I was too young to remember, but my parents often told the story about the time our family television exploded, right in the middle of Mork & Mindy. They decided, right then and there, that they didn’t want to bother getting a new TV.

And so they didn’t.

We were the only family I had ever heard of that didn’t have a TV in the house. My parents weren’t necessarily opposed to TV in general (we were totally allowed to watch TV at friend’s houses), they just weren’t that into TV.

When I was in middle school we finally got a TV. I don’t know where this TV came from since I know my parents weren’t too thrilled about having it. I’m thinking one of my uncles gave it to us. Each of us kids were only allowed to watch seven hours a week. One hour a day. On Sunday we had to submit our Weekly TV Watching Schedule to my mom, for her approval. This plan worked for a while. And then, for whatever reason, we got rid of the TV again.

While I was in high school, I’m pretty sure we had a TV. But it was teeny tiny and didn’t have a remote. We also didn’t have cable. But dude, we could have cared less. I was busy reading books, doing homework, and um, making out with my hot high school boyfriend. In college, again, I had a TV but could have cared less.

During this time I missed out on the greatness of “My So-Called Life” and the first bit of “Friends”. I was busy in class, or studying in the library. What TV I did watch during my college wears was only on MTV. (You know, back when they played awesome videos.)

After college I moved back in with my folks and worked at a convenient store*. I began dating every boy that lived in my small town, so my nights were spent out with friends and on dates. No time for TV. I never even gave TV a single thought.

Never, ever.

While working at the convenient store I spent a lot of time with my co-worker, Gretel, and her family. I remember going over to her house after work and hanging out in her bedroom, or changing our clothes there before going out. Her parents were always there, sitting on the couch in the front room, watching TV. Every time I saw them doing this I found it to be so odd. It was something I had never seen. Never ever did I come home to find both of my parents watching TV. Usually I would find my mom at the kitchen table reading a book. My dad would be out in the yard, feeding his horses or checking on the flower bed.

I remember thinking how odd my friend’s parents were. I truly felt like they were pathetic. I didn’t know what I expected them to do every night, but I knew they were wasting their time, sitting on that couch watching “Blossom” reruns.

When I was married to my first husband, I worked during the day and he worked evenings. That meant I was all alone after I got home from work at 3:30. Which meant I had a lot of time to fill. Which meant I started watching a lot of TV. I discovered “That 70’s Show”, “Seinfeld”, “Will & Grace” and my love for “Friends” grew deeper by the second. I also found “Absolutely Fabulous” and “Keeping Up Appearances” and fell madly in love with anyone that spoke with an accent and referred to cigarettes “fags”.

After my divorce, I packed up all my things from our house and moved into my old bedroom at my parents house. I took my small TV and placed it on the top of my chest of drawers.

And there it stayed.

I started my day with Matt Lauer in the background and finished my day curled up in my little bed, clutching the remote and thanking my lucky stars that my TV had a sleep timer.

At this point in my life my love affair with TV was well into the “I would die without you stage” and was climbing higher by the second.

The King and I got married, and had nothing else to do in our tiny studio apartment besides watch TV in the evenings after working building our first house. Then we got a satellite and millions of channels and then TiVo came out and dude, life truly began for us.

Now that The King is gone every night building the new house, Babboo and I sit at home alone. I usually don’t watch TV when it’s just Babboo and me. Instead we cook dinner, read books, look at pictures and play with his toys. After The King comes home and we put Babboo down for the night, the TV comes on.

Our minds shut off, and life begins again.

I love TV.

I love the shows I watch. I love the characters. I love the stories. I love how they make me think. Or how they don’t make me think. I love how I can sit on the couch, next to my husband, and relax. In between funny dialogue and travel shows we pause the TV and recap our day at work, at the house, and with Babboo.

But I also hate that I love TV so much. I hate that so much time is spent on the topic of TV. Although I don’t hate it enough to change it. And really, truly if I did decide to throw the TV out the window, like my parents did, I am not in a place in my life where I could fill that time.

My point to this post?

I guess it’s that my parents are clearly better at filling their free time then The King and I. And while that’s good for them, I feel bad that they have no idea who Sayid or Barney are.

