A year ago, we had Telus as our landline and mobile provider. We were paying almost $80/month for communication.

Then we switched to a combo package from Sprint, and that dropped our cost to $66/month. Sprint Canada then was bought out by Rogers, so our landline was switched to Rogers and wireless to Fido.

Hmm, $66/month… seemed kinda high for the amount of use we get out of it.

So now that E is on mat leave, we decided to see if we can save $$ by switching the mobile to Pay-As-You go and the landline to Vonage/Skype.

For the mobile, as long as we keep our minutes to around 100 min a month, our cost ends up being $15/month at .15 minute. The main thing is to remind e that the mobile isn’t for prolonged conversations, but there is an option to switch to a different evening and weekend rate for .01 a minute, but it’s like .40 minute regular time. Good thing is that there’s no additional system access fee.

For the “landline” we’re trying a combination of Vonage and Skype. Vonage leverages our Shaw hi-speed and we pay $20/month for 500 minutes anywhere in North America. I will say that the transition to Vonage from Rogers was ok, but there are some gotchas and limitations to be aware of.

First, you need an adaptor that plugs into your Router. The adapter comes free, and you can use your existing phones. The limitation is that you cannot use the existing phone wiring and jacks. The adapter comes with a single jack in the back, and you can plug in any phone. If you need multiple phones, you need a splitter (cheap $5 part) that allows you to connect multiple phones. All this is pretty useless if you just have regular phones, but what we ended up doing was using cordless phones. We plugged both bases into the adaptor, and have one handset upstairs, one handset downstairs. It’s a bit of a hassle remembering to recharge, but there are other cordless phones with mulitiple handsets and bases that use just one jack.

If you don’t have a router, you can buy a combo router/adapter made by Linksys I believe.

Second, if you goto vonage.ca and sign up for everything, they will charge you $10 for S/H, and $40 activation fee. If you CALL vonage to do the same thing, they automatically waive the activation fee. We did everything over the web like good citizens, and called back to complain about this double standard. They credited us the $40. On another note, their customer service is… just ok. Response time on the weekend was acceptable, and they did help, but I think there’s definitely room for improvement.

Third, Rogers called back to try and save the account. They offered a $30/month rate good for a year. After explaining that it’s still more expensive than Vonage, and what happens after the year, and why didn’t they offer this rate to begin with… well they didn’t have a good answer. They tried to compare their VOIP Rogers Home phone solution, which is like $50/month after the promo ends- you get this feature and that, dedicated line for reliability and voice quality. Their solution makes use of your existing phones and wiring, but they need to drill and install a box somewhere to tap into the lines. Anyways, the Home phone solution might make sense if you call Long distance regularly, but with Skype and Phone cards, it’s pretty cheap.

Back to Vonage. Their voice quality was a bit shaky the first call we made, kinda like a cell phone in spotty coverage, but it’s been pretty solid since. The adapter has status lights to let you know what’s going on. I had to reset the device once, and it’s been good ever since. Voice quality isn’t bad. Kinda like a cell phone in regular coverage. So far, so good.

For the case where we’re running out of minutes or need to call somewhere other than North America, we also signed up for a Skype account. “derekandevonne. lau” We tried it with our Logitech speakers and microphone, and it was ok. Just a bit weird listening to someone talk over your speakers. I found a wireless handset that connects via USB AND regular phone line. It’s a VTech, and sells at Futureshop for $99. The nice thing is that it works with Vonage or Skype. If I want to make a call via Skype, I enter the number and hit a specific button. If I want to make a call via Vonage, same thing only I hit a different button. I had a couple of 50 min+ conf calls to Bangalore that I used Skype for, and it was good enough and reliable enough that I forgot I was using skype. No echo or dropped words. Skype Out is free until the end of the year, but it’s been good enough that I’ll pay for the service. Charges for long distance are very cheap.

