Dec 17 - FAPPED again

I hate satellite internet. We've been FAPPED (Fair Access Policy) again, restricted speed for 24 hours. Two things seem to be an issue here -- first off, they're not tracking usage correctly by hour because some Netflix usage didn't show up in the "free time" as it should have and secondly Microsoft Outlook (blame Bill Gates) is trying to synchronize with an IMAP account (Hotmail) and creating a ton of download.

I've turned that off this morning. We were reactivated last night and then FAPPED again at 1am so we'll be slow all day, I expect. RATS !!!

In other news ... but there really isn't any other news ... we had a partial freeze yesterday and hopefully the lake is basically frozen this morning. Any amount of wind, however, could blow that ice away. It was calm yesterday and I'm hoping that continues until we have the entire lake frozen at which point the wind won't cause waves to break up the ice.

It was cold yesterday, with a high under 10F, but it's a little warmer today, still well below freezing however.

I hooked up a new thermostat in the wine cellar, providing heat so that when the house is set for 50F when we're not here, the wine cellar will remain at 60F. During the summer, 60F is maintained by the cooling unit but during the winter I have to heat that little room.

In other "electrical" news, I attached a timer to the heat-line so that it only runs 1/3 of the time, which should save us $.

What else ... we went over to visit Jim & Bonnie late yesterday, having a drink or two with some snacks. We then had perch for dinner, courtesy Alister and Carol.

From inside it looks like we have three barbecues. The cover from the one used for dinner last night is standing up by itself. I'll have to bring that in to soften it up. I used the natural gas jetted grill last night -- that's great in the winter because it was up to 600F in no time. I then did my cooking with the middle burner on low :).

There must be more but I forget. Oh yes, I did the per-registration for the Rocky Mountain 1200 next summer. I did that this morning because I had to wait for the "free time" when our service is faster than it will be in 20 minutes when we drop back into restricted speed.

Onward ...