Television Ailments

OK, I married a TV addict. This is no surprise. I knew of his condition for years prior to marriage. As a matter of fact, I'm more surprised that he didn't install cable into the house for a couple of years after we moved in. (Proof that at some point, he was money conscious.) Cable TV (specifically Comcast) has been the source of many, many unhappy days in our house over the last few months -- longer than that, but not worth going into...

A few months ago, together, we decided enough was enough. We began looking into satellite TV. We have satellite radio in his truck, and while we won't continue it, it works. The radio programming just doesn't meet our preferences. The quality is quite amazing. On our road trips, we rarely loose signal, and if we do, it's just for a blink under a bridge or through a tunnel. This TV satellite thing, wow, hold on to your pocket books because it is incredibly surprising. First of all, I think it would be easier to re-enroll in college than to learn about the options between the providers.


The details you learn when comparing providers is overwhelming. Of course, they all tell you about how much you will save over cable. Which, is really true, we're saving a ton over cable, but only for the introductory period. Of course, to sign up with a provider, we had to commit to be with them for 24 months. I know people who don't stay married for 24 months, but we just agreed to stay with a satellite provider for that long!

Direct offered more channels -- and more "on-demand" things. HE liked the on-demand, he liked the more channels, I was hoping for a DVR. With Direct, we would need a receiver for each TV that would be used. That's 3 receivers in our house. There's a monthly fee for each receiver in addition to the bucks that go out the door in the beginning just to lease the receiver. I wanted a DVR. I felt as if we needed a DVR. In reality, I'm sure we don't even need all the channels, but if he can have lots of channels, shouldn't I be able to record something on TV??? We went with Dish...few channels, yes. Cheaper price, no upfront fees to lease the HD DVR (or so we thought), DVR included (at least in the beginning), and most importantly, we know two families who use Dish.

What I've learned...
--Even with Dish, you will need multiple receivers if you wish to have your HD TV receiving an HD signal.
--Even with Dish, you will have your bill double after 6 months.
--Even with Dish, I will be able to record shows, but must watch them on that TV or the TV connected to that box. (This made me very sad.)
-- Dish has on-demand, but with way fewer things to watch on-demand.
-- The Dish receiver is only good for 2 TV's. If you have 3, you'll need more than one box inside.

Moral of the story, momma's don't let your kids grow up to be TV addicts. It's incredibly expensive and rather confusing. (This has been a real waste of my limited brain function over the last few weeks.)

Man vs Squirrel

Wow, first of all, where have I been for the last 6 weeks??? I guess growing a new little human has taken over 99% of my energy. Plus, there's the stuff that I'm supposed to be doing to prepare for previously mentioned little human. Hopefully this weekend, I'll get a better update while I supervise the construction.

On to today's topic...Man vs Squirrel. Who will prevail? A few months ago, we noticed that we had a new alarm clock, the rap-tap-tapping of a squirrel. We would hear him coming and going through the screen just outside our bedroom window. It seemed that he would leave every morning around 7 AM. Now, I think they are quite cute, I even began calling our new attic-occupant Chester. He needed a name, right? So, at first it was cute. We're having a baby, hosting a refuge for a little squirrel. Well, maybe not so cute when you consider the rodent aspect of things. Definitely not so cute when you consider that we would hear him in the attic over the office -- all of those electrical wires may be in his way.

So, the man of the house decided to do the manly thing. We waited for one of those warm winter days. Surely the attic was too warm for Chester to stay up there. He took some new screen and closed up the "entrance". He's a thoughtful guy, so he was careful not to make it too difficult to re-open, should Chester still be up there. The next morning, we were notified as usual around 7 AM that Chester had not left the day before and was hard at work trying to get out. Of course, it was rather cold, and Chester seemed rather aggravated. So, he went to open up the screen. (Not only are we letting dogs in/out, now we've added to the chore of letting squirrels in/out!) Once outside, it was apparent that Chester was quite self-sufficient. The screen had been torn open and the intruder was no where to be seen.

We decided to call in back up. We brought Reno over. He's a German shepherd mix, and known "killer" to the rodent world. Among his greatest kills have been squirrels, birds and even the occasional opossum. Well, after a week or so, Reno decided he had more interest in chasing the squirrels on the ground than in the attic. He was returned to his rightful home, without the promised steak dinner.

This week, we began some much needed home repairs. (Another topic, for another day.) Honestly, I don't know the sequence of events this week, it's been rather chaotic around here. But, he thought the squirrel was out one evening. He and my dad boarded up the entrance. Then, the next morning, yep, he was trying to get out again. At least I think that's what happened. So, he must have let him out. Chester has already sprung forward, so our time schedules are not so well coordinated. I think Chester is now coming/going around 6 AM instead of 7 AM. The area was again sealed off -- wood and screen securely put in place.

Then, this morning at around 6:30 AM....you guessed it! We hear the "rap-tap-tapping". HE could not believe that the squirrel was back in the attic. In my sleepy state (I don't care so much that this little animal is there, in the 6 AM hour, I'm still eager to sleep.) HE jumps out of bed, opens the blinds, looks out the window, and has some choice words for this little rodent. (Yes, by now the cute little squirrel is officially an uninvited rodent occupying our attic, I fear the "gifts" he may be leaving for us up there.) HE then exclaims, "He's trying to get in! He's not trapped in the attic at all. Now, I have to get rid of him."

