Monday, April 5, 2010

Living Room Entertainment Upgrade


This is a picture of our new entertainment (TV) set up in our living room. Getting it here was a collaborative effort from several members of my family. Paula and I shopped for the TV and the stand. I purchased them with my son James along to help me to unload them from my car and carry them into the house. We then set up the TV on our old grey stand and watched it for a week in a temporary set up.

Last Friday Paula and I set out with our day's goal of putting the new stand together. Upon opening the package we revealed a menagerie of parts, pieces, hardware and wooden dowels that boggled our minds.

After reading through the multi-step instruction booklet we knew it was going to take time and cooperative effort to put it together. The combination of my wife, me and the million pieces of what promised to be a TV stand was the type of situation that would test even the strongest of marriages. Nevertheless we agreed we could get through it and started working as a team.

As we started I experienced the 2nd of my bout of pain and nausea in as many days due to kidney stones. I had to abandon our effort for medication and bed rest. This did not dull the sharpened edge of determination of my bride. She set her sights on assembling the stand by herself. Over the course of the afternoon, as I slept, she put it together. It was an amazing accomplishment. When I emerged from my hydrocodone induced slumber I was overwhelmed by what I saw. We had a new TV stand assembled by my amazing wife. I was so impressed with her acheivement I immediately dubbed our new piece of furniture: "Paula's Platform". The name and the actual structure will stand as a tribute to her effort and determination for the foreseeable future.

With the stand assembled there were still 2 more important phases to completely have our new TV arrangement set up. On Saturday afternoon, Michael took the time out of his day to come over and help us mount the TV onto the back of the stand with mounting brackets. He then very meticulously worked on setting up and connecting the cable box, speakers, and video game system so it would all work. We really appreciate all that he did.

Now our new TV set up is complete and working. It was done just in time to allow our family to watch a Disney Nature video after Easter dinner last evening. While it did cost a bit more than anticipated and was a bit more work than first thought the newly set up of the combination of "Paula's Platform" and our LG TV makes both of the residents in this house very happy. The picture is amazing and the potential for spending nights with my wife watching our favorite shows and movies was worth it all. The fact that it's in place just in time for the start of the new baseball season is also an added bonus. Rest assured we're going to enjoy our living room entertainment upgrade.

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