Well, we still have no service.

The company has no answers about when we might expect to have service.

The good thing is, when i called to ask, i laughed, and joked with the nice person on the phone, and told him i knew it wasn't his fault, that i was just looking for information.

He doubled our internet speed at no extra cost (when it comes back up) for 6 months and gave me a $20 credit toward this month's bill, because of the inconvenience.

Meanwhile, i'm having to plan my days around going to places that have wi-fi a couple of times a day just so i don't get deluged with email and behind on other stuff.

It's funny, but i'm also having lots of trouble logging in to some of my email accounts, even on "good" computers.  There have been a few that i can't open or respond to, but the email program marks them as if it had opened them properly.  They have to be fished out of old mail, and i'm not sure what's up with that.

On top of this, the two closest public libraries to us are both closed for renovations, so there's no going to the library to get online right now.

All minor things that are frustrating when added together.

All things that we will survive, i'm sure, no worse for the wear.

In good news, Uncle J had offered to take #2 Son hunting.  Because #2 Son is now 16, this would entail getting his own hunting licence.  To get said hunting licence, he would have to have his learner's permit or a state ID.

Thus, finally, almost a year after he took the driving course and was supposed to go get his permit, i was finally able to drag him down there to take the test.  Once again, i am the passenger in my car, white knuckled, as a young person learns the ins and outs of the road behind the wheel.

He's actually not bad.  But don't tell him i said that.


Today is:

Alasitis Fair -- Aymara Indians, Bolivia (offerings to the god of prosperity, now celebrated in conjunction with the Roman Catholic Feast of Our Lady of Peace, for whom La Paz is named)

Beer Can Appreciation Day -- the first canned beer went on sale today in 1935

Belly Laugh Day -- at 1:24pm local time, join the Belly Laugh Bounce Around the World!

Economic Liberation Day -- Togo

Eskimo Pie Day -- patented this day in 1921

Fairy-Four Paganalia -- Fairy Calendar

Mawlid an Nabi -- Islam (Prophet's Birthday, began sunset yesterday)

Montana Winter Fair -- Lewiston, MT, US (from farm exhibits to a fiddler's contest, there's fun to be had here; through Sunday)

National Compliment Day -- begun by Debby Hoffman and Kathy Chamberlin, a day in which to compliment at least 5 people

National Peanut Butter Day

Opposite Day -- internet generated, and fun if you play it right

Paul Pitcher Day (So called because it is the eve of the Celebration of St. Paul's Conversion on the road to Damascus.  Cornish tin miners would traditionally set up a water pitcher in a public place and throw stones at it to destroy it.  A replacement pitcher was then bought and filled with beer, which was drunk and replenished through the day.  These miners were great inventors for reasons to celebrate, and they did this to rebel against the rule that only water was to be consumed during the work day.)

Sailing of Bast -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (people sailed the Nile to converge on Bubastis and celebrate the cat goddess; date approximate)

Sementivae, in honor of Ceres and Terra, begins -- Roman Empire (one of the few dating approximate items on the Roman Calendar, as each area of the Empire celebrated according to the timing of a local magistrate, but now through Feb. 2 was a typical time)

Social Sipping and Nibbling Rehearsal Day -- a day to practice cutting a piece of cake on a paper plate, using a plastic fork, and also balancing a napkin and punch in a paper cup; or practicing what clever thing you will say if you drop it all

St. Francis de Sales' Day (Patron of authors/journalists/writers, confessors, deaf people, educators/teachers; Champdepraz, Aosta, Italy; against deafness)

St. Moritz Polo world Cup on Snow -- St. Moritz, Switzerland (winter polo on the frozen lake of St. Moritz; through Sunday)

Winter Carnival -- St. Paul, MN, US (a tradition over 100 years in the making; through February 3)

Ziua Unirii -- Romania (Unification Day)


Anniversaries Today:

Popeye meets Olive Oyl, 1929 (in Elzie Segar's Thimble Theater comic strip)


Birthdays Today:

Tatyana Ali, 1979
Mary Lou Retton, 1968
Nastassia Kinski, 1960
Jools Holland, 1958
Yakov Smirnoff, 1951
John Belushi, 1949
Warren Zevon, 1947
Sharon Tate, 1943
Neil Diamond, 1941
Aaron Neville, 1941
Ray Stevens, 1939
Maria Tallchief, 1925
Jerry Maren, 1920
Oral Roberts, 1918
Ernest Borgnine, 1917
Granny D (formerly Granny Haddock, or Ethel Doris Haddock, political activist)
Edith Wharton, 1862


Today in History:

Caligula, known for his cruel despotism, is assassinated and succeeded by his uncle Claudius, 41
Connecticut colony organizes under Fundamental Orders, 1639
The first Jewish doctor in US, Jacob Lumbrozo, arrives in Maryland, 1656
Henry Knox arrives at Cambridge, Massachusetts with the artillery that he has transported from Fort Ticonderoga, 1776
The University of Calcutta is formally founded as the first full-fledged university in south Asia,1857
The Romania principality arises under King Alexander Cuza, with Bucharest as the capital, 1862
General Baden-Powell's publication of Scouting for Boys starts the Boy Scouts movement, 1908
The Gregorian calendar introduced in Russia by decree of the Council of People's Commissars effective from February 14(NS), 1918
Vincent Massey is sworn in as the first Canadian-born Governor-General of Canada, 1952
A bomber carrying two H-bombs breaks up in mid-air over North Carolina. The uranium core of one weapon remains lost, 1961
Jackie Robinson is elected to Baseball Hall of Fame, 1962
Japanese Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi is found hiding in a Guam jungle, where he had been since the end of World War II, 1972
Soviet satellite Cosmos 954, with a nuclear reactor on board, burns up in Earth's atmosphere, scattering radioactive debris over Canada's Northwest Territories. Only 1% is recovered, 1978
The first Apple Macintosh goes on sale, 1984
Voyager 2 passes within 81,500 km (50,680 miles) of Uranus, 1986
Japan launches Hiten, the country's first lunar probe,and the first lunar probe launched by a country other than Soviet Union or the United States, 1990