Malware sucks December 27, 2008

Our computer was pinged with a malicious software program last night, and Chris spent most of today getting rid of the damn thing.  It started last night when he was online and suddenly got bombarded with messages about a program being allowed to change settings (!).  Damn thing sneaked in, changed settings to allow itself, and then proceeded to try to appear like a bonafide Microsoft program.  A red shield icon with an “x” in it appeared in the system tray, and a bubble saying our computer wasn’t protected kept popping up.  If you clicked on it the computer would try to go to a website with links in it, and then proceed to upload all sorts of info from your computer.  Thankfully that did not happen to us.

We had heard of this malware before, and since it looked fishy we didn’t click on anything.  I was asleep, and Chris worked with it a bit, gave up, and then resumed today.  We uninstalled the program, which was called “MS Antispyware 2009″ published by CrucialSoftLTD, but the damn icon was still there in the system tray.  Eventually we did a system restore, which made everything better   Yay.  And, we blocked the website in Internet Explorer, increased security settings, and hope it won’t happen again.  Bleh.  Go to your internet tools/settings RIGHT NOW and block this website (I’ll type it craftily so it does not appear as a link here): http colon backslash backslash helper-security dot com.  Hopefully that will help prevent you from accidentally clicking on anything should it get loaded on your computer somehow. 

Anyhow, on to eats and activities!

Last night I did end up having cheeses instead of Barney Butter… first I had a ~1″ cube of parmesan, and then ~1/2 cup lf/ff cottage cheese mixed.  They were okay.  Chris and I played chess; did I mention that yesterday? He won each game.  I hit the hay around 11:30.

Today I got up just before 8 so I would have plenty of time at the gym before pilates at 10; I had plans to go to lunch and shop some with my mom afterward.  I had a bigger breakfast than normal since I knew I would be busting ass for 2 hours at the gym:  1/4 cup steel cut oats with 1/4 cup almond milk, 1/4 cup water, 1 T raisins, and dashes of cinnamon; and a piece of whole wheat toast with a T of Barney Butter   Mmmmm! I ate these while  trying to figure out what the hell was going on with the computer.

On to the gym! I did a quick warm up, 5 leg exercises, and then ~30 minutes of cardio.  Pilates was busier than yoga yesterday, but still a smaller class than usual.  I did okay on some moves and totally sucked on others, but I got a good workout.

I rushed home to shower, got an update on the computer malware crap, and hurried to my mom’s house.  My dad wanted his car back by 2:30ish, so my mom and I only had about 2 hours to do much with.  We were going to eat lunch at Pizzicato, but my mom saw the Chinese place next door and decided she’d rather have that instead.  It was a buffet!  And very yummy.  Let me see if I can even remember what was on this plate, clockwise from the string beans: sauteed string beans, veggie chow mein, egg foo yung (covered), veggie tofu stir fry, pork potsticker, General Tso’s chicken, Kung Pao chicken (covered) other chicken I don’t remember, broccoli beef, honey BBQ pork, sweet and sour chicken.  And hot & sour soup on the side. 

Phew, I finished off most of that plate :shocked: and had a few bites of my mom’s desserts: orange jello cube, small palmier, few bites of doughnut.  I was quite full afterward, but all the food was good at least.  I ate too fast, tho.

On to Target!  There was so much Christmas stuff on sale since people weren’t able to get out to shop before Christmas.  I bought the last of the gifts I needed, and we headed out about an hour later.  I totally forgot to get my new crew socks.  Damn.  Still wearing holey ones!

I got to my dad’s a little after 2:30, he dropped me off here at home, and the computer saga continued.  In the process of removing the malware Chris removed a few other components that weren’t malware, so the system restore ended up being our best option.  Thankfully that worked well and all is normal now

Chris hinted he wanted to go see Maria, but I wasn’t feeling that up to it.  Too bad I wasn’t feeling that up to cooking, either.  I was so tired!!!  So, we went to Fajitas after all, and I had an exact repeat of last night:  tortilla soup, casuela, and la casa.  Chips and salsa, too, of course.

I know, rather boring since you saw the exact same things yesterday!!  I need to figure out a good dinner for tomrrow night.  I also need to clean and organize a boatload of shit that’s accumulated over the last 3 days… better get up early again!

The snow is almost entirely melted now, with some slushy stuff still around here and there in the yard.  It is like 50 degrees, too.  No more snow   Boo. 

Can’t believe tomorrow is Sunday.  I totally don’t want to go back to work, ever.  I’m such a lazy ass, I tell ya.  I wish I could just be a domestic goddess who volunteered as a garbologist regularly.  How ’bout you?

