Ellie if you only have anti virus you are at risk. I would suggest you get Malwarebytes and SUPERantispyware, both of which are free. These require you to manually update and run scans but they only need doing every one to 3 weeks depending on how conscientious/nervous you are. I never leave my external hard drive connected to the computer. This is both for safety and economy. Connected it is open to attack and also runs all the time. If you have a factory built computer your power supply might be taxed to a degree unless your external drive is self powered. Most today are not self powered I believe. You wrote: If I can't bring my computer up ( that is called a crash or a blue screen) I install my recovery discs first. The CD drive works even if the computer has crashed. There is no real answer to this untill the catastrophic event occurs. You might get clues for days before the event to warn you. There would also be valuable clues in the event of a blue screen of death from the error message displayed. (BSOD) I assume you mean Best Buy replaced a defective hard drive with a new one? What was written on the labels of the disks from BB? That would be a clue as to what they are for. As I noted before recovery disks allow you to take your computer back to the new state it was in when purchased, a backup created on your external drive will return the computer to the state at the time of that backup. Any work saved in between would be lost. You can store your data on the computer itself and back it up to the external drive for protection. Always a good plan to have data you do not wish to lose saved in 2 locations Outlook is generally a part of Microsoft Office although I understand it can be bought as a stand alone program - quite expensive too. One would presume Cobian Backup came with your Go_Flex drive. It is good that you ask these questions but be sure to allow yourself to enjoy the benefit these things can bring you. A computer is only as good as the person sat in front of the keyboard. Urlee and Cat_ky I have no issues with anyone owning more than one computer, I have 6 and all working yet I live alone. But to purchase another computer "just in case" seems rather more than odd to me and a complete waste of money for an item that keeps becoming out of date with alarming regularity. Don expressed it very wisely I think.

We wanted first floor master as that is what we had in our last house but when it came time to build we went with 2nd floor master and here is why. We built on a 100 ft wide lot with a neighborhood that mandates side load garages (which we like anyway). If you are building a house with large common areas, it doesn't give you much width to do a nice size master suite on the first floor. Yes - you can always build back but on smaller lots, you resist side windows, and as you build back, you have less window space per floor space (think townhouse). So after looking at spec houses in the same neighborhood, we realized that we liked what we could get only in 2nd floor master plans. The footprint stayed smaller which kept our garage entry easy and kept us away from a river running through the back yard (more like a seasonal thing but either way something you don't want near the house). Our neighbor has a 1st floor master - he has a hard time getting in his driveway. And his closets are smaller than ours. So for a "city" lot with a bigger house, 2nd floor master allows a better suite. For privacy - two walls are exterior, one is against master bath and then laundry room and the fourth is a large master closet bumped up mostly to a closet in a guest bedroom. There is a small area that goes from master closet directly into guest bedroom but otherwise we are 3 walls away from anyone. We also have 2 doors - one to the suite and one to the bedroom. And for virtual separation our suite is a foot higher so you have to walk up 2 stairs to get to it.

Whadda Know? Amazingly enough, you were correct. This morning was 17 days after last egg was laid. Opened door and there were baby birds. Didn't get an accurate count on how many hatched. Sun was shining in nest and I was being dive bombed by parents. Will check again tomorrow to get accurate count. 3rd time was the charm! jk

Hi Caroline, I think I live quite near you. I look forward to reading your posts and experiences with David Austin roses since we are pretty much in the same zone. Like you, I hope I live long enough to see all my Austins grow and thrive since I am a latecomer with my addiction for them. I have a large rose garden that finally, just this year has begun to reward us for all our very hard work. I had a thriving crop of thistle that has taken us 12 years to overcome but we won the battle. We have very heavy clay soils and have been hauling trailer loads of horse manure compost in every few weeks to help. We see wonderful results. Maybe we can meet in person one day and share our love of roses.