TV Dinner

Hello World, Happy Friday the 13th! The bad thing about having a Friday the 13th in February, particularly for the superstitious among us (and you know who you are) is that you're practically guaranteed to have another one, basically right around the corner, in March. That's because, except for Leap Years, the days of the week that you have in March are exactly the same as the ones you just had in February, so if you didn't like Friday the 13th the first time around, you're certainly not going to think much of it rearing its ugly head again a scant 28 days later, I dare say. Normally I would consider myself blissfully immune to the effects of the unlucky day, but this time around, I had a dreadful day at work, and even jinxed them at the diner, where I not only dropped my dirty utensils all over their carpet, but in a textbook example of the contagion of suggestible thinking, you could plainly hear the crashing of plates and cookware by the staff on all sides. Since this was my first offense of this nature, I don't expect them to actually ban us from their premises like the Pizzeria Uno brouhaha of yore, but it certainly didn't endear us to them in any way, that's for sure, and I can't say that I blame them one bit. For anyone in the local area who was tired of snowstorms (and I don't mind saying that I count myself firmly among their number, believe me) the weather gods decided to exchange the flaky white stuff, as a change of pace, for endless days of arctic temperatures in the single digits and howling winds, making it feel well below zero, thanks not. In the teeth of this unwelcome onslaught, we went to the supermarket after dinner, and not surprised to see the aisles awash with St. Patrick's Day decorations, as well as a pastel explosion of Easter candy - notwithstanding that one of them is more than a month away, while the other isn't technically until April, for heaven's sake. And mind you, that's regular Easter, and not Greek Orthodox Easter, which might be even later, so those marshmallow Peeps will have plenty of time to get even more stale (if that could even be possible) in the meantime. No, the big surprise was coming inside from the bone-chilling deep freeze of the parking lot, only to be confronted (ironically, one hopes) with giant displays of beach balls, lawn furniture, patio umbrellas and suntan lotion, of all things. I will freely admit that satire is often lost on me, but under the circumstances, I still thought that was just adding insult to injury, and once again, thanks so very much not. Like millions of other TV viewers, we subscribe to the TiVo service, and enjoy its convenience and many fine features. It comes with its own remote control that works the DVR device and television, which is handy and easy to use, and I have no complaints about it. But in our family room where we relax and watch our favorite programs (which we call "the green room" because of the wall color, and not because it's so environmentally friendly) it's so dim at night that you really can't see the buttons you're trying to push on the remote, without keeping a flashlight nearby to help you out. Alas and alack, what to do, oh, what to do? [Insert image of hand-wringing housewife here.] Surprise! Manufacturers of entertainment accessories have heard the cries of an anguished populace, and responded with what I consider a brilliant innovation, which is a remote control where the buttons light up so you can see them in the dark. What won't they think of next! It doesn't stay lit all the time and drain the battery, but when you press any button, they all light up for a while so you can see what you need to see, and then they fade out again until you need it. This has been a great improvement in the quality of our viewing pleasure, so that we're not changing the channel when we're trying to adjust the volume, or hitting the fast forward by mistake when we're looking for the program guide. I thought that was about the smartest thing they ever came up with, since the invention of the remote control to start with, and I'm so glad we have one. With all due respect to flashlights, this is way better, and it goes without saying that I am unanimous in that. Now, alert readers may recall that Santa Claus brought me a Lenovo ThinkCentre Edge (one of those newfangled all-in-one models where everything is built right into the monitor and there's no separate CPU that sits around taking up space) which is wonderful in so many ways, and a joy to use. The screen is nice and bright, but like the TiVo remote, in dim lighting, the black keyboard I was using was much too hard to see, or do any actual typing with any real accuracy. I complained to Bill in a desultory manner, more out of frustration than anything else, and basically resigned myself to the way things were, and determined to make the best of a bad situation - since everyone knows that suffering builds character, and anyone who knows me can tell you that I'm nothing if not a character, by golly. And yet, once again, Surprise! Manufacturers of computer accessories, like their entertainment counterparts, have heard the anguished cries of PC users huddled in the gloom around their flickering screens, and they too have come out with lighted keyboards to save the day (or night) and make the world safe for computing in even the bleakest conditions, and I ought to know. This USB keyboard plugs right in and stays lit all the time that the computer is in use, and then goes out when the power is turned off. It was actually designed for gamers, who play in the dark so that the animated graphics are easier to see, and although I don't need it to play games with (I can burn the Library down in BookWorm, whether I can see what I'm doing or not, apparently) but it's been the ideal help for everything else I need to use it for. In fact, I'd love to stay here and use it all evening, but they say it's going to be -1 degrees overnight, so I've got to hurry out and buy some beach balls and suntan lotion, don't you know. Elle