Upgrading

This is going to be a busy week, since I'll be spending Monday through Thursday mornings doing music and art camp at church. I'm herding kindergarteners around, getting them from one activity to another. You wouldn't think that would be too taxing, but I'm utterly beat. This group of kids seems relatively easy, but I'm pretty much going non-stop from nine to noon, and I generally do all the activities with them, so I'm getting a workout. I'm seriously contemplating a nap this afternoon because I'm not sure how much good I'll be otherwise.

I'm glad I took a weekend off to celebrate my birthday with my parents. We didn't do much, just sat around and read and watched TV, but sometimes that's what you need. I took care of a bit of tech support for them and came out of it with a new-to-me TV. I'd been thinking about getting a bigger TV, since I have a nine-year-old 26-inch HDTV, but since I'm also hoping to move in the near future (once we get past the current housing bubble in this area -- prices shot up once speculators noticed an increase in demand) I didn't want to buy anything without knowing what might fit in a new place. But my parents got a new TV and offered me their old 32-inch TV. It's a nice little upgrade. Once I get the right stand for it and a new HDMI cable, I'm planning to put my old TV in my bedroom, replacing the 13-inch tube TV I had in my college dorm room. Since they went all digital and I had to get an adaptor in that room, I'll have HD in there, and I'll also put my old, pre-BluRray DVD player in there. I don't watch TV in my bedroom often, but next time I'm sick, I can watch TV in bed. It might also be nice on snow days to stay bundled up and watch movies while looking out the window at the snow. Or if I want to do an at-home staycation, I can replicate the hotel room experience, since about the only time I watch TV in bed is when I'm staying in a hotel.

But I think most of that work will have to wait until I get back from Worldcon, unless I get impatient. I don't have room for a traditional TV stand. What I have now is a child's table I bought as unfinished furniture and spray painted, and it holds the TV with the VCR and cable box sitting on top. With the flat panel TV, I'll need a shelf for the VCR, cable box, and DVD player. What I may do is see if I can find an even smaller table or stool that will fit under the current table to act as a "shelf." But I don't really have time this week for finishing furniture.

Other highlights of the week ahead: choir practice resumes, I need to do shopping and errands before my trip, I have some promo stuff to prepare, I have critiques to do, I have convention work to do, and I need to get some research reading done so I can brainstorm the sequel to Rebel Mechanics.

Guess which of these might happen today. Yep, reading that counts as "work" may be about all I'm up to doing.