slingbox, football and hurricanes

Last year Brad discovered an amazing new technology, the Slingbox. It allows people to watch their tv from their computer. For a long time we debated whether or not it was worth the expense, but when our tv broke for a third time we finally decided it was. Setting up the Slingbox was no small task, but thanks to AJ, my mom and dad, Adam the tech guy, and the helpful people at Slingbox tech support in Costa Rica it only took a week to get it all set up. Now we can get my parent’s tv live on our computer. We can change channels, watch video on demand…everything.

So, Saturday we got to watch the Hawkeye game, which was great. It made me jealous to see people in sweatshirts. We're both excited that we'll be able to watch Iowa/Iowa State game next week. Brad, I'm sure, will be torn because he's been a Hawkeye for a week now. He's been taking classes online to get his master's in educational administration. All those Cyclones come around eventually...
We got to watch another type of football Saturday night. Colombia played Uruguay in the first round of World Cup qualifying. People here were pretty pumped about it. The restaurant around the corner from us repainted in yellow, blue and red and taped a projector to a metal bar that was holding up the thatched roof. The projector made a big picture on the wall and they put out plastic chairs that were full five minutes into the game. I thought this was a good gimmick to sell beers and chuzos but when I went to get a beer they told me that they weren't very cold and that I'd be better off going across the street to get one. Across the street people were crowded around a tiny tv, a far worse set up than the projector, but about 10 steps closer to cold beer, so there you go, people here have their priorities.

We spent yesterday pretending to be comatose, which wasn't hard after watching 4 episodes of Bridezilla in a row. Brad watches that and says, "That's you! That's how you're going to act at our wedding." Thanks Brad. I think that the slingbox will have to turn into a sometimes toy otherwise we'll be completely brain-dead.

This morning some crazy sounding thunder woke me up around 4. Not long after our windows were rattling. My theory is that we're catching the edge of a hurricane. Students and staff were still trickling into school 30 minutes after the final bell this morning. I actually thought school might be cancelled, the city nearly shuts down when it rains. No such luck though, probably for the best, I'd just spend the day watching more Bridezilla.