LW: 0, Pyrex: 1

LW earned a Super Bowl Purple Heart today.

This morning, LW was making some beer bread for the Super Bowl party we were going to at a friend's house. I was in the front room when I heard GASP, CRASH!! [cue shattering glass sound effect]. I ran to the edge of the carpet in the family room to survey the casualty in the kitchen from a safe vantage point. What... a... mess... On the kitchen floor was a big glob of gooey beer bread batter mixed with shards of broken pyrex, and there were little slivers of broken pyrex glimmering at me from all across the kitchen floor.

LW told me her toe was bleeding, but not worthy of racing to the ER. I went and put on my shoes and grabbed a pair of flip flops for LW. LW was using a paper towel as a sort of mop to push all the gooey beer bread batter mess into a smaller pile, and ended up having another shard of pyrex puncture the palm of her hand. Again, not worty of racing to the ER, but LW was now using one hand to apply direct pressure to the other hand to stop the bleeding, so she egressed from the scene of the casualty to dress her wounds.

I swept the kitchen floor once...

I swept the kitchen floor twice...

I swept the kitchen floor three times...

Yet I was still able to find three more shards of broken pyrex on my next walk-through inspection of the kitchen floor. That pyrex stuff just went EVERYWHERE.

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What a Super Bowl, eh? That was really intense how you weren't sure who was going to win until the last play. Well... the second to the last play, since the last play was the pointless Eli Manning hiking the ball and putting his knee down to burn the last second on the game clock. I was really impressed by the Giants' defense - they were just all over Brady and he had to get the ball off quick or he was going down with it.

As for the Super Bowl commercials, I think my favorite Super Bowl commercial was the one where the guy can breathe fire. He lightly blows fire from his mouth to light the candles for his romantic candle-lit dinner. Then, you see him start to get nervous all of a sudden and ask the girl, "Do you have a cat?" A cat goes meow and goes running by the camera. Next thing you know, the dude sneezes a huge fireball and lights the apartment on fire. It was pretty funny. I don't have the foggiest idea or recollection what it was an advertisement for, but it was a funny commercial nonetheless.

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Our New TV Stand

After the Super Bowl party, we went over to Costco to look at the entertainment centers and TV stands for our new TV. [Cue sound effect: angelic choir singing Handel's Hallelujah chorus.]

Haaaallelujah!
Haaaallelujah!
Hallelujah Hallelujah,
Halleeeelujah!

If you had asked me before we embarked on this search for a TV stand to predict where we would find the ideal, almost perfect TV stand, my money would NOT have been on Costco. Why out of all of the different furniture stores, stores with dedicated furniture departments, and the electronic stores that sell the huge TVs that you would NEED a new TV stand for don't they have an ideal TV stand?

At all the places we looked and expected to find an ideal TV stand, we were limited to the same two choices:

Choice A) Spartan, ultra-modern looking, three glass shelves held together by three artsy metal posts.

Advantages:
1) Open for air flow to cool the electronic components.
2) Fewer materials = Lower cost.

Disadvantages:
1) Hideously ugly. LW wouldn't even consider one of these.

Choice B) Wooden, enclosed monstrosity.

Advantages:
1) Aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

Disadvantages:
1) Closed up box doesn't allow air flow to cool the electronic components.
2) Outrageously expensive for what you get.
3) Most are made out of pressed-wood that's going to fall apart during our next PCS transfer. If you DO find something that's made of solid wood rather than pressed wood, then cha-ching cha-ching, just tack on another several hundred dollars to the price tag.

Okay, okay, so I hear you saying to yourself, "Self, I wonder if he's ever going to get around to telling us what this "ideal" TV stand is that he supposedly found at Costco?" Alright, I'll tell you.

The TV stand that we bought at Costco today was clearly designed by someone who wants something that looks nice, but is also very functional.
- Functionality: The panels in the doors can be replaced with a black fabric that allows some air flow and would allow speakers to be inside the TV stand.
- Functionality: The shelves for the electronic components are on rollers that allow the shelves to slide in and out and make it easier for connecting the wires in back.
- Functionality: There's a power strip inside the TV stand.
- Functionality: The shelves are made of a wood frame with a sheet-metal sort of mesh-grate in the middle that allows for air flow to keep electronic components cool.
- Functionality: The back has two removable panels that easily pop in and out (they're held in place by some small magnets) so you can take them out to (a) hook up the wires or (b) just simply leave them off to allow air flow and cooling for the electronics.
- Aesthetics: It's got a traditional look that LW and I like, and it looks nice (LW wouldn't have allowed us to get an ugly one, so this is a go/no-go criteria).
- Price: It was about half the price of some of the other stands we were considering settling for at other stores. Plus, the display model was all they had left and it had some scratches on it. We figure it won't take long for either (a) our two little boys or (b) the movers during our next PCS transfer to put a few scratches in it, and we just couldn't find anything else with this much functionality.
- Bonus: It was almost an exact perfect fit in the back of our car with the boys in the second and third row right-side seats and the left hand side seats folded down. No urgent trip to borrow a friend's monster truck was required to bring it home.

Cabinet doors open, note the stereo receiver rolled-out on it's shelf to enable connecting wires in the back. Note that you can see the white wall behind the TV stand because I have the back panels removed.

This is looking down on one of the shelves rolled out. Notice the wire screen that allows air flow through the shelves. This material is also in the bottom of the TV stand under all the shelves.


Last but not least, here's our new TV setup. This takes Lego Star Wars to a whole new level! :-)