Time for an upgrade. Steve Jobs said so.

Oh Steve Jobs, you know me so well. Just as I was settling in with the notion of keeping my 4.5-year-old PowerBook for a while, you sprung a shiny new MacBook on me. I watched last week’s keynote with the hopeful expectation of seeing a sexy new aluminum 13″ wonder, and you didn’t let me down. It’s as if you pulled back the curtain on the next two months of my life and said, “Allen, take a peek at your future. It’s a MacBook.”

Curse you, Steve Jobs. I love you so.

Actually, I DO love the new MacBook. It’s gorgeous. I denied my true feelings for at least two days last week, telling people, “Yeah, it’s nice. But I have other things to worry about now. With a baby on the way, it’s not even on the list of things I need to take care of.” Then, I did what any reasonable geeky dad would do. I made a new list.

I am blessed with an avenue for freelance magazine writing that helps support my gadget problem. My wife is awesome about this. She stomachs my desire for sweet geeky goodness, as long as it does not impact our household operating budget and doesn’t get in the way of our goals. Fair enough. That just means that, in times when I need a new MacBook, I have to create the income. Man, I love freelance.

After the MacBook glow became too blinding last week, I contacted my freelance editor in Atlanta. I pitched seven different magazine articles. She contracted me for five of those. That means that over the next few weekends, I’m going to write one 1600-word article, three 1200-word articles, and 15 daily devotions. No problem.

I actually got enough in contracts that I’ll be able to replace my wife’s awful laptop, too. We call it the “craptop” for good reason. Of course, that just means that I’ll have to start shopping around for a Windows machine again for the first time in a long while. I think I can take it. That could spawn a series of blog posts all on its own.

So, dear readers, the blog posts may become intermitten over the next several weeks. If you miss me, just bow and say a quick prayer, knowing that I’m burning the midnight oil writing material that actual generates an income. Blogging is fun, but it won’t put me in a new MacBook. Yet.