We've been discussing it for some time now, cutting off our phone and just relying on our cell phones and the Internet for connectivity. But we've had a phone hanging on our wall our entire lives, and up until recently, cable modems weren't readily available in our town. But times change, and we soon began to realize that many of our friends no longer even had land lines anymore. So after some consideration (and the realization that we could save $60/month by cutting off our phone) we decided to take the plunge.

So on Wednesday morning, Michelle called the phone company and pulled the plug. That afternoon, I stopped by Best Buy on the way home from work and picked up a new cable modem and signed up as an alternative to our DSL line that was getting shut down as well. By 5 o'clock that afternoon, it was done. We had unplugged the phone from the wall, swapped out the DSL modem for a cable modem, and we were ready for our new lives on the edge of technology.

Ok, so maybe not quite on the edge. But at least it was an interesting comparison getting to compare a DSL connection and a cablemodem connection head-to-head for a brief while. The cablemodem is definitely faster. Actually, DSL makes the connections faster than cable, but on the whole, cable downloads everything faster than DSL. So consider that an upgrade.

Then, this morning, we had our second level ultrasound appointment to analyze the baby and see what there is to be seen. The ultrasound operator at the medical center was a true whiz at her craft, moving from one view to another with amazing fluidity and clarity. We even got a great handful of black and white shots to take home, including several stunning profiles. But for all the technology and for all the operator's skill with the ultrasound machine, we could not get the money shot.

We were expecting to find out the sex of this baby today during the ultrasound. We had found out during Michelle's pregnancy with Eastland, and it just makes things easier, knowing what to expect. (You can buy definitive blues or pinks!). But the little baby had its legs crossed beneath it, curled up in the (appropriately named) fetal position. So while we were able to clearly see the entire skeletal development, the beating of all four chambers of the heart, the brain, face, kidneys, stomach, bladder, spine, and on and on. We could not get the money shot.

Which means this time I will get to shout it out during the birth, "It's a ____!"

In the meantime, sign yourself up for the Second Ever Farmertan Baby Poll and enter your guess as to what and when we're going to have this time around.