My Review of GE JX2030 Deluxe 30 Inch Trim Kit For 2.0 or 1.8 Cu. Ft. Microwave Ovens

Rainbow Appliance

This deluxe trim kit allows for a GE countertop microwave oven to be Installed in a wall or cabinet alone or over a GE 30" single electric wall oven. It can also be Installed over a GE convection wall oven for a complete convection cooking center. This trim kit will enhance any ...

GE JX2030 Deluxe 30 Inch Trim Kit For 2.0 or 1.8 Cu. Ft. Microwave Ovens

Not much to this trm kit

Doctor Scott Allentown, PA 6/26/2009

3 5

Pros: Attractive Design

Cons: Poor packaging, Expensive for what it is

Describe Yourself: Casual Cook

If you have a GE microwave and need a wall-mount trim kit, the choices are limited. This trim kit looks nice, and matches the design of the microwave perfectly. It's expensive for a piece of powder coated steel, but I can't blame Rainbow Appliance for GE sticking it to the consumer for such a niche item.

This trim kit was delivered damaged. We bought our new appliances ahead of time and stored them in their original packaging in another room while the kitchen was being remodeled. The damage was not obvious until the package was opened 6 weeks later when the kitchen contractor went to install it. Customer service was not helpful, saying we should have contacted them sooner to report the issue. I suppose we could have fought with the credit card company and disputed the charge, but it wasn't worth the trouble. The bottom line is that we won't be buying from Rainbow Appliance again and I'm displaying my frustration at their lack of customer care in this review.

Annoying eFax Spam

I thought the days of getting spammed on a fax machine were over. I was wrong.

Twice over the last two days I have received eerily similar faxes on my free eFax number. I don't mind the fax spam so much since it doesn't really cost me anything. But if this keeps up, I will exceed my "free" incoming fax pages allotment and eFax will revoke my account.

Anybody looking for discounted health care plans?




For anybody else facing a similar issue, there is a way to report junk faxes to eFax:
http://www.efax.com/about-us?tab=reportSpam, but keep in mind that reporting a fax as spam doesn't reduce the number of pages counted against your free monthly allotment.

Kitchen Update - April 11

The kitchen is 99% complete. We're currently waiting for the pendant lamps that will be installed above the peninsula (two blue holes in the ceiling). The transformation has been amazing. We have been thrilled with our contractors including Kitchens By Design, Bender Electric, Joe Pietkiwicz Plumbing, and Eisenhard's Decorating Center.

You can see the pictures:

Before: very 80's salmon walls, light blue Formica counter tops, beige cabinets with oak trim, Pergo laminate flooring, and fluorescent lighting.




After: deep orange walls, cinnamon spice Zodiaq quartz counter tops, extra-deep maple cabinets to the ceiling, Armstrong laminate flooring, and recessed (dimmable) lighting with low-voltage under-cabinet accent lighting.




The pantry area has also been transformed.

Before: panel bi-fold doors (not seen here) with full-depth shelves and a divider down the front of the pantry.





After: dual custom pantry cabinets with five roll-out drawers each. The center area allows for staging of groceries and a handy place for the drop-down LCD TV.




Finally, the powder room that previously had the same beige cabinetry with the light blue counter top has been transformed to match the kitchen's decor.




After: glass vessel sink, oil rubbed bronze faucet, same cabinet and counter top materials as the kitchen. Not shown here are the new lamp, toilet, and floor, which will be featured on a future blog entry once the grout has been finished and the baseboard tile installed.

I wish I were...

A highlight of my recent business trip to Atlanta was a chance encounter with the Weinermobile. This isn't the first time I've seen this entertaining vehicle. The first rendezvous that I can remember was in 1995 when I was in Midlothian, Virginia on my way down to Clemson to find an apartment.

 

This time was near the Georgia Aquarium at the corner of Luckie Street and Ivan Allen Jr. Boulevard.

Remind me to avoid Columbus, Ohio

When money gets tight, people put their heads up their rear ends...

I just read an article from March 22, 2009 that Columbus, Ohio is considering taking paramedics off their ambulances and reverting to an all-basic (EMT) system.

"A committee charged with finding ways for Columbus to save money has recommended that the city return to a basic emergency medical system. The last time the Columbus Division of Fire provided only basic-level care was in 1968."

These days, there is a clear trend of upgrading ambulances from basic (BLS) to advanced life support (ALS). I'm not sure there are any BLS squads left in the county where I volunteer. All of them upgraded to ALS or disappeared within the last decade.

