A day late and a dollar short

In case you haven't already noticed, I'm always a day late and a dollar short.  I never paid attention to the Twilight Series until after the first movie came out... and that's just one example.  Another is Friday Night Lights.

I vaguely remember when this tv series came on (circa 2006) and although the commercials seemed appealing I wasn't sure where I was going to find the time for another tv show.  Well, years later after friend after friend told me how much I would like it, I've finally finished watching all five seasons.

What can I say about it?  To start, I absolutely loved it.  I'm sort of glad I got into after the seasons were available on Netflix because I'm not sure I could have waited a week in between each episode or months for the next season.  Poor Jake had to deal with me monopolizing the tv the past few Saturdays, which I don't feel bad about because I liked the show too much to turn it off.

I thought I might be able to narrow down my favorite characters to a select few, but it turns out I love almost the entire cast.  What I will say is despite a large portion of the cast changing midway through, I preferred the characters in the later seasons.  I loved the stories early on too, but there was something about East Dillon that really hooked me.  Coach Eric Taylor and his wife, Tami were hands down the reason I kept watching though.  They truly had a great marriage and the show was only enhanced by the characters coming in and out of their lives.  Of course, Tim Riggins wasn't tough on the eyes either.

Since I literally just finished the watching the last season I could probably talk about the show for hours, but I don't want to overshare and spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it. If you haven't watched the series I would highly recommend it- you can find all five seasons on Netflix and it won't take you more than a month to get through it, talk about $8 well spent.

Let's redefine romantic comedy...

Monday morning (my day off) I woke up with a sore throat.

Was I surprised? No. Jake had a sore throat the week before, so I knew it was only a matter of time before it struck me.

Was I bummed? Yes. I actually had plans with some friends and had been waiting all weekend to see them.

Day's Activities: I spent the day watching movies and hanging out in my PJs.

Best part of my day: Getting to have ice cream sundaes...for medicinal purposes, of course.

Tuesday morning (work day) I woke up with a sore throat (possibly worse than Monday) and head congestion.

Was I surprised? No. The lack of sleep gave me reason to believe a rough and long day was ahead of me.

Was I bummed? No. For the first time, I didn't feel bad about calling out sick. Nothing I was working on was urgent and I knew if I stayed home that I might actually get to rest and not be disturbed with work related queries.

Day's Activities: I watched Twilight, napped, and then watched some tv snuggled under layers of blankets until Jake came home from work.

Best part(s) of my day: First, Jake calling to check on me between all of his patients- I thought this was adorable. He attributed his new vested interest in my health to the fact that we're married now...I guess when we weren't my health wasn't as large of a concern (I'm still trying to figure this out). Second, when he came home with a "romantic comedy" to watch. Here is how that conversation went:

Jake: Hey, I rented a romantic comedy for us to watch tonight, thought it might make you feel better.

Me: Really? What'd you rent? You hate chick flicks...

Jake: (threw the dvd my direction) You'll see, it looked like something you'd want to watch.

Me: (after reading the Law Abiding Citizen, title) Are you sure this is a romance movie?

Jake: Yeah, why?

Me: The font on the dvd is scary and the title doesn't sound very romantic...

Jake: It is, trust me. Just put it in.

Me: Ok.

Opening scene of the movie...a man and his wife are beaten, duct taped, and stabbed...then the wife and daughter are killed. YIKES!

Me: Jake, this isn't a romantic comedy. Is this a horror movie?

Jake: I don't think so, just watch.

Me: Fine, but you didn't have to trick me and act like you were doing something sweet.......At least Gerard Butler is in this, you know I LOVE him!

Jake: Exactly, thus what makes it a romance!

Me: Right...this makes sense now.

I'll stop there...after all this is a perfect snapshot of a typical night (and conversation) at the McCrowell household.

Valentine's Day Replay

Ok, ok so this Valentine's Day was not too shabby. I know my previous posts might lead you to believe that Valentine's Day is my least favorite holiday, but it has never been awful. Jake is always great to me, I just don't love the created pressure it brings about.

Anyway, Jake and I celebrated this past weekend in our usual fashion and it was nice. I can never wait to give Jake his presents til the day of- never...I just get so excited that I always give him at least part of his present early. So this year's V Day was no exception and come Saturday I gave Jake a big bag of cliff bars (2 of every flavor except for mint). I know it doesn't sound romantic, but food is the way to Jake's heart and cliff bars are something he considers a "splurge" so I'm safe to assume he won't have bought himself any recently. Plus, this was a compromise since he asked me not to spend any money. I did at least save the card for Sunday to shake things up, but all in all I was glad I gave my gift early...as Jake's plans for the holiday unraveled on Saturday as well.

He started the evening off with a much appreciated gift card and bottle of wine I mentioned wanting to try and then started cooking what became one of my favorite shrimp dinners thus far. I actually tried to take a picture of the beautiful meal and table, but as usual, our camera battery was dead and it took too long to find the charger (story of my life). After dinner, we watched the Olympics and had some good conversation about the crazy athleticism...it was perfect.

DVR...it'll change your life

Jake and I may have been a bit excessive this year when we opted for the DVR system as part of our cable package each month. However, now that we have it, I don't know that we could go without! I mean do you have DVR or something similar at your house? If you do, then you know what I'm talking about...if you don't, you may not want to read on for fear of catching the DVR bug- which there is currently no cure for. Trust me when I say, IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE! I honestly don't think I watch "live" tv anymore and apart from SportsCenter, I don't think Jake does either. As a matter of fact, we'll wait 15-20 minutes after a show we want to watch starts, just so we can view the recorded version and fast forward the commercials. Yes, avoiding commercials to us outweighs the pleasure of viewing that long awaited weekly episode at it's specified airtime! That's crazy!

You may be wondering what inspired me to blog about our DVR dependency, so let me tell you. Lately, we have noticed a green and pink bar that runs across our tv screen. After much troubleshooting, we have confirmed it has to be a result of the cable box/DVR- which is good in the sense that we don't want problems with a new tv, but bad in that fixing the problem may call for replacing our current box. This can't happen for two reasons: one, it would mean having to let go of all the recorded shows and movies that we're currently hoarding...and I just don't think I can do that, I'm not strong enough. And two, it requires a temporary separation of our tv from a recording source...without a back up! The challenge that lies ahead is a tough one, we ask for your prayers.