We could try to cheap it out with a $40 tube from the local thrift shop, but the family wants to move up to a flat screen TV, between 37-41 inches, measured diagonally. My biggest concern is whether in the age of Moore's law and increasingly short electronics lifetime, if it's worth going to 1080p. I'm thinking no, the only current viewing source that comes close is over the air, which is 1080i, and we rarely watch over the air TV. Our dish only hits 720p for pay per view, the Wii doesn't even hit that (Netflix), and we still have an archaic DVD player (720). Sixteen_year_old has mentioned AppleTV, but our DSL download speed isn't even good enough for 720p at 5MB/s, and I'm not sure how much Netflix content comes in at 720p. So, unless there's no price difference, I'm not seeing a need for 1080p. What does Husi think?

Of course, how will we pay for such a thing? Mrs. Ha has a nice gold and turquoise ring she picked up at an estate sale for a buck that she thinks she can get a few hundred for on ebay, which would about cover it. We shall see.

Speaking of ebay, I really don't like selling to non-Americans, which is why I only list American shipping. In the past I've sold to Canadians. I like Canadians, I've known a few, and other than a few linguistic and spelling quirks (using "eh" instead of "like", that "er" dyslexia and a fondness for extraneous "u"s) they seem just like Americans, American who drink bad beer. But, USPS international rates have increased, and the custom's forms are odd (Is this a gift? How much is it worth?) and involves me visiting the Post Office counter in person.

So, when an Indonesian bid on a promotional Lego set I had listed, I was irked. He didn't want to pay $23 for shipping I could do at home, but will pay $13 for shipping that requires me to visit a Post Office counter in person.

In kid news, eleven year old is back safe and sound. The sixth graders at her school do a four cities trip, where they split the class into foru groups and visit four cities that are dealing with issues Rochester faces. This year's issue is bike commuting, and her city was Portland. This story from the Portland BOT shows her class, she's not pictured or mentioned because she was at the hotel recovering that day. Yes, we had to get up a 3 am on Sunday (4 am if you believe in DST) to get her to the airport on time to make her 7:20 flight. We suspect the long flights, inactivity, heavy dinner and exuberantly chlorinated hotel pool combined to make her throw up that night, and remain queasy the next day. She missed quite a bit.

The return plane was late, she got to bed late, she had a hard time getting moving this morning.

In other morning news, we're having trouble getting sixteen_year_old out of bed in time.

There are no school consequences. If she's late without an excuse, she goes to first period detention. Her first period class is Theatre Tech, they don't often do stuff, and while she likes her teachers, they probably don't care. The expectations for that class are low, since she doesn't come to school stoned, or engage in nail gun wars, she's already the best student.

I'll keep using this as examples as to why they need adults for their UK trip. She thinks she and her forgetful friends should be allowed to gallivant around the UK unescorted when she's 18, she doesn't want the Girl Scouts leaders to cramp her style.

Maybe I'll use freezer marbles, too.

In gaming news, I've played a few solo games of Discworld: Ankh-Morpork. I like it, but you need to be familiar with the Ankh-Morpork novels to really appreciate the theme, and you should know all the cards and varying winning conditions if you want to win. Each person draws one character (Vetinari, Vimes, Rust...) who has their own victory condition. Rust has to control so many areas of A-M, Chryosphrase has to earn $50, etc.

For the weekend, we'll probably skip the Saint Paddy's Day parade, it will be barely above freezing. I'll miss the opportunity to say no to the people collecting for the IRA, let the Irish fund their own tax-delayed retirement accounts!

Instead we'll pick up my new very expensive glasses, the lenses alone were about $500. Bifocals, high indice plastic and auto-darkening really jack up the price for my terrible prescription.

Sixteen can lust over expensive frames while we find something more in our budget, and we have to pick up corned beef. Some heavy cream, too.