Sitting on My Sofa

Paul can finally jump up and down and show the world how much he loves Katie Holmes - I mean - me. Our sofa was finally delivered on Tuesday, about 4 1/2 weeks after we ordered it. You know, it's harder than you think to live without a sofa, especially in a small apartment. We have either had to sit on kitchen stools or the bed since we moved in. The stools aren't that comfortable and the bed just makes you look lazy.

After the saleswoman called me Monday to tell me it was ready, I walked past the store where the suspiciously familiar sofa was on display and it was gone. Makes sense if it was ours. But once ours was delivered, Paul wasn't as sure because he sat in the one in the store and the back cushions felt different than the ones we have. We chose a mix of foam and feather and the person in the store said the one on display was only foam. So maybe they weren't borrowing our sofa to display. We may never know for sure. Anyway, it's very nice and comfy and I love the color. Pictures once I clean up around it.

We can almost be couch potatoes now. We have internet; we have a TV; we hooked up to Slingbox; we connected the computer to the TV, and it all appears to work. We're just missing a remote control for optimum laziness because you have to control the Slingbox from the computer. Otherwise, we're watching Direct TV and starting to record some prime time shows.

I have learned so much about electronics and computer functions since just before we came here. From figuring out if my computer would work here to figuring out what adapter we needed to connect it to the TV... Paul has recently decided that I'm "better at those things." I have done well in some areas of potential confusion and I'm proud of my small technological accomplishments, but I'm far from a techie. Before this whole move, I had never even connected a VCR to a TV. But I now know about HDMI, HDCP, DVI-I, DVI-R, Mini-DVI, VGA, Composite, RGB and some of the many possible relationships between them. Long story short, Apple surprisingly does not make it easy to connect with HDMI which is what you want if your TV is an HDTV. So I'm using an adapter that works with a simple S-Video cable. This means that the picture is not spectacular, and I'm using my separate small speaker for sound, but right now I'm still just thrilled to sit on a couch and watch TV at all.

And the 'shop around' principal was confirmed while we wandered around massive computer centers looking for the adapter. One place had it for HK$380 (about $49) though for us he would take HK$300 ($39). It sells on the Apple web site for $19. We found one for about $21.

I know, I have to divide by 7.7 on top of all the technology issues to get a price. At least I'm getting some form of mental exercise.

But I still don't know which way to look when crossing a street. Those wrong-way-driving British and their former empire!