I Blame the Olympics

Thursday night, shortly after the US relay teams both dropped the batons, my 17-month-old family room TV went completely black. The only way to shut it off was to un-plug it from the wall. I guess it was just worn out from all of my Olympics watching over the past couple of weeks.

I thought I found the deal of the century when I bought this 36" TV from Value City for about two hundred bucks. Sure, the box was stamped "refurbished" in large red type, but that didn't stop me from bringing home the half-ton set for my viewing enjoyment.

I didn't really care that it wasn't one of those cool new flat screen TVs, heck it was only two hundred bucks. I was a bit worried when I had to poke out the back of my armoire to get the monster TV to fit since the picture tube was so deep.

We'll now it's the worlds most expensive door stop -- sitting in the garage while I figure out how to get rid of it.

Friday night we headed out to the Osceola mall and bought the largest (and cheapest) TV that would fit in our armoire. We have about 1/16" clearance on each side of the TV inside the cabinet.

I think I'll splurge on the extended warranty on this one. I don't want to have another expensive doorstop when this one bites the dust.