Adventures in HD

My room-mate and I have been talking for a while now about splitting the cost of an HD TV. After extensive - and I mean extensive - research for both of us, we finally decided on a 42 inch, 1080, Panasonic Viera Plasma tv. The price shopping was yet another research challenge, but it finally looked like Sears had the best deal.

So, we headed to Sears in my room-mate's car, found the right department, got ignored by some sales people, found the TV anyway, and got someone's attention to ring up the sale. After a check on my own finances earlier in the day, it was decided that I would pay for it and he would pay me his half later. Debit card in hand, I prepared to make the purchase.

And things got complicated. Low and behold - my room-mate has a Sears card! And with that we can get 10% off or 6 months same as cash!

okaaay.

Except it wasn't that easy. My room-mate hadn't used his sears card in a while and it was no longer valid. But no problem - he can get a new one! So, paperwork ensues and is signed. Meanwhile, I'm starting to wander around a bit, slightly bored now.

I overhear the salesman say something about 10 (mostly unintelligible) or 6 months same as (also mostly unintelligible). My room-mate choose the 6 months option.

Receipt in hand, we head back out to the car and to the loading dock. I take the receipt in, scan it at the kiosk, and by the time my room-mate has the car in position, they are bringing out the tv in a box.

But it won't fit. The tv is not supposed to be laid down, so the trunk is out. And the backseat - while wide enough - isn't tall enough. Thinking quickly, I suggest we get the van from my room-mate's work. Which is right nearby. TV comes out of the car and back into the loading area and we head over to his work. Except, when we get there, the van is gone and in use.

Back to Sears, still in the car - thinking we might have to unbox it in the parking lot to get it back to the apartment. With some careful seat arrangement and the proper angle, we get the tv in the car - still in the box. It's no longer a comfortable ride - but it gets the job done.

Back to the apartment and unload. We have issues with getting it out of the box and getting it onto the (finally) correctly assembled stand. The current living room TV goes to the video game room. This is when I incur minor injury #1 to my hand on the tv/door frame intersection.

(swearing interlude)

Game room TV in place, new HD is put in place. I read the instructions while my room-mate used the remote and you can imagine how well that went. We finally got a picture going and I was pretty much sick of all things HD as this point. Especially since I incurred minor injury #2 on the packaging for the HDMI cable - which we ended up not using yet since neither of us could bear the thought of facing all the cables behind the TV.

I decided instead to install the shower caddy that had also been purchased that evening. The removabl of the old, rusted caddy released a small flood of gray/black water. I'm thinking it was just from the end cap deteriorating, but it might have been mold or something. The new caddy is complicated enough that I considering reading the installation directions, but managed anyway.

There had also been a stop at Old Navy since I wanted to get some pants (soloman grundy want pants too!) and my room-mate had a coupon. My pants and shirt fit fine and I'm wearing them now. My room-mate got the wrong size on the pants he bought and managed to cut the shirt he got when trying to remove the tags.

A mixture of success and failure yesterday. And a very long day. Very long.