(My monthly plan of posting on one continuous topic is not panning out too well. I think it's best at this point if I shoot for every other day)

A friend from my work gave us his old Tivo box several months ago and I must say, I love this thing. I don't think I've watched live broadcast TV since we've had it. We subscribe to the bare minimum number of cable channels you can possibly get, so being able to time-shift programs has really expanded (and improved) our viewing options.

Even more fun right now with the Tivo box, is that they have added the Rhapsody music service to the options. They launched the program with a 30 day free trial so we've been playing with it quite a bit. Actually, right now the service seems a bit buggy, so I think this "free" period is their way of beta testing the system, and it does need some work. But for free I don't have too many complaints. There are over 4 million tracks on the system that are easy to search and it makes recommendations based on what you play. It has theme channels that are like radio without commercials and it's amazing! Cam and Ben have shown us new music that we've been enjoying, and we've been playing old stuff from our vinyl collection that died years ago with our turntable.

There's a Children's channel we play a lot during the day for Kai and Shen that plays some really good stuff besides the standard Raffi. An old favorite of ours we've been playing for the boys is Peter Paul and Mommy

This is a great children's album that is very listen-able even for adults (well, for adults who like the kind of music I enjoy anyway). So, the Tivo is now a great way to NOT watch TV at all!