The most expensive free TV set ever

Last summer my brother-in-law told me that if his wife (my sister) would approve of his desire to purchase an LCD/plasma/flat screen television, he would give me their existing TV. The existing TV was a 36" Toshiba. Not bad, given that we have a 19" set we bought shortly after we were married.

We really don't watch much television. There are a few shows we like, but even fewer that we "must see". There are some shows I like that are on too early when the kids are up, or on too late after my body has shut down for the night. The main exercise our TV gets is when the kids watch their videos, which Anne carefully metes out so as not to fry their brain cells all at once.

So a few months ago, somehow my brother-in-law convinced my sister to get the flat panel TV set. He plunked the old set in their basement, and has been waiting for me to come get it. The problem has been that we have no place to put it. Our existing entertainment center could probably hold a 27" TV, but definitely nothing bigger than that.

Our existing entertainment center is on its last legs, okay... it's next-to-last legs. It was a hand me down from a family who moved out of our ward, and they had received it from a neighbor who moved away, who probably inherited it from her great aunt Ida's estate. It's been great to have, but the doors are getting rickety and the glass in the big door will occasionally pop out (once scaring a babysitter half to death).

So last weekend we went shopping for a replacement. We found one which will be delivered tomorrow. I remarked to Anne on the irony, of how we were being "given" a television set, but had to fork out $X in order to be able to use it. Some free TV.

The only remaining hurdle is how to get said behemoth television set from my sister's place to our place, and then manage to squeeze it into the cabinet that I'm praying is large enough (despite the measurements we took, I always have my doubts...). If worse comes to worse, we'll leave it in the garage which will further reduce the amount of TV we watch.