Laptop Divorce

We are a multi-computer family. I suppose, like most families, we just want something a little newer, a little more powerful each year. We own a Compaq Presario 2170 Notebook, a Gateway MX6429 Notebook, and an HP 3120n desktop. The Compaq is being used exclusively as a media converter (more on that later) while the 3120n is pretty much only a media server. Which leaves the Gateway as the workhorse of the family.

I am a very bad computer user. I install a lot of different programs, I traffic a TON of files (media downloaded from the Tivo, nothing illegal...well not recently anyways :) ), and I generally make a mess of things on my PCs by always trying to squeeze more functionality out of a cheaper part. I cleared off the Gateway for the second time in 6 months because I was having problems with so many different applications with overlapping functions, and that act alone was enough to convince my wife to buy the 3120n so I would no longer have to run and serve my media off her primary PC. So now I use the 3120n to serve all of my media files : music, photos, videos and documents. The problem is that my mdeia converter, Tivo Desktop 2.5, doesn't play nice with Vista so I'm forced to use the craptastic Compaq to encode Tivo files.

My wife is your average computer user. Mostly internet, a little word processing, balancing the checkbook and your occasional spreadsheet.

Up until this week, things were pretty good with me just doing internet stuff on the Gateway laptop but lately her barbs have become more and more pointed about me using "her" computer. Finally, I threw out the idea of us buying a desk for the media PC downstairs so I could do my internet stuff on that machine. She said she was thrilled at the idea because that would mean I would no longer have to touch her computer, EVER.

So, I get booted out of her sugar bowl, she's kicking me off her computer, can the bed be far behind? :)

(FYI, this is all in jest - my wife and I love each other very much.)