YAW! (Yet Another Weekend)

Saturday I woke up, expecting snow. The forecast had been screaming for days that Saturday would be this snow and wind filled extreme weather event. At 8AM when I awoke, there was nothing.

I got up, and started the Operating System load on the new HT PC. At 8:30 that was going well, and the snow had started. By 9:30 when I was ready to ride the exercise bike the ground was covered and the wind was blowing. A check of the Weather Channel showed the storm had merely been delayed a few hours. I rode the exercise bike and Danielle got up.

She was a bit distressed because she had wanted me to drive her over to a friends house, pick up the friend, come back here so we could play Left for Dead, and then take the friend home afterward. I told her I was just not going to take the Mustang out onto slippery roads. The visible snowfall was somewhat misleading as this snow was some of the finest flakes I had ever seen, almost powder-like in consistency. So while often looking out the window it appeared it was hardly snowing, the snow accumulated on the ground.

See below for a recap on Saturday's Storm, particularly on road conditions. I feel justified in not venturing out.



The majority of the day passed quite nicely, I did some additional work on the new PC, plus played Left 4 Dead with Danielle and watched TV with and without the kids depending on what they were doing.

We were all supposed to go to dinner with Chris that evening but his friends hijacked him and fed him earlier. The X asked if we wanted to go out anyway and while I would not venture out in the Mustang the X's vehicle is much more bad weather worthy...though I myself would still not have gone out.

I went outside and shoveled out a space large enough for her by the front door so the kids and I would not have snow in our shoes. While there was about 5 inches of snow, it was HEAVY! It was so very fine and thus very dense.

The X picked us up and we went to Ming 10 around 5:30. Surprisingly, with the storm raging outside, the place was very crowded. We had quite a view of the weather outside form our table. Two of the walls forming the Corner of Ming 10 are glass, so you get a real view outside, and it is a raised view as it is on the second floor. As we ate and darkness fell, the storm increased in it's ferocity, and the snow fell more heavily and the wind was blowing faster. I love watching nature like this and I was constantly looking out the window.

Scott was disappointed because they were not making lo mein this evening, they had run out and only had already made vegetable lomein. He still manged to eat a good amount of food, even going after some the vegetable lo mein.

The X outlined some upcoming business travel, which is good for me since it means some extra time with the kids which is always a good thing, I just wonder how they feel about it. I of course agreed to the extra time in support of the X's business pursuits.

We finished dinner and departed, I was chilled just on the very short walk back to the X's car, which was already covered in snow as it if had been sitting there for hours. The ride back home was a little bit slower than the ride out.

She dropped us off at my house around 8 PM and we spent the rest of the evening, together, in pairs, or alone, playing Left 4 Dead, F.E.A.R. 2, talking on the phone, and watching TV. It was still snowing when I went to bed around 11:30.

***

Sunday - I awoke to a very bright room and subsequent examination showed bright sun and blue skies interspersed with fluffy white clouds. There was also quite a lot of snow that had to be removed!

After riding the exercise bike, Danielle and I had fun trying to print out the driving directions to her friend's house. Google Maps was misbehaving. At first I thought it was because I was using the beta of Windows 7, so, I rebooted back into XP and the same thing happened, though Danielle and I got a laugh as when XP loaded a coupon I had queued to print several days ago printed.

Finally after expending almost half an hour I just did a screen grab of the Google page with the directions and the map zoomed on the destination.

I went out and cleared the snow. As Scott's car was there I had to adjust my snow removal strategy as his car was in the way.

Once the snow was clear I stepped into the front hall, switched coats, and Danielle and I, carrying all the empty boxes from the HT PC build slated for the garage. departed.

The roads were well cleared and except for the side roads by her friend's house we had no trouble. The local roads were badly cleared but at least the ground was level so other than slow going we made it OK.

I dropped them off at the mall and headed home, driving through McDonald's around 1:30 to get Scott some lunch, and me a snack, to hold us until what I perceived to be a later dinner. I had given Danielle $20 to spend at the mall, after teasing her about asking for money after I recently bought her the Netbook, so I knew she would at least snack while out.

Scott and I ate and watched a couple of episodes of the Simpsons off DVD before his disappearing downstairs to await the arrival of his friends who showed up and remained as Scott got into his Left for Dead costume. They have been dressing as the four main characters of Left for dead and then delight in freaking people out as they act like the characters in public places. Now note these firends of his are all male, and one of the characters is a female....I refused to look at the friend playing the girl......you would just not understadn why without a picture......

