We haven't talked to Number One Son for more than a sentence or two on his uncle's cell phone, but we found out yesterday that his uncle has given him a cell phone of his own. Wonderful! Can we afford to call it?

We've used Skype for some time. If you download Skype (10 minutes for the whole process for us), you can use the mike and speakers on your computer to talk to anyone else who has Skype in the world -- Free! You can also buy "SkypeCredit" which will allow you to call landlines or mobile lines at extremely reasonable rates: $29.95 for unlimited calling in the U.S. or Canada for a year. Calling Asian land or mobile lines is 2.1-2.4 cents a minute! That is amazing to someone as old as I am! I remember how excited we were when we got our long distance service here in the U.S. for 15 cents a minute!

I also gave our "customer no service" cellular company, Alltel, a call and they actually came through with something at least possible: For $3.99 a month, we could call Asian cells for 20 cents a minute. It sure isn't Skype, but we'll be able to call wherever we are.

Why do I call Alltel our "customer no service" company? That's a story for another day! I'm just about to head out to the Tea Room with a dear friend. Oh, I hope the children don't mess up the house (Honorable Father is here, but very distracted with business)!

Update: I forgot to mention that Skype is secure - that's a great plus when you are phoning into countries who don't value privacy.