In less than one year, over-the-air television will stop being broadcast in analog signals and will only be available in digital. If you use cable or satellite, then you shouldn’t care, as this won’t affect you. If, like me, you still can’t stand the idea of having to pay the cable company more and more money every year for all those channels you don’t want and won’t watch, then you will have to get a digital TV converter box.
Lucky for me and the other hundred or so people out there without cable, the federal government is giving away coupons for $50 off of the converter boxes, so if you need to pick up one of those boxes from Best Buy, make sure to head over to www.dtv2009.gov first! And please don’t let the Best Buy salesman sell you a new television. You don’t need one.

So Grace’s second cousin’s (my cousin’s son’s) first birthday was yesterday: Happy Birthday to Jude!

Jude is only three months older than my daughter, Grace. He has a rare disease called tuberous sclerosis (TS) and is headed, with his parents, this week to New York to try and see if the doctors there can help him out with the seizures that are one side effect of the TS. Please be praying for and thinking of them!

We’re ten days away from being eight months old and are getting close to walking! Of course, we still haven’t hit the crawling yet, but that seems to be close too :-).
Of course, this means that we’ll soon have to put the house in lock-down mode: wire shut the cabinets, disappear the loose cords, cover the electrical outlets, and figure out what to do about the kitty litter in the laundry room (I’m less concerned about eating the cat food…). The ability to walk means we won’t be able to just set the baby down on her back on a blanket on the floor with some toys while we take a shower, either. Then we also have to worry about her running around the house and falling over or going somewhere where one of us is not. I suppose we’d just better get ready to do some chasing *-).
On the bright-side of the moon, our baby girl is getting to be less of a baby! She’s beautiful - like her momma! - and growing more everyday. It’s totally exciting to be able to watch her grow and to be a part of that miraculous process!

So anybody else noticed that the last few halftime shows at the Super Bowl (i.e., each one since 2004’s MTV-produced “wardrobe malfunction”) have featured more elderly performers? Tonight’s halftime show was, of course, Tom Petty (and the Heartbreakers). Don’t get me wrong - I love me some Free Fallin’ - but I did notice that Tom Petty looks like a much older version of Conner (sorry…I couldn’t resist). Here are the last few halftime performers:

• 2005 - Paul McCartney
• 2006 - Rolling Stones
• 2007 - Prince
• 2008 - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

I suppose the assumption is that more mature male artists lessen the possibility of the unplanned showing of body parts, which leads to big FCC fines. I was a bit worried last year with Prince maybe showing some cleavage, but I also assume that nobody will be inviting Michael Jackson to visit the Super Bowl anytime soon.