The only gripe is the USB software that allows the phone to connect to the Skype client. It sometimes “loses” connection, so that if Skype is running on your computer, your handset which is connected via USB, may not be aware that it’s up and running. There’s a utility that can be run to check status, and it will detect that something has lost connection. It doesn’t happen that often, and a reboot will quickly set things right.

It’s 7:11pm, and I’m munching on a pickled egg. I haven’t had one in years, and it sure brings back memories of my childhood. I must say it is very good, and I can see how my Dad can eat a dozen.

So far we’re on track…

1) we bought and assembled an Ikea dresser/change table, which I happily dragged up the stairs from our parking garage. Nothing cures a sore back like carrying a dresser. :- I remember an Amazing race episode where couples had to assemble Ikea furniture at the factory. I think we’ve put enough of these things together to attain a black belt in Ikea furniture assembly.

2) Crib has been assembled and is now in the corner of the room (Thanks GB!)

3) Just finished painting the room- 2 coats of Benjamin Moore. It’s a light cucumber green, inspired from e’s jar of cucumber facial scrub. A side note about painting. My painting skills are such that I can say BM makes a good product that even I can get good results. We tried Ralph Lauren paint, and after 2 coats, it just didn’t look as smooth and rich as the BM. In hindsight, we probably should have hired a BM color consultant to come in and pick 3 or 4 colors for the entire place. Not that we’re unhappy with the colors we chose, it’s just that we chose them one at a time and could have saved ourselves hours of endless debate and looking at color swatches.

4) Shampoo’d the carpets. After going through this process and seeing what this thing picks up that the Vacuum doesn’t… go for hardwood or laminate… especially if you have pets. I’m guessing this extends to kids.

5) Mom has saved all our plants by repotting them and repositioning them on our front deck, so they get sun in the AM, and cool shade for the rest of the day. I got a mint plant from my Grandpa’s garden, so the next step is a nice Mojito recipe! MmmmmMMm!

E is doing well, she went to Spa Utopia with Mom and AJ. Mom had her belated massage (mother’s day and b-day gift) while E and AJ had pedicures. Baby is active, but more squirming than kicking. I guess there’s not a lot of room in there. Her bags are packed, except she couldn’t find a copy of this month’s InStyle magazine. Hopefully we can get some good light to take some pics tomorrow after the doc’s appt.

So in keeping with the culinary theme, today we went to Chinatown to purchase the items for pigs feet. Pigs feet, for those that are utterly confused by this topic, is a traditional dish that preggy women eat after birth.

It consists of:

– 1/2 bottle of Black rice vinegar sauce
– 2-3lbs Ginger. keep them whole, but take a knife to put a few slices in to increase surface area.
– big jug ($32 worth) Sweet vinegar (rice wine vinegar, sugar, cloves, cinnamon, rice, ginger, and orange peel)
– 7lbs ($9) of pig’s feet (boiled first to cleanse, then rinse with cold water)
– 24 peeled hard boiled eggs. Yes 24!

Using a clay pot over medium heat, put ginger in with the vinegar to cover all the ginger. Bring to boil. Dump in the pre-boiled and most importantly, cleaned pig’s feet. Let simmer over low heat hours and hours until it’s softened… but not over cooked (like it’s falling apart)

Then you toss in the eggs and let it sit in the big pot. Then you can enjoy weeks of pickled eggs, ginger, and feet. The vinegar is a base that keeps for a long time, so you can keep adding boiled eggs, ginger, and pig’s feet…

I think this stuff is high in calcium and protein, which is much needed by the new mother. Ginger is good for digestion.

Segue- for those who are sensitive to the plight of animals, read no further….

ok, this reminds me of a story Jed told when he was in China. Basically he led a group of BC teenagers through rural China. In a certain part there was a certain market where you can buy all sorts of animals and seafood- all live and fresh. Needless to say, there’s no such thing as SPCA in China… so these kids came across this pig in a cage lying traumatized on its back. Why was it on its back? Because apparently if you want Pig’s feet in China, you don’t necessarily have to take the rest of it. So here’s this poor traumatized pig with 4 bandaged stumps being stared at by a group of traumatized teens. Jed tells this story with a lot more detail… ugh, I think I lost my appetite for pig’s feet.

