Addendum

MacMall has made good on its customer support and has sent me a return label for the Lexmark printer. Nice to know there are some companies who actually support their customers. Kudos, MacMall.

Getting bored of the Mac stories yet?

There are more.... The Iomega drive I sent back for replacement arrived yesterday... sigh, this one runs just as hot as the last one.... I give up. It came in a new, sealed box with cords etc. so I know they didn't send me a refurbished one. I installed Snow Leopard this morning.... NO problems!!! However, the POS Lexmark printer no longer works but no surprise there. I still haven't heard back from MacMall. Will call them again on Monday. My husband tried to set it up on his PC and it doesn't do real well there either. It is suppose to have an automatic document feed.... it doesn't work. I think I will donate this as it does not seem to like this household.
I had some good stuff happen as well. A friend came over who is a REAL Mac maven and showed me some tricks. He got my trackpad to work the right way and now I love it. He also told me I could hook up an external (read larger) monitor and use them concurrently! I went out and bought an adapter and it works like a charm. Whooohooo!
In essence, the Mac works real well. The problems were partially ones that I caused because I wanted to use programs I already knew and loved. That is all behind me now and I think this will be a long and happy relationship. THE END.

And so the left hand doesn't know what the right is doing

Saga continues.... I spoke to someone at Lexmark... in India I think and was told that yes, I do need a black cartridge for the printer to work. So I ran out and bought a black cartridge. Guess what? It still didn't work. I made another call to Lexmark and spoke to a very knowledgeable person. I explained what had been tried and SHE asked if she could check out my computer remotely. I said yes. She also said that the printer should work without the black cartridge. So she waved her magic wand and got rid of half the crap the Apple geniuses put on and installed the correct driver. It was now working! That is the good news. The bad news is that when I upgrade to Snow Leopard next week when I get it, it will not work. Because the printer is an older model, Lexmark has opted not to come up with a patch for Snow Leopard. I bought the computer through MacMall so I gave them a call yesterday as well and spoke to the guy who sold me this stuff. At first he told me that I bought the computer before Snow Leopard was issued and therefore the printer was compatible. I explained, very nicely that EVERYONE knew Snow Leopard was about to be issued... it was even mentioned that I could buy it for $9.99 instead of the regular price. He said he would take it up with management. I haven't heard back yet. I don't tweet, but if this goes wrong, I might ask someone to tweet about this. I think someone at these companies listens to that stuff.