Yeah, now you mention it, I tend to overlook that with my cable connecttion (I can't complain about)
The site is more than 230Kb and it does look great (don't get me wrong) ,yet it doesn't look THAT flashy. When sites are over 150-180 Kb they must look gxf-heavy and flashy etc. only then there's a point in using that 'many' data. <- my opinion ofcourse.
I must admit however, that I had exact same 'problem' with my site only much worse. Eventually I was able to shrink size down to 180Kb orso, yet I still think it's way too large.
I'm looking forward too see what you will be able to pull off. (If you gonna do it anyway, cause like he said, there aren't that many 56k-ers)