Computer is home! She's home!

 Marissa is home from Guatemala!  It sounds like she had a wonderful time.  She was back in the USA by about 9:30pm on Sunday.  Then she rode back to MN through the night.  We were called to pick her up at the wonderful hour of 3:00am on Monday morning.  She slept all day yesterday, Pat and I wished we could have!  Last night we got to hear many stories while she went through all of her pictures.  Kinda like an old fashioned slide show since we plugged the computer into the TV. You can read about the trip on their blog.

Our computer came home Sunday as well.  Where was it, you ask?  Well while searching for a trendy guy's haircut for Gunnar, we ran into a little problem.  One of the sites had 'scare ware' - those annoying pop-ups that tell you your computer is probably infected and you should buy their product.  I knew better, but for some reason it took over my computer even when I had clicked "no thank you".  LESSON #1:  JUST CLOSE THE WINDOW, DO NOT RESPOND IN ANY WAY!  Well, taking over entailed telling me everything I tried to open/start was infected and then not allowing it to start.  Pop-up window in the Explorer browser starting showing up, and they were mostly porn.  Even when I shut off the internet, it just kept coming.

Thankfully, I have a wonderful neighbor who is a self-taught computer guru (thanks Kylene).  I called her right away.  She really wanted to help, but had a bridal shower at her home the next day, so asked if we could talk Thursday or Friday.  What could I say?  Of course!  LESSON #2:  JUST BECAUSE YOU HAVE AN EMERGENCY DOES NOT MEAN IT IS EVERYONE ELSE'S EMERGENCY!    I actually know this lesson, but it never ever hurts to remind oneself and other.

Thursday Kylene was exhausted, so I ended up dropping off the computer at her house on our way up to the camper.  LESSON #3:  BACK UP YOUR COMPUTER MORE FREQUENTLY THAN "EVERY NOW AND THEN".   When we returned Sunday, I went to visit my computer that was feeling better, but not quite fully back to good health.  After a couple more hours, it is now restored to it's good health.  I learned quite a bit while watching Kylene while I was there on Sunday.  Especially that I needed better security tools and that I was running out of space.  LESSON #4:  YOU CAN NEVER TAKE TOO MANY COMPUTER SECURITY PRECAUTIONS. 

Well, during this I also learned that my neighbor can probably get us another laptop for pretty cheap.  That helps out with 2 kids trying to do on-line homework and me not wanting them on my PC.  We shall see.  FINAL LESSON:  PRAYER WORKS!