My morning started out okay..... I woke up without the help of an alarm at 7am on the dot. I was amazed because I had managed to sleep a full 9 hours, a rather unheard of event for me (then again, I crawled into bed at 9:50pm last night with a migraine). But things went downhill from there...

When I got up I went to my computer like I do every morning; some people read newspapers, I read news sites and check my e-mail. Only when I got to my computer (which I leave on constantly because I'm impatient and can't handle the 2 minute boot-up time) I found that something odd had been taking place overnight. Firstly, my firewall had put up a message saying a program on my computer was trying to access the internet (I have a cable modem) and did I want to allow the connection? Hell no, said I as I tried to click the window closed. What's this? It's frozen? Grrrr....reboot. But as it began to reboot I noticed something else.... a new shortcut to a program on my computer that *I* did not put on there. Lycos Sidesearch?? What the hell is that?? (here is the answer, with more info here) Ugh...I started sensing a serious spyware problem.

After my computer rebooted I clicked on Internet Explorer to check the news...and what's this? A POP-UP?!!?!? two??? GAH!! THREE???? I'm telling you, folks, nothing makes me angrier, faster, than pop-up windows. And these little buggers were getting past my pop-up stopper (which indicates it's a program). Most of the pop-ups seemed to be for a product called Message Broadcaster (the rest were for porn. oh goodie!), which lead me to this forum where some geeks had gathered to discuss the very same problem and how to get rid of it. Having been through this before I immediately began running a couple of my spyware removal programs (Ad Aware and Spybot). They found about 140 bugs that shouldn't be in there, but I didn't have time to see if it successfully removed it all, I had to get ready for work. I have found some removal tools and tips on those forums so I'm gonna go home and tackle the issue later. Needless to say, I am SOME pissed off this morning. Anyone know how to back up registries on WinME? Sounds like it might be a good idea for me to do that before I get meddling in things..

So after all that frustration I found I was then running late in getting ready for work, as tends to happen when you get mucking around with computer instead of showering or eating breakfast. Already slightly behind by the time I got to the highway (that would be a FREEway to my Americans readers. :-P) I was greeted by an immediate traffic jam. To be expected, you say? Well not really, not on this highway. It's a toll highway and it's actually pretty fast for me in the morning because most of the traffic is usually going the other way. This was not looking good for me and my punctuality, so I turned on the traffic report on the radio to find out what was going on. Apparently the hold up was just 2 exits away from me where a van had flipped over in the left lane. I picked up my cell, called my boss to say I'd be late, and took the next exit to get off the highway and take an alternate route. Eventually (after missing my exit) I got to work, only half an hour late. Not too bad.

So here I am, grumbling because my computer at home is sick (my baby!!) and I am starving because I had no time for breakfast. On top of that I have decided that if I had a brain at all, I would NOT get the X-Box like I have been thinking to do. As you all know, I have rented a system and have been playing Deus Ex 2 on it to see if I like the system and it's controllers. Well, let's just say I spent WAY too much time playing it yesterday and now I have NO homework done for my Hebrew class tonight. That is a very very bad thing. I cannot have gaming interfere with my studies. Bad. Bad bad bad. Thank GOD Blockbuster didn't have the game in that I want that started this whole fiasco. If I get my paws on that I might never let it go. So should I get an X-Box or not? What to do, what to do...

On a good note (eeek! I'm so happy!!) the smoking ban went into effect at midnight last night, and now smoking is banned in bars, bingo halls and casinos in the greater Toronto area (it's been the law in restaurants for a while, but it's new to bars and clubs). Yeeha!! Now I can go to the bars and clubs and pool halls again without walking out of there with my clothes and hair smelling like an ashtray. My asthmatic lungs won't freak and my eyes won't be sore and dry and red! I'm so excited!! (yes, even an ex-smoker can be happy about a smoking ban. smoking is gross and you know it!) Hurray, it's about time!! I hope they keep up the enforcement, but I heard a DJ on the radio this morning mention he was in a bar last night and when some guy lit a cigarette at 12:15am an enforcement officer walked up and slapped him with the $255 fine. Woot woot!! Come on kids, if I can kick the habit (and I'm a girl who is ALL about bad habits) you can too.