13" MacBook Pro Mid 2009 Service Battery Alert

i have the above MBP and have basically been crying in my beer for the last two and a half years about battery life. i have brought it into the mac genius bar at least three times asking that they check things and each time i get some answer that basically equates to "looks OK to us".

as a new user i am aware of the fact that i originally had a bad driver from HP that would affect the computer negatively when there was a large print queue and i am aware of the fact that Parallels may drain the computer more than normal. i am also something of a power user and tend to keep open a lot of programs.

HOWEVER, i have never gotten more than 1 1/2 hours when surfing the internet or more than 3 1/2 when doing absolutely nothing (i test this by turning on after shutdown and full charge with no startup items listed).

i have applecare coverage until january.

is there anything i could or should do when i bring this in again? from my perspective this "pro" line computer has been underpowered from the get go (i put 8 GB of RAM into it after using it a year) and the battery life seems just inexcusable to me.

TIA and sorry if that sounds a bit "vinagery" because i am just trying to troubleshoot things here. computer cost me a couple of bucks and buying the pro line i thought i had things covered...