While they are at it, I think Columbus should replace their fleet of ambulances with hearses. Being built on a car chassis, a hearse probably gets better fuel economy than an ambulance, so the savings would be two-fold!

Kitchen Destruction: Accomplished

With the help of my parents and Kate's colleague, Rob, the kitchen was basically disassembled on Sunday afternoon. While the removal of the upper cabinets a couple weekends ago was relatively clean, the removal of the base cabinets and countertops was messy and noisy.



As you can see from the picture, the only cabinet in place is the sink base. The other cabinet in the center of the floor is acting as a temporary island since there's no place to put anything down. The dishwasher, stove, and refrigerator are still in place.

The next task will be pulling up the rest of the floor. While Kate and I had really wanted to keep the Pergo floor since it was in decent shape, its age (approximately 13 years) combined with the changing footprint of the cabinets necessitated its removal. As a result, we selected our flooring today. Though it was a tough debate between a lighter and darker finish, the darker one won out. We picked Armstrong's Origins Merbau, which has a rich color and interesting grain.

In other news... our vessel sink arrived today. It is beautiful and will look great against the Zodiaq countertop in the powder room.

Cool Geeky Software Tool

We're kicking it into high gear in preparation for the 2009 NCEMSF conference this coming weekend. As VP and Chief Technology Officer of the Foundation, I am responsible for the computing needs of the conference. Over the last year I've amassed a cache of hardware that should make this year's conference easier than ever to manage (we hope).

Two years ago we introduced the use of proximity RFID readers to keep track of attendance at the lectures. Each conference attendee was issued an RFID tag that uniquely identified them. Upon entering a lecture, the attendee "badged" in.

Last year we added LCD screens to the RFID readers to display the name of the current session. It also displayed the name of the person swiping in, but the updating of the LCD screens with the name was the slow step of the process. The process also relied upon a reliable connection back to the "mother ship" for verification of the name. As it turned out, the connection from some of the far workstations was not reliable. Additionally, the virtual serial port for the LCD screen in conjunction with the Visual Basic 6 code I wrote was just too slow.

This year we are using essentially the same RFID hardware, but each workstation will be standalone. No need to talk to the mother ship this year. Plus, instead of renting laptops and rushing to install the software the day of the conference, we have invested in a set of seven small form factor (SFF) PCs. These PCs will be solely dedicated to running the RFID stations, and will be operated without monitors.

So the challenge was setting up the seven SFF PCs identically. That's where the cool geeky software tool that I mentioned in the title of this article comes into place. I had initially evaluated Snap Deploy 3 from Acronis. It turned out to be a bit overkill for our situation even though the price was very reasonable at $19.99.

After scratching my head at the complexity of feature-rich Snap Deploy 3, I stumbled upon Clonezilla, which is free. It's produced by National Center for High-Performance Computing, which is located in Hsinchu, Taiwan. I opted for the "one at a time" copying method, but Clonezilla also offers a multicast mode that they claim can replicate a 5.6 GB disk image to 40 PCs simultaneously in about 10 minutes. My experience with the unicast version is similar: 4 GB disk image in about 7 minutes over a gigabit Ethernet switch.

Kitchen Update - February 15

The kitchen demolition continues. It was amazingly easy to remove the wall cabinets on the stove side of the kitchen. On Sunday night we tackled them, and are very pleased with the results. The most difficult part was hauling the cabinets to the basement for temporary storage.

Before upper cabinet removal:



After upper cabinet removal:

The Kitchen Demolition Has Begun

In preparation for our new kitchen early next month, Kate and I started demolishing the old kitchen tonight. We started small with the removal of some of the wall cabinets. You'll be happy to know that these cabinets will find a new home in our garage or my basement work room.

Before:


After:


We've picked out and purchased new cabinets and appliances. Our big debate now is what to do with the floor. We had hoped to save it since it's in good shape. Unfortunately, we're told that with the slight change in the footprint, we'll have to replace the entire floor since replacement boards for 13-year-old Pergo aren't easy to come by. Note to self: buy a few extra boxes of whatever new floor we go with.

Toronto from the Air

As you may have seen from my photo archive, I enjoy taking photos from the air. Here is a shot of the CN Tower taken while on final approach to Toronto's Pearson (YYZ) airport. While the plane window was dirty, I managed to get a decent picture.

Happy New Year!

