: Who Really Does The Dishes?", Alexandra C. Achen and Frank P. Stafford, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, September 2005.

7. You'll be unhappy if she makes more than you.
You aren't going to like it if she makes more than you do: "Married men's well-being is significantly lower when married women's proportional contributions to the total family income are increased."

Source: "Changes in Wives' Income: Effects on Marital Happiness, Psychological Well-Being, and the Risk of Divorce," Stacy J. Rogers, Danelle D. DeBoer, Journal of Marriage and Family, May 2001.

8. She will be unhappy if she makes more than you.
According to the authors of a controversial 2006 study: "American wives, even wives who hold more feminist views about working women and the division of household tasks, are typically happier when their husband earns 68% or more of the household income." Reason? "Husbands who are successful breadwinners probably give their wives the opportunity to make more choices about work and family--e.g., working part-time, staying home, or pursuing a meaningful but not particularly remunerative job."

Sources: What's Love Got To Do With It? W. Bradford Wilcox, Steven L. Nock, Social Forces, March, 2006; www.happiestwives.org.

9. You are more likely to fall ill.
A 2001 study found that having a wife who works less than 40 hours a week has no impact on your health, but having a wife who works more than 40 hours a week has "substantial, statistically significant, negative effects on changes in her husband's health over that time span." The author of another study summarizes that "wives working longer hours not do not have adequate time to monitor their husband's health and healthy behavior, to manage their husband's emotional well-being or buffer his workplace stress."

Sources: "It's About Time and Gender: Spousal Employment and Health," Ross M. Stolzenberg, American Journal of Sociology, July, 2001; "Marriage, Divorce and the Work and Earnings Careers of Spouses," Lee A. Lillard, Linda J. Waite, University of Michigan, Michigan Retirement Research Center, Working Papers, April, 2000.




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Don't Marry Career Women, by Michael Noer, Forbes Magazine.
Don't Marry Career Women
Michael Noer 08.22.06, 6:00 AM ET

Guys: A word of advice. Marry pretty women or ugly ones. Short ones or tall ones. Blondes or brunettes. Just, whatever you do, don't marry a woman with a career.

Why? Because if many social scientists are to be believed, you run a higher risk of having a rocky marriage. While everyone knows that marriage can be stressful, recent studies have found professional women are more likely to get divorced, more likely to cheat, less likely to have children, and, if they do have kids, they are more likely to be unhappy about it. A recent study in Social Forces, a research journal, found that women--even those with a "feminist" outlook--are happier when their husband is the primary breadwinner.

Not a happy conclusion, especially given that many men, particularly successful men, are attracted to women with similar goals and aspirations. And why not? After all, your typical career girl is well-educated, ambitious, informed and engaged. All seemingly good things, right? Sure... at least until you get married. Then, to put it bluntly, the more successful she is the more likely she is to grow dissatisfied with you. Sound familiar?

Many factors contribute to a stable marriage, including the marital status of your spouse's parents (folks with divorced parents are significantly more likely to get divorced themselves), age at first marriage, race, religious beliefs and socio-economic status. And, of course, many working women are indeed happily and fruitfully married--it's just that they are less likely to be so than non-working women. And that, statistically speaking, is the rub.

To be clear, we're not talking about a high-school dropout minding a cash register. For our purposes, a "career girl" has a university-level (or higher) education, works more than 35 hours a week outside the home and makes more than $30,000 a year.

If a host of studies are to be believed, marrying these women is asking for trouble. If they quit their jobs and stay home with the kids, they will be unhappy ( Journal of Marriage and Family, 2003). They will be unhappy if they make more money than you do ( Social Forces, 2006). You will be unhappy if they make more money than you do ( Journal of Marriage and Family, 2001). You will be more likely to fall ill ( American Journal of Sociology). Even your house will be dirtier ( Institute for Social Research).

