Just when I needed advice on whether or not I was liable for rerouting a creek onto my neighbors land or how to build a proper sandbag, my old friend was gone for 36 hours. Does anyone know what happened?

Yea, it happened just when I was installing McAfee, which told me to download a newer version of internet explorer, which kept sending me around in circles, I thought I had blown up the PB site. You're right PFF, so many feelings, so few gremlins.

It was the internet version of Green Sunfish and Bullheads spawning at the same time !

bm- I quit buying AV software years ago. I have never seen nor heard of a virus which did as much damage as one installation of Anti-virus software. Last time I used one I had to reformat my hard drive and reinstall the OS! Throw that McAfee software in the trash and set your firewall up with strict permissions. Let trusted sites like Ask the Boss bypass the restrictions. Do the same thing with your browser settings. Then set your email to not allow execution of attachments. You will have no problems.

Sounds like a plan, PFF.