~~ Originally posted as a Facebook Note on August 7, 2009 ~~
Time start: 2:00 p.m. when Scott calls me and suggests that we go to Best Buy and get the new TV today since I had to be in Lexington anyway.
I think it's a great idea, so I ask Mom if she would mind watching Baby Girl so we could go to Best Buy after I ran to work. She's game for babysitting, and a plan is formed. I left for work, and made it all the way to Coventry on Georgetown Road when I realized I should have borrowed Chris' truck so we could bring our purchase home ... so I call Laura to ask, and turn around to go drop off my car and pick up Chris' truck. (Hindsight's 20/20, okay?)
I go to work, and along the way I come up with the plan to check out what Pieratt's has to offer, since that's where we got the last TV, I thought they might be able to take care of us, and we already had credit with them so that would eliminate the need to apply for credit. Alas, I get to Pieratt's before Scott and the guy's got a great TV, but extremely overpriced and he can't get anywhere close to what Best Buy was offering. That was a bust.
So, I head off to Best Buy and apply for credit while I'm waiting on Scotty to get there. I get hooked up with the most awesome customer service guy and he makes sure we have everything we need. We walk out of Best Buy an hour and a half later with a 55 inch Samsung LCD TV, a new TV stand for it, HDMI cables, screen cleaner and a 22 inch LCD for upstairs. (All for less than we paid for the last TV!)
Excited about our purchase, Scott and I go get a great dinner at Olive Garden, and had a great server, great meal. Happiness ensues. We go unload the truck, return it to Chris and Laura's, and then go get the Boomder from Mom's ... and she's so funny, just running around and playing and going a mile a minute - and I don't know how she's doing it at 9 p.m. But we take her home and she crashes - and hard!
And that's where the fun stops.
I think it's a great idea, so I ask Mom if she would mind watching Baby Girl so we could go to Best Buy after I ran to work. She's game for babysitting, and a plan is formed. I left for work, and made it all the way to Coventry on Georgetown Road when I realized I should have borrowed Chris' truck so we could bring our purchase home ... so I call Laura to ask, and turn around to go drop off my car and pick up Chris' truck. (Hindsight's 20/20, okay?)
I go to work, and along the way I come up with the plan to check out what Pieratt's has to offer, since that's where we got the last TV, I thought they might be able to take care of us, and we already had credit with them so that would eliminate the need to apply for credit. Alas, I get to Pieratt's before Scott and the guy's got a great TV, but extremely overpriced and he can't get anywhere close to what Best Buy was offering. That was a bust.
So, I head off to Best Buy and apply for credit while I'm waiting on Scotty to get there. I get hooked up with the most awesome customer service guy and he makes sure we have everything we need. We walk out of Best Buy an hour and a half later with a 55 inch Samsung LCD TV, a new TV stand for it, HDMI cables, screen cleaner and a 22 inch LCD for upstairs. (All for less than we paid for the last TV!)
Excited about our purchase, Scott and I go get a great dinner at Olive Garden, and had a great server, great meal. Happiness ensues. We go unload the truck, return it to Chris and Laura's, and then go get the Boomder from Mom's ... and she's so funny, just running around and playing and going a mile a minute - and I don't know how she's doing it at 9 p.m. But we take her home and she crashes - and hard!
And that's where the fun stops.
 |
| Booger surveying the warzone our living room became. |
Enter the disaster.
Scott agreed he'd get the stuff hooked up tomorrow night while Mom and I are at the movies. But that was when we were under the impression we had the old TV until Saturday. Nope, Dean called today and wants the TV tomorrow. So we decide that I'll go ahead and put together the TV stand, and we'll get the new TV on it and hooked up to the cable so that Dean can take the old TV tomorrow, and that Baby Girl can still watch her cartoons tomorrow morning. No problem, right?
Scott agreed he'd get the stuff hooked up tomorrow night while Mom and I are at the movies. But that was when we were under the impression we had the old TV until Saturday. Nope, Dean called today and wants the TV tomorrow. So we decide that I'll go ahead and put together the TV stand, and we'll get the new TV on it and hooked up to the cable so that Dean can take the old TV tomorrow, and that Baby Girl can still watch her cartoons tomorrow morning. No problem, right?
 |
| Shot from another angle of our warzone of a living room |
Well, first I go to get the electric screwdriver and the Phillips bit has disappeared. I ask Scott where it is and he gets pissed and says he doesn't have a clue, and why the hell was I asking him. I was like, "Because you were the last person to use it." He and I are screaming back and forth about how we weren't the last one to use it. I eventually proved that he was, in fact, the last person to use it, but by that point he was just pissed off that "I had to be right." But nevermind, the screws on this piece actually went in without too much hassle, electric screwdriver not really necessary. Screaming match not really necessary.
Well, I get started and we realize that it might be a tight fit in the arch that was custom-built for the TV we're getting rid of. It's fine length-wise (a difficult fit, but possible), but width-wise turned out to be a problem. It was just about half an inch too wide to fit easily.
