TEE VEE TIME

We have been debating about our cable TV bill, well, really, about our cable TV in general.  Because I work nights I don't see much TV during the week.  I DVR the shows I especially like and usually watch them after I get home until I am sleepy and go to bed. 

I don't watch all that much TV during the day - though I admit I watched the better part of an old favorite (An Unmarried Woman)  this afternoon before I went to work.  I sometimes like having the TV on when I am alone in the house and doing things in the kitchen.  I can turn the sound up really loud and hear it through the noise of housework.

What Tom really wants is to watch less TV.  He feels he is watching too much.  He is unsatisfied with the offerings, but he watches anyway.  When he broached the idea of reducing the channels, I thought "Not Showtime!"  That means Weeds, The Big C and Dexter.  Back to having to wait nearly a year for the seasons to come out on DVD!  He claims we can watch them on the computer sooner, but I have never had any luck with that.

When we looked at the channel line-up packages, we both agreed we couldn't go without Bravo, Lifetime and AMC.  That means Top Chef, Project Runway, Mad Men and Breaking Bad.   So that takes us up a tier and the cost is amazingly close to the cost we are paying now for all the channels.  That's how we ended up here.  Those cable people really know which channels we actually watch - they say we get 600 channels, but we only watch about 10 of them - they know what they are doing and  toss them in the more expensive package and then sweeten the deal with super cheap HBO, STARZ and Encore.

Oh no, if we drop HBO I'll miss Boardwalk Empire.  Damn. 

I am making the call tomorrow.  I may just have to drop it all down to basic and see how painful it is. 

Maybe basic plus Showtime...

MAKING THE HOLIDAYS HAPPEN

I posted a while back about selling some gold jewelry. I was happy with the amount I was paid. And put the money aside.

There was a pendant that had a couple of small stones, a ruby and a diamond, but it was only worth about $11.00 to the jeweler. I kept it and put it up on eBay and got $25.00 for it. So I popped a few more things up and have made a little over $100.00. All of that money and a bit more I saved has gone into my account for holiday shopping.

And that shopping? Almost done. I have a few things I am watching on eBay. Most of the shopping has been online so things are en route. I have been more careful than usual about watching the budget I set. I really don't want to put a penny on my credit cards. I am even planning to return a few things I bought early on before I got really organized.

So now I am focused on the things I am making. A few mosaic items I hope turn out well. Then I will make some biscotti and maybe some spiced nuts to send off to Idaho and Palm Desert and share with friends here.

I know a lot of people start decorating as soon as the turkey is put away, but I usually wait until a week or so into December.

How are you doing on your holiday preparations?

WARDROBE REALITIES

Is anyone really surprised that Sarah Palin was given an extravagant wardrobe by the Republican Party? Really? One of my first thoughts when she was introduced was how fast they would do a makeover.

What I didn't expect was the price tag. $150,00.00 Geez. The Huffington Post said this: Palin received more valuable clothes in one month than the average American household spends on clothes in 80 years. A Democrat put it in even blunter terms: her clothes were the cost of health care for 15 or so people.

So much for the "like one of us" thing. Even if they donate the clothes to charity at the end of the campaign, as they claim, it doesn't change the fact that they didn't actually want a real person. A real person would have several suits and outfits that are mixed and matched and she would wear the same evening clothes to event after event. She may splurge on some nice shoes every so often when there were actually nice shoes in her size at Marshalls. A real person has never had her make-up applied by a professional unless it was while getting a sales pitch at the cosmetics counter at the department store.

One thing a real person might have done is get lots of different hair cuts and styles. Even real people (of course I am talking about John Edwards here...) have their little weaknesses.