The One Where We Do All the Dishes.

Our tiny house has a big new addition. We finally got an HD, flat-screen, all the bells and whistles television. It's the kind that my husband has been dreaming about since they first hit the market. We got it on a Sunday and scheduled Directv to come do their magic on Thursday. And by magic, I mean make this thing actually work in HD and hook up a DVR. I really think that four day wait was the hardest four days of Keith's life.

As you can probably imagine, Thursday came and went without a visit from Directv. For those of you who know my laid-back, mild-mannered husband, his outburst at the Directv person on the other end of the line would have shocked you. It was the kind of outburst that I'm usually responsible for having.

An appointment was rescheduled for Friday from 8:00am to 12:00pm.

At 12:30pm, when they finally arrived, I was at the tail-end of making a potty accident right. I was upstairs pleading with the Little Lady to put her pants back on when the doorbell rang.

"Just a minute! I'm coming," I yelled.

Then it rang again. "I'm coming!"

Then they knocked loudly, "Just a minute," yelled the Little Lady. "We're coming!"

As I pulled the Little Lady down the stairs, I said, loudly enough for anyone standing outside our front door to hear, "Geez. We wait four and a half hours for them, and they can't give us two minutes to get to the door."

But it was all for naught. The two men at my door spoke about ten words of English between the two of them.

I love the diversity with which I am surrounded, but this particular language barrier was especially hard for me. You see, the DVR needed a separate line than the TV, and for reasons I could not understand, that line couldn't run alongside our existing line. It would have to come in through a totally different hole in our house and basically wrap around our entire downstairs.

Keith was home at this point, and together we decided to forego the DVR and just get the HD. I admit, I was disappointed, and I couldn't help but wonder if the main barrier between the DVR and me was the language barrier. It didn't matter, of course, because the technician only had the HD box that was a DVR too. So, once again, service had to be rescheduled.

Three hours later, I got a text from Keith that we would be switching to The Dish Network.

Directv had worn the Little Lady and me out so we went down for naps. Meanwhile, Keith got to his researching. He researched the technology the Dish Network uses, the methods of installation, the channel choices, the monthly costs--you name it, he knew the answer. He got us a good deal and scheduled the installation.

The only glitch in his plan, the only thing he failed to research is that we will be losing the Sprout Network. For those of you unfamiliar, Sprout airs all PBS shows, all the time. While we don't watch TV all the time--well, not the Little Lady's shows at least--it is a nice little safety net for us. I hope Noggin will suffice in its place.

But first, we have to see if a technician will even show up.