Why? Well, despite the fact that the link between work, women and divorce rates is complex and controversial, much of the reasoning is based on a lot of economic theory and a bit of common sense. In classic economics, a marriage is, at least in part, an exercise in labor specialization. Traditionally men have tended to do "market" or paid work outside the home and women have tended to do "non-market" or household work, including raising children. All of the work must get done by somebody, and this pairing, regardless of who is in the home and who is outside the home, accomplishes that goal. Nobel laureate Gary S. Becker argued that when the labor specialization in a marriage decreases--if, for example, both spouses have careers--the overall value of the marriage is lower for both partners because less of the total needed work is getting done, making life harder for both partners and divorce more likely. And, indeed, empirical studies have concluded just that.

In 2004, John H. Johnson examined data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation and concluded that gender has a significant influence on the relationship between work hours and increases in the probability of divorce. Women's work hours consistently increase divorce, whereas increases in men's work hours often have no statistical effect. "I also find that the incidence in divorce is far higher in couples where both spouses are working than in couples where only one spouse is employed," Johnson says. A few other studies, which have focused on employment (as opposed to working hours) have concluded that working outside the home actually increases marital stability, at least when the marriage is a happy one. But even in these studies, wives' employment does correlate positively to divorce rates, when the marriage is of "low marital quality."

The other reason a career can hurt a marriage will be obvious to anyone who has seen their mate run off with a co-worker: When your spouse works outside the home, chances increase they'll meet someone they like more than you. "The work environment provides a host of potential partners," researcher Adrian J. Blow reported in the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, "and individuals frequently find themselves spending a great deal of time with these individuals."

There's more: According to a wide-ranging review of the published literature, highly educated people are more likely to have had extra-marital sex (those with graduate degrees are 1.75 more likely to have cheated than those with high school diplomas.) Additionally, individuals who earn more than $30,000 a year are more likely to cheat.

And if the cheating leads to divorce, you're really in trouble. Divorce has been positively correlated with higher rates of alcoholism, clinical depression and suicide. Other studies have associated divorce with increased rates of cancer, stroke, and sexually-transmitted disease. Plus divorce is financially devastating. According to one recent study on "Marriage and Divorce's Impact on Wealth," published in The Journal of Sociology, divorced people see their overall net worth drop an average of 77%.

So why not just stay single? Because, academically speaking, a solid marriage has a host of benefits beyond just individual "happiness." There are broader social and health implications as well. According to a 2004 paper entitled "What Do Social Scientists Know About the Benefits of Marriage?" marriage is positively associated with "better outcomes for children under most circumstances," higher earnings for adult men, and "being married and being in a satisfying marriage are positively associated with health and negatively associated with mortality." In other words, a good marriage is associated with a higher income, a longer, healthier life and better-adjusted kids.

A word of caution, though: As with any social scientific study, it's important not to confuse correlation with causation. In other words, just because married folks are healthier than single people, it doesn't mean that marriage is causing the health gains. It could just be that healthier people are more likely to be married.

You cannot be serious...

Dallas joined me for two days in Vegas. I was meeting a new client, which basically consists of 14 hours of observation and meetings each day. Long days. It was nice to have someone to "come home to" at the hotel. I think he enjoyed a few days of relaxation at the Hilton Grand Vacations Club. We've decided we need a real vacation. We take pseudo vacations like this one and kid ourselves.

So last night we went to Caesars Palaces, to walk the forum shops and find something to eat. Dallas was in the mood for italian, which he never is (he believes pasta is a side-dish, not a meal) for the second night in a row. So off we went to find one. Caesars. Rome. Italian Food. How could we go wrong?

Well we did. We found the only italian restaurant that did not have parmesan cheese. Seriously. We both ordered pasta and when we asked for cheese, they did not have any. Sadly, this is not the first time this has happened. One late night driving from Southern to Northern CA we stopped at a KFC to order chicken sandwiches. The conversation at the drive through basically went like this:

Me: We'd like two grilled chicken sandwich combos with lemonade and a diet coke.

