Kiss My Knits!

Our beautiful, wonderful TV that my father bought for us when my daughter was three months old has given up the ghost. For a while it was intermittently shrinking to a single horizontal line, then returning to normal. Then it was shrinking to a single line and we’d have to smack the TV to get the picture back. Tonight, no amount of smacking is helping.

I think we’re going to have to spring for a new one. Anybody got any good advice? We think we want a Panasonic 27″ TV. Panasonic because our HD/DVD/VHS combo is Panasonic and we’d like to stick with one remote, and 27″ because that’s what we’ve got now and it fits on our TV cart.

I don’t know what it is with the appliances today. I’m fully expecting the washing machine to come vibrating across the floor at me, demolition derby style.

Several weeks ago we noticed that our wireless connection was flaky. My husband realized that it was our cordless phone which was causing the problems. The further away we are from the laptops with the phone, the better the connection. So if it’s something mission critical that we’re working on, we may not answer the phone, for which I apologize in advance.

A few days ago, we noticed that the connection was still iffy, even when the phone wasn’t in use. Then my husband heard the *ding!* of the microwave finishing, and presto, our connection was fine again. So now the microwave is also hosing the wireless.

Yesterday I noticed that the phone reception got very crackly when the microwave was on, but cleared right up as soon as the timer dinged. So the microwave is ALSO hosing the phone.

What the heck? It’s like all the appliances in our house are conspiring to keep us off the internet. Are the robots finally rebelling? Should I be arming myself, or can I get by with a new microwave? Yeesh.