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Chris and I bought a few things we needed this past week. Last week, Dish Network came to install the 625 dual-tuner DVR receiver. I was told my installation time was between 12 and 5, and of course the installer came at 4:30! I was hoping to accomplish something with my afternoon that day, but alas I did not.

That was OK, however, once I started to check out the new receiver. First off, in every menu, the video still appears on screen alongside whatever text is there. The size of the video varies between a medium and small size, depending on the amount of text. The dual-tuner feature, when used in single mode, allows me to record or watch up to two live events at once. Alternately, I can record two events while watching a pre-recorded event. In single mode, the two outputs display the same video.

One of the other great features is the Dish Pass, which is similar to Tivo’s Season Pass. I can setup a keyword or title search, and the DVR will schedule events to record that match that search on any channel. So, when Veronica Mars changes timeslots or isn’t showing one week, I don’t have to accidentally record America’s Top Dumbass.

Yesterday, Chris and I ran some errands around town. She got some fabric from Joanne’s, and then we hit the mall. The first stop was the Apple Store to trade in our broken iPod for a new 60GB iPod with video. We got $40 off the iPod, but we weren’t able to get the additional educational discount after the associate got two different answers about stacking discounts. A tie-breaking associate said that we couldn’t stack the discounts We bought a new case to go with it. All that we need now is an FM transmitter. If you have any suggestions, I’m all ears.

After leaving the Apple Store, we went into Fossil and Chris bought a watch. Her last watch has taken its beatings, and its been leaving dark marks on her wrist for the past few weeks. Her new watch is silver and gold with a mother of pearl face. I opted to not buy a watch because I couldn’t pick just one I liked.

We saw a Sony VAIO FE570 at the Sony Style store in Woodfield before leaving the mall yesterday. It is an Intel Core Duo T2300 with 1GB of dual channel DDR2 RAM, a 160GB SATA hard drive, a dual format and dual layer DVD burner and a built-in camera. The Sony B&M store listed it for $1699.

Today, after work I visited Circuit City, Woodfield and Best Buy. I found the same laptop online, not at SonyStyle.com, but at JR.com, for $1399. To customize a comparable FE-series laptop at SonyStyle.com put the price at over $1800! So, I placed an order at JR.com for the laptop. I can’t wait until it gets here.

The old laptop, on which I am writing this post, will probably end up propped somewhere near the TV in the family room. I will use it to pull Tivo recordings downstairs from Chris’s office. If I get a wireless keyboard and mouse, that could be quite a media center setup, despite the ghetto screen situation. We’ll just have to wait and see how that all turns out.