WHY ME WHY ME WHY ME???? (A joyful visit to Hell)

Morning,

Notice how my Friday post was written Saturday morning!

Didja notice yet?  Huh?  Huh?  Didja?

That’s because by the end of yesterday, I was sooo exhausted (all together now, "How exhausted were you Barbara?") that I simply walked away from the computer to give myself a well-deserved rest.

You see, it all started at 3am yesterday, when I realized all of my popular blogs were still down.  Down, down down, they were more down than the Stock Market on a cold winter’s morning (or hot summer’s eve, or ….)

Understanding that perhaps this was NOT GOOD with a capital EEEEEEEK! , I patiently panicked beyond all mortal comprehension changed my themes to rule out spam code injections (no difference!) and then deactivated my plugins, one by one.  

And who says I don’t know how to enjoy a mind-bitingly exciting morning!  HAH!

It turns out that one of my plugins was using an API call from http://th8.us/ …. and because that site was timing out, it caused my entire blog to hang:

I see today the API site is up and running, so hopefully will get time to put that plugin back in.  But wow, was it ever painful to debug it at the time – the API site caused the hang to last sooo long I only saw the above error message by chance the next day.

After thoroughly pulling out my long lustrious thick blonde hair and screaming to the heavens calmly pouring myself my 29th cup of coffee, I patiently documented all my findings and wrote:

Agonizingly CRUCIAL – When Your Blog Suddenly IMPLODES, Banish Panic (troubleshoot and deactivate plugins instead to find the hang)

Yes, I know…I have to add more drama to my headlines. 

I then helped others via Twitter who were experiencing the same problems (love doing that!)….and finally got the kids up for school.

After said children were off, the husband and I packed in the mooses into the van and drove to our local gym. 

Husband worked out while I walked the mooses in the downtown area…a lovely delightful trip if you ignore the fact said mooses’ idea of NOT pulling means "Walking at 392 miles per hour." 

Note to self – teach mooses better walking manners!

And then the day REALLY began.

Yesirree….it really did.  At around 1pm, I started driving to Honorable Boy I’s school (he was going to execute a masterful performance in the school musical).  But!  About 1/2 a mile away, I received a frantic phone call from Honorable Daughter I who had "that tone" in her voice (ie, pick me up now mom PLEASE!).

So.  Two kids needed me and alas, I have yet to master the Twitter Budgie art of parallel universes! 

I quickly got to HB1′s school, ran to his class, explained to him that his sister was sick and Mommy had to miss his play but Mommy really wanted to see it but you know…sick family must come first. 

HB1 was quite understanding but still sad.  Then I flew to HD1′s school and got her into the car; suffice it to say she was very non-optimal.  Fed her, brought her home, made sure she was as okay as she could be…and then dashed back to HB1′s school where I managed to catch the last 20 minutes of the Spring Musical.

HB1 saw me in the aisle and wow, the smile that lit up his face!  It made the driving all worthwhile.

Then I engaged Warp 9 (yes!  I made it so!) and teleported home to HD1.  She was doing better (yay!) and I was able to tackle some nifty posts like:

• How do I make money with World of Warcraft and gaming
• How do I get Stumbleupon buttons on my site?
• Long tail keywords
• How do you get popup footers on blogs?

Painfully exciting, let me tell you!

THEN…..then.  Then.  Then!  Honorable Boy II informed me, Mom, there’s a party this afternoon!  "Okay," said I, "your dad will take you there and I’ll take HB1 to karate today."   Should be no problem, right?  ‘course right!

Alas, however, at the dojo…I remembered that HD1′s orthodontist appointment was at 5:30pm…and turned around again to return home.

YES!  THE FUN NEVER STOPS AT THE LING HOUSEHOLD!

But Jeepers, gentle reader, that’s not all!  At around 6pm, I was about to (I really was!) give myself permission to enjoy life (Gasp!  yes I was!) and attend my beloved Adult Karate Class…when HD1 wanted to chat more with me.  That chatting lasted an hour or so….end result, she was content and I was completely, utterly totally drained….we’re talking more drained than the aftermath of a tsunami.

So.  Instead of working, I called it a day and collapsed. 

Didn’t get a chance to blog anything else, alas…hopefully today will be somewhat different.  Today the kids go to kata class and the husband and I can relax at the town wide garage sales (yay!).  Getting great bargains at cheap prices always makes my day. 

BUT WAIT!  I JUST REMEMBERED!

I DID accomplish one thing….yes sirree I did!  Before passing out, I remembered that yesterday was Follow Friday!  And here’s who I picked!

Twitter Fitness!

@BradHoward @mikeyoung @MarvinTowler @ChrisKnight @KellyOlexa @FitnessMagazine @thubten #followfriday

Twitter Coaching!

@lagresto @cynthialarson @JohannaFischlin @phyllismufson @eaglesflite @DrDollars @sassyword @Tim_Genster #followfriday

Twitter Humor!

@louise_philp @Custardcuppcake @SaraJBenincasa @ButtersSquirrel @Fritinancy @tracyoconnor @headcrowny #followfriday

Twitter Recruiters

@BooleanBlackBlt @alisondoyle @billvick @karla_porter @rezlady @ATLRecruiter @jimstroud @RecruitingNinja #followfriday

Twitter Tops!

@ryangerritsen @vipvirtualsols @menwithpens @mitch_m @cathlawson @markdavidson @billvick @vincewright @headcrowny #followfriday

And that, my friends, was my Friday.

How was yours? 

Enjoy,

Barbara Ling

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"Hey there, thanks so much for stopping by! If you enjoyed this article, please do feel free to tell your friends about it or use those nifty neato social icons above to spread the word. I love sharing great info, and would really appreciate it...thanks!"
-- Barbara Ling