With me and one son here and mom, sisters and two sons there, we love it!!! Actually, I don't have a camera, as it's one of the things that I always mean to get around to buying but never do, but the setup is grand, and DG uses it all the time with her son who is now in Hawaii. She's the computer tech person in the family. I remember being here for a year when there was only snail mail, and all letters were two weeks out of date, and some got lost, although the ones I have saved are dear and precious. But cyberspace has allowed me to stay in touch with my sons and family in a way I never imagined, and without it I would be fairly bereft. As one who reads endless amounts of science fiction, I am only too aware that today's sf is tomorrow's science, and for me, the communication universe is a miracle. Phone rates are way down, too, so calling and chatting is nowhere near the money it once was, and I talk to the States 2-3 times a month. Easy, cheap and wonderful! Batya

Is this a pattern of refusals or did you try the once and be disappointed? Skype, in my opinion, is not what it was before it was sold. We use Skype quite a lot and find things are not as good as they seemed to be 6 or so updates ago. Perhaps it has to do with the user count, back then 5 million users was about the norm but now you will notice we are in the 12 million user range. Have they kept up with the hardware as the users increased? Who knows but it seems these new program updates do not seem to cures the problems. On the bright side it is free and works great almost all the time so my comments are not really a complaint, more a suggestion as to why your video connection has failed perhaps.

Hi Lars.... I�ve been using Skype for years now, since it came out. I have a schedule to meet every Sunday at 12 noon Pacific time (which is 8 pm my time in Tenerife) with my brother and one daughter on Vancouver Island and my other daughter in Calgary, so we have a 4-way conversation going. Most of the time we have perfect sound and conditions. We don�t yet pay for video conferencing, but when there are just two of us starting up the conversation we can see and hear each other with our videocams. For a three-way or more people video conversation, Skype wants you to pay for the service, so we just talk without seeing each other, sometimes for over two hours. If one of us has a problem with their microphone, they can still type in the lower part of the box to communicate their problem with the rest of us until they get sorted and are back on voice. My daughters still use headsets on tabletop computers. At the moment I�m on a laptop with video and mic incorporated, as my big computer is in the repair center. International phone calls to landlines are also very cheap. I use Skype to telephone friends in England from Tenerife and the cost is just pennies for a ten or 15 minute chat. You just dial in the number from a numberpad on the screen and the sound is even better than using a standard phone. If I can help in any way Lars, just ask. Nice to talk to you again, SharonCb

stir fryi -- Well actually, she already got dropped from the soccer team (the second one she wanted to join, which is a small-sided team) and is staying to swim. She is a competitive swimmer and will be swimming in the state championships for her age division, which are in the summer. But, even with respect to soccer, where we live, soccer is fiercly competitive and is a year-round sport. She will be playing select next year and believes she wants to play soccer long-term. Whether she does is to be seen. Finally, I think you missed my previous explanation about the relationship that DD has with her father, which has been building to the point that it has been since she was an infant and is now pretty much non-existent. He does not call her; she does not call him. They do not communicate via email or otherwise. She visits only because she has to. He no longer visits her outside of his court-ordered visitation. He is the type of father that unless he changes, will never have a relationship with DD because she will just never be the child that he wants her to be. When DD was younger, I used to encourage to the point of practically forcing her to call him regularly (mind you he rarely called) and to share things going on in her life with him. After a particularly awful 6 week visit last summer she explained all the reasons why she hated visiting, did not like him (mind you she explained it to him herself during spring break) and said she wasn't going to call him and asked that I respect her wishes to call him if and when she pleases. I am respecting her wishes. He makes no effort to have a relationship with her and that is his loss. He is an extremely selfish and domineering person and DD is an extremely strong-willed child. Do you see the problem? I could go into more details, but suffice it to say, he is not a good father and DD has made her mind up about that, not me. I am not exaggerating when I say she does not like him as a person. I do continue to remind her, however, that we can't choose who are family members are and must love him nonetheless. DD is not the type of child to be adversely influenced by anyone, including by me. And yes, I am glad she will be staying. I would like her to remember summers as a great time in her childhood. Up until this point, she has not. She has always dreaded going, and but for the court order, I would have not forced her to go. She has blamed me for the last few years for forcing her to go. For the first time, she is looking forward to a happy summer spent doing things she wants to do, hanging out with her friends, and not being yelled at constantly, put on punishment almost every day or made to feel inferior to her half-brother. All things considered, you must forgive me then for not agreeing with you.