Thanks, Jon. I tried out GlimmerBlocker earlier. Wound up with some things freezing, so I've uninstalled it.
For the most part I don't mind ads, they do pay the bills for sites that offer me things I enjoy -- and I don't have to "pay to play". I object to flash ads, pop-ups/pop-unders, and ads that try to take over my computer. I'm fortunate in that I have decent speed DSL. If I was on dial-up (and lots of folks around here are), then I'd really find it annoying.