Shameless plug

Our new phone is set up, and it's VOIP. It's from Vonage, and it's pretty slick. You get a router box that connects to your internet box (DSL or cable modem), and then the phone plugs into that and you have phoneage. For $24.99 a month, unlimited US, Canadian, and Puerto Rican calls, with voicemail, Caller ID, and all the usual bells and whistles.

The only drawback (so far...) is that it uses E911, which means that you need to keep a current address on file with them, and they use any number of call banks with dispatchers for emergency services when you call 911. It is local that way, but maybe not as fast, maybe not as direct. They recommend the ol' fashioned method of keeping local emergency phone numbers by the phone for Fire, Police, and EMS. Also, being broadband, it doesn't work when the power goes out. So keep your celly charged, yo.

I also got my library card today, and promptly checked out:

CDs
Cat Power - You Are Free
Golden Smog - Down By The Old Mainstream
Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - I See A Darkness

DVDs
Bend It Like Beckham
H. H. Holmes
Capturing the Friedmans

Oh, yeah, a book too, a biography of Buster Keaton by Edward McPherson.