It's amazing how you just summed up life in the midwest-

a. Packers vs. Vikings (yay to the packers!)

b. neighbors who give you evil looks for sleeping with other women. Personally, I think they are jealous.

c. Repair people who don't come for three weeks after you call them.

Why do I live here again?

your blogpost cracked me up!!! i can't do a thing to help you but maybe i should remind you that you can watch TV on your computer??? just in case your neighbors start throwing silver knives at you while you're howling on the rooftop...

 good luck with the dish and again, hilarious blog!

Thank you for making my day- this was the funniest thing I've read in a long time :) Also, I'm not entirely sure *why* you're asking for things to do when you seem to be finding things to do just fine on your own... heh. anyways. 

as a board game junkie, I suggest scrabble. it's fun,  and doesn't require white tank tops or food fights. But maybe that's just me! 

Ah the howling... yes, last year when my dish went dead and the cable people defied the known notions of "as soon as possible" I admit I almost gave in to it.
I'd scare my cats though, so...

You wouldn't dig trekking would you?
There's nothing more effective to pass time than getting lost in a hills chain. It's scary too, chance is that you'll panick, then go into survival mode and come out of it in the next town to discover you've been out for 48 hours.

But hey, 2 days down =P

|| | Life is possible through art because of art, and for art.

All else is hypothetical || |

That was hysterical.  Sorry, I am not laughing at your pain - really (ok well I am, just a little).  But I do sympathize.  While mine was not quite at your level, I almost had a coronory when my electricity went out last week before Bionic Woman.  Lucky for me I only missed fifteen minutes. 

I hope it's fixed really soon!

Grab an large old box... get some playmobile characters (or appropriate dolls from the $1 store). Cut a large hole in bottom and cut away all of front of said box leaving just a one inch border of cardboard. Put plastic wrap over the front of the box (attach from the inside).... do you see where I'm going with this?? Put aforementioned characters in through the bottom of the box and act out your favourite television scenes.

Or... grab the box and a large roll of paper... draw several scenes on the paper roll... or print out a comic strip and stick in on. Attach each end to a paper towel roll and stick paper towel rolls inside box. Push them through the top of the box... then when you turn the one on the left, instant television... follow better instructions here

Ok. So these are lame suggestions. But oh well. People always look at me weird when I tell them that my TV lives permanently in the bottom of my closet. I do watch DVDs on my computer, but that's about it.

People have dish...I have 6 channels. 

-EMS

Personally, I'd read.

And that picture of Maggie is totally from the Simpsons episode where Lisa and Bart are on opposing teams. Don't ask me why I know that. It's not like I'm addicted to my television or something.

"Out of the box is where I live." -Starbuck

"dypole" and "TheWeyrd1" get my votes for best suggestions... a) if your wife is helping distract you...why is this a bad thing (other than your bathroom doesn't get grouted) More time with the wife for...alone time with no distractions...people pay loads of money for that opportunity...they call it vacation and b) (this is the literature student in me coming out) BOOKS ARE YOUR FRIEND! honestly people...most good tv comes from a book any ways...go directly to the source material...What do people have against Jane Austin or John Grisham? so...time with the wife and books sound like a great time to me.

"Nothing is impossible and there is no such thing as a lost cause"

and btw i feel your pain.  i just moved down south and had no tv for 3 weeks.  i nearly lost my mind which is funny because i'm always complaining that there's nothing on tv.  i'd recommend aol's website in2tv for classics and network websites for current episodes.

i own a ridiculous amount of dvd's so i had plenty of back up.  i also tried stealing cable from the neighbors and sitting on my front porch waiting for a directv truck to pass by so i could through myself in front of it and beg them to have mercy.  Neither worked.  I finally went to a local bar to watch games but that can get expensive especially when your team is losing.

I also took snacks to circuit city and posted myself on their comfy couch and watched disney movies.  Of course you could always go for a walk.  For the love of Joe Montana do not re-grout the bathroom tiles. 

Well, I rarely watch tv. The only reason I have the thing is because of the news and becasue it has a better resolution than my lap-top screen,so dvd's are watched on it. So I wouldn't miss it.

My girlfriend, however, is a total MTV nut (yes, the channel I despise most in life) so if the thing broke down I'd actually be grateful.

Still, I know how you feel, only I get this was when my internet goes dead. And that, dear people, is very, very, very bad for my mood! My gf can attest to the fact that I turn into my five year old evil self and those few autistic traits I did inherit frommy father come out with a vengence. It. Has. To. Get. Fixed!

So tell your wife she's lucky you're handling things as well as you are and enjoy your time together ;)

Who you gonna be if you can't be yourself,
you can't get it from t.v., you can't force it on
anybody else.-- Ani Difranco

Losing your internet connection ;-)

I always assumed everyone watched as much television as I do. This notion seemed totally normal to me for most part of my life.

Now I actually find myself surrounded by people who do not even OWN a television!! How shocking is that??

I sold my TV 3 months ago. What do I do since that day? Reading, writing, listening to music (carefully) and watching DVDs on my computer (to avoid cold turky).

Ok, I haven't seen my cats, several friends and my partens since that day ... and yeah, on sunday morings it's hard to fall asleep without the help of silly cartoons, and ok, 5 books and 7 cds a month are expensive ('cause I need to own them - the cds with booklet and stuff), but you know, ...

How much is one of those hot ultra-flat LCD-Screens? 

My wife and I switched from Comcast to DISH to save some moola.  And you know if you live in Minnesota we have no choice in cable companies - its almost like they are forcing us into the pits of hell I call DISH.
Rain a little?  Whoops! There goes the signal.
Wind blowing a little too hard?  Ah shit there it goes again.

I'm looking forward to snow storms.  Its like an added torture not having TV to soothe your "I'm stuck in the house" blues.

I say Porn. And that would be my advice for all regions whether you had a Dish, Comcast, 6 channels or if you were Ted Turner....uh huh. That's right.

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