It was with great irony that I wrote Thursday about the governor's proposal to expand broadband and cell coverage to every corner of the state. Here in our new office, we have both broadband and cell service. We are among the lucky ones, theoretically.

As Nancy and I typed the words about this technological initiative, I was having trouble navigating the Free Press system to which I was connected with our new broadband. Nancy was having trouble saving her part of the story.

I'm not sure it would have been much slower to etch the story out on stone and send it on the back of a pony.

The cell phone, though, is working great. Got two calls on it today from Washington.

Jill Krowinski relayed that she had just taken in the festivities surrounding Peter Welch's congressional swearing in, and that the load of Vermont goodies she'd driven down had gone over well. Jill worked on Welch's campaign and is about to become the new executive director of the Vermont Democratic Party. I warned her that the announcement of her new role was bound to get lost in all the inaugural stories of the day.

Andrew Savage, Welch's spokesvoice, checked in too. He mentioned that Sen. Dick Mazza made the trip to D.C. for his former pro tem's inauguration. Mazza told them it was the first time he'd missed a day in the Legislature in his 22 years in office. Of course, House Speaker Gaye Symington went down for the occasion too, missing the governor's speech in the process.

- Terri Hallenbeck