The aaaargh! of government computer purchasing

My work laptop has been showing signs of impending failure, but I've been procrastinating about requesting a new one. Last week in Denver it gave me yet another scare, so I talked to my supervisor and got permission to go ahead. However, Government Purchasing Is Not A Simple Process in any case, and here is complicated by the fact that I want a Mac (replacing the current one), not the "corporate solution" IBM with Windows XP. ( what I want, Apple price changes, more fun with gov't purchasing )

So I wait. It will take at least 24 hours to get an answer from Finance at Apple, so I'll hold off on my order until I hear back. Meanwhile, I get a message that OpenAFS is not yet compatible with Tiger, so the old laptop will need to hang on for my Web work at least until that gets fixed--the new laptop will ship with Tiger, of course.