My DVR

Back in the early days of Sean's Ramblings, I wrote several posts complaining about good television shows or sporting events featuring Pittsburgh teams airing at the same time. Each time I wrote one of these posts, I received comments that I should get a DVR. They were right. Besides electricity, the DVR may be the greatest invention of all time. These days, with the exception of sports, it's rare that I ever watch live television. Unfortunately, I'm way behind in my DVR-viewing, and it shows that the DVR is only 14% free. I need to remedy this quickly, although the pending arrival of a new child will make this difficult. Challenge accepted! Let's take a look at what's filling up my DVR.

- Season 2 (12 episodes) of Homeland

I recorded this during a free preview of Showtime. I haven't seen season 1 yet, so these episodes just sit on the DVR until I get Netflix or hope that there's another Showtime preview that airs the entire first season of Homeland.

- 24 episodes of The Middle

I saved all these episodes since this is a show that my wife and I used to watch together. She is no longer interested in watching this show. I'm so far behind, that a recent episode I watched showed commercials for future ABC shows Zero Hour and How to Live With Your Parents for the Rest of Your Life. Both of these shows have been cancelled for nearly a year!

- 8 episodes of Modern Family
- 5 episodes of Archer

- Season 1 of Game of Thrones

I had a recent conversation with a friend where he said that he watched the first season thanks to a free preview of HBO. I replied that I missed out on recording the shows. Guess what? I didn't miss out. I just completely forgot they were there.

- Nancy & Tonya

I wonder if in this version of the retelling of the figure skating drama, Nancy Kerrigan arranges to have someone attack Tonya Harding.

- The Bro Mitzvah episode of How I Met Your Mother and a Curb Your Enthusiasm episode with Bill Buckner. Two excellent episodes that I didn't want to delete.

- A Jeopardy! episode featuring a good friend of mine. I should probably delete this, but how often do I get to see Alex Trebek giving my friend a nickname?

- Multiple episodes of Little Einsteins, Thomas & Friends and Dinosaur Train.

Best used during snow days. Plus, I'm so happy that there are now shows other than Little Einsteins that my son will watch.

During every free preview of HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, etc., I record movies. For example, I recorded the Academy Award-winning The King's Speech...in January 2012! Maybe it's time to watch it.

Other movies on the to-see list include:

Zero Dark Thirty
Looper
Wreck-It Ralph
Life of Pi

I've got work to do!

Trip To The Library

I took my son to the library this weekend for story hour twenty minutes. After the program concluded, we ventured to the kids' section to check out some books. My son is currently obsessed with Thomas & Friends* (the trains, the TV show, a Thomas app, etc.), so we searched for some Thomas books. While there were no Thomas books on the shelves, the librarian found two books for us behind the check out counter, the only two books in the library.

While I looked for some non-Thomas books about five feet away from my son, he started "reading" one of the books on a bench and placed the second book next to him. Maybe 30 seconds later, another kid who couldn't have been older than two grabbed the book on the bench. Naturally, my son didn't like this. After unsuccessfully reasoning with the random kid that the book belonged to my son, I started looking for this boy's parents who were no where to be found. After what seemed like an eternity but was probably about two minutes, the mom came over to check in on her son. I explained that the kid took my son's book, and she gave the book back to us. My son was happy again, and I was relieved as I didn't like my options: either let this kid take my son's book or rip the book away from a parent-less 2 year-old. Then, the mother asked me where she could find Thomas books, and I told her to ask the librarian. As I walked away, I thought, no Thomas books for you, sucka!

* I believe that Sir Topham Hatt runs some type of shady operation. I think he is the leader of a Cartel and the trains want to make sure that they please him or else they'll be turned into train parts.