Wednesday, August 13, 2008

I love my miniature HDTV

I always wanted a big screen to watch my Redskins games on (and any other sports, for that matter). A couple of years ago, Kelly gave me permission to go look at them. Naturally, that was all the go-ahead I needed and I bought one. Once I picked Kelly's mouth off the floor after coming home with the new monster TV, she eventually grew to love it. Now, though I bought the big screen to watch sports on... I also intended to watch other stuff on it. Why then, now a full 2 years later, do I watch other shows on a super-small mini version of my big screen...

Well... let me explain... it goes back to the "if you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to want a glass of milk theory"... so... basically.... once I got the HDTV I needed to get the HD service to my house. And then once I got the HDTV service, it's only an extra $5 a month for the HD DVR... so, you've got to have that as well... right? Well, of course. Except, I overlooked one small detail. I never anticipated Kelly falling head over heels in love with the DVR.

For those that don't have DVR.... it is a MUST HAVE... that much is certain. Both Kelly and I can't imagine life without it. You can pause live TV, skip the commercials, record your favorite shows and watch them on your time... it's been great. The only problem is that you don't have unlimited storage... you have a finite amount....about 100 hours.... and this is where Kelly's personality traits come into play.

You see... Kelly is an order-freak, clean-freak... whatever you want to call it. So, just as she obsessively keeps the house in order (for which I... a reformed slob.... am eternally grateful), she is always obsessively clearing up the DVR. Adding shows, deleting shows, setting preferences... you get the idea. I think Kelly fears that if we ever get over 50% capacity on the DVR, the thing might explode or maybe she thinks a baby seal gets clubbed somewhere... I'm just not sure... but what I do know is that something is getting deleted and something is getting adjusted.... because that's simply unacceptable to Kelly. Now... the problem with that, you say? Well... now my large glorious HDTV is reduced to a small 19" or so viewable portion at the top of the screen. Yep, that's right... this is what I'm viewing:



That little viewable area in the corner is mine. The other 95% of the TV... that's for Kelly to do her DVR maintenance.

It's so bad that Kelly was even deleting stuff off a DVR that we were about to replace the next day (we switched from Verizon FIOS to Dish TurboHD... another story for another day). Even after I pointed out to her the hopelessness of making any changes... she just couldn't help herself.... she had to do her DVR house cleaning... and I got my 19" in the top corner.

Well... anyway I love my wife dearly and if that's all I have to put up with than I'm a blessed man.... and... because of that.... I'm happy to have my minature HDTV viewing corner.