Kate and I had dinner on New Year's Eve with our neighbors at Curious Goods at the Bake Oven Inn in Germansville, PA. It's about 20 minutes from our house, and it is Kate's favorite restaurant in the Lehigh Valley. It was originally recommended by our neighbors, so it seemed appropriate that we ended up there with them for New Year's Eve.

Kate enjoyed some lovely crab cakes and parmesan truffle french fries while I had a hearty and tasty lamb shank. All four of us at the table shared a yummy apple crisp for dessert. On our way out the door, the restaurant co-owner, Catherine, gave all of us party hats. Here is Kate showing off hers by the restaurant bar.

 

After coming home from dinner, the real party started when we decided to bathe the dog. She had been itchy recently, and we figured we some down time before Dick Clark came on the TV. Lulu doesn't like baths, but is timid enough to take them without much complaint. I'm pleased to report that Lulu is clean and soft for the start of the new year.

Kate has a new car!

Kate has a brand new car. Barney, her purple 1997 Toyota Rav4, was retired with 155,818 miles on it. While there was nothing mechanically wrong with Barney, we didn't want to push our luck. Driving a 12-year-old car with more than 150k miles on it is asking for trouble.

So, we thought we'd take advantage of a deal Toyota was offering for leftover 2008 Rav4s. Barney's replacement, a red 2008 Rav4, is appropriately named Clifford. Here you see Kate in the car the night we picked it up from the dealership.

 

About the dealer... I know people say that if you can't say something good about someone, you shouldn't say anything at all. But we feel the need to tell the world about our experience. It wasn't completely bad, but it wasn't what I would call "good." In this slowed economy, I would expect a new car dealer to be proactive and responsive when they have somebody walk into their showroom.

Our salesman was nice enough, but he lacked the follow-through that would have made us raving fans of Bennett Toyota in Allentown. We initially met with him on December 19 to look at used Rav4s. We test drove a gold 2007 with 12,000 miles. We were quoted a price, which was reasonable but not great considering the financing promotion that was being offered on the leftover new 2008s. We decided to sleep on it and come back the next day. We also decided to do some more research about prices for used 2007s. While looking online, we found the exact Rav4 (yes, the VINs matched) we drove advertised on Bennett's Web site for $2000 less than we were quoted earlier that evening. Kate was livid, as was I.

On December 20 we headed back to Bennett Toyota and asked about new 2008 Rav4s since our research indicated they would be a better overall value since Toyotas hold their resale so well. In other words, the high asking price due to the small depreciation for a 18-month-old 2007-model-year Rav4 wasn't enough to make us jump at it compared to a new 2008 Rav4. Plus, Kate didn't have her heart set on a gold car. She had been eying many of the other colors including red and blue. The dealer found us a red one with the equipment we wanted in upstate New York. We haggled over the price and eventually came to a mutually acceptable figure after the general manager intervened. The price was about $2000 under "MSRP," plus they offered a substantial amount for Barney in trade. We signed the paperwork and were told to expect the car early the following week or, at the latest, December 26.

After we signed the paperwork for the new car, Kate pulled out the print-out from the Bennett Toyota web site with the pricing for the used car we almost bought. "Oh yeah," said the sales guy. "The used car manager had left for the night when you were here yesterday, and he didn't tell anybody that he lowered the price on that car. We would have given it to you at the lower price. We're on the up-and-up here." Right... Why didn't he lead off the conversation when we walked in on December 20 with something like "I have great news for you guys... the price on the 2007 was lower than we thought last night?" It was more of a parting shot than anything else, so we left it alone.

December 23 and 24 came and went without any news about the whereabouts of Clifford. Many phone calls to the dealership later (and no proactive calls from them), we learned that the car would be ready for pickup on Monday, December 29. We went over after dinner that night to sign the paperwork and pick it up. While at the dealership, I approached the general manager (who we had met 9 days earlier when he approved the transaction) and expressed my concern about the poor service and lack of follow-through we had experienced. He (hollowly) promised me that customer service is his dealership's number one priority and that he ranks 4th in customer satisfaction in the region and first in the Lehigh Valley. He can tell me anything that he wants, but the proof it in his actions.

When we signed the paperwork on December 20, I specifically asked that the Bennett Toyota logo be omitted from the rear of the car. I don't mind a license plate frame, but anything on the paint is unacceptable. Guess what was on the back door when we picked it up? It was just one of many breakdowns in communication at the dealership. They were able to remove the logo the next day with a heat gun, but why did we have to go though the hassle?

