I watched the Oscars last night. It's not typically my M.O., but it kept me company while editing the Fancy Band program and then writing up my Fancy Band post. Also, there was confusion as to why the first few minutes were full of commercials; I honestly wondered if I had the wrong channel. Jimmy Kimmel even alluded to it by saying, we're already ( Read more... )

As I was finishing up on Saturday after that contest ended, I'd pulled my phone out of my purse, and I felt it go off. I'd gotten a band email, and it had another subject heading that made me pause. We've gotten so many bad news emails this season. And this one, while not entirely unexpected, still stung: Our beloved emcee, at 93, had passed away-- ( Read more... )

I still can't believe my mom watched the whole game with us last night. Usually she's upstairs watching whatever, maybe she'd have the game on so she could watch the commercials, and we'd call her down once the halftime show started. She was on the couch with us almost the entire time. Also, it was kind of fun to have the three of us all hanging ( Read more... )

So much new technology, so little time. I've now spent a week with my new TV. For super basic stuff, I'm getting used to it. I found the on/off button on the underside, so I don't need the remote to do that. One thing that was annoying to start off with was that it would go to a start screen whenever it was turned on. That's great if you do ( Read more... )

If it's not one thing, it's another... I swear, gremlins have been following me around this year. The electronics at work have been on the fritz for months. In fact, I returned to work today to find our big copier/printer wasn't working, and the little printer by my workstation wasn't being cooperative, either. It took almost an hour to be able to ( Read more... )

On Sunday, I called grandma at our normal time, in part to make sure she'd made the time change. No answer. I had to leave by 1:30 and she hadn't called back by then, so I figured I'd try calling again after I got home from my concert ( Read more... )

When my TV turned on at 6 this morning, it was making a weird sound. I did have to get up to go to work today, so waking up then wasn't too bad, but I was concerned there was a problem with my TV. Did I leave it on Channel 9's HD channel somehow? It's Comcast channel 192 and there's been something funky with it for a few months now--any time I ( Read more... )

My dad went to Sam's yesterday and picked up a couple long, skinny loaves of bread. This made me think of bread girl, who is featured in the Viking cruise ship commercials prior to PBS shows. She's this little girl holding an armful of baguettes and she always makes dad hungry when we see her, and the commercial opens with a particular violin motif ( Read more... )

When I came home Thursday night, I found my father in the family playing with a new toy--he'd gotten a 4K smart TV to use as a monitor for the computer(s) he has in the basement. The one he had died. This one is almost as big as the regular TV in the family room. He does a lot of graphic work, so he likes having, say, a 37" TV to see fine details ( Read more... )

I mentioned that my parents recently upgraded to standard, online Netflix and my father has been binge-watching all sorts of things. Shortly afterward, I discovered the Marie Kondo show was a Netflix show; that is something I've wanted to watch since I do enjoy organization. Right now, the only way I can watch is through either the downstairs TV or ( Read more... )