caught myself a leopard

I'm blogging from the lobby of a hotel this morning, where the board of the Daniel Academy is gathering for a meeting. It is important that I tell you this up front: I did not pee my pants.

I'm telling you that because it's only you and I who will believe it. Everyone else in the lobby...well, they think I did due to a large stain in an area that any man would prefer not to stain. In my case, it's coffee that spilled while I tried to juggle the steering wheel, a mug and a blackberry...but again, only you and I know that.

The funny thing is that I very well could pee my pants this morning...having installed Leopard last night. Jackson and I went down to the Plaza to stand in line - we were there about 30 minutes early and probably had 400 people in front of us. By the time the store opened, there were that many behind us as well.

The release of Tiger was not that impressive for me - mostly because we were crazy busy in Washington, DC. My copy of Tiger was actually given to me for free by an Apple employee who was afraid that I was going to go postal when they jacked up my iBook for the third time in 3 weeks. That Genius nametag is not much more than a nametag. 'Nuff said. So Tiger was a non event. Leopard, on the other hand....

So far, here are the great things I've discovered (the user's manual is primarily a picture book and I hate manuals anyway.):

iChat Text Messaging: This is great - it's not something I couldn't do otherwise in the past using Bluephone Elite, but I don't even need my phone to do it. This will allow me to pester my team ad nauseum infinitum. I like it. I'm not sure they will.

The New Spotlight: Holy cow. With Coverflow, Stacks and the new Spotlight, if you loose a document you are particularly dense. It's (nearly) dork proof. Ok, watch me lose something.

The install was pretty straightforward for me, although it took a long time. Jackson, on the other hand, had his Mac Book converted to a Pretty White Computer with a Black Screen. He had to go back to the Tiger cage and take another run at it doing a complete wipe and install. Long live the old school G4 Powerbook. It's them metal cases that makes them industrial strength.

Also, thanks to the Wonder Assistant who hauled my computer down to the store a few days ago for them to replace my keyboard. Not only does the down arrow stay in place (and work), the backlighting works on the keys that the boys' baptized in orange juice. I think I've appeased my desire for a new machine for a while...