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BestBuy's been running that one commercial, where the wife buys her husband a 60" plasma TV because he had to sell his football season tickets to pay for the wedding. I've been mocking it, partially because I'd rather have season tickets than a big wedding, but mostly because a 60" plasma costs as much or more than the season tickets. Soooooo... if she could afford to buy him the TV, why couldn't she afford to pay for the wedding?!
This conversation led to joking about Mr. Smeddley talking me into buying a 60" plasma, though it'd really be too big for the room and the stand we have (had) our DLP on. The conversation ends with an 'I'm just kidding, I like our TV, there's nothing wrong with it!' This, evidently, was a mistake. I could go on about how silly it is to say something 'tempts fate', because fate is fate and I'm not sure how you go about influencing a set course, but it's as good an expression as I can think of for the situation.
After a short visit to BestBuy to pick up some ink cartridges and software, we get home and... *poof* - the light on our beloved DLP blows out. This is, of course, fixable. You just buy a new lamp, and they run about $150. Research on the internet showed this is a pretty common thing, even in TVs a lot younger than ours (it's about 4 years old). The problem with this is that you have to order one off the internet! And there's shipping... and waiting...
Which we're going to do, because it was an expensive TV and a paltry $150 to get another 4+ years out of it is very much worth it. But... how can we go without our main TV for a week or so? I could have given up my TV in the bedroom, but that would leave me with either the TV with the built-in DVD player that makes that high-pitched squealing noise that drives me insane, or a 12" TV (wrangling the one out of the nook in the pool table room is simply out of the question). And as I have a lot of DVDs to watch and DVR-ed shows to catch up on... no. This meant that, in order to preserve harmony and happiness in our household, some sacrifices needed to be made. And monetary sacrifices are the easiest, really, despite the stress of debt and whatnot (hey, I drag myself to work every day, I might at least get something I enjoy out of it).
We now have a 46" Samsung LCD all shiny and new down in the basement, and we have to decide what's going to happen when we fix the 44" DLP. It could go upstairs in the guest room and we could hook the Wii up to it, since that room has a lot of floor space (or would, if it was cleaned up). It could go into the bedroom, and the 30-whatever" could go in my craft room. Or we could run cable and mount the 30-whatever" LCD from the bedroom over the fireplace in the pool table room, and turn the TV nook into a proper coat closet, which I really kinda like the idea of, because the coat closet off the main foyer is ridiculous. And I think I'll hold on to all of the TVs we have and see what happens after February-whatever, because, evidently, that whole 'if you have cable it won't effect you' isn't completely true in some cases
Either way, I suppose the flooring for my craft room and office is now officially on hold, which... kinda relieves me, to be honest. I'm not really looking forward to the amount of work that will (eventually) be, and though I do hate the carpet it is serviceable for now. And! And if I can just manage to use up a lot of my craft supplies and reduce my stash, cleaning it out will be sooooo much easier later... [/pipe dream]
This conversation led to joking about Mr. Smeddley talking me into buying a 60" plasma, though it'd really be too big for the room and the stand we have (had) our DLP on. The conversation ends with an 'I'm just kidding, I like our TV, there's nothing wrong with it!' This, evidently, was a mistake. I could go on about how silly it is to say something 'tempts fate', because fate is fate and I'm not sure how you go about influencing a set course, but it's as good an expression as I can think of for the situation.
After a short visit to BestBuy to pick up some ink cartridges and software, we get home and... *poof* - the light on our beloved DLP blows out. This is, of course, fixable. You just buy a new lamp, and they run about $150. Research on the internet showed this is a pretty common thing, even in TVs a lot younger than ours (it's about 4 years old). The problem with this is that you have to order one off the internet! And there's shipping... and waiting...
Which we're going to do, because it was an expensive TV and a paltry $150 to get another 4+ years out of it is very much worth it. But... how can we go without our main TV for a week or so? I could have given up my TV in the bedroom, but that would leave me with either the TV with the built-in DVD player that makes that high-pitched squealing noise that drives me insane, or a 12" TV (wrangling the one out of the nook in the pool table room is simply out of the question). And as I have a lot of DVDs to watch and DVR-ed shows to catch up on... no. This meant that, in order to preserve harmony and happiness in our household, some sacrifices needed to be made. And monetary sacrifices are the easiest, really, despite the stress of debt and whatnot (hey, I drag myself to work every day, I might at least get something I enjoy out of it).
We now have a 46" Samsung LCD all shiny and new down in the basement, and we have to decide what's going to happen when we fix the 44" DLP. It could go upstairs in the guest room and we could hook the Wii up to it, since that room has a lot of floor space (or would, if it was cleaned up). It could go into the bedroom, and the 30-whatever" could go in my craft room. Or we could run cable and mount the 30-whatever" LCD from the bedroom over the fireplace in the pool table room, and turn the TV nook into a proper coat closet, which I really kinda like the idea of, because the coat closet off the main foyer is ridiculous. And I think I'll hold on to all of the TVs we have and see what happens after February-whatever, because, evidently, that whole 'if you have cable it won't effect you' isn't completely true in some cases
Either way, I suppose the flooring for my craft room and office is now officially on hold, which... kinda relieves me, to be honest. I'm not really looking forward to the amount of work that will (eventually) be, and though I do hate the carpet it is serviceable for now. And! And if I can just manage to use up a lot of my craft supplies and reduce my stash, cleaning it out will be sooooo much easier later... [/pipe dream]