The end of the story is happy one. Kate got a new car at a reasonable price. But the hassle of dealing with Bennett Toyota wasn't worth it. We are not raving fans.

The Cruise is Over - Back to Reality

Kate and I had a terrific time on our cruise. After 7 days at sea, we got back on December 6 and are already planning our next cruise.

This trip took us on Pricess Cruises' newest ship, Ruby Princess, from Fort Lauderdale, FL to Ocho Rios, Jamaica; Cozumel, Mexico; and Princess Cays, Bahamas. We were supposed to also stop at Grand Cayman, but the winds (45 knots) made it impossible.



As a first time cruiser, I wasn't sure what to expect. I am happy to report that I was thrilled with the overall cruising experience. It will be hard to top this cruise -- the food, the entertainment, the ship's amenities, and the service were all outstanding. We met some great folks including our dinner mates (one couple from Syracuse, another from Germany) and a nice couple from Winnipeg.

I'll be posting more photos and memories as time permits in the upcoming weeks. We're still plowing through 300+ photos from the trip. Speaking of plowing, we had our first measurable snow accumulation in Allentown last night. What a way to be welcomed back to reality.

Hanging the Huppah

We finally had all the hardware necessary to properly display our huppah in our new house. It now hangs in our main stair / hallway for us to enjoy every day. The special thing about this huppah is that it was made by Kat Fisher, our dear friend and the previous owner of our house.

Lulu the Halloween hot dog

The tradition continues. Lulu has topped herself -- with mustard, relish, and a bun. Here she is as an adorable hot dog for Halloween. She tolerated this costume better than previous year's get-ups, probably because it didn't involve a hat of any sort.

Mission Complete - MS-150

It was a smaller team than we had in 2007, but Thermo Fisher Scientific's representation at the Bike to the Bay in Delaware was successful in accomplishing our task. Paul Neralich and I headed down to Dover on Friday night and stayed at the Hampton Inn near the starting line, but not before purchasing rain gear at Bike Line in Wilmington. The weather was questionable and we didn't want to be caught unprepared. We had ridden in two previous MS-150 events in the rain and knew it could be miserable without the proper equipment.

It was a humid, overcast morning when we woke up on Saturday. The threat of rain had apparently decreased the turnout at the event. Unlike previous years when there was bumper-to-bumper traffic waiting to enter the campus, we drove right into the Del Tech entrance without delay. When we arrived at the registration area at a little after 8am, there was lots of activity, but not what we had seen in previous years. We picked up our registration packets, pinned our rider numbers on our jerseys, stowed our newly-acquired tour t-shirts in the car, and made our way to the starting line.

It was about 8:20 by the time we got under way. We made good progress to the first rest area. We were fresh and our legs didn't mind the first 12 miles. We enjoyed some apple cider poured by Delaware's Auditor, R. Thomas Wagner Jr. We also indulged on bananas and cookies, and topped off our water bottles before proceeding on.

It wasn't long after the first rest stop that we felt the first drops of rain for the day. We pulled off to the shoulder and put on our rain gear. The Trek rain coats did a great job of keeping out the rain, but it was sort of like wearing a thick clear plastic trash bag. I could see my matted arm hair clinging to the inside of the sleeves. A recurring drop of water on the front rim of my helmet rocked back and forth as a pedaled, mimicking the visual action of KITT from Knight Rider.

We arrived at the lunch rest stop, which was around the 40-mile mark, at around 12:40. Lunch was about the same as previous years with the exception of live musical entertainment. Previously it was a low-key affair with people resting and quietly eating in small groups. I know the singer meant well, but hearing "Zip-a-dee-do-dah" in a high vibrato did not do wonders for my appetite. We didn't spend much time at lunch -- just about 20 minutes to eat and rest up and we were back on the road.

In past years the rest stop at Ellenville was as plain as it got. It previously consisted of a flat-bed trailer with jugs of water, orange slices, and bananas. This year, one of the MS-150's named sponsors, NRG Indian River, took over the rest stop. They offered a luau theme with most of the volunteers wearing grass skirts. The chicken skewers with pineapple and peppers were much tastier than lunch. We all regretted we weren't very hungry since lunch was only 10 miles behind us.

Uncle Ted's rest stop offers some of the most unique bike tour food out there. Sausage and scrapple sandwiches are available for the asking. Still feeling a tiny bit full from lunch, I just couldn't bring myself to eat a sausage sandwich, though if memory serves me, it was tasty in the past when I tried it. And there was no way scrapple was going to touch my lips. Instead I had a few orange slices and some assorted baked goods and moved on.

