OOMA: Voice over IP Telephone Service

I recently installed an ooma system in my home to act as a second line for work. So far I am very impressed.

For those who are unfamiliar with ooma, it is a box that provides Voice over IP (or VOIP): telephone service via the Internet. This is similar to Vonage or Comcast Digital Voice. Rather than using the regular telephone connection in to your home, the connection is digitized and sent over the Internet. All VOIP systems are integrated with the Public Switched Telephone Service (PSTN) so you can place calls to anyone with a telephone even if you are using VOIP.

Yay Netflix

So I guess I am lagging being the cutting edge of cooldom, but it has taken me this long to finally sign up for Netflix. I've known about it for years, of course, but always thought that I would never actually want to see a sufficient quantity of movies in a given month to justify the monthly fee. But with a young one in the house it seemed that we were making far too many trips to the local Blockbuster and paying way too much to rent a single disc. So I subscribed.

Dinner

Tonight we had a wonderful meal. I made my famous coriander and carrot soup. Three stalks celery and two pounds of carrots chopped and sauteed in butter, some ground coriander and cumin, and about 4 cups vegetable stock. Simmer for 30 minutes then run through a blender (I miss my hand-held blender).

I intended to serve the soup with a salad and some bread. But after I got the soup started my wife said "we really need an amuse-bouche to go with this." Now I've never made one before and had to think for a bit about what I could make that would go with the rest of the meal. Here's what I finally did.

Instrument Proficiency Check

Since I am supposed to fly at least some members of my family to Florida in a week, and since the last time I've actually flown an airplane was last August, I thought it might be a good idea to spend some time flying with an instructor. Flying an airplane is very much like riding a bicycle. Except that it's a longer fall to the pavement. Still, having an instructor along occasionally to criticize you while you fly is not only the law, it is also a good idea. It keeps the instructors amused, and it's great for deflating the typical pilot ego. Deflating the typical instructor ego is a bit more difficult, but fortunately isn't my problem.

Connection Redux

Doesn't it figure?

AT&T insisted that I spend $80 getting a new DSL "modem" since they were certain the one I had (made by ActionTec) was causing my connection issues. The unit they sent me is a Motorola 2210. After receiving the new unit I configured it for use in my environment, then set it aside waiting for an opportune moment to make the swap. The next day, magically, all my connection problems went away. I've had over a week of solid uptime with 0 drops, still using the old ActionTec. The Motorola is still sitting in my office, unplugged.

Magical little boxes: they can fix a problem just be being in the same house!

Thanksgiving dinner

It was a delicious meal, made all the more pleasant by sharing it with friends.

The turkey breast and legs received a spice rub treatment consisting of sage, rosemary, thyme, and minced garlic, mixed with some grapeseed oil to provide it some body. This was rubbed underneath the skin several hours before roasting. The turkey was then roasted in a gas grill, over a drip pan filled with chopped onion. I also included a tray of water next to the turkey to provide moisture during roasting, and I basted everything with the grapeseed oil periodically during cooking. The bone-in breast took about 2 hours to cook, and the drumsticks were done sooner.

Thanksgiving planning

For Thanksgiving this year I am planning a very traditional meal, adopted for our small gathering (4 adults and one child).

We will start off with some cheese and crackers to nibble on while finishing the meal preparations: Cheddar Harlech and Robusto.

For the main course:
Bone-in turkey breast and turkey legs, cooked with a spice rub and grapeseed oil
Mashed potatoes with turkey gravy (and a mushroom gravy alternative)
Traditional green bean casserole
Fresh sweet potatoes in a candied sauce
Bread cranberry dressing
Relish tray
Yeast rolls
2007 Willamette Valley Vineyards Pinot Noir

For dessert: homemade pumpkin pie with whipped cream