True to my prediction, the second ethernet connection went much faster than the first. The only wildcard in the whole process was having to drill a hole up from the basement into the exterior wall in the kitchen without either coming up through the kitchen floor or breaking through to the outside of the house, and even that went smoothly. Once I dug up the diskette that had the drivers for the ethernet card I put in that computer ages ago, the kids were online and fighting over toondisney.com. Meanwhile, Beth painted over the area above the kitchen cabinets to hide the "art school kitchen" design she and Dorene did 10+ years ago whilst I was safely away for the weekend at a MWC board retreat. And she hung up curtains in there that she got a while ago, so already the place looks better. It helps to have company coming once in a while to inspire one to actually improve one's surroundings. Now I'm inspired to actually do some other stuff around the house that has been on the list for a while. I wonder how long that will last...