What Kind of Book are You?

Found this on Webgrits. There are 64 possible outcomes. Here's the book that most fits me (so they say). I haven't heard of it before, but I like the title.

Picked Up a New Parasite

I picked up a parasite over the weekend from someone who wrote a seeming personal message in my cat's guestbook and pointed to a website of their own -- which was really an advertising site. (I have since deleted their posting, of course.)

As parasites usually do, it was sending popup windows on my screen through Internet Explorer. After every popup window, I ran Ad-Aware and SpyBot and found spyware cookies from Wild Tangent and others. Those programs took care of the cookies, but could not eliminate the main program allowing these in - even though I was up-to-date.

I got out a more powerful program, SpySweeper, and ran it. SpySweeper is fine for awhile, then it begins to nag after a month or so. I've been uninstalling it, running RegSeeker to clean out its leftovers, and reinstalling to get another 30 days without nag screens. (I only reinstall when there's a problem that the others can not handle which is almost never.)

Unfortunately, even with SpySweeper, this new parasite remained. I tried visiting sites that detect parasites and they did not show anything in my browser. Maybe this parasite was brand new.

My husband, a fan of the Straight Dope message boards, found a free program recommended there called Bazooka. According to those message boards, it is the best spyware detector out there - partially because it gets updated more often than anything else.

I downloaded and installed it -- and sure enough, it caught my new parasite! Yay for Bazooka! Bazooka does not actually delete parasites -- but it gives detailed instructions on how to clean each one yourself -- and they were easy to follow. I highly recommend this. It has no nag screens and its free.

Photos at the Top Left of the Home Page

My photo blog is a little confused right now. The host is having a few problems (they recently moved their entire operation to a new server). They promised to have it fixed in a few days. Until then, the same picture appears three times here, but it looks okay if you click on an image and go to the regular site.

Yet Another New Mexican Place: Cancun

We visited a new Mexican restaurant, Cancun on South Parkway. It looked sort of like a Waffle House or a simple greasy-spoon before, although the area had been completely refurnished. Our booth was next to a large mirror. While I like how mirrors brighten up a room, I was not too fond of watching myself eat.

The food was good - nothing spectacular, but perfectly acceptable and the prices were good. My husband's lunch fajitas only cost $5.99 and came with generous amounts of meat - more than we usually see in fajitas.

The chips were good. The salsa was a bit mild and a little bland, but fresh and chunky. I was craving tomatoes and this hit the spot.

The servers were a little confused and did not refill my drink enough. We sat around, finished, for a long time and finally had to get someone to give us the check. They were busy in a lunch rush, though.

The shrimp in my chimichanga were large but a bit fishy tasting. I still prefer shrimp dishes from Guadalajara Jalisco on South Parkway (it's the best Mexican place in town if you like shrimp).

Northern or Southern Language?

J.C. sent a link to this quiz to detemine what "flavor" of language you use. Answer simple questions about how you would pronounce certain words or use certain phrases and found out where your conversation roots come from. Mine were pretty much universal with a southeastern touch.

http://www.chuckchamblee.com/dom/fun/yankee_dixie_quiz.htm

Good News - Bad News for Chocolate Lovers

Argh! I love chocolate. Somebody get out there and plant more trees before they all disappear.

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/1,1249,590044168,00.html

Digital Cameras

I've been looking at reviews of the new digital cameras coming out this year. Several 8-megapixel models under $1000 are coming out soon. What surprises me are the number of bad comments. While the models are getting positive reviews generally, I like to read the negative comments to get (I hope) a realistic picture. Sony cameras are not well-liked by several folks. While their lens is good, one TV host said the software running the camera is poor. I can believe it since my own F717 does a bad job in normal room light (but great in everything else and has a great metal body that's nice to use). Their new 8-megaixel one has a purple fringing problem. I saw it in Best Buy when they showed me sample photos -- all obviously with edges tinted in purple!

From reading reviews, apparently all 8-megapixel brands under $1000 have problems - blurring on the edges, cheap plastic body, noise, etc. Even the current most popular (under $1000) Canon Rebel (6.3 megapixel) had its bad points. Here are my two favorite camera review sites. Know of any other good camera review sites out there? I did look at Amazon.com reviews -- interesting to hear what purchasers are saying.

Digital Photography Preview (with message boards and user ratings)

Steve's Digicams

His & Hers Bathrooms

Our daughter moved out four months ago and it just now occurred to us that we have two people living in this house and two bathrooms (one of which was almost exclusively our daughter's). No longer do I need to share a bathroom with my husband! This was never a problem, but my husband and I just realized that we can each have our own shower, with the kind of showerhead we prefer. I like handheld shower heads and he wanted a different kind. We were always readjusting the shower head since we like the water at different angles and pressures. Now, we can both have it the way we want.

Not only that, but I have jumped into redecorating was what formerly known as the "extra" bathroom. So much fun! I even bought a nice new Delta Faucet for what will now be known as "my" bathroom.

I called several plumbers about getting this installed. I got price quotes from $200 to $70 - just to install a simple bathroom sink faucet! Whew! Fortunately, my husband has done this before and said he would do it. He's a good guy.

Icy Fog

I can't remember the last time this ever happened -- we had an icy fog, meaning it was foggy and below freezing at the same time. The fog coats everything with a thin layer of ice -- and some roads developed black ice.

I figured that I would try walking and come home if it was too slippery. At first, the walk was fine -- only a couple of slick spots, but on the way back home, the trail had iced up considerably more. My walking companions and I had to abandon the trail and trudge through the grass.

Hair not covered by a cap became iced up and crunchy. What I enjoyed seeing most were the spider webs. Fog normally covers the webs in dew, making them stand out. This morning's webs were covered in a thin layer of ice -- very interesting. Some of them seemed to withstand the weight.

HDTV News

I wish I had an HDTV, but it will not happen anytime soon. One cable provider here (Comcast) only offers about 6 HD channels and even those channels are not showing HD all the time. It's not worth the cost of a new TV set, either. According to this article, Intel says they are coming out with an LCOS HDTV -- 50 inches -- for only $1,800 - about a tenth of the price of a plasma. And plasmas fade a little every year - so after 10 years, they are no good anymore.

There are so many new TV technologies out now -- plasma, LCD, DLP and now LCOS. I hope soon that they will have good ones cheap enough to actually purchase.

Pets in the Classroom

After reading this article about pets in the school classroom, I was reminded of the time my twin sisters brought home a classroom pet, each. They brought home baby roosters! While roosters make cute little chicks, they were something else as adults. We kept them in the fenced-in backyard.

It became a little scary to go outside since they tended to attack anyone, especially repairmen, it seemed. One guy was out fixing the air conditioner when he got a nasty surprise from the defenders of our backyard. It wasn't long after that, that Mom and Dad said the roosters found a new home out on a farm. I did not ask further questions.

Birthdate Trivia

L.B. sent this link. It's cute. A birthdate will be asked for when entering the site. Then a bunch of trivia about the date appears. The first part made me feel young, but the second part made me feel old.

http://www.frontiernet.net/~cdm/age1.html

Happy Presidents' Day!

This is another confusing holiday. The schools are closed, but the garbage men are still coming. The government army base here is closed, but the private contractors still have to come and work at it. The banks and post office are closed, but the stores and restaurants are open -- granted, they are almost always open, anyway. I know about Lincoln and Washington, but are we celebrating any other presidents today? Is anyone having a parade? I know the stores are having plenty of "Presidents Day" sales. It's a good day to shop.

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