I am in love.

For the last several weeks, I have had strong feelings for someone that isn't my husband. I can't get enough of her.

Yes, I said "her." Her name is Belle, and she's absolutely breathtaking.

Worst thing is, my husband introduced me to her.

Belle is our family's new MacBook Pro, purchased by my loving spouse in an effort to make my life easier. Don't let him fool you, though. He gets to play with the new toy, too. But for now, she and I are inseparable.

("Belle?" you ask. All of our home machines are named after Disney characters: Belle, Tink, Eve, Mickey, Minnie. With the exception of the printer, Stumpy. It was the most appropriately dwarf-like name we could come up with at the time.)

Technology and I have a love/hate relationship. I love it — most of the time — but it seems to hate me. I swear I have this bizarre ability to stop technology and all-things electrical in their tracks with my very presence. I called the insurance company the other day, and the kind customer service representative told me her computer was down. I purchased something at Follett's bookstore on campus, and the cashier told me her register was malfunctioning.

I even destroy things third-hand: I tried to order a pair of sunglasses for my husband through the eye doctor's office and the optician told me the company representative couldn't help because the entire computer system at the company's warehouse was down, had been for hours, and no one knew when it would be up.

I can't tell you how many times I have asked a question of my news editor or IT guy following a machine meltdown, only to have the problem disappear when he shows up to fix it.

It's frustrating, but Belle is easing my troubles.

Science and technology seem to be all over the Sunday comics today, so here are my favorites:

• Baby Blues. I am ashamed of my old-school phone. I so desperately want to be cool like Wanda MacPherson and own a smart phone. I have phone envy of a cartoon character. That's sad.
   
• Frank & Ernest. I feel this way about other people sometimes, too.
   
• Dilbert. One of the first things they teach you at journalism school is always ask the obvious questions. Here's why.
   
• Non Sequitur. People have about 70,000 thoughts a day, huh? I say, that's all?!
   
• Get Fuzzy. Satchel gets philosophical, and Bucky provides the laughs.
   
• The Middletons. Twitter and Spacebook make me angry enough sometimes. I cannot image what it would do to my parents, let alone my 81-year-old grandmother who is perfectly happy with her 15-year-old television that has a dark spot the size of a softball on it.
   
• Red and Rover. I've been involved in an atmospheric sciences class lately. Weather is not only interesting, it's defining, in a lot of ways, to who Midwesterners are and how they live their lives. No one ever mentions cotton balls, though.