“Exercise the demons!”…and a Barney Butter review! December 26, 2008

I haven’t watched Fletch in awhile, but that line sprang to mind when I was thinking of a title with “exercise” in it. 

I woke up SO tired and with that dragging feeling, but know I got enough sleep.  I think it was from eating all that rich and random food, and drinking throughout the day yesterday.

For breakfast I had steel cut oats with almond milk, cinnamon, raisins, and a big spoon of Barney Butter crunchy.  Very tasty, indeed!  The butter is so good since it has big crunchy chunks of almonds in it, the flavor is rich but not overpowering, and it is not too sticky like peanut butter can be.  I greatly looked forward to having it on its own later.

I also had coffee, and could tell I was a bit dehydrated, but wanted to head in for yoga at 10:30.  The drive was okay, but for big chunks of compacted snow/ice and slushy side streets.  I got in 15 minutes on the elliptical, then headed in to a whopping class size of four.  We didn’t have music, but that was okay by me.  This instructor is pretty fast paced and does more difficult sequences, and today was working hard to help us perfect our moves.  I swear I was in warrior 1 and then warrior 2 for like 5 minutes each.  Murder on the thighs!  I think I may have tweaked a knee, my foot is still aggravated (but not by yoga), and otherwise I felt drained afterward.  I did a set each of bicep curls, incline chest press, tricep press, lat pull down, and abs before heading to the elliptical for another 15 minutes.  The drained feeling was not fun   But I felt good leaving since I was there working out for 2+ hours! Yay!

Home I went to play with Lily and make lunch.  I knew I needed to save some calories for the Barney Butter I wanted, so I opted for a great salad like I had earlier this week, with one addition: spinach, turkey, apple, egg white, shaved parmesan, pepper, and red wine vinegar.  The parm was fabulous in it…mmm, mmmmm, mmmmmmmmmm.

I was rather full after this, so I held off on the apple/Barney Butter lunch dessert I had planned for an hour or so.

When I did have my lunch dessert, it was fabulous.  I had a little over half an apple with a bit tbsp of Barney Butter, and ended up eating the apple plain first so I could savor the nut butter all by itself.  Very tasty, indeed.  I licked every bit of it off that spoon, and the plate where it touched

So, Jennifer and the whole Barney Butter gang, you have one great product!  Thanks to all you bloggers out there, too, who have mentioned Barney Butter previously and intrigued me enough to ask for it for Christmas.  And, thanks to my dad for buying me two jars of it

Chris and I ventured out to Costco and PetSmart to get some late Christmas shopping done, which was quite fun but for the disgusting traffic.  You’re going to love this–I’m totally excited about the new sports bras and socks I got, you don’t even know.  My socks are all at least 5-10 years old (!!!!), and aren’t quite so padded or smooth anymore.  We also got lots of wine, and some gifts for my dad.  Lily also got some piggy ears!  Gross, but she loves them.

We stopped by Fajitas on the way home for the usual feast and imbibing, but I held back a bit thankfully.  I only had 1/4 to 1/3 of the casuela, and didn’t eat as much soup, so I wasn’t gut busting full when we left. 

I hadn’t planned on eating anything after dinner, but now I’m getting hungry and can’t decide between Barney Butter and parmesan cheese.  Hm, there’s also cottage cheese…. I’ll have to report back later on what I actually do.

How are you all doing today?  Christmas food hangovers?  I hear ya.

Crazy Christmas December 25, 2008

A late Merry Christmas to everyone!  Another rather funky day that started off not so hot and ended up well. 

Woke up feeling like a zombie, got ready quickly, wrote out Christmas cards, and headed out.  The sideroads still sucked, but thankfully my dad’s car got thru it all no prob.  Chris and I picked up Liz, and my dad, and headed to my uncle Erik’s for brunch.  A family friend and his girlfriend were there, and their dog, and my uncle ended up ix-naying having the doggies in the house.  At least it was pretty and snowing

The usual breakfast prep chaos was underway when we got there, and we just kind of got out of the way.  I realized the table was only going to fit 7-8 people, and there were 10 of us, so somehow I knew Chris and I would be relegated to the breakfast bar.  No matter how old we get, we are still the kids of the bunch I guess.  Sad thing was no one really paid much attention to us or cared we were off to the side.  Oh well, we just killed the bottle of champagne on our own! 

Breakfast tasted good, but was quite sinful.  Thankfully I did not ever feel full! Coffee with 1/2 & 1/2 and a few glasses of champagne were my bevvies. 

 Love the bubbly!

My first plate, clockwise from the bacon on the left: 1/2 pc peppered bacon; bear claw pastry with almonds (SO yummy); bread pudding; baked spiced french toast; egg casserole with bacon, olives, potatoes, onions, cottage cheese.

