now the truly weird thing is that the whole problem seems to have gone away. the pixies don't work on sunday?

had a friend over and was trying to show her what was wrong. did exactly the same things that i did when the problem first surfaced and nothing happened. nothing. no lock up. no weirdness. no nothing.

was certain that as soon as she left everything would go nuts but it hasn't so far.

another odd thing is that the google toolbar, which had disappeared, has reappeared. i was trying to get it to show and when i clicked on view > toolbars > google the norton toolbar would show instead. so maybe that was it?

maybe i imagined the whole thing?

or maybe it was what usually causes all my computer problems, the evil aligators.

we will see what happens tomorrow.