First we have to abandon the instructions, we must alter to match our wrestling match with fitting it inside the arch. Then we realize we'll have to take out not one, but two of the shelves in the arch in order to wrestle this sonofabitch in.
In the process of doing so we bust the cable outlet all to hell (no biggie, it's hidden), gouge the hell out of the wall in numerous places, and get wood stain on the wall in various places. Oh yeah, and baseboards are removed from the wall. Why you ask? Because the idiots who built our house don't know how to make walls square (don't believe me, go look in the master bathroom), and one side of the arch is deeper than the other one.
After all that, this stupid thing is in.
Oh, but wait, the hole in the back doesn't align with the electrical outlet. Shoot. Which, in reality, I insisted we put the back on for stability (which we needed in the course of our wrestling match, but would have saved a ton of problems had I listened to Scott and left it off). Can't win them all.
So, by now it's about 12:30 and Scott gets my jigsaw out of the garage so we can cut this hole. Well, I'm pretty scared because the saw blade is too long if I put the guide all the way to the back, and being that I don't want to cut the drywall, or worse, the electrical socket, we abandon the notion of the jigsaw. (Note, this was only after Scott spent half an hour with the jigsaw in pieces around him, and him playing with it like a monkey with a math problem trying to put it back together.)
Now enter the 1:00 a.m. trip to Wal-Mart to purchase a hand-saw with which to cut this hole. I'm so fried at this point, I find power tools but no hand saws (the next aisle over, perhaps). But I find a rotary tool that has cutting, drilling, engraving (cause you never know if you need to engrave something). Solution solved. Plus I get to thinking that we're going to have to cut more holes in the top of the TV stand for power cords, and I can't find the drill-bit attachment that makes holes for just such an occasion. (Again, note, it's 1:00 a.m. and I'm blindly running around Wal-Mart purchasing power tools that aren't the right ones for the job. What do you freakin' expect?)
I get home and we put the new rotary tool in action. We get started on the cut but it's taking forever and is hard to control. So I convince Scotty that we have to take the whole piece back out of the arch and use the jigsaw on it. Which we do. Hole cut. After we wrestle it back in, we find out it only freed one of the electrical sockets instead of both, but dammit, we didn't freakin' care at this point.
Then came the task of putting the top of the TV stand on the body. Knowing this was the widest part of the TV stand, we were concerned. And rightfully so. It was just a bit too tight a fit. So, out comes the rotary tool once again, this time with the sander attachment on it and Scotty starts sanding the drywall (you can't see it, it's behind the front of the arch). This, subsequently wakes up Baby Girl. (I know, the fighting, the jigsaw, the drill - none of it wakes her up, but the rotary tool does. Go figure.)
So, I go upstairs and calm her down. I come downstairs and Scotty has abandoned sanding the drywall, and has instead started sanding the furniture itself. Remember what I said about the walls not being square? Well, one side fit down fine, but the other one did not. Hence why he had to sand the furniture itself.
After sanding and beating and sanding and beating and sanding and beating some more, he gives the top one last pound and it goes down. It also breaks a corner off. Holy shit! This was a nice piece of furniture until we got ahold of it. Now it's worth less than the spool you steal from construction sites to use as a dinner table when you're in college.
ANYWAY, that's done. I sit down and the thing isn't level. I get up and get a level (I'm anal, okay?) and it is, in fact, not level. But it's in there so freakin' tight now that it won't move. Not a bit. So we have to deal with it not being level. And I noticed it bowed up in the middle. I said, "Eh, once we put the TV on it, it'll even out."
So, now comes the moment of truth, the unboxing of the TV. We pick it up, put it on the TV stand ... and we both end up squishing our fingers at one point or another, Scott can't find where the power cable plugs in, the optical video cable is a piece of crap and won't stay connected, and then Scotty can't find the power cable to the cable box. All is eventually remedied and I sit down to see if the fact the stand isn't level is noticeable on the TV. It's not really - but now the TV stand bows in the middle the opposite way now that the TV is on it. At this point it's quarter to three in the morning, you just have to let some stuff go.
Well, I get started and we realize that it might be a tight fit in the arch that was custom-built for the TV we're getting rid of. It's fine length-wise (a difficult fit, but possible), but width-wise turned out to be a problem. It was just about half an inch too wide to fit easily.
First we have to abandon the instructions, we must alter to match our wrestling match with fitting it inside the arch. Then we realize we'll have to take out not one, but two of the shelves in the arch in order to wrestle this sonofabitch in.
In the process of doing so we bust the cable outlet all to hell (no biggie, it's hidden), gouge the hell out of the wall in numerous places, and get wood stain on the wall in various places. Oh yeah, and baseboards are removed from the wall. Why you ask? Because the idiots who built our house don't know how to make walls square (don't believe me, go look in the master bathroom), and one side of the arch is deeper than the other one.
After all that, this stupid thing is in.
Oh, but wait, the hole in the back doesn't align with the electrical outlet. Shoot. Which, in reality, I insisted we put the back on for stability (which we needed in the course of our wrestling match, but would have saved a ton of problems had I listened to Scott and left it off). Can't win them all.
