of funerals and viruses...

... yeah, it's been that kind of week around here. sigh. least important things first-- i paid a nice chunk of money last night to have my computer thoroughly cleaned. the poor man (who called himself 'Sebastian') in that Indian call center had his work cut out for him. and while i scoffed at the price tag for fixing my computer at first, nearly five hours later i was fully appreciative and very, very grateful. it turns out that my desktop was infected with the Antivirus2009... a name which made the techies in that Indian call center gasp. great. luckily it was found and cleaned before it wiped out my entire machine, including ALL of our pictures of isa, all my business info, everything. note to self: back up the pictures and don't accidentally open spam email or pop ups. in the end i was glad i didn't try to do it myself and was very pleased with the service. if any of you dear readers should have the misfortune of encountering this virus in the future, shoot me a note and i'll send you the company recommendations.

on a more important note, we are leaving tomorrow to travel back East for my grandfather's funeral. very sad but true. it will doubtlessly be a sad and long trip. getting last minute airline tickets from here in bumble is like trying to make a pony magically appear out of thin air. no small feat. no small price tag either. but we did get tickets and off we go. all peaceful thoughts are much needed and appreciated. see you next thursday...