Monday, November 19, 2007

Bravia

Things have settled into a routine. We have taken care of some Dr. appointments, spent a little time with the kids and grandkids, and begun work on some of our projects.

The first project was to buy and install a new TV. We purchased a 40 inch 1080p LCD Sony Bravia. The model number is KDL-40V2500. It has some very good reviews and we are pleased with it. We bought it online for the lowest advertised price which was from Abe's of Maine. It was delivered in less than a week by a delivery company that specializes in shipping electronic equipment.

Mounting it was a big job. I made a solid door to replace the two doors over the computer workstation, and then mounted the TV on it. The door is made from 3/4 inch oak plywood that I trimmed in solid oak and then stained to match the rest of the wood in our home. I used decorative fence gate hinges to hang it on the wall so we still have access to the cupboards behind it. It is very solidly mounted to insure that it stays put when we travel. Today I finished running all the cables so that job is officially finished.

HDTV sure is great.  Unfortunately, my DirecTV receiver is only SD, but I am able to receive all the Dallas stations in digital HD.  I have been watching a lot more broadcast stuff than I have in years.  Fortunately one of the broadcast HD channels is PBS!

We removed the old 26 inch TV and plan to build storage shelves where it was. That will provide a place to store all the stuff we currently keep on the top shelf of the kitchen island and some of the things in the drawers below the stove. When complete we will then be able to build a drawer in place of top shelf in the island, and then remove two drawers under the stove top so we can install a new oven we plan to purchase this weekend. Plenty to keep me busy until Christmas or beyond!

Saturday evening  we went to dinner with the Jennings.  We went to a neat restaurant in Sanger called Babe's.  You choose either fried chicken, smoked chicken, chicken fried steak, chicken tenders or catfish for your meat and they serve everything else family style.  It was really good, and reasonably priced.  The motif is eclectic western.  The building is an old warehouse in a small town.  No two tables match and the music was a variety of 50's, 60's, 70's and country.  One of the country songs was going and I looked up to notice that it was not a record.  One of the waitresses was singing all the country numbers!  She sounded professional.  By the end of the evening she had done three numbers.  We found out she has tried out for American Idol but not been selected.  Another waitress from the same place was selected a couple years ago.  She was fantastic and we expect to see her make it big if she stays with it.  She was that good.

We will be spending Thanksgiving with Jennings, and probably Christmas too.  At this point we are planning to make a trip to Chattanooga over New Years so we can see Darin and his family.

There.  Now everyone knows what we have been doing and what our tentative plans for the next couple months are.

5 comments:

  1. Very good update! Thank you.

    I've got the DirecTV HD DVR and I like it. It's got quite a few HD channels and more coming all the time. It also now has VOD or Video On Demand. You can go through a list of things and add them to your queue to be downloaded as long as you are connected to the internet. Not sure how it will work for you but of course I'm on 24/7/365(subject to AT&T DSL).

    DTV will be adding even more HD channels as the satellites I worked on called Spaceway get up to capacity.

    Sounds like you could get anything to eat as long as it was chicken or catfish.

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  2. Now, let me think. When you arrived home from Alaska a few short weeks ago, you were going to settle down and conserve your money after the extravagant summer expenses. It sounds as though you must have won the lottery since returning to TX.

    Sounds like fun; making changes which improve your home is always a great way to spend your time.

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  3. We get a lot of HD stations through Dish too. We also have Video on Demand, but unfortunately it costs around $5 per movie, which has to be watched within 24 hours. Netflix is a much better deal.

    However, Netflix probably wouldn't work well for your rambling lifestyle.

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  4. Daryl: Is the Dish VOD delivered through the satellite or over the internet? With DTV it comes over the internet and 99% are free.

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  5. Video On Demand comes over the internet. Through the satellite is just PPV, at scheduled times, so that's not really VOD.

    Sounds like DirecTV has a better deal. I don't think Dish gives us anything for free.

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