I mentioned that we were watching Wonderfalls lately. We finished last night with the last episode, and I feel like I should start watching them all over again.

Wonderfalls is the story of Jaye Tyler, played by Caroline Dhavernas, who is a Generation-Y college graduate with a philosophy degree. She’s stuck, dissatisfied with life (and only slightly bitter), living in a trailer park and working retail at a Niagara Falls souvenir shop.

One day inanimate animal shaped objects start talking to her (a wax lion, a monkey bookend, a lizard puppet) and, through their cryptic guidance, Jaye ends up helping people.

I won’t say much more than that because while it sounds like a sort of lame premise, you’d be absolutely astounded at how well it works. The characters are all lovable, the writing is solid, the acting is solid… in fact, I’d have to say Wonderfalls rates as one of my all-time favorite TV shows.

Unfortunately, Fox cancelled the show after airing only four of the 13 episodes. Lucky for fans, they released all 13 on DVD and you can see what you missed. Once you see it, you’ll understand why folks think Fox is absolutely stupid for making some of the decisions it makes.

However unfortunately the cancellation of the show was, one thing you’ll like is that the first season is a completely contained story. They didn’t leave any cliffhangers at the end, so when you finish watching the 13th episode, you’ll get the closure you seek. They could have run with it in a second season, but the first season does wind up nicely.

Definitely pick one up; you can’t beat it.

I achieved a semblance of closure on this whole television issue yesterday when I spoke with the manager of the Beaverton Magnolia A/V store (whose name is Dick) and he said he’d give me trade-in credit of half the purchase price of my distort-o-vision toward the purchase of a new TV.

Woohoo!

I’m going to go in on Saturday and pick out a new set. They’ll pick up the old one, fix it up, and sell it as a used/refurb. That takes care of all my problems: I don’t have to figure out how to get the behemoth out of my living room, and I don’t have to eat the whole cost of a new set.

I’m looking at direct-view LCD TVs (not rear-projection). The Magnolia service rep recommended the Sharp Aquos line of TVs, and that’s pretty much where I ended up with my research, too. I’ve seen some other brands out there that look okay, but everywhere I turn, someone tells me to consider the Sharp.

The 37” models are sort of in my price range (with my trade-in credit and some price negotiations), so I think that’s where I’ll go. I’d like the 45” model, but that’s a bit pricey for me.

Saturday, here I come!

We’ve been watching a lot of DVDs lately. In particular, TV on DVD. Wonderfalls has been a particular favorite (I highly recommend it).

I got an email today from Amazon that mentioned La Femme Nikita season 3 is coming out on June 28, so I had to pre-order that. I also saw that Lois and Clark season 1 came out, so I ordered that as well. (I had every single episode of that on videotape until we moved, when I realized I couldn’t be carting around that many videotapes all the time. I kept the first and last episodes, and I think that’s it. Hopefully they’ll come out with the rest of the seasons on DVD as well.)

Those should be shipping out July 2. Maybe by then I’ll have a fully functional TV to watch them on.

Speaking of the TV… did I mention that this weekend it made the loudest *snap* noise and the picture went out for a second? Happened twice. The audio was fine the whole time, but the picture sure wasn’t. I told the guy I’m working with at Magnolia about it and he said he’d talk to their service guy about it. I’m hoping to hear something back soon. Maybe today? I can only hope.

This is probably the best error ever. Or… is it even an error?

That’s great. Keep doing that.

I bought the Blokus game (which you can play online, too) from Amazon and it arrived yesterday.

Short a piece, natch.

So I called the customer service number they provided and a lady with a thick Texan accent answered the phone and…

Lady: How may I direct your call? Me: I’m missing a game piece. I’m not sure where I’d be directed for that… Lady: Is this the Blokus game? Me: Well, yeah. Lady: Okay, here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to redirect you to a voicemail box where there won’t be a message. When you hear the beep, leave your name, address, and a description of the pieces that are missing and we’ll mail them to you. Me: Um… okay. Lady: Here you go. *beep*

There’s a missing piece hotline for this game. Yow.

We played anyway last night, faking the missing piece with a slip of paper, and it was a lot of fun. I recommend it, but keep the instructions around - that’s where the missing piece hotline number is.