I love my TV. It was our first big purchase as a married couple and we had been planning on it for a long time. It was kind of our wedding present to ourselves. We knew we wanted to go high-def (this was in 2004 when it was still kinda new), and I knew I wanted the best picture quality I could find.

I never liked plasma TVs with their muddy images and crappy viewing angles. I'm such a quality snob that the picture itself means more than size, and at the time, the hands-down best image you could get was with a tube TV. So we got the newest and largest tube HDTV Sony had -- a 34" monster weighing in at over 200 pounds. To give some perspective on the market at the time, it was one of (if not) the first televisions ever equipped with an HDMI hook-up. It has served us well, and over the years when typical home televisions have gotten larger and larger, I've still been happy with my baby and its gorgeous image.

But in the past year... I have finally seen flat-panel technology come to market whose image quality is just as gorgeous, or even better than the tube. And they come in huge sizes! And the have great viewing angles! And they don't weigh over 200 freakin' pounds!

I've been looking at them for a year now and I keep saying to myself, "By the time I'm really ready for a new TV, the technology will be even better and they'll be a fraction of the price," but I'm really starting to feel that itch to trade-up. I have the beautiful fantasies of watching movies with gorgeous blacks and bright, vibrant colors on a huge screen in the comfort of my livingroom.

Perhaps it's good that the only TV's that meet my high standards are still ridiculously expensive. Perhaps I can stave off this itch for another couple years and, yes, perhaps then the technology will be even better and it will cost even less.

... sigh.