Once again I reminded Scott of my "Have fun but the Police better not call me to come get you!" rule, and his friends headed out. I worked on importing my FireFox, IE, and Roboform data into the new System, copying items from the old system to removable storage, and watching some TV until 4 PM rolled around and it was time to pickup the kids at the mall.

The trip went uneventfully and soon Danielle and I were back home as I raced to get the chicken stock for soup heated so I could add the spices, onions, olive oil, and carrots to the pot tand get it simmering.

I removed the old HT PC from the entertainment system and installed the new one it's place. The old one, for now, resides on the dining room table, connected via WiFi. This is in case I missed some data needed on the new PC. Tails of course jumped into the shelf as I was putting the new (Heavy!) unit into place, and I had to hold it with one arm as I shooed her out of the opening.

Scott arrived home early and we passed the time in the usual manner. After a couple of hours had passed I added the chicken to the soup pot, and after 45 minutes put the soup pasta on to cook in another pot. I drained that, added it to the soup pot and let it sit another 15 minutes. We ate around 7 PM. On Sunday's we eat not later than 5, I was glad I got us a snack earlier.

The soup was delicious and we watched a couple more Simpsons. Danielle and I started watching City of Ember, which turned out to be a really good movie. Bill Murry played the mayor of the forgotten underground city which made it even more enjoyable.

All in all, it was a very good weekend. My only complaint would be that it was too short! There is a half a pot of soup leftover in the fridge which will make a most enjoyable dinner Tuesday night!

The Build of the new HTPC

This post describes Friday's build of my new Home Theater PC. Any of the images can be clicked to see a larger version in a new window.

Friday pretty much went off as planned. After leaving work I headed over to the accountant, picked up and paid for mine and my oldest son's tax returns, and headed home. As Scott and Danielle had after school activities, I decided since the parts for my new Home Theater PC had arrived Wednesday, it was high time to get started! While still feeling a bit washed out, I was finally up to the task.

And so it begins.....

As usual, I used the dining room table. First I unpacked and opened the case for the new unit, and then the Power Supply. It's been awhile, I must admit, since I build a system from scratch. Thanks to eBay and some motivated sellers the previous HTPC I sold, and the current one soon to be, I was able to acquire them at prices that simply could not be beat. Both of them were not top of the line, but were powerful, full featured, and worked well.

Since i had tax money coming, and money from my Dad's (brief pause here while I miss my dad yet again) estate, I decided this time it would be close to top of the line. So, the new system features some really good components though on the Video card and CPU I did not go top of the line. The $299 i7 quad core CPU is he entry level i7 CPU with the top of the line being over $1,000. Same the the video card, I could have paid almost double for that.

The VisionTek Radeon HD 4870 with HDMI output

They are however state of the art and will certainly far outperform what I have now. I will do a 3dMark of the current and new system and post them at a later date.

Mary had a little RAM...this creature has 6 GB of Triple Channel RAM!

So, with case open and parts to install, I began what was to become an epic journey in frustrations! I a using an HTPC case the is not quite a small form factor, but it is not a full sized case. I wanted to void the look a HTPC that resembled someone taking a desktop tower case, turning it on it's side, and calling it an HTPC.

This means that space inside the case is VERY tight! Millimeters to spare in some instances, NO SPACE AT ALL to spare in others.

Tails is stunned by the tight confines of the HTPC Case

So, first, with Tails assisting (she had to get into everything!) I mounted the power supply followed by the other board. Next the hard disk. Then came the first gotcha! While the motherboard fit perfectly in the case, the SATA hard disk connectors were mounted right on the edge and were right angled which means you needed enough room to plug in the cables. There was no way this would ever happen! So, I plugged in on cable for the drive, one for DVD, and then mounted the board which barely fit. Those cables cannot be unplugged without removing the motherboard.

Tails sniffs out a potential space problem for the CPU cooler!

At this point Danielle called. it was just after 4:30 and she had told me she'd need to be picked up at 5:30. I called her brother who was up at the school and asked him to pick her up and head home. 5 minutes later i decided to double-check with Danielle and she said Scott thought I told him I was coming up. As we had been planning in any event to go to dinner at Ming 10 after i picked Danielle up, I got ready to go. I put the cover on the HTPC and boxed up small items as Tails had been getting into everything, and i headed out.

I called Scott and told him I was on my way and we met at Ming 10. We had a nice dinner, Scott and i having a couple of helpings of their cooked to order lo-mein with grilled chicken. He headed off to hang with friends, and Danielle and I stopped at her Mom's so she could get stuff for the weekend as a big snowstorm was forecast. I chatted up the X and gave my son Chris, who had come home for the weekend, a hug which he returned!

