I Forgive You, BBC

OK, remember how I ranted and raved about "Torchwood" and how it was absolutely the WORST show we had ever seen? Well, the BBC has TOTALLY redeemed themselves for me now.

I was messing around on the computer the other night while Mark and Tom randomly blew up aliens downstairs (in a video game - as far as I know, there has been no alien invasion. And, if there was, Tom would be no help AT ALL. That is one thing that wigs him totally out.) and decided to go to Netflix and possibly watch some romantic movie. I scrolled around on the TV series section, just idly looking and saw a series from the BBC called "Coupling". It said it was the British version of "Friends", so I was hooked instantly and decided to check it out.

Y'all! This show is great! It's hilarious and sweet and pretty darn sexy. It is vaguely like "Friends" - it's about a group of friends and their lives and they meet regularly in a bar instead of a coffee shop. But it's different enough that it's pretty entertaining. I watched it on the instant view and then decided it was so good, Tom needed to see it too, so I added it to our queue. We had just started watching them and I thought it might be nice to get an in-depth review from a guy's point of view. So I asked him. Here is his detailed synopsis of the show.

"Clever. Funny."

So, there you have it. How much more detail could you possibly want? Apparently, it was on for four seasons and that was it, so don't fall too much in love with it. But fall a little in love. Enough to watch it. Because I think you'll like it. Let me know if you do.

And due to many, many demands from my Google Reader readers (is that redundant?), here is a direct link to my Herald-Leader blog. OK, one request. But still.

Wait. It's Valentine's Day?

Tom and I are not going to have a big Valentine's Day celebration. I'm not sure he even knows it's Valentine's Day. After 30+ years, we get more enjoyment out of playing silly tv games together than buying each other heart-shaped boxes of candy.

Wait.

Maybe if it is a Whitman's Sampler, I just might accept a box. Maybe.

We have our own brand of romance. Our own kind of love. A love that is bolstered with silly nicknames and laughing out loud. The best kind of love.

So. A Whitman's sampler. And. Possibly something like this.

Could you just eat him up?


He was born in Japan with a large, clear, love-heart-shaped pattern in his coat. The Chihuahua was born in May as one of a litter to a breeder. Shop owner Emiko Sakurada said it was the first time a puppy with the marks had been born out of a thousand she had bred. She had no plans to sell the puppy, which has been named ‘Heart-kun’. The long-coated male Chihuahua puppy was born in Odate, northern Japan .

TV Is A Major Force In Our Lives - A FORCE..

...It must be handled very carefully, both its censure and its artistic honesty. - Bill Bixby

And you know you can take that quote seriously, because Bill Bixby was The Hulk. Not a man to be trifled with.


TV really is a major force at our house. We take it very seriously and handle it very carefully. And can I just say? I heart DVR. How did we manage before DVR? Seriously. Although, I have to be honest and say that TV viewing at our house may be slightly out of control.


For example.


The other night I came home from dinner out with friends, all excited because I could put on my pajamas and watch my DVD of the first season of "Gilmore Girls". But no. We had the DVR set to record two shows downstairs and you can't watch and record at the same time, unless you are watching one of those channels. And Tom wanted to watch a ball game. So he had to come upstairs. So I couldn't watch Gilmore Girls. So, what did I do? Did I get out a good book? Did I go and exercise?


I'm snorting with laughter here.


No.


We unhooked the DVD player and hooked it up to the TV in the bedroom.


So.


We were recording two shows downstairs.


Tom was watching the ball game upstairs.


And I was watching "Gilmore Girls" in the bedroom.


I seriously think we win the TV Geeks of the Year award.

Things You Don't Hear Much Any More

1. Your slip is showing.

2. I tried to call, but your phone was busy.

3. I would have called, but I couldn't find a pay phone.

4. Can you get up and change the channel, please?

5. Oh, we wanted to see that TV show last night but missed it. What happened?

6. Just save it on that floppy disk.

7. We decided to drive instead of fly because gas was so cheap.

8. I was busy all morning baking bread.

9. You can heat it up in the oven for about half an hour.

10. Where's your popcorn popper?

11. Why don't we all meet at my house for coffee and homemade cake tomorrow morning, since the husbands will all be at work?

12. Come in for dinner when the street lights come on.

13. We never lock our doors.

14. Fill 'er up, Ma'am?

15. I've got ten bucks. Want to go to the movies and get some popcorn and cokes?

And what haven't you heard in a while?

Step Away From The Television

"So please, oh PLEASE, we beg, we pray, Go throw your TV set away, And in its place you can install, A lovely bookshelf on the wall."
— Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Our elementary students are participating in a reading contest. It involves paper race cars representing each class, posted on the walls in the hall, zooming around a race track to the finish line. Progress of the race cars is determined by how many books the students have read. Some of the 5Th graders were complaining to me this morning.

Them: Our race car is last!
Me: Well, have you been reading?
Them: We don't have time to read!
Me: Turn off the TV.
Them: Whaaaaaat?
Me: Turn off the TV. And the electronic games. And the computer.
Them: But....
Me: Turn them off. Just for 1/2 an hour. Try 1/2 hour of reading every night.
Them: Stunned into silence.

I left it at that. Didn't say anymore or lecture anymore. I felt pretty sanctimonious. I was super librarian. I was just so awe-inspiring. I even found this quote to include in my inspirational blog post.

"American children and adolescents spend 22 to 28 hours per week viewing television, more than any other activity except sleeping. By the age of 70 they will have spent 7 to 10 years of their lives watching TV."-- The Kaiser Family Foundation

And then I thought about it. Really thought about it. 22-28 hours per week. Tom and I watch roughly three hours of TV every night. More on the weekends. Say, four hours at least. That's 23 hours a week, at a minimum. Whoa. We are losing YEARS of our lives.

Now, in our defense, we do watch a lot of movies. And we DVR just about everything now so we hardly ever watch live TV with commercials. And we watch series on DVD. But...still...that's a lot of TV.

I do read a lot. Probably at least two books a week. But think how much more I could read if I turned off the TV a little more?

But then we would have to cut back on all the episodes of "Smallville" we are catching up on. Six years worth. Can't possibly quit now.

We would have to stop watching the of-course-we-watch-them-don't-you shows like "Grey's Anatomy", "Boston Legal", "House", "Bones", "Heroes", "Jericho", "Two and a Half Men", and "Christine". Can't. Stop.

We would have to give up on our new, interesting and are we the only ones watching this show?, Blood Ties. Noooooo.

We would have to flick off HBO and stop watching Rome and Entourage. We are addicted, I admit it. Would suffer serious withdrawal. Can't do it.

We would have to cut off our subscription to Netflix. I have a copy of "The World Trade Center" at home right now we need to watch. Just not gonna happen. Too many movies to see. But that doesn't really count as TV watching, right? It's ON the TV, but it's not really TV, right?

OK, I'm grasping at straws here. We do watch a lot of TV. But...we enjoy it. It's fun to watch together. We laugh, we cry (OK, I cry), we discuss, we banter, we make fun of each other, we...bond. We do. We bond. It's a good time for us.

Maybe I could wait just 1/2 hour to start watching. Get a little more reading in.

Maybe I need a race track of my own. Just to have a little incentive, you know.