I couldn't stimulate the economy more with nudes of Jenny McCarthy and a vibrating butt-plug.

[digitaldiscipline]

My folks are in town and, as such, are prone to being enablers vis a vis home improvement. They're retired, this qualifies as "fun" for them.

I had five items on my "need to do to comply with the insurance inspection" list, which I planned to tackle during the week they're here. All but one of them were done by 3pm yesterday, and the last one just got wrapped up. We've also planted a small herb garden and done some other minor enhancements.

My folks do two things for relaxation at home - read, and watch TV. The iffy state of affairs with our television (namely, its penchant for refusing to stay turned on) provided them with an opportunity to bestow on GMBAN the early holiday gift option - go 50/50 on a new TV, or spring for a storage shed to replace the garage that has been Marked For Death.

Yeah, that was a long debate, I can tell you.

Hard on the heels of that is the realization that both CRTs in the house seem to be preparing to fail (K's is getting blurry, the image on mine wobbles ~1mm @ 60Hz intermittently )... so upgrades (it had been my intention to gift K with a new display for xms, mine was, until thursday, not on the upgrade horizon) may be happening in the "sooner rather than later" time frame.

Thank goodness I work for a financial institution and have a credit rating with a halo around it... this allowed me to do clever things to facilitate debt payoff and consolidation at very low interest rates, but still... this is a big chunk of change I hadn't really wanted to hemmorage on top of paying my yearly property tax bill this month. Fortunately, that latter figure isn't as heinous as it could otherwise be, but, still... any dollar figure with a comma in it as an expense makes me a sad panda.

=================

In other news, we had critus over for dinner before he and I adjourned to see Jobsite's production of The Pillowman, about which I can say, "It's the kind of thing I might write if I were a playwright, but I probably wouldn't even have written the second act." If you like your theater grim and your humor black, go see the show.

Comments

[arcsine.livejournal.com]

This, sir, is an excuse to upgrade to 16:9 flat panels.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

it is. and i suspect the problem with mine is AC related, so i'm going to see what plugging into a line conditioner does. i notice it gets much worse when the microwave or washing machine is on since re-wiring the breaker box.

[draxzaster.livejournal.com]

I've got a pair of 17" CRTs that are in good shape you can use until new monitors are acquired, if you want.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

i've got a 19" spare as well; it'll do the job.

[arcsine.livejournal.com]

Sounds like it. If you do go 16:9, make sure your video card drivers support the wonky native res (or grab a copy of PowerStrip).

[danjite.livejournal.com]

Though it is not convention nor requirement here, I am just commenting to say I added you to my friends list.

It has been pointed out that this likely makes me a fogey and a formalist.

So be it.

Salutations.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

I'm not usually terribly cognizant of when I'm added or dropped by folks in a timely manner. Hence, this sort of heads-up is helpful (or serves as "fair warning.")

*quick perusal ensues*

You're one of those writer-type weirdos. Got it. ;-)

[danjite.livejournal.com]

Worse- I are a edetir and pub-lush-ur.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

duly noted. i got out of editing (rather, i was ousted by the unscrupulous fucks at a former job) some time ago, and haven't made it back in anything more than a freelance manner.