And really, how can they live without having seen Jack standing on the beach?

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*I’m getting a lot of slack for referring to the gas station I worked at a convenient store and not a convenience store. But dude, where I’m from I swear it was called a convenient store. So I’m sticking by that…whether it’s right, or not.

It was raining so hard yesterday afternoon that instead of walking a couple of blocks to pick up Babboo from school, I drove. That’s right people, I drove a few blocks to his daycare.

Cut me some slack, it was really pouring down rain out there.

(Apparently it wasn’t raining enough for the City of Seattle to turn off their water feature. Doh!)

You know the rain stopped as soon as I pulled out of my parking garage, just like my coworkers predicted. Life loves to kick me in my proverbial balls.

I am trying really hard to not write an entire post about how nervous I am about the upcoming winter months. I’m nervous about how my emotions will be able to handle the dark months and the rain. I don’t want to bore you with my talk of rain and more rain and walking home in the rain and being soaked by the time I get home and rain, rain, rain, please go just go the hell away.

No, that much talk of rain is too boring.

Instead of talking about the damn rain, I present you with this picture of my Sweet Babboo.

Poor kid. This was taken early this morning while waiting to board the elevator for our morning walk to school. I am taking no chances. My kid will be dry as a bone when he arrives at school because he is covered from head to toe in plastic. So while he may stay dry, he may also suffocate.

This stroller cover is crazy. Thankfully he wasn’t too upset by all the rain gear, he was too busy eating his banana, waffle and milk to worry about a little rain.

Me, on the other hand, got soaked as usual.

When will I learn that I shouldn’t bother with washing and blow drying my hair every day?

And totally off topic, which is good because nobody should blog about the weather, did you watch Pushing Daisies last night? Holy cow, I did, and I loved it. And then I blogged about it.

Friday night, before heading out to have dinner with friends, Babboo and I stopped over at our new house to check on the latest going-ons.

Behold, we have a concrete driveway:

While this may seem rather boring and not really blog worthy, it is, in fact, very exciting. Of course it doesn’t mean we’ll be moving into the house anytime soon. But it does mean that when we do move in we’ll be able to park in our garage.

And that, my friends, is what we call progress. And progress is good.

I’m constantly getting asked, “when do you think the new house will be finished?” To which I reply, “I’m not sure. The King is working as fast as he can.” It’s true, he is. The poor man could not work any harder or faster then he is. The next question is “what do you left to finish?” My reply? “The drywall is completely done and one bathroom has been painted (deep, deep purple). What’s left is everything else in the entire house; flooring, cabinets, appliances. Everything.”

Today we signed a new lease on our one-bedroom apartment. We’ve got five more months before we have to resign another lease, and pay an ever higher rent, or move into our new house.

Come the first of the year it looks like there will be a lot of new things for my little family. Screw the Holidays, we’ll be moving. Now that’s something to look forward to.

Even though we’re not looking to rent moving vans quite yet, Janet is. I will live vicariously through her and her awesome new house in DC with it’s beautiful colors and big plans.

Enough house talk, let’s talk about what a fun weekend we had.

As I mentioned at the start of this post, we met some friends for dinner on Friday night. We took them to the restaurant where The King and I had our first date. It had been quite a few months since we’d been there, but the food was just as good as we’d remembered and the parking was even worse.

(Note to The King: next time, let’s take the bus.)

We almost got beat up by the couple sitting next to us in the restaurant. Apparently they wanted to enjoy a lovely evening out and not have rice thrown at them by Babboo. While he may be cute, he’s not cute enough to get away with rice throwing in a restaurant.

Thanks to Vesper for giving us the heads up on (FREE!) Museum Day on Saturday. Babboo and I took advantage of not having to pay to hang out in a museum that we’ve already been to. We even took the bus, and you can read all about that over at my other blog.

Babboo liked the museum enough. He thought it was fun to pretend to fly the planes and helicopters. He didn’t think having older (and bigger) kids bully him out of his turn on the helicopter was much fun. I swear every picture I have our of trip looks like this one, Babboo just sitting there while some other kid has a grand time.

