Jonesing for a Dell Inspiron Mini 9" notebook

 

No, that's not an oversized coffee cup. The Dell Inspiron Mini is 9.13 inches wide, 6.77 inches deep, 1.07 inches thick and weighs 2.28 pounds.

I've spent several months in a financial fetal position and not letting myself get interested in any non-essential consumer items.

But the prospect of decent federal and state income tax refunds, coupled with the wildly optimistic thought that our renter is back on track and will start paying on time set me up for a serious case of the "wants" for the new Dell Inspiron Mini 9" notebook computer.

Actually, I've wanted something like this for years - a notebook computer robust enough and small enough to carry on my motorcycle trips for emailing and blogging.

I started inching in that direction in August, 2004, when I bought a used Palm Treo 300 on Ebay for $70. It had a tiny keyboard but I quickly learned to type with my thumbs and could compose fairly lengthy blogposts with it. I upgraded to a used Treo 600 the next year and blogged from the road riding to and from the BMW MOA National Rally in Burlington, Vt., in July, 2006. Except that several of my posts never made it to my blog. Later that year, I finessed my Sprint credits into a Treo 700p, which has seen lots of use on trips to the Colorado Rockies and last year's ride to the BMW MOA National Rally in Gillette, Wyo., as well as last fall's Return to Shiloh Rally on the Tennessee-Mississippi border.

But as facile as I am at thumb-typing, there's no comparison with the ease of using a real keyboard. While at Gillette, I used the machines in the BMW MOA Internet Cafe for my blogging and email whenever possible. I could also post better photos, since I could upload shots from my Nikon D100 instead of crappy images from my cell phone camera.

We've had a 17" Sony Vaio notebook since June, 2005, but it's too big, too expensive and too fragile to take on motorcycle trips.

I became aware of mini notebooks when I noticed one being sold on one of the home shopping networks a few weeks ago. I was flipping channels and didn't notice the brand but it was somewhere around $400, so I didn't give it much thought.

Then I figured our taxes and discovered we could breathe a little easier. (Yeah, I know the way the Cosmos works. Every time you get a little extra cash, something expensive breaks. In this case, it's our ice storm-ravaged trees that I'm paying a tree service serious bucks to work on tomorrow.) But even with the tree expense and the long-postponed head gasket replacement on the Subaru, I'm feeling less tense about money. And I've been comparison shopping and decided Dell has the best mini for my needs.

Which made me horribly vulnerable for the email from Sam's Club that showed up this morning.

Here's the deal: Sam's Club is offering the Dell Inspiron Mini 9" notebook with a gig of RAM and an 8 gig solid state drive for $245, shipping cost included. Checking the Dell site, I see they've got the same thing marked down to $416.

I think I'd like mine in red. What do you think?