Write anything about Technology - an L&P assignment

The assignment is "Create a blog post about anything technology-related that interests you this week. " They should know better than to give me such lee-way. Here goes, and it's a long one, folks.

My mother has just turned 81 years old, and is still mentally as sharp as any tack, though she has a hard time getting around due to the arthritis in her knees. She also has practically everything she needs, and as she grew up in the Depression, never considers to want things that are not practical. It's tough to find her birthday, Christmas, or Mother's Day present. However, I found it - a digital picture frame! These are so cool! My husband put a 4 gb sd card in it for me, and I downloaded and re-formatted pictures from my laptop all last night. Then I just slipped the sd card into the digital picture frame, turned it on and hey! Presto! it began to run a slide show of friends and family that my mother's going to love. And I can continually update it, by just sending her another sd card. How sweet is that? Now just to get it into the mail and send it 1000 miles away.

While, I'm playing with this lovely digital toy, cooing and oohing and aahhing over it, and seriously coveting it, my DH disappears into the basement. Soon I hear great deals of banging, hammering, drilling, and electric tools being used. I, in the kitchen making dinner, can feel the vibrations on the kitchen floor. I send my DD downstairs to see what's up. (Her favorite phrase now: "What's up?" I hate it, but found I've begun to use it too. Ick) She returns and informs me that she can't tell me, because it's a surprise. Oh-Oh. My DH is incredibly thoughtful and very bright, but his idea of a great surprise doesn't always fall into accord with my line of thinking. Let's just say his surprises are really SURPRISES! I continue to listen to the basement activity with a slight sense of dread.
Then he appears, and begins to empty out one of the lower cupboards. Now while I'm making dinner, I have to navigate stuff lying all over the floor. My sense of dread is growing. He inserts his head and arms into the cupboard, fools around for a bit, utters appropriate swear words, comes out grinning. He then turns on the kitchen TV. Runs downstairs, runs back upstairs and fiddles with the TV, which I can see has begun to load MicroSoft.

The kitchen TV is a 15 inch flatscreen that sits on our kitchen pass through. The pass through is a common kitchen feature, which is like having a window with no glass that looks into the living room or family room. One can 'pass through' drinks, sandwiches, or other food items to those watching tv. I think that's the only thing it's ever used for, that and holding any and all junk items that have no better place to be, but I digress. The kitchen TV is a means of entertainment for anyone who is cooking, washing dishes, or cleaning the kitchen. But this evening, my husband has begun to turn it into a computer station. The banging around downstairs? He was constructing a shelf under the kitchen floor to hold a cpu. He drilled a hole into the kitchen floor and into the lower cabinets to run the cabling. and Voila! My 15 inch flatscreen TV, can now be switched from a TV to a digital photo frame, to a regular computer that can be navigated and where I can also pull up my recipe files to use! This is why I'm married to the man - he can still astound me. I am in love all over again, with him and my new technology.