Gucci, Prada and Microsoft

Now what do Gucci, Prada and Microsoft have in common?  Well, actually a bit.  They share space at the Fashion Square Mall in Scottsdale.  They’re neighbors.

Terry and I were on a mission.  The mission took us to the Fashion Square Mall in Scottsdale. Ever been there?  Well, we hadn’t been.  We entered through Nordstroms. The Nordstroms at this mall isn't quite like any other Nordstroms that we’d been to.  The store had a reputation to keep especially since it was in the glitzy area of Scottsdale and right next to Prada, Burberry, Louis Vuitton and even the Microsoft Store.  This mall had them all.

Our mission took us to the Microsoft store but we still had fun window shopping at the other stores and looking totally out of place peeking in at Gucci merchandise.  However, I have owned a Gucci purse before.  Yes!  I have but I didn’t buy it direct from Gucci.  It took a little detour to get to me.  The detour was via Goodwill when I found it while looking for bargains to put on EBay a few years back.  The little sorters had let the purse slip by.  My $5 purchase brought me $75 for the older and scuffed up Gucci bag.  That’s about the only treasure I found there.  The Goodwill sorters do a pretty good job of taking expensive items out of the normal inventory.    Then, the items are put in glass cases and the price is jacked up after that.  

However, we really didn't go to the mall to visit any of the other stores.  We went to the mall to visit the Microsoft Store!  I bet you already figured that one out.

About a month ago I bought an Acer Windows 8 tablet.  The tablet was even more than I hoped it would be.  There was no need to lug along a computer on my trip to Portland or to Norfolk.  Instead, the Acer went with me.  It was perfect  ….   except I soon discovered the 8” screen wasn’t quite as perfect as I originally thought it would be.  The screen was great for watching movies, reading and playing games but not so much for writing a blog, updating spreadsheets or cruising the internet.  It was just too small. 

I was fretting about this while Terry was drooling over the possibility that he might become the new owner of the little Acer.  However, you know I wouldn’t have given away the tablet without first replacing it with something else.  You know that … and that’s what I did.  I replaced it with another Windows 8 tablet but this time it had a 10.6” screen and was the Microsoft Surface Pro. 

Now I bet you’re thinking that’s why we wanted to visit the Microsoft Store.  That wasn’t it.  It was to buy the missing pen for the tablet.  My new-to-me Surface Pro was a nifty Craigslist purchase for the nearly new tablet but the pen wasn't in the box.

The 2 1/2” screen difference wasn’t the only difference between the two tablets.  To begin with the Acer has an Intel Atom CPU and 2gb of ram while the Surface has an Intel i5 CPU with 4gb of ram.  Unlike the Surface RT either of these tablets can virtually run anything on them that a full-sized laptop can.  That’s the beauty of having a tablet with Windows 8.1 on it.  The Surface Pro at 128gb also has a larger internal hard drive plus utilizes a magnetic pen that can draw and write notes directly on the screen … amazing!   I love new gadgets and gizmos.  Now if my ailing laptop does bite the dust, it won’t matter so much.  There is always a downsize.  The downsize is that the Surface Pro is a little bigger and a little heavier and won't fit in my purse .... oh well, only time will tell how that works out.

And, yes, Terry’s tickled pink to give up his iPad and listen to his books on the new-to-him Acer.  Soon we'll be putting iTunes to rest as the only gadget using that program now is my iPhone. We've found a new owner for the iPad.  My new tablet also replaces my Nook tablet as a reader so we'll eventually be passing that along too.  Is that what everyone means by downsizing?

The temperatures in the Phoenix area have taken a big dip.  The nighttime lows are reaching into the 30's and even the daytime temperatures aren't as warm as we would like.  We know Christmas is just around the corner but we still want to be able to venture outside without a jacket .

‘Tis life on the road.

Good things do not come easy.  The road is lined with pitfalls.