My buddy Mike was "kind" enough to keep an eye on my place when I went away to Canada. Truthfully, I think he only stays at my place because he gets free Internet access. He's too cheap and or lazy to get his own computer. Anyway the little mouse problem I was dealing with before seems to have gotten worse. Upon my return, Mike informed me that he has seen the mouse several times, and that one of them even managed to get on the kitchen table. The evidence was a loaf of bread with a hole gnawed through the wrapper! Moreover, Mike continued to see the mouse while I was away at work last week. I know he's not kidding because I would see them dart across the floor from time to time. But, strangely enough, since Mike left I haven't seen a mouse once. Even the bread I put on the glue traps to bait the mice appears to be untouched.

On a lighter note, I truly enjoyed my trip to Canada. Montreal and Toronto are both excellent, world class cities. The only thing I really wanted to do that I missed out on was a trip to the observatory in the CN Tower. Low cloud cover made seeing the city impossible from up there the entire time I was in Toronto.

One more thing. For the first two months I've had Verizon DSL, it seemed to work fine. Then a couple weeks ago I lost the ability to make and receive phone calls. My ability to go online has not been impacted. But when I pick up the phone I only hear either static or nothing at all. Sometimes the phone rings, but if I pick it up, the other person can't hear me at all. And yes, I'm using the filter for phones that came with the Verizon package. I don't want to call out a Verizon technician and be charged a hefty service fee except as a last resort. Any troubleshooting tips you can post here would be most welcome.