Satellite and tidying up

I was going to miss about a half day of work today. We're in the middle of finishing up a paper and submitting a grant proposal but I really, really needed satellite installed now that I have a high definition tv set.

Unfortunately while the installer did make it to my place on time (scheduled for between 8am and noon) by arriving at 10:30am, I totally underestimated how long the install would take.

Over to the left you can see my old satellite dish from 4 years ago on the roof, the new one is down there on the metal post being installed.

Since the dish for HD is a lot bigger--apparently it uses 5 different satellites instead of the mere one that my old one used--and since it was a very windy day, the installer opted for installing on the ground. This added a lot of time since he needed to dig a post hole and then allow the concrete to harden enough so that the sight line of the dish wouldn't change after he set it.

All in all, the installation took over 4 hours so it was 3pm before I was able to go into work--and at that point it just didn't seem to be worth it. And besides, I had a new toy!

There's philosophers that maintain that true happiness can only be found from within. Ha! The dickwads need to get high def and a good satellite signal. Then they'd realize that true happiness comes from high def sports and movies. Hoo-boy this is GREAT. Tomorrow night's UNC game is going to be one hell of a fun time. Me bonding with my television. Ahhhh. Hell, I might even watch the State vs Duke game that's on right afterwards.

During the two hours I was waiting for the installer to arrive in the morning I decided to continue my fight against 4 years of accumulated clutter.

Witness at left my kitchen island. Horrors! I know--I should be embarrassed by how bad I let things get. The dining room table was even worse than the island. But duirng the two hour wait I tackled both and the table is completely cleared off and as you can see below, the island and chest of drawers are almost clear.

I'll get them finished by the weekend and then set up some kitchen toys on them and maybe do some serious cooking and baking to celebrate. Perhaps some munchie type stuff that I can gobble down during the Superbowl on Sunday. Speaking of which, I need to pick up some potatoes at the grocery store. I'm almost out. What's a big game without home fries?

The television is really great. I am so amazed at how much better the HD signal is over regular broadcast. It can give you shivers!

I've already set up a number of movies to record--as a intro gimmick I get various HBO, Showtime, TMC, and Cinemax channels free for 3 months--as well as some basketball games. Later tonight I'll start programming in regular network tv programs.

I'm now using a DVR from DirectTV that goes with the HD service they sold me to record for my high def television. As a result, I've put my ReplayTV unit back in the bedroom now since that tv is still on cable, which I'm keeping on the $9/month basic plan 'cause I'm still using Roadrunner for my Internet connection. I doubt I'll record much with it anymore since already I've been spoiled by HD. But I would like to watch some of the programs I have stored on the hard drive of the ReplayTV unit. At this point I have the entire seasons of ER and Journeyman on it... but with all the movies available through the DirectTV I might not ever have the time to catch up on those old tv shows....