Pear tree- will write up in the near future.

Villa del lupo- wonderful Italian restaurant http://www.villadellupo.com/menu.html … located right near BObj as fate would have it. The restaurant is actually a very charming, nicely renovated 2 storey house that’s situated a couple of doors away from the firehall on Smithe. Very easy to miss as it looks like a regular house, except for the menu posted out front.

Service is excellent (e called the waiter “pretty”), terrific wine list, and wonderful food. We had the summer sampler menu- 4 courses that contained 2 entrees for $60. Food is excellent. Everything was done perfectly, and one of the best Italian in town. Overall, we would rank it right up there, maybe a shade or two below Bishops. We’ll be back for the Osso Bucco. 🙂

Cru- http://www.cru.ca/ Located next to Memphis blues, it’s a very small chic restaurant with a floor to ceiling cool ambient blue entranceway. The tables are rectangular with modern looking loveseats on either side, sort of like a booth. Our waitress was familiar, in fact she was one of E’s highschool classmates… who we saw working at Bridges and Banana Cafe in South Surrey. (No, we’re not stalking her). She has a cool name like Tesula. If I’m on a plane and the wings have ripped off, and a calming voice was needed to settle the passengers… her voice would be it. E later told me that it was her ‘restaurant’ voice and she didn’t talk like that in real life. :-

The food was very good. You can either have the 3 course set menu for $36, or do the tapas. If it’s a hot day, try the cool beet/cucumber soup. It’s the soup of the day, so it may not always be available. Entree- Halibut was quite good. Beef strip loin was very tasty, but a bit chewy. Had to watch that you cut across the grain. Recommend the oysters (japanese sushi vinegar), the Foie Gros was very yummy and the Creme brulee also very good. I tried the Sumac Gerwertz and found it to be different from other Gewertz’ I’ve had. Very strong and dry. Basically had to have it with food. All in all, a very good call by Uncle Henry!

Here’s our first mighty blog entry. When blogs started to become popular a few years back, I never really got into it. Not sure I saw the purpose of an online diary, but now I see it as a Wiki page for friends and family. Since I use Wiki quite heavily at work, it’s kind of a natural tool for me to use, but just wierd that we’re writing about our personal lives. I also guess we’re using Windows Spaces cuz it’s free…

So we’re officially a week away from baby. I guess Evonne’s nesting instinct is starting cuz we’ve turned everything in our townhouse upside down. The big thing was moving the office from upstairs to the breakfast nook in our kitchen. While moving the desk down the stairs… I pulled something in my back, and the first thought was “wow, I’ve never pulled that muscle before… owww!” Second thought was “supporting e during labour is really going to hurt with this bad back” No target or driving range for me 🙁

Anyways it’s all moved downstairs and hooked up again. If you ever get the chance to pull your computer apart- USB cables, microphones, scanner, printer, power cables, speakers, KB/Mouse, etc… it’s staggering the amount of hardware it takes just to surf the web, download and listen to music, and email. I had a lot of fun zap strapping cables together so it’s not a rats nest. I guess the same goes for the home theatre system.

Ok, so e is doing well. She has a non-stress test later this week. We’re not sure why this is scheduled, but it’s a measurement of the baby’s response to stimulus. So baby is on a heartbeat monitor… and a noise to wake baby is introduced. Heartbeat should then go up… or something to that effect.

Today we’re going to clear everything off the upstairs floor, vacuum the carpet, and shampoo the 4 years of cat puke, drink spills, hairballs, and other yummy items. Hopefully with the hot weather everything will dry quickly. Thanks to Uncle Albert for lending the cleaner to us.

Other items of note- I have a flickr site- http://www.flickr.com/photos/bc_river_otter/ that we’ll be posting items to.