For those of you who saw the title of this blog and thought it would be a post about my wife Heidi, well, that's sweet. And I agree she is a prize.

However, this post is dedicated to my after-midnight adventure last night. We've been computer shopping for about 2 months since I need a laptop for school. I've vacillated between PC and Mac about 10 times, and ultimately decided on PC because I really resonate with the PC guy character on the commercials. He's cooler than people give him credit for.

So with PC's there are a bagillion options of brands, models, specs, etc. and it can be a bit overwhelming. That is, until you find the perfect computer smiling at you from the pages of a WalMart ad.

Meet my perfect computer...http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=9864595. Webcam for talking to my kids while I'm at school, enough ram and memory for my purposes, HD screen, XP operating system so I don't have endless Vista headaches (and nightmares), and all this for $500!

I've been shopping long enough to recognize a steal, so when we saw this WalMart mailer last night at about 11:50 p.m., we called to see how many they had left. They had one.

So I jumped in the car, sped the 15 miles down the freeway and began to dream about all the marriage problems that would be solved once we're no longer sharing one computer (it's only been 4 days since I turned in my work laptop).

I went to electronics and asked the lady where the Dell laptops were and she said "Oooh, did you just call in? We just sold our last one literally 2 minutes ago." The last one! Argh. Back to the computer hunt, back to online browsing, back to asking Heidi "Hey, uh, you done with what you're doing there?"

But then with a stroke of inspiration hit the lady and she said "I could call the one in Salem." Salem is about 35-40 miles from my house. Do it I told her.

They had one, I drove the extra distance down south, grabbed my prize, and snuck in to bed at 2:00 a.m. Some things, like Heidi and good computer deals, are worth sacrificing for.

So if you're in the market for a laptop, get to your nearest WalMart soon. Or furthest.