AFN Comes to the Bomar House!

After a long and wonderful month (in my opinion), without television service, the kids and Tony have overruled me and we, once again, are a part of the real world. The TV is back!!

Since we only have an American TV, we are unable to get British stations in our home (not that we are missing anything.) Eric has a TV in his room hooked up to the the PS2. The kids can play video games and watch movies in there. In the living room, we now have AFN!!

For those not familiar with it, you can read more at http://www.afneurope.net. I call it "Pot Luck TV" because you never know what you are going to get!! In theory, it's a great idea. We have approx. 8 stations. There is an AFN Sports channel. On it, could be anytime of sports program, including football (college or professional - any team), NASCAR, basketball, ESPN, etc. There is a AFN movie channel. This could be any movie, old or new, and any rating (but mostly family friendly.) There is a family channel (kids favorite one.) This will show any type of kid-friendly show. There could be Blue's Clues, Sesame Street, Sponge Bob or Hannah Montana. You get the point! There are no commercials (only military information, PR stuff, etc) and no syndication (it doesn't matter what network the shows normally air on.) The Prime channel could be any program that normally airs in prime time. Good Morning America is followed by the Today Show!

Now remember, we are quite a few hours ahead of you. Therefore we are usually watching shows from the day before (such as the late shows, Jay Leno, etc) or watching the morning shows in the afternoon/evening. We wake up with Letterman and spend the evening with Matt Lauer.

This past Sunday, the Cowboys played the late game. Therefore in England, it's the "wee hours of the morning game." The game started at 1:30 AM and, of course, Tony had to watch it. He came to bed at 4:30AM and the alarm went off at 6!! (Glad they won!) I laughed when I turned the TV on the next day and it was being replayed!!

It's nice to know what is going on in the states, it's nice to watch football again, and the kids love it!! For those wondering, there is no charge for the service. You buy the decoder box and satellite dish (we bought ours from someone on base) and have someone come out and install it. You must register, as only military are authorized to have it, but after that you can watch for free. That's better than cable!!

And as Al says, we're glad to know "..what's happening in your neck of the woods!"

Cheers!

*Funny side note, since there is only 1 box/decoder we can only pick up one station at a time. Therefore, if we connect the TV in our room, the person upstairs has to watch the same thing the person downstairs is. So much for channel surfing! :O)