Danielle and I stopped at Forest Hills Foods and got enough food for the weekend just in case the weather was as bad as they said. We headed home. I continued working on the PC while Danielle played Left 4 Dead.

The PC install was coming along fine. I installed the three 2 gigabyte ram modules and then the video card which fit, with millimeters to spare.Next i ran all the power cabling. The motherboard requires three power connectors and two on the video card.

Tails double-checks the jumper settings on the Motherboard

It was now time to do power on test! I got a display from my office, connected power and the display, and pushed the power button!

POST! (Power on self test). The system came up! I turned of the power as i had nor yet mounted the CPU cooler. I wanted to insure everything was working first, and then decided I might as well mount the DVD drive before doing the cooler.

At this point it was time for a break, so Danielle and I watched Ugly Betty from Thursday and then we played some left 3 Dead. Scott arrived home around 9 PM and then around 9:30 we watched the season finale of Monk which was very good. Danielle headed off to bed, and Scott headed downstairs to play F.E.A.R. 2, and of course I headed back to the PC.

I had done a lot of research and ended up talking to the folks at VisionTek about the video card to make sure of the length, and the folks at Antec, as to the dimensions of the case and power supply. Regarding the power supply I wanted, because this is the heart of a high end system, I was told "Yea, it will fit....just barely, though you may have a bit of trouble getting it in their with the DVD drive. It can be done!"

Yes, it can be, but he should have added "With a crowbar!" WHAT A ROYAL PAIN. There was no way, with the length of the DVD drive I had, and the power supply which mounts directly in back of the DVD drive, to fit. The is complicated with the angled mount for the DVD drive which has to drop in on an angel, and then swing about 45 degrees to mount flush with the drive access door on the front of the HTPC case. It was so tight, and after repeated failures, I was even contemplating on seeing if I could get a supply with the same current rating that was a bit smaller.

The bundle of wires coming out of the power supply made this just impossible! The power supply can be mounted upside down which puts the nexus of the wire bundle on the other side, still in line with the DVD drive, but with enough room where I could lay each cable flat against the power supply case. Mounted the other way the cabled nexus was right next to the access port to the rest of the cases, so it made a large bulge that could not be flattened out. By using this method, and partially removing the front of the case to give me just a hair of wiggle room, I was finally, after putting on a pair of padded gloves to protect my hands from the amount of pressure I was using on the metal cage holding the drive, able to get the drive and power supply installed. This took about two extra hours because to turn the supply over I had to disconnect and pull back all the cabled I had previously run.

Whew! The guy was right! It could be done....just barely!

I now had the fun of rerunning all the power supply cables, but the system was functional. It was not about 12:30 so I quickly broke out the replacement Vista SPI kit I had gotten from Microsoft awhile back and was delighted to find it had 32 AND 64 bit versions! I now had 64 bit hardware so I put in the install DVD and booted off of it, and the system came up to the "Let's install Windows!" screen.

I turned off the HTPC and Monitor and headed off to bed at 1 AM.

Back to Work

Well. several cans of Diet Coke with Bacon later I was well enough to come into work this morning. Though if Tails had not taken my RSA SecurID Token and dropped it down the furnace vent, I would have worked from home today. Over the weekend I had logged in, and then when I stood up I dropped the token. Tails, hearing it hit the floor came out of nowhere and started batting it around the wood floors. Thinking nothing of this I took my time closing in on her until it came to rest, tapped, between two slats of the vent leading down to the furnace!

Have you ever tried to race a cat! YOU WILL LOSE! She pounced at it and slammed it through. For a few seconds I head plunk plunk plunking noises as it fell, then a noise that sounded suspiciously like RSA SecurID Token meets spinning furnace blower blades!

Tails thinks this is a toy!

Thanks Tails! I hope to have a new token in a few days. I could have worked from home gtoday uilt free after the past two days intestinal woes I encountered. I was so sick yesterday, when the parts for my new computer arrived it was all I could do to put the box on the dining room table. There it sits, unopened, and I do not envision working on it this evening either!

Scott made my day Tuesday, he offered to come over and keep me company, but as I was spending way too much time in the bathroom, I declined, though I told him yesterday how much I appreciated it. Tails did keep me company though, napping on me most of the day as I tried to rest and recuperate. To her credit she did not take and drop my keys down the furnace vent!

