2 days of busy

Haven't really read much email, blogged, or even been on-line for much the last couple of days. The reason is because I have decided that things that need/should be done here, be it for getting ready for winter, doing chores, or just running errands are more important than email or the Internet.

Unfortunately for 'the book', I have not spent much time editing it for a few days because of everything we've been busy with.

Spent all day yesterday fixing whatever I could find not working correctly after this computer got infected with a Trojan that was probably picked up from a site the girl was at. It was\is called "delself.bat (Trojan.FakeAlert.H)". The way I was alerted about it was by my wife waking me up saying that something happened to the computer because all the icons next to the clock have red X's on them. Needless to say, that's generally not how I like to start my day. Probably wouldn't have taken all day if I had more experience in fixing things like that, but luckily we haven't had to deal with any serious "infection" in several years. It shut down the Windows 'Security Center' (Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing), also messed with Zone Alarm, AVG Antivirus, Spybot, and other stuff I can't remember or haven't found yet. The one thing that baffled me the longest was not being able to change from the 'basic' theme to the 'XP theme' because it turned off that and other 'system services'. The message that I first saw on the toolbar was that we were 'infected with a Trojan', so the first thing I tried was running a SpyBot scan but the program wouldn't start. I was able to get on-line to look for a download of Ad-Aware when I realized I already had the exe file to install it although I had uninstalled it a while back. Ran that in 'Smart Scan', which found like 7 infections, removed them, and then I was able to get Spybot to scan and it found the FakeAlert.H Trojan and also told me that the Security Center had been turned off. Also, because the computer seemed to be running slower than usual after all that work I did, I ended up doing a 'Repair Installation' of XP from the CD-ROM system disc. So, for now we seem to be back up and running unless something else goes buggy. For now... it's all good!

Today we got both of the window air conditioners taken out and stored until Spring or Summer, whichever it's needed more during (probably summer). Rain and the daughter have gotten a few loads of laundry done because it's suppose to get cold this week and we weren't sure if we'd have any trouble drying them on the line, so Rain figured it best to do while it was warmer and sunny before the serious cold spell hits. Which reminds me, need to put a clothes line on the porch.

Other than that, been playing pool, watching TV, loading and unloading the dishwasher, showering, bathing, eating, etc. This is the first time I've done anything for just me in 2 days except scan the email subject lines before doing other stuff, like cutting up branches that'd fallen off of trees, and splitting wood. One good thing that's happened recently is that The Male Teen has proven he's capable and willing to split the logs too, which really helps a lot because I often got a little irritated that Rain and I were the only ones doing it. Now that The Male Teen can and does, winter should be a lot less difficult on the family as a whole.