Improvements

This month has seen some improvements in our house.

Improvement #1. For the past 7 months, this has bothered me:

Many things are wrong. The TV stand. The accumulation of cords visible to the world. The entire blah-ness of the corner. Closer up:

Every time I cleaned (notice the dust rag), I realized something needed to be done. So in one of my organizational trips to the store, I bought a cheap shelving system to create a less-claustrophobic space and to help organize some other randoms that were lying around the house.

Though not a perfect fix, a definite improvement to the use of this space.

Improvement #2. For three-and-a-half years we have had this TV.

Oh wait until you see the side view:

Wood panelling baby. I have no doubts that this was from the 1980s, but it was free and it was larger than the TV I had at the time. It has been perfect for us, but for about a year we have been talking about making the jump to a 21st-century TV. And, we did.

Our new toy should last us for years and we are still marveling over the picture quality. I mean, really anything would have been better than what we had, but this is amazing. Come on over anytime! And, now we have a TV in the guest room...visitors are welcome anytime!

I can think of many other improvements we could make. Living room furniture. Kitchen table. A house that we own. But for now, I am enjoying these small things that have made a big difference.

Electronic Entertainment

Today is February 17th: the original day for the switch to DTV. I don't know how anyone could have missed the announcement. For over a year, our local tv stations have made sure we knew about this switch. Hubs and I chose to do nothing about it. I will admit that I was somewhat looking forward to seeing what life without TV would be like.

For one thing, I wouldn't have the temptation to sit down and watch TV after a long day instead of working out. Which was happening quite frequently, especially with the colder weather.

And, if we needed a TV show fix, we could pop in the "24" DVDs since we have only watched the first season so far.

And, for the one show that I am really going to miss - "The Amazing Race" - I can catch that over my lunch hour online at cbs.com.

I wasn't too worried about losing my TV channels, except for my morning news. My morning routine includes watching the local news and making fun of the local weather girl and I knew I was going to miss that. However, I had planned to just turn on the radio instead.

And, who really needs TV when we have a wii?


I haven't gotten into Nintendo since my brothers sold our Super Nintendo years ago. But lately, I can spend hours playing Mario Kart and Wii Fit. Hubs and I are becoming quite the racers. We've opened up 3 new racing cups and are dominating the race track. We are also beginning to sound like Jr. High video gamers while we play - okay, maybe that's just me.


I am probably a ton of fun to watch play. I can't just sit still while I'm driving. I get my whole body into every turn, bump, and jump. Hubs can play without the steering wheel. Not me, I need it to really get into the race.

So, I was ready for the switch and our local TV stations said that, despite the government's decision to extend the deadline, they were sticking to February 17th as the day.

Well, it ends up we only lost 1 of our 4 TV stations today - CBS, aka "The Amazing Race" channel. And after all those preparations we made to be ready for the switch...