The Sweet Smell of Skunk!

Last night as I was getting ready for bed Gertie decided that she had to go out one last time. It was very unusual for her because she really doesn't like to go out after dark, so I figured she really must have to go. I opened the door and as Gertie took a flying leap of the ramp, barking for all she was worth it hit me - the knock you over, clear your nostrils smell of skunk. Mid-leap I hit the button on Gertie's leash and thankfully she came down short of skunk spray. I hauled he in quickly. She didn't have to go - just wanted to chase a skunk. And quite annoyed with me that I didn't let her. I was quite overjoyed when I gave her the thorough sniff test and smelled nothing but dog.

The weather here is just brutal - each day seems to get worse. The temperature this morning at 8 a.m. was 102. With not going out I'm getting a lot done on my genealogy research. I've almost made it through all the information that a fellow researcher sent me recently. I've also gotten the software I need to put everything on these thousand or so pages into a coherent book. Now all I have to do is learn to use the software. I was told it had a steep learning curve and they weren't kidding. Happily I've found some on-line video's that helped tremendously. The 800 page instruction manual should be here soon.

In other news, I got scammed for the first time buying something on-line. I've been using the internet from the first and have never had a problem purchasing something. I was looking for the adobe software I needed and found a site called adobeabodes - I purchased the software only to have it take me to an error message - making it look like there was a problem in putting the credit card through and asking me to retry. Alarm bells went off in my head and thought - I'll call them. Second alarm bell - no phone number contact on the site - no e-mail address. Uh oh! I called the credit card company and yep - they took the money. So now I have to go through the whole disputing a charge. I've never had to do that before and I bet it won't be pretty. It made me so mad because I'm so careful about making sure I get a secure page, etc., etc. So for at least the time being, I've paid twice for the same software. And I'm scared that these thiefs have all my personal information and my credit card info.