Quote:

one of them was streaming the Open on ESPN3 though so I don't know if it was FIrefox or ESPN3 that was causing the problem.



If you were streaming video, it was most likely the Flash plugin. Flash has a horrible reputation. It's part of why Jobs has banned it from the iPhone/iPad.

You probably just need to kill and restart the browser once Flash starts acting up. Mom kept complaining to me about her browser (Firefox) then I was over there one day and notices she plays Farmville on Facebook constantly...