Harmony - Sort Of

One day later.
One not-so-expensive monitor.
One not-so-expensive video card.
Peace.

Internet? Not yet.

After another 90 minute conversation first with "Fernando", then "Raoel"(I'm sure they must make up these names) I am transferred to the Advanced Tech Help department for my satellite internet. This would be "Damien". After another 30 minutes of this and that, he happens to ask what my signal strength is. 43 I happily reply. 43? To surf the internet he tells me I should have a minimum of 52. Hmmm... He has me tweak this and that and I get it up to 55. This is not good enough for Damien, and, no, I still cannot get my system to work. So now we are on a list for a "truck call" - meaning some actual person is going to come to my home and re-align the satellite so, hopefully, I will once again have a great signal strength and we will be in the land of the technologically advanced peoples. Damien asked me if anyone else had asked about the signal strength. I told him they had and they'd seemed perfectly happy with 43. I could swear I almost heard the word "dumbasses" come out of his mouth... (I was thinking of you, Director.)

Oh, and the mega-TV center? Is working just fine, thank you. I got the remote re-programmed for the new DVD player, so now all you do is push one button on the remote to "watch movie" and the TV comes on to the right signal and channel, the DVD player comes on, and the stereo (yes, Becky, we already HAD the surround sound) comes on to the correct settings. One button. I think Hubs can handle that. We still have two remotes, as it would have been too confusing to try and program the remote to handle all the DISH-TV stuff, but still... two remotes is pretty good.

Did I mention I have a little mini-watt microwave coming for the downstairs bar? Now we can have fresh popcorn without walking up the stairs. Pretty soon you'll just have to roll us out the downstairs door and around the house to get us to the vehicles.