News and Looong funny rant

My giveaway for the Soul Food Class was won by Gina Morley! She won 39 fun art lessons, yaayy!!

And I was also lucky: We went to my husband's office Christmas party. They always have a raffle. I won a plasma TV. (✿◠‿◠)
Well, that's where the story begins!

I placed it on top of the TV cabinet, kind of eclectic look being that I had my old TV right under. After we connected it, we noticed the sound was kind of yucky and the image quality was not so great, so I decided to take it back to the store, get a store credit and pay the difference for another one. After a couple of hours of shopping, waiting in the return line, blah blah, they didn't have the same size so we had to get a bigger one. LED.

At that point we had gotten rid of the poor old TV, (I say poor because unsuspectingly it got kicked out of its house, left alone in the donations place) it was the kind of huge bulky square -took three of us to move it and I almost threw out my back-- but it was still working fine. We had it mostly to watch old movies, or when the other TV is in use by noisy games and someone wants to come to a more private quiet place (namely, mom's room lol)

We brought the new TV, put it on the top of cabinet but it looked silly since now there was this gaping hole from the other banished one, so we put it in the shelf, connected it, and it had great sound and image quality but now since it is not bulky, it looked tiny in the cabinet's shelf. Readjusting shelves didn't work.
My husband suggested to go get a larger one. I was hesitant because really, that TV doesn't get much use, but well, we went back to return and exchange it. Another 3 hours of a line in the store... ugh  [ಠ_ಠ]

We went out in the near freezing weather, more hours of waiting and lines. They didn't have the next size up but a bigger one. Oops. OK, may as well, we got that one. But not in this store, they only had one in the far away store... So drive far we did, parked far because it was full to the brims, got frozen cold because it was near ice out there, plus the expected long lines...  etc... We  came back home, got it out of the box ready to connect and what do you think...? It didn't fit in the cabinet hahahaha Too big! (-_ლ) No way I'm going back to exchange!

I thought well, I will fill up the shelf with stuff and set the TV on top. Who cares?
Well, no can do; the dang coffered ceiling won't allow it. This TV is now too tall.

I have a hate-hate relationship with that coffered ceiling thing... it is not the typical band around of about 7 or 10 inches thick, it is a whole upside down bench. About 21 inches low! We couldn't get the bed we wanted because of the low profile of the coffering (coffering....is there such a word?) Anyway, let's just say that if it wasn't a huge messy expensive project to knock it down, it wouldn't  be there. I can almost hear it snicker at me some nights :oP

So... Next option: shop for a new cabinet.
We had the old one for 17 years after all. The fact that was pristine didn't matter; it was unfortunately the wrong size for this. Out of the room and shop for a new one.
That brought up another set of problems. I had a bunch of books and magazines in the bottom doors. Oops. Go and arrange that. Down memory lane.... old kids paintings, books and stuff. Discard, organize. Make another trip to donations. Inevitably now I have a pile of junk on the dining table waiting to be redistributed somewhere. But that will have to wait because now I have to go get a new cabinet.

Three days later with my eyes spinning between the prices, sizes and styles we still couldn't decide.  We saw tall, short, modern, antique... I figured since it would not match our furniture, might as well be so clashy that it would look eclectic on purpose, right?  Did you know there are TV cabinets with fake electric fireplaces? Wow.
I was very close to buying an antique black one full of curves, kind of bombe, but it didn't fit the player. Not to mention the price was a bit too much for such an unplanned purchase.

After looking high and low, my husband decided to forget the furniture, just mount it on the wall. There are 2 options: it can be installed on the wall and have all the cables and wires in a neat cover that can be painted the color of the wall, easy. Or it can be installed after punching holes in the wall to have the cables and wires hidden inside the wall. I opted for the easy neat cover. My husband wanted to have them hidden. Difficulty level: 1000.
Now I have 2 holes in the wall. One of them quite uneven. ( ¬_¬) Yes, you can laugh.

I will skip the part where we were missing tools and cables were cut too short, someone stepped on the outlet cover and broke it, and the fact that I had no electricity till 10 pm, just go directly to the part where, after cutting the holes in the wall, we discovered that there was an unexpected wood bar in the way so getting the cables from point A to point B took a whole day more than planned, and unfortunately the 2nd hole ended up larger that expected so a re-patch and re-paint is part of the list too. Hopefully soon he will finish the project.

On the way to get patching paint and a gift for a co worker, I discovered a cute adorable dainty cabinet to be placed in front of the hopefully-soon-hanging-TV just as decor and kind of fence to deter fast walking-wall-bumpers from the electronics. Great price, nice size, no storage unfortunately but seems perfect for the spot. It just needed different knobs to look more unique. I bought it. Then we went to get knobs at the market shop with imports. We got 3 awesome ceramic knobs. 1 for the drawer, 2 for the little doors. It was hard to remove them because of the finishing so my son was very careful to score the paint around with a blade, then unscrew them, to add the new ones.
Well, whaddayaknow? After all his work, the door knobs were too wide and fit tight together so the dang dainty doors won't close! Agh! ლ(ಠ_ಠლ)  He reinstalled the old ones, we just left the one in the drawer. Still unique looking.

It is a little over a week of the infamous lucky winning, and now I have holes in the wall, wires hanging out, plaster debris on the carpet, a new TV back in the box, an old cabinet in the entry way, a pile of junk in the dining room... a new dainty cabinet in the hall (with only one shiny new knob). And a vacuum cleaner ready to go.  Agh!

 

 All of this after a winning price... My husband said he is not going to let me get another raffle ticket next time ( •‿- )

And that is why, ladies and gentlemen, you are not to see the gift horse in the mouth!

Oh! Congrats to Gina!