Upgrading the luxuries

Back in June, my Haute Mama cohort, Richie revealed that her family was forgoing TV once the digital transition occurred.

We're basic cable people ourselves so we didn't have to contemplate whether to let our TV die or not.

We watch some TV, but it's not that important to us. OK, I should rephrase that. It's not that important to Bill and I. It's very important to Margaret and my mom.

Bill and I like watching some really crappy reality shows, but we also really like the smart stuff that's out there, too. Last night on Discovery was a very good program about Cleopatra that I couldn't stop watching. I was supposed to be playing my guitar, working on some new songs, but I couldn't turn away from the idea that researchers had found the skeleton of Cleopatra's sister. Sometimes my nerdy side thwarts my attempts at being cool.

Bill loves Conan O'Brien in a way that is just not natural. But who am I to judge, I was irritated that VH-1 killed "Megan wants a millionaire" after one of the contestants hideously murdered his ex-wife. I am, after all, not a good person.

But we could live without TV.

Mar might "die" of tween angst if she couldn't watch iCarly or those other tweeny shows on those kid channels that I skip over religiously. But she, too, would recover as she's very good at keeping herself entertained with crafts and books and music.

My mom gets a pass allowing her to watch as much as she wants because her cancer is pretty much keeping her in bed for now.

She enjoys watching shows about people buying real estate and cooking shows. Recently she admitted to wishing we had better channels. She misses the DIY network and some other specialty channels that cater to crafty folks like herself.

Because mama gets whatever mama wants, we're in the market for more channels. We're looking at getting some kind of satellite programming or maybe just upgrading our current cable plan.

I don't care which, I just want the most channels for the least money. Any recommendations?