another advantage to feeling like this

There must be advantages to feeling the way I do after a weekend of traveling, etc. Otherwise I might not arrange my life so that so many important things involve weekends of travel.

Still and all, I would usually make an effort to be polite to my new irritating new colleague. Usually, I come in between 8 and 8:30, and she addresses me so cheerfully I feel obliged to say "good morning" before politely asking her not to call me what she just called me. (It's not intrinsically offensive. It just gets on my nerves.) This morning, when I staggered in at almost 9:30, I just snapped, "don't call me that." She was shocked at my rudeness, but it seems to have gotten through to her.

computer help?

1) Is it possible to use Hotmail with Firefox, or is Microsoft now locking it out comprehensively?

2) I have been using IE to get Hotmail to work, which is causing cascades of inconveniences in LJ and other web applications. It is very important to me to block animations from *everywhere*. Not just extended films, but moving icons. That's straightforward in Firefox, but I don't know how to do it in IE. Is it even possible?

3) I am trying to listen to an audiobook (Dark Tower, books 5 and 6) in the form of long MP3 files, more than 1 hour each. My portable CD player can't rewind or fast-forward within a file, and the only way to pause is to leave it powerered and run down the battery. So I want to listen to part of a file while commuting, then finish the file on the computer at home. Unfortunately, the only MP3 player I have is Windows Media Player, which includes an animated light show. I managed to turn off the light show when I was listening to a CD, but the next time I started the Media Player it started the next light show. I can see how to select a different "Visualization," or how to download new ones, but I don't know how to turn them OFF. I'm looking for a way to play MP3s without any animation or lights. I've been minimizing the window, but I'd like to be able to see volume and time without trying to work around so much migraine-trigger stuff.