The following is a brief recap of the dumbest thing I've ever done with a computer. Keep in mind, this is also coming from the same person who accidentally set a SyQuest EZ135 drive on fire in 1995 by hooking it to a Windows laptop and running the "Find New Hardware" command (the smoke was interesting and somehow, SyQuest replaced the unit).

About a week and a half ago, I was sitting at my kitchen table, working out my taxes on my MacBook while setting up a black PowerBook G3 to be sent to my grandmother as her first computer. Simple enough and if you can make it easy enough to understand, you might not be inundated by calls from a person who'll probably love you unconditionally but is confused by her e-mail.

With the receipts almost in order and tallied up under Quicken, I grabbed a Corona from the fridge, took a sip, placed it on the table and kept working.

That's when the phone rang. Moving with all the grace of a Muppet having a seizure, I managed to trip over the PowerBook's power cord and knock half the Corona onto the MacBook's keyboard.

My brain went into panic mode at this point and, grabbing every paper towel and napkin I could find, I began to try to simultaneously shut the MacBook down and dry the liquid from the keyboard as well as the bottom of the laptop. Somewhere towards the end of this, I decided to leave the MacBook out to dry for a few days and hope for the best.

When I finally turned it on three days later, everything came up normally. Upon trying to type, the space bar became stuck.

The space bar's kind of necessary.

Biting the bullet, I walked into the Apple Store, waited for an open slot at the Genius Bar, admitted I was an idiot and handed it over. The guy behind the counter took the MacBook, plugged it in, confirmed the space bar issue and then proceeded to outline Apple's US$755 flat rate bill for spill-related damage. A few signatures later and the notebook went into the back with the promise of being shipped off for repairs.

It's times like this where you sort of have to admit you screwed up royally and aren't in a position to judge anyone by their actions. When one of my clients called last autumn to tell me he'd accidentally let his iPhone take a Gatorade bath in his gym bag, I didn't know what to say, much less tell him to do. Apple's covered their bases on that end by inserting a piece of litmus paper around the iPhone's headphone jack that turns a red color if activated by water, so there's no point in arguing there. Still, I screwed up royally on my own end, have basically bought myself a new MacBook logic board and I'd like to think that somewhere down the line, when affluence is routine and I've purchased a swimming pool filled with money, supermodels and iPods, I'll be able to look back and laugh at this.

More on this repair as it develops. Until then, happy Saint Patrick's Day, guys and feel free to contribute your own laptop spill disaster stories in the comments or forums.