TV Time

In case you haven't heard, there was a football game on TV last night. Scott is a die-hard Cincinnati Bengals fan, so it is fair to say that he hasn't had an emotional investment in the Super Bowl in decades. Surprisingly, his not having a team in the game did little to hamper his excitement during the build up to Sunday. On Thursday he emailed me a wish list of football food that he wanted during the big game, and I noticed he was spending an increasing amount of time perusing the ads for televisions throughout the week.

He hinted all week about coveting a new television. Last Sunday he began to complain of headaches as he was squinting to watch the screen. He complained about the lagging and blurring screen during action sequences. He even turned up the volume to an obnoxiously loud level in order to prove the poor speaker quality. He was anything but subtle, but I decided to let it play out and never mentioned the notion of getting a new television. I wanted to see how long he would keep hinting and how he would bring it up.

After hinting all week, Scott finally broached the subject of a new television on Saturday morning. Sitting over breakfast, he not so casually mentioned that televisions were cheapest during Super Bowl weekend. When I simply nodded and failed to respond appropriately, his shoulders slumped and he looked deflated. I was going to keep the charade going, but I felt bad for him. I finally threw him a lifeline by saying it would be nice to have a larger TV in the living room.

Within seconds he began to discuss size attributes, features and options. I knew that he was looking at sets but he certainly did more research than I thought. He had already devised a shopping list of must-have features and had narrowed the search to four stores. We finished our breakfast, piled into the car and set out to look for a new TV.

All of his careful research was quickly forgotten as soon as the first salesman started to talk. Although we had firmly agreed upon size and type, I could see my sweet gadget-loving husband start to sway to the sales pitch. I was forced to step in and play the "mean wife" card as I firmly stuck to our original plan and squelched the fully loaded, 60 inch, internet smart TV. Leaving the first store empty handed, Scott looked at me and said, "Maybe you shouldn't leave me alone with the sales people in the next store."  At least he recognizes his Kryptonite!

After a few hours of navigating the electronics minefield, we became the proud owners of a brand new television. Okay, it's two inches larger than we had planned, but apparently when a man is involved, size does matter. I'm happy that we stayed within budget (sort of) and that I was able to protect my husband from the gadget driven sales pitches.