Right after Uncle Ted's at around 60 miles into the tour, the skies opened up. We donned our rain gear (again) and kept pedaling. The previous rains of the day had been minimal compared to this one. Pedaling was hard and we slowed to about 10 mph. When the rain stopped our socks were soaked and we could feel water sloshing around in our shoes. We had fresh socks with us, but it wasn't worth putting them on since they would have just gotten wet from the soaked shoes.

The last rest stop was only 10 miles later. Our bodies were beginning to really hurt (especially my gluts and Paul's quads). We didn't hang around long since it was already 4:30 and we just wanted to get to the finish line, which was only 6 miles away.

We crossed the finish line at around 5:15pm, which was about 35 minutes earlier than the previous year. According to the numbers I had burned about 2000 calories and put 76 miles on my odometer. This year Paul and I actually had time to sit down and enjoy dinner as opposed to last year when I had to throw food on a plate and bring it on the bus since we were running so late.



You can see the entire route on MapMyRide. My favorite thing about the day was the feeling of accomplishment as Paul and I crossed the finish line. My least favorite aspect was the heavy rain that really slowed us down and made part of the ride miserable. But when you put things in perspective, riding 7 miles in pouring rain still isn't as challenging as facing the symptoms of MS on a daily basis.

The bus ride back to the starting line was about 90 minutes, and included a stop in Milford where we had lunch earlier in the day. We got back at around 8pm and were happy to see our bikes had already arrived and were unloaded from the truck and waiting for us.

Paul and I loaded up the car and headed towards Center City Philadelphia. I dropped him off at his place and continued on to Allentown. Traffic was light and despite some light rain I made decent time getting home. I climbed into the hot tub and sat for about 40 minutes, letting the 96-degree water soothe my aching muscles.

I'd like to give a hearty "thank you" to my friends, family, and colleagues who supported and encouraged me. I know that not everybody who wanted to donate found the time before the event. My fund raising goal this year is a lofty $1700. Every dollar helps to fund research and support services for MS. Donations (tax-deductible) are being accepted through the end of October by visiting: http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/ssavett .

MS 150 fund raising under way

I got a later start than expected on my MS 150 fund raising this year. The event is Saturday, September 27, and I'll be riding with Team Thermo Fisher Scientific. At this point there are two of us on the team, which is somewhat disappointing since five people initially expressed interest. Paul Neralich and I hoping to get our colleague, Laura, to ride with us. Laura tells us she has recently acquired a bicycle to replace the one that was stolen. It's certainly a movement in the right direction.

Within 12 hours of kicking off my fund raising campaign on Thursday, September 4, I had received over $400 in donations. Just 12 hours later the total had jumped to over $650. Thank you to everybody who donated so quickly. You gave me a great boost of confidence about the event.

Currently I'm about a third of the way to my fund raising goal of $1700. If you'd like contribute a tax-deductible donation, please visit my participant page at: http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/ssavett

New stairwell light fixture

Kate and I finally replaced the light fixture in our upstairs stairwell. We actually purchased this lamp from Kay Lighting in Conshohocken prior to settling on the house. While we had the fixture and the bulbs, we didn't have a ladder tall enough to reach the ceiling of the stairwell, so the lamp sat in its box for a couple months.

To solve the problem, a couple weeks ago we purchased a Werner 22' telescoping multi-ladder at Lowes. The rest is history.

Marriott Corporation and I have made peace

After a year of back-and-forth communication with Marriott regarding an incident at one of their hotels in the Boston area last summer, they have finally relented. It took a letter to J.W. Marriott, Jr. to get action. In my most recent correspondence I stated the facts plainly and re-stated my demands, which were very simple. My principal demand was a refund for the lodging costs during the stay that went awry. They sent me a check this week, and I now consider the matter closed. My boycott of Marriott facilities has ended.

You can see Marriott's on-target, well-worded response in the letter below.



My advice for anybody who has experienced a less-than-optimal experience with a large corporation is to attempt to speak with somebody high enough up the food chain as quickly as possible. In my case, somebody in Marriott Claims Services called me the same day I reported the problem, which was the week after the incident. He immediately took a defensive tact and refused to do anything to compensate me. My next letter was to the President of North American Lodging at Marriott. He simply deferred to Marriott Claims Services and I ended up back with the individual who originally said "no." I stewed for about a year before finally writing to that individual again and copying the CEO of the company. Ah... the machinery started working and I got what I wanted. Be persistent, but be reasonable.