Drive Through Operator: I'm sorry -- we don't have any chicken.

Me: Come again? You don't have any chicken. Are you serious?

DTO: Yes. We ran out. And it will take us at least 30 minutes until we will have some more.

We drove off. Once we visited our favorite burger joint in Burley. Sort of like In-N-Out in a small town with a lot better food. They only have burgers, fries, and drinks on the menu. We showed up, craving them....and they were out of burgers. They offered to make us a grilled cheese.

Good Times...Good Friends

Wow...I'm behind. Is there a requirement for how many posts you have to make? I read other blogs where there are multiple posts per day, and then others where there are weeks that go by without posts. Ah, who cares. It's my blog.

Great weekend. Spent Friday night at the fair with Ryan and Jen. Jen is early in her pregnancy and couldn't take full advantage of the food gluttony and ridiculous rides. We rode two. First off, the ferris wheel which scared the crap out of everyone. And second, a ride whose name is easily forgotten. What is not forgotten is the feeling of sitting between Ryan and Dallas, laughing and screaming as we were inverted and spinning about 150 feet above the ground, with the only thing holding us in being a few metal cage bars. Dude. Ryan is the best fair guide. He could put "Fair Consultant" on his business card. A+. Good times dude.

Saturday was a veg-out day. More good food, naps, and movies. Sunday we scalped some great tickets to Giants v. Dodgers. Great seats, again, more great food including Clam Chowder in a sourdough bowl, polish dogs, garlic fries, and ghiradelli chocolate ice cream sundaes. Seriously -- we ate all that. Whoa.

Got to see Mom, Dad, Janean, Tyler, Tom, Suzi and Lucas. Lucas is a three year old in a 25 year old's body. He mowed the lawn and did his own guitar rendition of "Dirty Little Secret." Seriously. That kid is too old and smart for his own good.

The same discussion...

So...Dallas and I have been dating a while...it will be two years in December. He is 43 and I am 29. It works for us. Rather than spend an entire blog discussing that, I'll simply post that we had the same frustrating arguement last night that we have over and over. We discuss marriage and it never quite turns out the way I wish it would. Ryan will probably post a comment here about how I seem to attract men of this nature. Who knows. I'm searching for the answer and I don't have it.

Return to Racing

I'm so back. I know I haven't blogged for a while but I was stuck on a two week hellacious road trip. However, I'm back. And in more ways than one. I returned to racing triathlon after more than a year this weekend at the SPUDMAN in Burley, ID. They have touted this race as "Home of the World's Fastest Swim Course" and they weren't lying. It's downstream. It's PR heaven. Even with the adapted training schedule (a.k.a. trying to train while living in hotel gyms) I had a PR. In track, when the wind is at your back it's called a "wind aided" time. This was a "swim aided" time for sure, but I still finished feeling strong in under 3 hours. I love the feeling at the finish. I remembered how much I love racing. And this is a race that Juice would love. Everyone attends the pre-race pasta feed (which felt a little like a church activity :)), it's less than $50 AND all proceeds go to the local lions club (who was supporting a triathlete who had been hit by a car and is now paralyzed) and there were more people there for the love of the sport than anything else. I'm back next year. And all of you reading this should put it on your calendar to sign up in early 2007. This race sells out in a matter of weeks.

Few and Far Between

Occasionally, there is some perks to travelling to places for work. Last night was one of them...took a 2 1/2 hour sail on a client's restored 80 ft. sailboat on Lake Ontario. Saw the sunset over Toronto and wasn't the one who got sick. All in all, a good day.

