Grrrrr....

Freaking spyware/malware/browser hijack/malicious script crap. I've spent way too much time today trying to repair the damaged caused by my father. He uses IE because it's what they have at work. Sadly, we clearly don't have the same protections. Our computer is now royally fouled up - to the point I think it's going to take a professional, because I can't access what I seem to need to do the repairs myself. I really hope said professional can find a way to get IE off the desktop. I do want it kept, because I occasionally need it for certain sites. Dad needs to be barred from it, because his idea of a search is to type whatever he's looking for into the address line and hope for the best. Which rarely happens. What happens is that I end up trying to repair the computer. I usually manage it, but there's a bunch of crap happening - one of which is resulting in an inability to download new programs to fix the problems.

Firefox is a lovely browser. No problems with it.

I spent most of last week off of the knittyboard. I take my job as moderator way too seriously, and combine that with severe risk of PMS alert status, and away was the best place to be. Otherwise, I would have looked like this:

Including the bulging eyeball. Not a pretty picture.

What I'm really not getting is the "If you can't be nicey-nice, we don't want you here" attitude. Sometimes, critical comments are, well, critical. I have opinions on all sorts of stuff that I don't bother to share, because someone will be mad. Example 1 - I saw the new Knit.1 at Chapters this week. I wouldn't buy it. There's some OK stuff, and there's some stuff that's traumatized me for life (rainbow hotpants with suspenders.) Does that mean it's a bad magazine? No, not if you like it. It's a bad magazine for me. That's why it's still in the store. Same thing goes for Stitch'n'Bitch Nation. There were some OK patterns, but not enough to justify spending the money on it. I'd rather take that money and buy the new Phildar Tendances. However, if you like it, then buy it. I don't bother posting the opinions, because someone will just accuse me of being mean or something. Had enough of that, thankyouverymuch. However, I'm going to be a little more lackadaisical in my board reading (basically, if I don't care about it, I'm not reading it.) That should help the stress level exponentially.

As should my jaunt to Toronto next weekend. Toronto is far from my idea of a great place to visit. Given a full range of options, I'd go to New York or Paris or Montreal. However, the band I want to see is playing in Toronto. Therefore, I go to Toronto. (Actually, they're playing New York too, but budget and travel document issues currently restrict me to my current side of the border.) So I hop an early Saturday train, do a little shopping, check into hotel, do a little more shopping, go to show, go to bed, get up, perhaps a little more shopping, homeward bound. Why so much shopping? Sephora, H&M, many yarn shops with much more variety than mine. I love my LYS, but there is a huge amount of dead-muppet yarn. Combine that with the fact that they are adding sewing machines - not pretty for those of us more traditional knitters.