The Hampton Times

We bought a MagicJack from RadioShack on Sunday for $40. You plug it into a USB port on your computer and then you plug a phone line into the phone jack on the device and presto! You're making calls over the Interwebs. Works really well from what I can tell over the past 24 hours of usage. We also purchased a new Panasonic cordless phone system so that I could connect the base into the MagicJack (which resides in the basement) and then plug in all four "satellite" telephones in four other rooms of the house. MagicJack now offers 911 Emergency service, so we mainly bought this thing to have a "land line" for the kids to use in an emergency. Up till now, we've just had my cell phone and Angie's cell phone. I know that if the power goes out, it will take the computer, MagicJack and cordless phones with it, so somewhere down the line I'll pick up a UPS battery and connect all that stuff (including the Comcast cable modem and Belkin router) to it. Th...

View from the West Club Suites, around the 20 Yard Line... Eagles home opener vs. Saints.

The other night, we went out for a late dinner at Fogo De Chao in Philadelphia, PA. It's located just off of Broad Street on Chestnut Street, before you get to 13th Street. Branded as a Brazilian Steakhouse, it's a meat lovers' paradise. If you've ever had food served to you "family style", you'll be a little familiar with how this works, but in a slightly different way. Typically, at a family style restaurant, each course is served in large portions to the table and if you need more, you notify your server who eventually brings out another serving. But at Fogo de Chao, you're provided with a small cardboard coaster marked "No, Thanks" on the red side, and "More, please" on the green side. A team of "carvers" walks the restaurant floor armed with skewers of beef, chicken, pork, and lamb; and when they see your coaster showing the green side, they will stop right next to you and either plop a skewer of meat onto your...

Do you know what spline is? Well, you're about to learn... In the past, when I've needed to have a screen door "re-screened" I've taken the door off and brought it to a local hardware store for repair. It's usually cheap ($20/$25 or so) and only takes a few days before it's ready for pick up. But over the weekend, we had a mishap with our sliding screen door (someone walked into it) and it ripped the bottom and part of the side away from the edge. Given where our house is (edge of the woods), we like any barrier we can put up to keep out the insects. So this time I decided I'd try to tackle the job myself. I measured the door (44" x 72") and went to Home Depot in search of a rescreening kit. That's where I learned that you not only need to buy the screen, but you also need "spline" and a spline applicator tool (a "spline roller"). Basically, spline is just a soft plastic line (get it?) that you smoosh into the g...