The smallest winner.

In my house, we don't own a Tivo.
In my house, the remote control to the television set has been lost for years, and it has probably never been searched for.
In fact, in my house, all we have is basic cable: just enough to get discovery channel and NBC.

If you can't imagine, we're not a TV family. We're a bunch of nerdy bookworms who occasionally participate in the activity of television watching.

One Tuesday in the midst of January sometime, I came home from school. (Approximately 8:15pm) Imagine my surprise as I walked into the house-- only to find my family huddled around the television set; that very television that does not have full cable, a remote, or a Tivo.

Thinking logically about the situation, I proposed to myself that it must be a good Seinfeld rerun, or perhaps something interesting was happening on the news. (Even this was strange, though, because all of the younger children were just as captivated as everyone else; and as far as I know, only Arthur has that capability.) Still curious, I walked into the family room, and sat down on the couch...waiting for the commercial break to be over so I could discover this phenomenon for myself.

My curiosity was not alleviated by the answer to the burning question.

They were watching the Biggest Loser.

My entire family. Together.

Now, this might not seem like such a conundrum if my family suffered from chronic, genetic, obesity. It wouldn't be so weird if we were on a family diet, family exercise program, or perhaps a family health spree. However, the accumulative weight of my family probably isn't more than 1000 lbs, and that's saying something, considering there's ten of us. Most all the members of my family participate in regular (individual) exercise. We have a family pass to the legacy center. We like to run. My mom likes to cook healthy food. We are a lot of things, but overweight is not one of them. No, my entire family is trim and fit, and surely does not need to lose any weight.

This odd situation might also make sense if my family liked TV, and watched it on a regular basis. But considering the TV shows that my family watches religiously, (Um, the office and the news. Oh, and Arthur. Plus Seinfeld reruns, but those are on DVD, and don't count.) this isn't a likely situation at all.

And yet, there they were, absolutely captivated by the happenings on "The Biggest Loser."

It has been this way every subsequent Tuesday since that less-than-enlightening day in January.

Forgive me for not understanding, but I think I'll stick with my books at this point.
And as far as studies go, I'll save the big projects for Tuesdays.

Pun absolutely intended.