We do not currently have cable television or a wide selection of movies in the McPherson household. What we do have is Netflix, a lovely service that for approximately one-third the price of cable television gives us an endless supply of DVDs in the mail. Kelly is the Household Manager of the Netflix Queue and is always finding informative and fun films for us to enjoy.

Netflix offers some films not only in DVD format but also in streaming video from the Internet. This is good because you can go from wanting to see a film to actually seeing it in about 30 seconds. It is bad because you have to watch the film on your computer, which usually possesses neither the screen size nor the position for optimal feature-film enjoyment.

Enter the Roku Player, which I bought for Kelly as a Christmas present (though honestly I kind of wanted one too and am thus guilty, as we say in the McPherson family, of “buttering my own parsnips”). It allows you to stream movies right from Netflix to your television, bringing us remarkably close to the utopian day when you can sit down, think of a movie, and start watching it in no time at all. It’s even wireless so you don’t have to hook it up to your router. Fancy!

The box also has generic computing capabilities and a variety of other applications, which include listening to internet radio on Pandora, renting new release films from Amazon, and looking at photos from Flickr. The nerd in me is sorely tempted to reprogram the thing or write my own software for it, but I know I’ll never get around to it. It’s just heartening to know that I could.

It’s easy to set up and works great. We are not prone to product endorsement at Oatmeal for Breakfast but we do think our friends who use Netflix might enjoy this little wonder. We hope you’ve had a wonderful Christmas!

Here’s another thing we love. The King County Library, more specifically, their website. Did you know you can request all sorts of things from the library (like DVDs and not yet released books)? Yep. You don’t even have to go to the library, you can search kcls.org and have the item delivered to your local branch if it’s not already there. If they don’t have the item you request, they’ll most likely buy a copy! It’s one of my favorite things. I’m sorry if you live in an area with an inferior library system, but I thought I’d share this for those around here who may not already know about these library options! You may also choose to track the items you’ve checked out. If you’re like me and can’t always remember the exact title of the great book you’ve read, you can then just go back to your library history and find it!

Interrupting our vacation chronicles to bring you some new info and possibly a “regular feature” on oatmeal for breakfast: Things we like. Don’t worry, you’ll have the grand finale wrap-up of our England vacation later this week!

We like Fresh Way Pizza! It is a take and bake pizza place located on 164th in Redmond that is a real delight! When you walk in, you feel like you’re at your best friend’s house in high school and her mom is asking you what you’d like on your pizza that night. They also have whole wheat dough! YAY! It’s a small operation, just one location for now, but this is tasty pizza that will hopefully be around for a long, long time. Also, they deliver their goods! In smart cars!

If you’re wondering what to have for dinner, give them a call. You won’t be disappointed!