Other than that Sunday two Sundays ago the weather has returned to cold and nasty. Some areas near hear are seeing much lake effect snow, but we are not, though it is barely 20 and it will be even colder tomorrow through the week end. next chance for temps above freezing is next week.

Quote of the Day

A strong passion for any object will ensure success, for the desire of the end will point out the means.

William Hazlitt

The perfect Cure for Stomach Ailments!

I inadvertently discovered the perfect Cure for Stomach Ailments! I have been sending away for a lot of free samples and this morning, in my second day of sickness I noticed a beverage sample that looks like it will help my stomach woes! A picture can be seen below. This will certainly make me right as rain in no time!

The only trouble is I don't know if it would be better served hot or cold................

Click the can for a tasty larger picture!

Chris is sick - day two

I conly worked hall a day yesterday, my stomach was a bit upset in the AM when I awoke, my 10AM it felt like I was being stabbed (or what I envision that would feel like!)

I came home, relaxed as much as I could, drank plenty of water, and 'communed' with porcelain many times over the course of the day into the evening. Tails of course kept me company sleeping on my chest as I got in some naps.

This morning I still feel pretty crappy but at least the pains have subsided and now I just have that general unwell feeling, headache, body ache, bit of a fever. I am also very, very, weak.

Normally on a day like this I would just work from home, but, over the weekend I dropped my security token which I need to login remotely with, and Tails thought it would be fun to bat it around and chase it.

Yea, it's always fun until your token falls down the vents leading to the furnace.......I should hopefully see a replacememnt later this week which would be good, so today I just took a sick day.

Valentine's Day Weekend

Not much to tell about the weekend, there were no kids so those tend to be quiet. Saturday night, the X and Scott came over for dinner. I made oriental style noodles in a spicy peanut sauce with grilled chicken which was delicious, and the X and I watched Forbidden Kingdom which turned out very good. I think Scott only came over so he could play Left 4 Dead on-line.

Sunday I caught up on my DVD collection adding the 15 or so DVDs that were not inventoried, and Scott and his friend Alex came over to play Left 4 Dead online fr a few hours. Monday he actually came over for awhile to play with me which was nice.

Happy Valentine's Day

HAPPY
VALENTINE'S DAY
TO
EVERYONE!


May those of you with someone special
enjoy your time with them today!

You know, I think some roses
would make this special:

You may click on them for the larger version - Enjoy!

What a Whirlwind of a Week

What a week! We went from tons of snow and ice on the ground, to a day close to 70, and last night it snowed and there is a couple of inches on the ground again today!

I do not post too much about work, but I received my annual performance review this week and was stunned by getting a rating of "Development Needed". I worked very hard all year, and am formulating a politically correct reply to add as part of the formal review, which includes a statement along the lines of "If I had development needs, why were they not mentioned as impacting my performance and endangering my rating in any of my weekly meetings?" Anyway, the bottom line is I know I worked hard and accomplished a lot this past year! Perhaps this also explains why they are moving me into a new role instead of another managers slot that opened up in my old group after mine was eliminated.

I've also been spending the past few months, on and off, deciding what to do about my Home Theater PC (HTPC). While it is certainly powerful enough for most gaming and playing back of DVD, HD-DVD, and Blu-Ray discs, I have been wanting a better video card. Originally I planned to just replace the case, power supply, and video card as the current case and power supply are non-standard and is only 250 watts, which anyone who knows about computers understands there is not a lot of wiggle room for expansion.

So, a many month, on and off, journey began as I researched the best way to do this. The cost of a good case, power supply, and video card I wanted was close to $600 and change. I decided that at this point in time I did not want to spend the money. Then, I sold my previous HTPC, my Onkyo Receiver, and some speakers to a friend. That brought some extra dollars in along with the fact I am getting a good tax refund, my son is going to pay me almost half the car payment money he has owed me for several years, and it turns out I am going to get a small inheritance from my Dad's estate now that all the bills are paid.

So, I spent the last two weeks feverishly researching in my free time and yesterday finally placed the order for all the parts for a brand new HTPC. For double the price of the parts upgrade I can get a whole new very powerful system that has room to grow going forward, which the current system does not, and would not if I kept the same motherboard.

Last night I went to dinner at Ruby Tuesday with the X, So, and Danielle, we had a nice dinner, though it took them three times to bring me some fries that were fresh. When I go out I will not eat fries unless they are hot and crisp! I rarely get fries, and when I do this is the condition they must be in! So, when mine arrived and had obviously been sitting under the warming lamp, I asked for fresh ones. A new order was brought out that was even worse! A quick word to the manager soon had a large order of hot, crispy fries, and everyone else, particularly the X, was willing to save me some carbs by eating a lot of the fries.