So, by now it's about 12:30 and Scott gets my jigsaw out of the garage so we can cut this hole. Well, I'm pretty scared because the saw blade is too long if I put the guide all the way to the back, and being that I don't want to cut the drywall, or worse, the electrical socket, we abandon the notion of the jigsaw. (Note, this was only after Scott spent half an hour with the jigsaw in pieces around him, and him playing with it like a monkey with a math problem trying to put it back together.)
Now enter the 1:00 a.m. trip to Wal-Mart to purchase a hand-saw with which to cut this hole. I'm so fried at this point, I find power tools but no hand saws (the next aisle over, perhaps). But I find a rotary tool that has cutting, drilling, engraving (cause you never know if you need to engrave something). Solution solved. Plus I get to thinking that we're going to have to cut more holes in the top of the TV stand for power cords, and I can't find the drill-bit attachment that makes holes for just such an occasion. (Again, note, it's 1:00 a.m. and I'm blindly running around Wal-Mart purchasing power tools that aren't the right ones for the job. What do you freakin' expect?)
I get home and we put the new rotary tool in action. We get started on the cut but it's taking forever and is hard to control. So I convince Scotty that we have to take the whole piece back out of the arch and use the jigsaw on it. Which we do. Hole cut. After we wrestle it back in, we find out it only freed one of the electrical sockets instead of both, but dammit, we didn't freakin' care at this point.
Then came the task of putting the top of the TV stand on the body. Knowing this was the widest part of the TV stand, we were concerned. And rightfully so. It was just a bit too tight a fit. So, out comes the rotary tool once again, this time with the sander attachment on it and Scotty starts sanding the drywall (you can't see it, it's behind the front of the arch). This, subsequently wakes up Baby Girl. (I know, the fighting, the jigsaw, the drill - none of it wakes her up, but the rotary tool does. Go figure.)
So, I go upstairs and calm her down. I come downstairs and Scotty has abandoned sanding the drywall, and has instead started sanding the furniture itself. Remember what I said about the walls not being square? Well, one side fit down fine, but the other one did not. Hence why he had to sand the furniture itself.
After sanding and beating and sanding and beating and sanding and beating some more, he gives the top one last pound and it goes down. It also breaks a corner off. Holy shit! This was a nice piece of furniture until we got ahold of it. Now it's worth less than the spool you steal from construction sites to use as a dinner table when you're in college.
ANYWAY, that's done. I sit down and the thing isn't level. I get up and get a level (I'm anal, okay?) and it is, in fact, not level. But it's in there so freakin' tight now that it won't move. Not a bit. So we have to deal with it not being level. And I noticed it bowed up in the middle. I said, "Eh, once we put the TV on it, it'll even out."
So, now comes the moment of truth, the unboxing of the TV. We pick it up, put it on the TV stand ... and we both end up squishing our fingers at one point or another, Scott can't find where the power cable plugs in, the optical video cable is a piece of crap and won't stay connected, and then Scotty can't find the power cable to the cable box. All is eventually remedied and I sit down to see if the fact the stand isn't level is noticeable on the TV. It's not really - but now the TV stand bows in the middle the opposite way now that the TV is on it. At this point it's quarter to three in the morning, you just have to let some stuff go.
Well, finally, at 2:56 a.m., the TV is hooked up and the power has been turned on for the first time. It's just snow, but dammit, the TV is alive. It's about damn time. (Note, Scotty said he wanted to be in bed by midnight. HAHAHAHA!)
To Scotty's credit, he does get the cable hooked up to it, and he turns on something in HD and it is unbelievable. Phineas and Ferb never looked so good! And then, for someone who didn't really want to stay up past midnight, he spends the next 20 minutes playing with the TV and admiring the HD. (We had HD before, but not like this!)
Baby Girl wakes up again, I go upstairs and calm her down. And we finally call it a night. Round about 3:30 a.m. But it's not over yet ... no, no, tomorrow I still need to clean up the living room and make it Jocelyn-safe (and Oscar-safe for that matter), still need to attach the doors to the TV stand, and Scotty needs to hook up the surround sound, XBox and Wii.
Next time we decide to buy a new TV, even if it's for a noble cause like our anniversary, someone please smack me.
To Scotty's credit, he does get the cable hooked up to it, and he turns on something in HD and it is unbelievable. Phineas and Ferb never looked so good! And then, for someone who didn't really want to stay up past midnight, he spends the next 20 minutes playing with the TV and admiring the HD. (We had HD before, but not like this!)
Baby Girl wakes up again, I go upstairs and calm her down. And we finally call it a night. Round about 3:30 a.m. But it's not over yet ... no, no, tomorrow I still need to clean up the living room and make it Jocelyn-safe (and Oscar-safe for that matter), still need to attach the doors to the TV stand, and Scotty needs to hook up the surround sound, XBox and Wii.
Next time we decide to buy a new TV, even if it's for a noble cause like our anniversary, someone please smack me.
No comments:
Post a Comment