I wanted to sleep, but, if you could have been watching this, you would have been laughing, too! He leaps out of bed, asks how cold it is outside and begins preparing for his hunt. Well, it was a rather cool morning. It was like 49 degrees outside, and so there they went to hunt the squirrel...BB gun in hand. Within about a 20 minute time span, I hear about 3 shots go off. These were 3 of the weakest shots I've ever heard. I think if a BB would have hit the window, it would have bounced off. I do not think this will actually kill this squirrel. Now, I have to get up and look to see what I see, because this has to be kind of funny. Him in his PJ's, us in the city, him using a dinky little BB gun to try to discourage a little rodent from breaking & entering into the attic. I don't think I could describe this as comically as it appeared to me.

They came back inside. He tells me his story of the hunt. Apparently he's shooting at a squirrel that may be the one occupying the attic. He shot at the squirrel in a tree and on the roof of our house. He believes the sight is off on the BB gun, so next time, he will use the old faithful BB gun from his childhood. He did not actually see the squirrel(s) attempting to get in. Still, I'm sleepy, I just don't care. Then, rap-tap-tap again! Again, he jumps up, and opens the blinds. Chester is there! Chester is looking at us, we are looking at him! HE is off, with the other BB gun. He rushes outside, this time alone because even Daisy & Missy have lost interest. I see Chester is still outside our window. He shoots, the squirrel falls. I think it is over. Of course, this BB shot did not sound anymore powerful, or harmful than before. He comes back in reporting that he hit the squirrel, he claims the squirrel jumped down, landing on all fours, then took off under the fence.

My guess, Chester will live another day to wake me up, and attempt to break into our attic.

Making our own art!?

Well, we've been in the house for some time now. We have managed to paint only a couple of rooms. The floor has been replaced, in two rooms. We're not really do-it-yourselfers and we're not really all that creative. OK, well, I'm not either of those two things.

HE just loves cars and trucks. I think he probably subscribes to about 5 magazines and then saves them. So, he's got boxes and boxes of magazines. All filed away neatly, in order, by magazine type and year, of course. So, as a result, we have lots of space dedicated to the cataloging of magazines, that I believe, will never be of any use to anyone. I digress....

HE has been working at culling through the bad, useless stuff, but just hated to be "wasteful" and toss out the old magazines. (Not all, just one "brand".) I made the crazy suggestion to select the pictures he liked and frame them in sort of a collage. Well, I had no idea of what would happen when Mr. OCD was assigned a craft project of this sort.

I think this is week three of this project. I'm convinced there will be photos of cars on every wall of our house very soon. Please pray for my sanity during this self-inflicted turmoil! By the way, next time, I will keep my mouth shut! :)

We can eat!

Here's the dining room table we bought a few weeks ago. I would have put up pictures sooner, but, well, we had to do some work first. The ceiling was viciously attacked by the small electrical fire we had after hurricane Ike was here. So, it's been replaced and the ceiling was repainted. The table is nice, but we hardly ever use that room. Hopefully the table isn't a total waste of cash.

If you look closely, you can see the entry way, too. We painted that a few weeks before Ike. Luckily no damage in there. It's a nice shade of yellow.


Those are the updates, and there will be more to come, I think. He's been talking of more paint and new carpet. Hopefully, we'll stick something on the walls soon, too!

Let it be YELLOW

Ok, so a few weeks ago, we yanked the wall paper in the entry way. It was around the time the house was going to get knocked down next door. Well, after completely wasting away last weekend, I vowed, this weekend would not be a waste. It hasn't been. Yesterday we cleaned the entire house, cut the yard, and went to pick out a color for the entry way. (Seems like house cleaing and yard work are minor chores, I'm not sure why it takes us so long to get them done.) We selected several shades of brown, grey, and silver. One of the books has a lovely yellow shade. But the little card did not look like the color in the book. This morning we decided to look into that yellow color at the store. (Big mistake by the way...) Anyway, after much debate and at least another hour looking at colors at the local Home Crap-o store, we selected a light yellow color.

A few hours later, a few gripes later, and it's done. Well, it's almost done. It's painted. We try to switch out the hardware in the rooms when we paint them. So we were thoughtful enough to purchase a new face plate and switch for the lights and electrical outlet. We never thought about the door handles. So for now, we're sticking with what was in there. After all the door handles match the light fixture, which we don't like, but it works, and well, we haven't found something perfect enough for us.

So, the room is not completely done, but we're just about done for today. Our lesson from this...pick some paint colors, bring them home (or take the paint samples out of the box labeled "painting supplies" because I honestly think we have just about every possible one we may like), pick a color. DO NOT FALTER ON THE COLOR CHOICE WHEN RETURNING TO PURCHASE THE PAINT. This was a critical mistake, and made me start the project quite crabby. HIS OCD kicked in big time today wen we went to purchase paint. So, my patience was zapped from the get go of the project. But, I do like the color and I am glad that we did it! Yeah!

It's still early, so I'm sure the pups get walked today, and even a car or truck will get washed. GO PRODUCTIVITY!!