And since I haven’t given you enough links with this post, here is one more link for you to click on. Remember how Carrisa and I had that little blog about our love for Veronica Mars and then it got canceled and we didn’t know what to do with the little blog?

Um yeah, we figured out what to do with it.

We’ve all benefited from the digital camera The King gave me for my birthday this year. I’ve been able to prove to the interweb that I see crazy things in downtown Seattle. Things like naked bike riders, out of place cowboys, and just plain crazies. This last week I’ve started to keep my camera, not just in my purse, but in my hand and ready to snap a picture of something. Anything.

For weeks, maybe months, I’ve been driving by a certain billboard. Every time I race past it I think; at some point you’d better get a picture of that.

Finally I remembered to have my camera poised and ready as we drove by it recently.

I know you are looking at this billboard and wondering why I would want a picture of an ad about traffic. And not only are you asking why would I want to take this picture, but why would I want the interweb to see it?

Good thing I took a close up shot. I’m very giving.

And not only did I take a close up of it, but I also used my mad photoshop skillz in case any of you might have missed the crucial part.

It’s a squirrel. And he’s dealing poker. And not just dealing poker, but doing it while wearing a little bow tie. Dude, it doesn’t get any funnier then this.

(Expect maybe this picture, taken at the Central Park Zoo a few weeks ago.)

While making a run to Lowe’s* last week, Babboo and I were stuck in the car at a red light. I looked up and noticed the bridge in front of us was covered by a big blue tarp. This wasn’t a bunch of smaller tarps made into one big tarp. This was a huge piece of material. Seriously, it was crazy huge.

I initially wondered if it was some sort of Christo installation project, ala The Gates. Alas, The King said it was covered because they were painting it. Good to know, because it freaked my shiz out. Seriously, so huge and freaky.

Last weekend I saw this marquee and took a picture while I was driving, you know, before I had to make a turn.

I got excited about The Melvins coming. But only because I was thinking that Carrisa was a huge fan. Apparently this was all in my head. When I told her they were coming to town she was all who in the hell are The Melvins? Oopsie, my bad.

Then last night on the walk home I saw this:

Awesome, a stinky dumpster. That’s not all. Look closer.

It’s a sweet boombox. While pausing to take this picture, I had to think for a second if I wanted to pick it up and take it home. Dude, I’ve got a lot of cassettes that I could use on it. And check out the cord. Is that connected to a microphone or some sort of speaker? This might have been an ever bigger motherlode.

So tell me, seen anything crazy lately in the town you’re from? And if not, what TV show are you most looking forward to this season? And did you see “Kid Nation” last night? What did you think? We liked it. We’re also super sad that Jimmy went home. He was cute.
*We are usually very loyal to Home Depot. But Lowe’s had an awesome sale on garage door opener installation. We couldn’t pass it up. We also now have a garage door opener. Which means we are getting closer and closer to a move in date. Who needs toilets when you can open your garage door with a press of a button?

Setting: Saturday night. My front room. The King has just returned home after a long day of working at our new house.

The King: What are you watching?

Me: Fantasy Island on OnDemand.

The King: I’ve never seen Fantasy Island before. What’s it like?

Me: I had never seen it before either. I don’t think I understand it.

The King: Why? What’s not to understand?

Me: I just don’t get it. These people come to an island to get their “fantasy”. So who are all the people in their fantasy? Where do they come from? Are they actors? Is there a script they have to follow with the fantasy-wisher?

The King: They are dressed as cowboys. What’s that about?

Me: Yeah, that’s confusing. Do they know it’s not 1862? How did Ricardo Montalban get these people to dress up as cowboys? Do they know they are in somebody’s fantasy? Are they being paid? I mean, a freakin’ fantasy would have to cost like 1 million dollars to pay for this old-time set and all of these actors!

The King: Maybe you’re thinking about this too much?

Me: Maybe. But really, are they following a script that Tattoo wrote? Is it magic? Is Ricardo Montalban the devil? Or is he a good guy?

The King: Yeah, I don’t know.

Me: Neither do I. Let’s watch another episode before we go out tonight.

The King: Okay.

