Day 5 of Enforced Couch Rest. Thank God for satellite TV--if I had to watch network TV I would go mad. This way I can go from M*A*S*H reruns to HGTV, back to M*A*S*H and then to BBC America to watch Ground Force and Changing Rooms.

Despite not being the fussy housekeeper type, I have ventured into the arena of home decor. My favorite type is the simple country style: Shaker furniture, cozy ginghams, that sort of thing, not the Mary Engelbreit cutsey country with the ruffles, hearts, and little dolls and teddy bears. (When I look through decorating magazines I believe I am the only woman on earth who doesn't go crazy over teddy bears. I have only two bears I like: one that looks like a real black bear, which was bought for me up in one of my favorite places in the world, Lake George, New York, by my husband, and the other was given to me by a dear friend before I went into the hospital many years ago. Otherwise, the teddy bear craze leaves me cold.)

Most of my favorite decorating series are on HGTV. If Walls Could Talk captures my interest because it mixes old homes and American history. Decorating Cents makes sense [pun intended] because of their limited budget. Our spare bedroom, which is now "Not Pink" <g> due to much work on it in November and December, was decorated on sales/discounts except for the paint: a desk from Big Lots furniture, existing bookcases/dresser, a futon bought when Waccamaw went out of business, an old microwave cart now serving as a TV stand, a pawn shop TV, an after-Thanksgiving sales VCR, and numerous items bought 40 percent off with coupons at Michael's and 50 percent off with coupons at JoAnn Etc. Joan Steffend would love us.

Room by Room is probably my favorite, if not for the tips, certainly for the antics of Matt and Shari. I would not do half of the wall projects Shari attempts, however--too much work!

There are those we won't touch on a bet. We formerly watched Room for Change just to see how Joanne Liebler would ruin a room that week, but the new hostess is as dull as matte paint. Then there's the world's most boring decorating show, Interiors by Design. I like watching Designing for the Sexes, too, just to see how far apart the man's and the woman's tastes are, but "the mister" hates the host.

Two shows even "the mister" enjoys are BBC America's Changing Rooms and Ground Force. Both now have American counterparts, the CR clone being TLC's Trading Spaces, which has gained a following. IMHO TS is just too darn slow. We watch it occasionally and enjoy the pace on CR much better (it's done in a half hour while the American version is an hour). And of course CR has the cute hostess with the Scottish accent, and "Handy Andy" is a definite plus! (Not to mention their cute little "working theme" used at the end when they are running out of time!)

We love Ground Force because they rarely put a lot of grass into their "garden" redos. Host Alan Titchmarsh loves rocks, patios, decks, fountains, and plants. If they do include grass it's usually a small manageable patch rather than the damnable endless lawn fixation that the average American yard seems to have. We wish the GF crew would do OUR back yard!

And then there's M*A*S*H, which never seems to age. Like every series it has its bad episodes, and the last few years definitely ran out of story ideas. But I've begun to collect the series DVD sets because the majority of the episodes are gems, and I know they will never be seen uncut again. Syndication chops out some of the funniest bits, or mangles the episodes with "bugs" and time compressions as I mentioned in another entry.

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. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 10:27:00 AM

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