Mike, you must not be for CHANGE. But I know Fletch is. [-|

Was that pilot's license fee something new from Our Illustrious "no new taxes but lots of fees are okay" Governor?

Yep, and they nicely have signs after most tolls that say something about "Missed tolls? Go to ". TINY SIGNS. Near impossible to read in the dark.

Fletch, you and Emily might want to look into some sort of VOIP solution to avoid those international call charges. Preferably one without a monthly fee because of your budget. I'd recommend something a service that uses http://asterisk.org/ but you seem to be scared of Linux. ;) They have partners, plus you can get pre-paid cards, such as at http://www.voip-info.org/wiki/view/Asterisk Prepaid Applications

(this of course only applies if you need to call a landline back in the states--there are other things out there that you probably know of that would work to/from any computer)