Second plate:  apple crisp with whipped cream.  Apples were good, crumb topping tasted a little funky, yet for some reason I ate it all anyway.

Then my mom was telling me “eat this, try this, eat this…” so I had one of her chocolate chip cookies.  Mmm. 

After breakfast the family friends left, and I thought we were going to open gifts but my grandma suddenly had ants in her pants and couldn’t stand hanging out there any longer since we “weren’t doing anything”.  So for whatever reason we all went to her house to open the gifts, and prep the meat for dinner tonight.

No food there, thankfully!  I did get a few really great gifts, tho:  a grill pan and a kitchen scale.  Yay!  OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOh, and 2 jars of Barney Butter Crunchy!  My dad went ape shit on the gifts…if I knew he was getting 2 jars of the BB I’d have had him get the smooth, too.  But whatever, I excited I get to try BB now, and will soon be reviewing it to get my free T-Shirt from Jennifer

Chris and I ended up going to my mom’s for the day since we didn’t have a car and live a long distance from where the action was (read–my dad didn’t want to drive us home/couldn’t give us the car/we had no chance in hell of getting home at this point).  Lily was so funny in the car on the way over first half standing/half laying on the floor and seat, and then she laid down and put her head on the box in my mom’s lap.  So cute!

My mom’s backyard. It was snowing while we were there!

I had some coffee in this cute penguin mug.

My mom and Lily checking out the presents and the tree:

Chris wasn’t happy at all about not being able to go home and relax between family events, but it all turned out just fine.  He was able to read and then watch the Lakers/Celtics game.  I helped clean up my mom’s kitchen, and in the process ate a few things: a spoon of pumpkin pie mix; a few little slices of parmesan (gift from the uncle–the real stuff); and a bite of a chocolate chip cookie (“taste this one”). 

Chris put a red ribbon around Lily’s neck…I got a pic as she laid on me while I sat on the couch (not something she gets to do here at our house since she’s not allowed on the furniture [mostly]).  LOVE the LB.

Around 5 Erik picked us up and back to Grandma’s we went.  Non-meat eaters beware…plentiful meat pictures below.

Erik set off some fireworks when we got there.  Fun!

Beef tenderloin searing in the skillet before going into the oven:

My cousin Nick in his dress uniform (Marines).  He looked really nice…still can’t believe he’s in the military!

We watched the beef like hawks, meaning it took forever to get done.  My dad kept opening the oven to take the temp, readjusting the oven temp, etc., and like an hour later we sat down for dinner and it.was.so.good.  Clockwise from the potato:  twice baked potato; french green bean/onion/red pepper veggie medley (baked?); beef tenderloin seasoned with garlic, salt, and pepper, and cooked with a few slices of bacon on top for additional moisture.  Wow!  I also ate one 1/2 piece of the bacon.

This is my mom’s “chappin’” fruit salad: apples, banana, orange, maraschino cherries, walnuts, and whipped cream mixed in.  Yowza. I should have stopped eating before I had this.

I also had a few glasses of yummy champagne (three types of champagne in all!), and an incredible Domaine Serene Evenstad Reserve Pinor Noir (2004?).  After dinner my family cleaned up the dishes, and threw away far too many recyclable items.  So, I did some sly garbage diving involving removing aluminum cans, foil, paper, and plastic from the trash.  Yay for recycling!

Soon thereafter we had dessert:  homemade pumpkin pie (my mom made it this afternoon) with too much freshly whipped cream.  Mmmmmmmmmmmm.

Okay, NOW I was way overly full and the discomfort lasted until a few hours later.  Not like gut-busting full, but sorta painful tummy from too much food.  It was worth it, tho, to have all that yummy food I suppose. 

My dad gave Chris and I his car again (he can walk to work), and that means I can get to the gym no matter what tomorrow!!!!!  Awesome… AND there’s a yoga class at 10:30.  All the classes have been cancelled this week so far, but it seems like the roads are improving enough that it will be on tomorrow.  We’ll see.  Either way I plan on spending at least 2 hours at the gym to rev myself up and burn off some of today’s indulgences.  Yee-haw.  Seriously.

Shit, looking at www.tripcheck.org the road to the coast is mostly clear even at the summit now, so maybe Chris and I could make it down there tomorrow after all.  We’ll see what happens.

I think I’m going to add another page to my blog–”The Three R’s”–to throw in add’l recycling links, suggestions, Master Recylcer stuff, etc.  Hope it helps inspire you to be green, reduce, reuse, recycle, and think more about reducing your impact on the environment.  Hope you’ll visit that page, too!

Aw, the LB is curled into such a tiny ball right now.  She contorts herself into some of the most uncomfortable looking positions sometimes…I don’t know how she sleeps in them.

Nighty night!