I'm an ex-geogacher. Just like I'm an ex-Blogger. I have the attention span of a golden retriever puppy.

I'd be glad to give you the quick skinny on caching. Lunch? Or just go here: http://www.geocaching.com/about/

Re: TV, go to the Essex store in Berry Hill and buy any of them. Plasma, LCD, DLP-they're all good but will be better in next generation technology. Don't let it bug you. You can buy an unbelievable TV for 1/2 what you paid in 1988 for a 19" Trinitron.

I have no advice. But will be bookmarking this page so I can refer to the advice if we ever join the 21st century.

My husband uses a Garmin Etrex Legend with his Duke kids. I've looked at it a few times and it seems easy enough. He says it cost about $200 a few years ago and would probably be around $130 these days.

No clue on the caching, although I've dabbled with it before on Hubby's equipment, but on the TV? Stay away from plasma if you have people in your house who play video games. Plasma screens tend to burn in like old CRT computer screens. LCD is a good bet. Feel free to email with questions - Hubby and I are both in production and are always happy to advise on TV purchases :)

I am actually clicking over to see the advice. It seems to me that Zoot did some geocaching. Or Anne Glamore... I can't remember. Isn't that helpful? Also, when it comes to electronics I always ask Seuss first and she already commented. We bought this tv yesterday: http://tinyurl.com/7sz326

Mainly, it looked pretty and clear and was the best price comparatively for a name brand tv. That is not very scientific, but big pretty tv is so nice!

The boys will LOVE caching. Busygirl will pretend its stupid, but eventually she will have fun with it. We have found so many cool places that we wouldnt have known about if it wasn't for caching. Go to the geocache page somebody posted up comments. You will get tons of info there and there is probably a group in your area that you can get together with and geek out. You don't need all the bells and whistles for a starter GPS unit--try ebay. This is what we started with and still use. http://www.mainstsupply.com/product.cfm/11/29/12137

GPSing, I know not of. For your teevee needs, however, I have two small words: Cost-Co.
Don't know what ours is, but it was on sale and it works well, so you know, we got that going for us.
And you're welcome!

I would go with a Vizio or something similar on the TV. Stay away form Olevias. We bought have two and we have this flashy problem thing going on (think of TV flashing back and forth from good picture to snowy picture) when you first boot it up sometimes. I did some research and the part to fix it is going to cost over $100. GRR!

You are up to 2003?! Day-em!!

The mattress: Select Comfort - Sleep Number Bed. We finally forked over the $ this summer -- don't know why it took us so long! The commercials are true. And they didn't even pay me to say that!

Can't wait to hear about tvs. Ours is a JVC circa 1990. Eventually it will kick it.

No advice on geocaching. We recently got a 50" Insignia flat-panel Plasma HDTV . Insignia is Best Buy's own brand. I really like it, it is cheaper (about $500-700) than all the other so-called brand names.

I am a GeoCache fan. I used a small hand-held Garmin that I got on eBay first. It's a blast. It's an inexpensive hobby that brings loads of fun. As for the TV, I took a TV buying class if you can imagine that. No Plasma's for me, they run too hot and put off too much heat. At my age the hot flashes become power surges. I bought a flat screen Sony at Sam's Club after all the class information, and I cannot be happier. Go with a 40 at least if you can swing it.

TV-we just took the plunge after looking for 2 years. One of the big "beware's of large flat screens is that most DO NOT come with sound so you will end up buying the receiver and speakers, too. We bellied up for the 52' Mitusibishi-has a 16 speaker sound bar built in so you don't have to spring for surround. We love it-the pic is amazing. They threw in the subwoofer and when it is on the entire house feels like we're in an earthquake. I'd be happy to give you more details on ours-ask me anything! E-mail me, K? I also posted a pic on my blog last week when it was installed so you can see it...

We are still in 1990 something as far as our TV goes. One of these days, we'll have to replace it, but there's never a good time. From what our TV repair guy told me, stay away from anything made in China. If anything goes wrong with it, it's nearly impossible to get parts. Buy American or Japanese.

First decide how much you want to spend. Then check CNET (or, even better, fork over the $24 for an annual on line consumer reports subscription-it will pay for itself quickly and often)
LCD vs plasma and is a big question. My research leaned towards LCD for long term image quality, and they were also cheaper. Prices for off-brands (Vizio, Olivisomething) are lower and worth checking into. If you get HDTV, you don't need the hugely expensive cable they try to sell you. Also, even if you have an HDTV, you don't actually have HDTV unless you pay extra from your cable company.
I really recommend CNET, then check for reviews of your favorites on Amazon.

