New day, new theme and color tv

27 Wednesday Feb 2013

Posted by Aurora in Boredom, Daily Drivel, Evil Wizard, Fun Stuff, Taterbug

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books, entertaiment, family, kids, life, parenting, television

Welcome to my new and hopefully improved blog. Yes it is hard letting go of the tye dye, but this one is so much easier on my poor eyes when it comes to reading. I’m sure I am not the only one who finds the white backgrounds on most of the blog templates to be downright blinding sometimes.

I’ve always had very light sensitive eyes, and am not a fan of really brightly sunny days because of it. I have to keep dark sunglasses on just to function when there isn’t enough cloud cover. Bright snowy winter days are the worst, and snow blindness isn’t fun.

So now you all know the main reason for the switch, not to mention, I really think this new theme looks nifty 🙂

The family and I had a long day out today up to Bellevue. We visited the eye doctor to see what is up wonky with my new glasses, and I have to go back tomorrow to have them rechecked. We visited the library book sale and picked up some new books, which is always enjoyable. All the rain we had today did put a little bit of a damper on it, but fortunately the bonnet on Thor’s stroller kept him nice and dry.

John and I are both firm believers in keeping lots of books around, and our son will never have a shortage of things to read. We probably have a few thousand books in this apartment already, and we are slowly building up a children’s book collection with him in mind. More books and little or no tv for him is definitely our plan when it comes to raising him.

Hopefully it will work out well that way. I’ve seen far too many kids who spend way too much time with the electronic babysitter for my comfort. It’s not to say I am against letting kids watch tv at all, but I do believe in letting them watch it in limited amounts. I am also a firm believer that their tv viewing should be limited to shows with educational value or other redeeming qualities. Most kids shows nowadays seem to be materialistic utter nonsense.

There isn’t even much my husband and I find worth watching anymore, outside of maybe Mythbusters and some good documentaries and britcoms on PBS. We no longer even keep cable, and just buy seasons of shows we like on itunes, or stream them online. About the only thing we miss about cable is Food Network, and we subscribe to the magazine so that’s almost just as good, and far easier to refer back to without having to set a DVR. (which I would have no clue how to do anyway, but that is another story for another day…)

Hello from the sofa

13 Sunday Jan 2013

Posted by Aurora in Boredom, Daily Drivel, Evil Wizard, Fun Stuff

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Boredom, britcoms, entertainment, family, media, parenting, television

What else is there to do on a boring winter evening but sit on the sofa with the hubby watching dvds? John and I are both big fans of British comedy, and we have recently begun watching our way through a few boxed sets we happened across, or got as gifts over the holidays.

One-Foot-in-the-Grave-one-foot-in-the-grave-24104270-650-320

The series we are presently watching is One Foot In The Grave. I used to watch this series long ago with my dad, after he would come home from work late at night on PBS. The main character Victor Meldrew always reminded me a bit of my grandpa with his ornery sense of humor, though grandpa didn’t have anywhere near his hypochondriac tendencies thankfully.

Another favorite Britcom of ours is Vicar Of Dibley. Hubby first showed me a few episodes of this series several months ago, and I instantly fell in love with it. It really is one of the funniest shows I have ever seen. I surprised him with the complete boxed set of the series as his Christmas present, because it was one thing that I knew for sure he would love and didn’t already own. (he’s not the easiest person on earth to shop for usually)

Yes I know most people would ask why we bother to buy the dvds when there is so much available for streaming online nowadays. I guess good tv series are like good music, if you like something enough, you really should invest in making shows a permanent part of your collection.

We don’t have cable television due to the monthly cost, but do get hours of enjoyment watching the shows and movies we have collected over time, and those we check out from the local library. In a way I have come to like not having cable, as only having discs to watch will give us a little more control over the sort of shows our son will be seeing growing up. (at least while he is at home)

We already have amassed quite a collection of good children’s movies and intend to expand it by the time he gets old enough to really pay attention to tv. John and I aren’t all anti-tv, but neither of us are really big fans of most of what is being passed off as children’s programming lately. We’ll be pretty careful what we let him watch, at least for quite awhile to come. Besides, a good hour or so watching shows on the sofa is ok, but we want him to know it is far better to play and to read than to spend all his time being a couch potato glued to a television screen.

Or a computer monitor…hello pot…meet kettle…