The Truth About Business Travel

Business travel is not glamorous. Everyone who doesn't travel for business thinks it "would be fun." Everyone who travels for business knows otherwise. I returned home Friday night only to leave early Monday morning for a 10 day journey. It is going to be LONG. I'm going to New York (both the city and upstate), Florida, and Montana. All are "destination" spots for many people for vacation this time of year. (Yes -- people love Montana - yellowstone, grand tetons, etc.) However, the only destination I'm currently interested in is H-O-M-E. I wish Dallas could have joined me on this trip. His first trip to NYC was with me in the above pic. So rather than complain anymore, here is my solution: I should "audition" my friends and family members to come with me, they could "sign up" like you did for the school play tryouts. Then I could pick who would be the most fun in a certain destination. Dad would certainly not sign up for Florida. Michelle would certainly sign up for NYC. So would Gram, but Michelle would win. Mom would like upstate New York. So start commenting and signing up folks. It's up for grabs.

Just how many miles do you need?

This is where I should have stayed last night -- the airport hotel. I didn't. I stayed an hour away and tried to get to a 7:15 am flight. Didn't happen. America West couldn't find another flight for me until tomorrow (they are, as my sister calls them, America Worst -- especially after the merger FYI). So I had to go through a variety of different airlines on which I have miles and find a flight home. Southwest -- nothing. Northwest -- nothing. United -- nothing. Delta was finally able to find me a flight for 50,000 skymiles to get me home by 8:30 pm tonight. Ah well at least I had the miles. Dallas is always saying I should save them...but I don't know what for. Maybe he has a secret getaway planned...

Ski Slope Way

I've done it...my reminiscing inspired me. I've registered for the Tahoe Sierra Century this year. I was looking through pictures and found this one. Oh Sh#$...I forgot about Ski Slope Way. Ryan -- meet me there DUDE. This IS it.

Hotel Workout Rooms

I've raced in more triathlons then I can count. I've raced all distances, including a full ironman, the real deal. Then, when i started working for this firm and becoming close personal acquaitances with hotel and car rental employees, I stopped training like I used to. I finally got tired of not being the "lean mean fighting machine" I used to be, got a tri coach, and am back on track to race a few races this year. My next one is in 3 weeks. I also should mention, that prior to that, I will be on the road for nearly 2 1/2 of those weeks. This means one thing...hotel gyms. Quite frankly, I think they are who is to be blamed for me getting out of shape in the first place. They are a personal version of hell. They shouldn't be called gyms. They suck. They make you hate working out. Tonight I went to the hotel gym and ran/biked (if you can call it either of those) and didn't feel any better afterwards. I hate that. I miss the American River Bike Trail, swimming at Lake Natoma, and the 2-3 years that about 10 of us spent racing/training/playing together. The picture above was taken the first time we did the Tahoe Sierra Century. I almost cried when I found this picture -- I miss it a lot.

Beefcake Doctors and Philadelphia Airport

OK -- I'm finally breaking down and writing a blog. Ryan has inspired me. I figure that he works just as many hours, if not more, as I do and he still manages to keep it together, write a blog, and post ridiculous pictures of me.

I'm sitting in Philadelphia waiting for a plane to Pittsburgh to drive another 90 minutes to see another client. This is a hellacious travel month.

I was visiting a client who is opening a multi-million dollar practice. He is the only client I have that is younger than me -- and single. See above photo. We were in the middle of our meeting, my computer plugged into my projector, and he sat his chair on top of the powercord for my computer. Sparks flew...and the screen went blank. It was DEAD. Given the fact that I had 4 remaining presentations this week, I had no choice but to visit Circuit City and purchase a new computer. Oh joy -- spending money on elecrtonic equipment for work. This is the third laptop I have purchased in less than two years. The first, stolen out of my Xterra at the Zin Grille in Sacramento. The second, an identical replacement. Both of these were Dell. I know HATE Dell. I considered starting a blog solely on this topic, but there are many people ahead of me with that idea. I attempted to contact their customer service when the computer died and all they did was give me the Indian runaround. What a joke. So now it's all about HP.

And just in case you were wondering...beefcake doctors sitting on power cords is not covered under any type of extended warranty.