Afterwards arriving home, Tails and I watched TV, and I played some Left 4 Dead on expert settings which is always a hoot! I retired around 1 AM looking forward to the weekend and no having to get up early for work.

Doctor Johnny Fever of WKRP

My friend Steve was the first to have the correct answer for the original celebrity wearer of the Black Death T-Shirt I was sporting in my post entitled "Who can it be now?". Thanks for playing!

Here's The Doctor resplendent in the original shirt he made famous...or infamous!

Tuesday was Glorious!

They were correct. We did break the record for the warmest day for February 10th yesterday! It was 68 here and 50's today though by later this evening it will be below freezing overnight again and snow is forecast on and off next couple of days

At least all the snow on the roof and ice as well is gone and the driveway is clear too!

It was a glorious day yesterday! I turned off the heat, opened all the windows, and aired out the entire house.

Tails was quite pleased to have the rear sliders open so she could spend hours there laid out comfortable while watching the great outdoors.

I made the kids some Velveeta Shells and Cheese dinner and I had some South Beach Diet wraps which were surprisingly good.

Of course Danielle and I played Left 4 Dead and then Scott joined us to watch the two new Scrubs episodes.

What a Day!

It is sunny, and bright, and at just past 9:30 AM the temperature is 50 degrees! We are well on our way to hitting 60 today!

Oh! Will no one else post a comment on the last post regarding the black T-Shirt I am sporting?? It will take a few more at least before I divulge the answer unless someone else does nail it. I think my friend Steve for example would know this!

Who can it be now?

Look at the picture below and tell me if you can name the show and character who made the T-Shirt I am sporting famous! I was sorely disappointed in the X who could not do this, though she and I watched every episode of this show, and the mystery character in question easily work this shirt 8 out of 10 episodes.

Click on this handsome devil for a larger picture

The Weekend

The weather has been above freezing all weekend and the majority of the snow has melted including most of the huge ice dam above the front door.

Saturday was the first day since last Sunday I felt up to exercising after feeling sick all week with heavy cold symptoms, so I rode the exercise bike. The kids and I headed out around 1 PM stopping at their Mom's so they could pick up items for the week and feed he Guinea pigs.

We had lunch at noodles and company, Scott having the usual pasta with marinara sauce, Danielle their Wisconsin Mac Cheese, and I had a trio with Indonesian with spicy peanut sauce, beef, and a small side Ceaser salad.

We walked over to Game Stop and then drove over to Costco where we picked up some giant packages of Candy for the kids, mini chocolate chip muffins, batteries, and some whole grain crackers for me.

We came back home and played some Left 4 Dead and watched some TV. Danielle got dressed for the Swirl dance at school and left for her friends house a bit before 6. Scott and I watched TV and I made him some Ramon soup around 8 PM. He got dressed and drove over to the dance around 8:45.

While the kids were gone I made myself some spaghetti and sliced pepperoni for dinner and Tails and I watched the Friday night episode of Battlestar Galactica which like all of this season was awesome. I also continued with the setup of the Netbook for Danielle.

The kids, with Scott's friend Alex in tow arrived back home 15 minutes ahead of midnight. Danielle was tired and went to bed. I played a little more left for dead before retiring around 1 AM after cautioning Scott and Alex to be quiet and be in bed at 1:30 AM.

Sunday I was still feeling a bit off but still did my exercising. My throat was so raspy I could barely talk. I finished the setup of the Netbook, relaxed a bit, of course played Left 4 Dead, and then went out to do some shopping.

Because it is Sunny and close to fifty I have decreed the return to Sunday afternoon cooking with fire! We will be having Delmonico Steaks and Niblets corn, hopefully within the hour! It shall be the first grilling since before thanksgiving! The front of my shirt is covered with drool in anticipation of charred beef! Maybe that's why I got so many strange looks at the store.

So, the X, who was away in Ohio for business, arrived a bit after four, the grill was heated, the steaks trimmed and seasoned, and the Niblets corn prepared. Soon we sat down to a most excellent steak dinner. The four of us then camped out in the living room and watched two episodes of Supernatural.

The X headed out, the kids and I watched a couple of Simpsons episodes off DVD, and then Scott headed off to play Left 4 Dead downstairs. Danielle was in the thrall of her Netbook, alternating between that and text messaging on her phone! She and I also watched this weeks episode of Ghost Whisperer. I played a few levels of Left 4 Dead on expert setting and then watched an episode of WKRP. Bed was at 11:30 PM.

