It started back up, thankfully. What a relief. Now, ...lol... my antivrus program keeps removing minerd.exe.
I specifically excluded minerd's path in my antivirus program (Norton).
Looks like CryptoBroker won't work with minerd.exe either.
Guess you could put together a second computer just for mining.
If you do - I would suggest making a gpu mining rig. you can start with one gpu (video card) like a R9 270 from AMD. there are better cards but they cost more.
Last time I bought one, a r9 270 was around $200
Of course you could install the gpu in your windows machine and use a different mining program - there are lots to chose from
Then again, if you are going to really get into it - maybe make a mining rig using linux - lot's and lot's of "how to's" on the net.