Julep: The idiot box.

Twinks, you are not alone -- keep writing, I'm reading! And I will do better about writing myself.

I hate to hear about your MIL ruining the fun of the big TV. Seems like sometimes you just have to enjoy something because the other party to your marriage is excited about it. I guess she's been married a lot longer than we have, but I still think that's sort of a sad commentary.

On the broader subject ... there's a big TV in our living room and sometimes I really wish there were not so that I could sit quietly or listen to music while I read my book. But the substantial TV in the living room is not enough for Mr J. I have refused to allow a TV in the bedroom -- he stays up so much later than I do, I would never get any good sleep -- but he is actively plotting for a 60-inch HDTV when we finally get the basement fixed up. I don't know how I feel about that. (Well, I feel that a 60-inch TV is unnecessary anywhere, but setting that aside....)

Although I do sometimes wish I could read my book in peace, I also quite like sitting together in the evenings. But if we are sitting together, there is a TV on. Mr Julep, love him, is not much of a reader. Well, that's not true ... he reads on vacation when there is no TV and if there were another power outage he would quite enjoy finishing the book he's been not-reading for a year. But in his mind, "relaxing" means one thing: television. All kinds of crap TV. Movies he has seen 20 times, many episodes of NCIS (which I do enjoy), anything on the Discovery Channel.

It's a family trait - the entire Mr J family has the TV on all the time. I wonder a bit about how this is going to shake out when we have kids. I'm with you, Twinks, on no TV for the little ones - our kids won't need any boost to build their ADHD. And I frankly don't know what Mr. J will do with himself if he can't put the TV on. Listen to a lot of NPR, I guess - which he loves.

Is it wrong and Twinks-MIL-like to secretly wish for a power outage, or maybe just a cable outage?