but at least it's mine, so when my time is up, all of the emails in Outlook will come with me (I lost 4 years of emails when I got kicked out of another employer in 2001. My bad for not forwarding personal emails to my home account.)
And according to a friend who is a contactor, the laptop is a legitimate business expense since it was required for employment and the company doesn't give any subsidy or reimbursement, once you get past the 2% level for deductions against your adjusted gross income on your Schedule A.