Woo-Whee, Now That's a Teevee

We have acquired two new items to make our lives in the living room (that's where one is supposed to live, is it not?) better.

The first was a result of a moment of weakness as I looked (as I often do) on steepandcheap.com. Steepandcheap is a site that sells one item at a time until it sells out. It's like a woot-off on woot.com all the time, but instead of electronics, steepandcheap features outdoorsy stuff. I buy socks there (smartwools) when they pop up and have bought a handful of other items. A couple of weekends ago, I happened upon them selling a dog bed. Now, Honey thinks I'm obsessed with dog beds, and she may be right. I do have a tendency to comment on them when I see them in a store and to paw (sorry) through them. This is especially true if we happen to be in a big box or discount store like Costco or Pic 'n Sav (which is now Big Lots, but I still think of it as Pic). It's been a while since I've been in either store, so to see a dog bed on steepandcheap gave me that little thrill I used to get at Pic.

My first "I'm an adult and can get a dog" dog, Carter, the neurotic basenji from hell, loved dog beds. I could even tell her to go get on her dog bed when she was being neurotic and then she was neurotic on her dog bed instead of in my face. Red also liked dog beds. He sighed a lot, did Red, because of his arthritis. The dog beds seem a small mercy to his comfort.

Biscuit doesn't so much like them. I bought her one and she treated it like a giant dog toy. Then I bought her another one and she did the same thing. There's a lot of stuffing in most dog beds and Bisc thought spreading it about was great fun.

Now that we have Scout, I had been thinking I might give the dog bed thing another go. And then...steepandcheap came through for me. I hit "Buy 1" without thinking. A few days later, a gynormous box was sitting on our porch. The Insulmutt dog bed is made from recycled tents and other outdoor equipment. It comes in medium, large, and extra-large. I had inadvertantly gotten an extra-large for our 30 pound bahuashepchowpei. He's a big fella, but not that big.

I put it in the corner and both dogs sniffed at it. There may have been some dragging it around on Biscuit's part. The cats thought it was fantastic and on several occasions Honey and I came home to both cats engulfed in it.

Then, yesterday, Scout discovered it.



Biscuit prefers to nap on the most expensive piece of furniture we own. I don't know how much it cost, as my parents bought it. I'm willing to guess it cost well more than any piece of furniture I've ever purchased by quite a lot. They gave it to us when we took Red from them. He liked to lounge on it. Biscuit does, too. Must be a spaniel-head thing. Biscuit may not be smart, but she has expensive taste and she's pretty. Come to think of it, that's true of so many people one sees on teevee. Honey was walking Biscuit and Scout the other day and a guy stopped and told her, "the black one is pretty." The yellow one, apparently, is not.



So, the dogs are set for lounging. That's good.

Our other acquisition was a result of a convergence of spheres. Honey said she wanted to go see a cheap movie yesterday. Honey likes the 11am $6 movies. Seems like the right price to pay, she says. I can't disagree.

After the movie, I proposed we walk a few blocks to a bookstore to which we had gift cards. We're travelling later this week and I'm in my usual "what am I going to read on the plane?" panic. So, off we trekked, over the hills, across the street and through the mall. As we approached the bookstore, we saw a woman waving a sign that said "CompUSA going out of business 10-50% Off Everything." Honey doesn't like sign waving as a concept. She thinks it demeaning to the sign person. I agree, but I like me a bargain. So up the escalator to CompUSA we went. I had visions of $500 iMacs. Surely the Apple products would be 50%. Surely. I kind of want a new computer, as my trusty swivelheaded iMac is a little long in the tooth. The Apple products were 10% off and well more the the Apple certified refurbished ones sold on Apple's own site.

I wandered off and was inextricably drawn into the teevee zone. If dog beds are a long time focus, a widescreen HDTV is a medium time focus. For six months or so I've been looking at them. Calling Dish to find out how much upgrade would cost. Almost buying a really no name one on a woot-off. I've held off in the face of the aligning spheres. My parents got one for their KITCHEN. Then they got one for the vacation home. My brother got one.

Last weekend we went to Honey's parents and they had one. I watched the Masters on it. I abhor golf. It was really pretty. The golf. On the hd teevee. I watched the Dodgers play the Giants. I don't like either team. Barry Bonds' head looks even bigger in HD. Not in a good way at all.

So, there we are standing in amongst the teevees. And they have one I had researched and was interested in. In the size I wanted. For 25% off. And they hadn't jacked up the price. It was really 25% off the price it was supposed to be. Unlike several others, they still had one in a box.

Within moments, mere moments, I was up at the front proffering my debit card and then off to the car, several blocks away, to bring it back to the place where the nice men in red shirts put the teevee in the car.

Honey helped me get it in the house. It's set-up. The old 27" is in the bedroom. Dish has been called and is coming soon to make it HD and HD dvr.

We put it on fishing to take pictures of it to show how good it looks even when it's broadcasting something as stupid as fishing.





I think the rawhide in the second picture looks like the dogs' small offering to the coolness that is the tv.

Now, we just need to get down to the business of living in the living room. Dog bed? check. Dog lounger? Check. Big teevee? Check. We're all set-up. When is everyone coming over?