My advice is to get an LCD and not a plasma. They last longer, they're less expensive, and they look great. We have a Samsung that we just LOVE. Try and find the right pic by going to Best Buy or your local electronics emporium, look at all the pictures, ask to see a video of a movie you're already familiar with, and then pick out the picture you like best. Once you decide on the model and the size (bigger is better until you get to the 50" models which are WAY too expensive for a luddite), DO NOT PAY LIST PRICE. Retailers are so desperate to sell these TVs that they are wheeling and dealing and you can get up to $200 off the list price. REALLY. A friend of mine just bought a 42" Sony marked at $1600 for $950 by bargaining.

Once you have the tv, decide on whether or not you want a wall mount or to put it on furniture. Larger TVs go on wall mounts, where they are safer from children doing handstands and shooting soccer balls inside. Just sayin'.

Well you're in luck because I am a technical whizz kid genius.

In essence I can solve all your problems with a few carefully chosen words of wisdom and save you a heap of money.

First the mattress, toss it and sleep on the floor as after 20 year you'll be in dire need of the equivalent of a bed of nails to sort out all the back kinks.

Geocaching = the most marvelous fun in the world, I highly recommend it.

Lastly but not leastly, you definitely need a flat screened thingummy doodle as quite soon the whole world is turning over to a whole new system so your screen will be completely black with the occasional annoying fuzzy snowy bits.

Send me your full name and postal address and in return I'll send you my iron.
Cheers

Buy LCD. We have a Toshiba plasma (it came with the house) and a Sony LCD and I like the LCD better. Buy as big as you can afford, no one ever says "we should have gone smaller", it's always "we should have bought a bigger one".

Also like Headless Mom warned, you may have to buy a sound system also known as a "receiver" (Onyko is one of the best but then again my husband is a nerd). You'll want a subwoofer, 1 front and 2 rear speakers. We also have 2 side speakers but I'm pretty sure that's more optional...

Small words: Best Buy. Geek Squad. Haggle.

Just joined the modern millennia, in no small part thanks to the Best Buy/Geek Squad team. Professional installation? Completely worth it. (especially since it comes with a "call me on my cell with stupid questions" guarantee). And the price? Definitely negotiable in this economy!

Yeah, sorry, no help on the geocaching or TV upgrade subjects, but I did just want to tell you hello from Iowa and that I love, love, love your allusion to "The Jerk," perhaps the all-time greatest comedy ever, in your title. I'm glad I stumbled across you! I'll be back!

Happy New Year!

I am an avid geocacher, myself. I only read a few of your comments so apologize if I am repeating anything. My first unit was a Garmin eTrex Legend. It's a good starter GPS, not bottom of the line, but not too expensive and works reasonably well. I upgraded last year to a Garmin Vista HcX. It has a color screen, higher satellite sensitivity and I definitely see a difference in performance (for the better). You don't need anything else to go geocaching other than a geocaching account, but if you decide you like it, I highly recommend getting a PDA if you don't have one. It's a lot easier to go caching paperless than having to carry cache descriptions with you and there are a couple of different pieces of software (I think they are free) that you can use to download all the cache info onto your PDA. I also recommend Geocaching Swiss Army Knife if you decide you like it. Makes downloading a LOT easier and quicker. Feel free to e-mail me if you want more info... And Happy new Year!
Mary Ann

I'm still trying to figure out if you meant 2003 or 2009??? Oh and laughing because you are so living at my house right now aren't you?

Consumer’s Report rated GPSs this month and had a couple of very reasonable one's that work well for caching. You just don't need all the bells and whistles for caching. If you have an Ipod it also works just as well as a palm for paperless caching. You can down load the caches on it as well as the palm.

2003, eh? Well, our new camcorder may be 21st century, but we are still in the VCR stage, not the DVR stage that many of my friends are. So I' guess I'm around 2001.

I wonder what life will be like when you and I finally reach 2009.

Geocaching! I highly recommend it. My boys are 13 and 10 now and we have been caching since 2002. I now have a 2 year old daughter and she loves it too.

I agree with those who recommend a Garmin eTrex Legend. This is the lowest priced one that you can put maps on, and maps are good to have so you can find your way on roads to caches.

I've found over 1000 of them but I know someone who has found over 30,000. It can become somewhat of an obsession or it can be a nice little hobby. Great for kids. And you can see if there is a group of cachers in your area who have events, because those are always fun for sharing information about your common obsession... Err, hobby...

I'm beckerbuns on geocaching.com. I even met my 2nd husband (daughter's dad) via the geocaching IRC chat and we had a geocaching event wedding. :)