We watch too much TV. I spend too much of my evening watching ridiculous things that don’t do anything to aide my addled brain when I could be doing something productive, like sleeping. The kids watch too much TV. Spend 5 minutes with them at the grocery store, and you’ll see that they’ve memorized ad pitches for 75 percent of the products on the shelves.

So we’re embarking on a little entertainment experiment. Effective immediately, our DirecTV service is off for a few months. We still have the internet, which means we have Netflix instant-watch stuff via the Wii. And we’ll have access to “Doctor Who” through iTunes. (That was Rockford’s only qualm about the experiment: He didn’t want to miss the Doctor. And neither did I.) The DirecTV will automatically kick back in on October 1, and I’ve marked it on my calendar. If we’re all huddled around the TV waiting to be washed once again in the warm satellite glow, then we’ll probably keep it. If no one notices, though, we’ll make the suspension permanent.

I think it’ll be a good thing. We’ll stash more than $200(!) away for other things; I’ll get to bed earlier; and the kids will free up all of that extra brain space for more important stuff. I’m thinking about making them try to break the pi memorization record or learn all of the lyrics to “American Pie.” Something pie-related, definitely.