Settling into the new homestead

This week marks two months that Kate and I have officially been in Allentown. We're settling into the house nicely.



In recent weeks we have purchased and installed a new dining room lamp that we found at Friedman Electric in Bethlehem. Next up on the electrical "hit list" is installing the stairwell fixture that we had purchased months ago at Kay Lighting in Plymouth Meeting. But before I can do that, I need to buy a ladder since it's the top of a two-story stairwell.



The hot tub is up and running. Kate and I have begun to actually use the hot tub instead of just looking at it and cursing our "Porsche filled with water" (the term used by the hot tub repair guy). We do enjoy using it, but it is showing its age (14 years) and will likely need more "under the hood" repairs over time.

To my ISP: prepare to be trounced

You may have read earlier in this blog that Kate and I are somewhat dissatisfied with the broadband offerings in the Lehigh Valley. There is apparently no near-term solution to the problem since PenTeleData has a monopoly on our township. PenTeleData is using old technology (in computer terms) and, in my opinion, is hanging on by a technological thread. While our connection doesn't completely drop, we do frequently have data packet loss that renders VoIP usage painful.

I recently read that Verizon's FiOS technology is getting another speed boost. That means that FiOS will offer approximately 20 times faster bandwidth than PenTeleData -- at approximately twice the price. But we're still stuck at 3.5 Mbps downstream and 350 kbps upstream with no ability to easily purchase more without spending an arm and a leg ($125+ per month). And even if we switched to an expensive commercial account, our upload bandwidth would still top out at a measly 1 Mbps.

Despite the fact that I dislike Comcast on principle, I did love their zippy and reliable broadband Internet offerings at our previous house in Whitemarsh. And at least we had a choice of Comcast or Verizon for broadband. I'm wondering (hoping?) if Comcast or Cablevision is eyeing our cable provider, Service Electric, for a takeover. Moreover, I'm wondering if Verizon isn't ready to come into this area with FiOS and basically put the cable company out of business by offering a superior product. (Verizon -- are you listening???)

I'm watching Sprint Nextel's WiMax implementation called XOHM. While it's nowhere close to being deployed in the Lehigh Valley, it's an interesting concept. They aren't marketing it as a fixed point Internet solution, but I don't see why it couldn't be used as such.

Yearning for bandwidth in the Lehigh Valley

Kate and I have discovered one down-side to living in the semi-rural Lehigh Valley. Reasonably priced (true) high speed Internet access is impossible to come by. Our cable company, Service Electric Cable TV (SECTV), offers what I would term a "passable" package of 6Mbps downstream and 400kbps upstream. Bundled with their digital cable service and a one-year contract the price is a very reasonable $80 per month with taxes. The download speed is quite sufficient, but the upload speed is significantly lacking.

What about a user that needs more than 400kbps of upload speed? Forget it. It will cost at least $80 per month (plus $125 installation) to double the upload speed (but it will actually decrease the download bandwidth). To get anything above 400kbps, one needs to invest in commercial service instead of residential service. Never mind that the service is still provided by SECTV's partner, PenTeleData. According to the sales rep at PenTeleData, he has not heard of plans to upgrade the network to DOCSIS 2.0, so I doubt that the speeds will improve any time soon.

Consider, for a moment, that Comcast's lowest service broadband tier provides about the same downstream bandwidth but 1Mbps upstream. Service Electric's best offering today is what Comcast offered about 3 years ago.

What about FiOS? Nope. DSL? Nope. With the lots in our development at 1 acre apiece, the houses are spread quite far apart. To run fiber to every house would be expensive in such a low density neighborhood. And we are apparently too far from the telephone CO to have DSL.

What are our other options? A full T1 line (1.5 Mbps) would be $300 per month. That's a little too rich for our pocketbook. I've looked into a wireless provider, CAWInet, but they seem to not want our money. Filling out a contact form earlier this week on their Web site promising a response "within one business day" went unanswered. A call to their sales phone number today went to voicemail.

Lulu's First Pug Meet-Up

On Saturday despite the threat of rain, we hopped in the car with Lulu to head to her first pug meet-up in Allentown. There were a total of about a dozen pugs of various ages.

In this photo Lulu looks like the odd-pug-out as she is surrounded by three (less common) black pugs.

Here is the pug version of "social networking":



We managed to avoid the rain until we were on the way back home when it started drizzling.