The story of Danielle and the Little Blue Netbook

Once upon a time there was a young lady named Danielle Falco. Being 14 she was at that age where many things change. Overtly for example, she was no longer Daddy's Little Girl, though her Daddy knew that she still loved him very much, and he loved her with all his heart.

On the surface Danielle was tough as nails, sitting side by side with her Dad hour after hour slaughtering Zombies in Left 4 Dead. Many times she racked up more kills than he did which both impressed and made her Dad a little sad that his little girl possessed such ferocity! This certainly was not the little girl who used to sit on her bed and read to an assemblage of her stuffed animals!

Having gotten past her dark circle of friends on the internet, Danielle's Dad knew she wanted a better laptop. His old Sony VAIO Pentium III that he had given her was slower than slow, and it weighed a ton! She was not happy dragging this behemoth around and in fact it sat mainly idle in it's dusty carrying case.

So, last week he ordered her a shiny blue Acer Aspire One AOA150-1784 Netbook. And when it arrived a wonderful thing happened! He was reminded that, deep inside, she was still his little girl. When the package arrived and she saw the box she literally squealed with glee and smiled widely! The sun should have bean jealous of the radiance of her smile! She repeated this performance, acting very much the Daddy's little girl while he set the Netbook up for her. It did the Dad's heart good as he had not heard this sound in quite awhile and had doubted he would ever hear it again!

Now, she sits quietly next to him while he writes this story, totally enraptured with the little blue Netbook, enjoying it. While the Daddy is happy, he fears what would happen now if his hand got too close to the Netbook.....

Danielle's Little Blue Netbook

What a week!

Sorry for the lack of posts I have been feeling crappy all week. Today is the first day I have managed to ride the exercise bike since Sunday! I hope to catch up on posting later this weekend.

Not much to report on the work front, I met with my new boss during the week, he sounds like a good guy but I'm going to have to delay judgement on the new job until I actually spend some time doing it. This coming week will be the last week doing the old job.

Superbowl Sunday

The temperature was a little bit warmer this morning, in the 20's already and it did go above freezing, making it to about 35 for the first time in weeks. There was some melting of snow and ice, but at the end of the day the roof that overhangs the front door looked just as heavily encased in ice as it did the day before!

I got up late (for me) around 9 AM, and feeling well enough for the first time in three days, was able to do my usual work out on the exercise bike. This was preceded by mundane things such as laundry and house cleaning.

Not having the kids (did I mention this on yesterday's post) I thought I was going to have a quit day. Just before I got on the exercise bike at 11:30, the phone rang and it was Scott, wanting to know if he and some friends could come over to play Left 4 dead at noon.

Speaking of Scott he quit his job at Meijer today. He had been out a couple of weekends ago for two days and his mom had called him in sick. Two weeks alter they give him grief saying it was an unexcused absence since he did not talk to anyone, not that anyone told his mom this was needed, and told him Saturday night he had to work for free! He punched out and went home and Sunday he resigned.

Anyway, back to the Scott and friends coming over issue I told him they would have to wait until 1 PM and did my exercise and finished cleaning up the kitchen as I cooled down. Just as I was heading into the shower his friends arrived.

They stayed until around 5 PM and I had fun while we were playing Left 4 Dead. Tails and I spent the (deja vu!) rest of the day watching TV including the Superbowl which was quite the game. The commercials were all pretty good too!

Saturday

No snow at least to speak of Saturday morning when I awoke. The temp was around 20 and it did not hit 30 all day.

Not having the kids I thought it was going to be a quiet weekend, the X called around 9:30 AM, evidently Danielle who was using her laptop had picked up a Trojan. So, long story short I spent about 5 hours of my Saturday cleaning her laptop. She stayed for the onset of the cleaning and we watched last weeks episode of Knight Rider. Both of us agreed the new series is a 'young and trendy' version, and that to us, the car is the best part of the show. I even went to state that the car was even better when the female star was parading around in black lingerie one week! After the show was over I sent her on her way as she had things to do with Danielle and there was nothing she could do to help this.

On the issue of the laptop I had cautioned the X multiple times to setup a non-administrator account for the kids to use because 99% of most Trojans need admin access to install themselves onto the system.

So, at least she agreed to this, and via an e-mail this morning I know she has done it.

Tails and I spent the majority of the rest of the day relaxing and watching TV.