Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Viruses and dents, oh my

It has been busy. On Saturday we brought the kids to my dad's so they could help him put up his Christmas decorations. It also gave us the chance to run our big errands. About 9 hours later we picked up the kids, but I think we were very successful. More importantly, the kids didn't give my dad any trouble at all, he said they were great all day, which is a relief. They do have fun when they see him.

The rest of the weekend was spent battling computer viruses and malware ads. I have been going to Baby Center since the girls were little, and have made some friends on the March board. Well, the powers that be at Babycenter have bought another online community and have been working to switch over since spring.

About a month ago or so, the 'old boards' was apparently hijacked by pretty malicious viruses, and it was only after some members complained that they started to do anything about it. We got hit with Antivirus 2009. It is persistent...really hard to get rid of. Well, this weekend, I went to check the March board and Bargain board, and almost immediately after logging onto the bargain board, our computer was attacked. I get that it is the computer owner's responsibility to have virus protection software, however, this is a major company (Johnson and Johnson owns Babycenter), they should be able to prevent it from lurking on their site. But, they are closing the old boards in a week, so they apparently aren't focusing on it at all.

I ran our AVG scan no less than 4 times on Sunday, and again yesterday. It seemed to be better, except for some takeover ads. Lino ran adaware last night, there were 20 malware things....

No more old boards for me... :( . Maybe once we get the computer all set I can check in on the new boards. I really enjoy staying in touch with my March mom friends. We have a group on Facebook, and I hope that they all check in there, and there are blogs that I follow, so I won't lose touch completely. I just don't love the new Baby center boards, and if they are going to be a target for viruses, I can't go there.

As for the dent....on Sunday Lino was headed outside to return a movie (Wall E, which was super cute, by the way!) when the son of our across the street neighbor came to the door. Now, keep in mind, that in the 5 1/2 years that we have been living here, we haven't ever really spoken with him. He will maybe wave when he comes to visit, but his dad hasn't ever really talked with us. The grandmother lives there, and she will come over once in a while when we are outside, but she is only comfortable speaking Portuguese, so I can't really talk with her.

Anyhow, the son comes to the door. Apparently when he was backing his very large pickup truck out of his dad's driveway, he was too busy talking on his cell phone to notice that Lino's car was parked in front of our house. He told Lino that he hit it, and 'hopefully the scratch will buff out'.

It isn't a scratch...it is a major dent!! I guess he told Lino to get an estimate and that he would pay for it, but Lino is ticked. It isn't going to be a quick little fix, the dent needs to be popped back and then the whole rear quarter panel will need painting.....so the guy is going to need to get Lino a rental. Lino can't take time off from work, and with the girls in school, I can't not have the car, in case I need to go get them.

So, now Lino needs to spend part of his day off on Thursday at the mechanics. Hopefully the neighbor's son doesn't try to skip out of paying for the damage. Lino is willing to wait until after Christmas, we realize that money can be stretched at the holidays (he has a wife/girlfriend and a daughter). He needs to fix it though.

Sigh. Lots of sewing to do still, the tree needs to go up (which I wanted to do on Thursday, because we have school stuff Friday night and Saturday, and Lino works on Sundays).....

Weaning is going okay. Nate still does drinks at bedtime, but he has slept straight through the night for nearly a week now. That is good. He seems to be a little clingy some days, though, which is to be expected, I guess.

Anyhow. I think I need another chocolate milk.....

1 comment:

Leia H said...

Eeek on the dent! That stinks!

Love that you got a bunch of errands done while the kids were with Grandpa - what a great help that is!

The virus thing was really too bad! We never got it, but I know Lori had a lot of crap from it too!