Internet and TV for your Home

In my area, there are basically three ways to get internet and TV for your home. There's AT&T U-verse, DirecTV, and Comcast Xfinity cable. Which is best? Depends what you're looking for.

AT&T U-verse offers fiber optic delivery of your TV and internet. It's fast! You can DVR four shows at once, and get internet download speeds up to 24 Mbps. (You need 8 Mbps to watch Apple TV Netflix movies, so I'm told.) One blogger had some ATT uverse problems in getting set up, both those were fixed. He's happy.

DirecTV has great TV packages, including NFL Sunday Ticket that allows you to watch any NFL football game in the country. As for DirecTV internet speeds? Um.. it's basically DSL. DirecTV does let you watch TV on your computer. But who cares? That doesn't help anyone get online.

Comcast Xfinity offers TV and internet. But if you get your internet service through cable, you're sharing download bandwidth with your neighbors. If all of you are just browsing the web, it's not big deal. But if someone is streaming videos and hogging the line, there's less bandwidth for everyone else.

Fiber optic is fast. Some people just want TV shows. You make the call.

Maxim's Hottest is ... Who?

Katy Perry was named Maxim's hottest woman this year. To which I ask - who is she? I have never heard of Katy Perry. And when I see her photos, I don't know why they picked her number one. She seems quite plain to me. (Sorry, just being honest.) I like Kim Kardashian as my number one. And I don't even see Shakira on the top 100 list. What's with that?

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Want to celebrate Cinco de Mayo at home this year? Shake up the best margarita recipe around, and enjoy! The key to a good margarita is using quality ingredients. Herradura Anejo tequila is award-winning. Cointreau is one of the best orange liqueurs. And fresh squeezed lime is the only way to go.

Chicken Recipes

My kids and I love chicken. We feel like it's healthier for us than red meat, and there are so many ways to cook it. Some of our favorite chicken recipes:

• Chicken and dumplings - the dumplings in this recipe are super fluffy and good!
• Cajun chicken - we sprinkle Chef Paul Prudhomme's cajun seasoning on our chicken, and dip it in apricot-mustard sauce. Yum!
• Lemon chicken - garlic and lemon with chicken. Yum!
• Chicken and broccoli pasta - we like it simple. No mushroom soup. No flour. Just the basics.
• Jerk Chicken Marinade - savory. Mouth watering. The best grilled chicken ever. (At least we think so)
• Roast chicken - once again, very basic

Bon appetite!

Olympic luger death very sad

The 2010 winter olympics got off to a very sad start with the death of Georgian luger, Nodar Kumaritashvili. I thought it was in poor taste for NBC to air footage of the crash and his death on TV. Life is sacred and should be cherished. They capitalized on the circumstance of his death.

My heart goes out to the luger, his family, teammates, loved ones, his country. And to all the athletes competing in this year's olympiad.

Survivor Samoa Was NOTHING Without Russell

I'll say it up front: Russell should have won Survivor Samoa. Is there any question? Natalie did NOTHING during the season but ride his coattails. All those idols Russell found. My kids and I tuned into Survivor Samoa each week for one reason - to watch Russell outwit, outlast, outplay he other people. I hesitate to call those other people "players" because most of them hardly played the game. Oy.

Oh, Tiger

The fallout from the alleged Tiger Woods affair reached a boiling point the other day, with Swedish golfer Jesper Parnevik calling Woods out and saying he's not much of man. Yet today, the Tiger and Elin watch is eerily quiet. Did Woods pay everyone and his brother's cocktail waitress (i.e. mistress) to shut up? Yahoo's front page has barely chirped a tweet about the Tiger Wood car accident that turned into a bashed window, courtesy of his wife, and his admissions of transgressions. What gives? Eery silence after days of rumors is just plain weird.