Seriously people, I did not get this show. Something in my head just would not let me sit back and just enjoy the scenery. Oh right, it’s called A BRAIN. I had to figure it out. Except there wasn’t anything to figure out. It was so damn confusing. Is it real? Is it fake? Is it a resort island, or is everybody there to get their fantasy fulfilled? And is there anybody in this world whose fantasy would be to live in 1863 as a sheriff of a cowboy town? Or to be in a in a pageant to be The Most Beautiful Woman in the World?

Dude, that would so not be my fantasy.

So tell me, does anyone actually understand this show? And also, what would your fantasy be?

When I go to a movie or a show I consciously pay attention to how I’m feeling about it right then. I like to make sure I’m getting my money’s worth.

For instance, when I saw Austin Powers: Goldmember at the theater I knew it wasn’t going to be all that impressive. There was a pretty jazzy opening that impressed and surprised me. I remember turning to The King and saying; no matter how this movie turns out, I’m happy with it right.this.second. I felt like, with the opening number, my $9.00 was well spent.

When The King and I saw Tony Bennett in concert a few years ago, I was alarmed at the price of tickets, especially since I’m not really what you’d call a fan of Mr. Bennett’s work. Looking at The King’s face during the show and seeing how happy he was, I knew that it didn’t matter what the tickets had cost us. The King was happy.

I admit to being slightly skeptical when recently paying close to $50 each for tickets to a live radio taping of the NPR show, This American Life. I’ve been in love with this specific radio program and the narrator Ira Glass for many years. My love grows deep and includes a spreadsheet. (Diana can vouch for this. It was sent to her along with a CD copy of my favorite episodes.)

Even the baby shows his love for Ira Glass but not his love for Mommy.

As much as I love the radio show, I’m not really sure how a live taping of a radio show works. First of all, it doesn’t sound that exciting. Seeing a radio show?! How does that work? I pictured people in the background making sound effects with wooden blocks and dried plants, maybe even banging a sheet of metal for some lightning effects.

Last Wednesday night we got a babysitter for Babboo and my friend May’s little girl and headed over to the show. I was still very confused as to how it was going to go. I wasn’t even sure what to wear. I mean, it was at the theater so I felt like I needed to dress up. But it’s an NPR show, so I also felt like I needed to dress down a little. I wore slacks, May wore a skirt and The King wore jeans. We were covered on every level.

As soon as I sat down in my seat and heard Ira Glass’ voice, I knew my $50 was worth it. I was not only hearing a voice I had grown to know and love, but I was seeing the person behind the voice.

Ira, how I love you so.

The way This American Life works is that each week they choose a theme and put together different kinds of stories on that theme. It sounds sort of boring, but there is nothing boring about it. The theme for the live show we saw? Television. Ahhhh. Two of my favorite things in one. Glorious, I know.

I’m sure they picked this theme because they have a new This American Life TV show on Showtime (go here to see trailers). What do radio people have to say about TV?

Well, they love it, just like I do. Ira Glass talked about his true and undying love of the recently canceled The O.C.. He talked about how Seth and Summer are the best couple on TV. And how Summer may be the best character on TV. (That’s a pretty broad statement, I know.) When someone from the audience yelled out to Ira; it was canceled!! Ira just scoffed and replied; as if there is anything about The O.C. that I don’t know about. It was comedy gold. The live band, Mates of State even played The O.C. theme song after this piece. On the piano. Awesome. I looked over at The King and saw him smiling. He is a huge O.C. fan and isn’t afraid to admit it. (Actually, he’s very afraid to admit it.)

Who else took part in the show besides the lovely Mr. Ira Glass? Well we saw Dan Savage tell about what TV show he won’t allow his 8 year old son to watch. Alexa Junge talked about her years writing for Friends. She also talked about poop, which is always fun. David Rakoff admitted to not liking a certain TV show (that I love). (David Rakoff, who is also one of my all time faves.)

As always, what is the point of this post?

This weekend’s episode of This American Life will be from their live show. So check your local NPR schedule and listen to it.

And if you hear a loud “I love you Ira” coming from the audience, it is not me. Someone else beat me to the punch, as I had been planning on yelling that out for weeks.