Thanks for the advice and the sympathy.
I will confess that I have a sort of mental block with Macs. Its an embedded sort of branding/image thing.... I just dont see myself using a Mac. I think I have Mac-o-fobia...
I think Im just going to weather it out until sometime next year, when I hope to get a new T43 or T50 with what will hopefully be a more stable Win OS and Office Suite..... as they say, hope is the last thing one looses...
PS to Scotty-- you better have some solutions for me ready.....