Is there anyone else out there who uses these plugins? It seems to be working fine, other than the fact that the little icon thingy doesn’t appear on the Basil’s Pancreatitis of the Pancreas post? Click the link or simply scroll down a few posts. 
Sideblog, on the other hand, is working great, other than the fact that the SB Widget is no longer listing the Sideblog posts along with the regular posts. Now it only lists the regular posts.
Yay!!! My custom template from before WP had widgets has now been widgetized! I’ve missed this template so much. Weblog Design Studios did an awesome, awesome job! I’m happy! Wheeee!!!! 
OK, so like I said, part of my blog overhaul includes consolidating post categories so I can get rid of others. Does anyone know if there’s a way that I can move all of, say, the Star Wars posts into the Current Affairs/Pop Culture category at the same time? Or do I have to do it one . . . post . . . at . . . a . . . time . . . ? God, I hope not.
So, this is the first post of 2008 and basically it’s to tell you that I will be on hiatus for . . . oh, I don’t know. Until I get better, anyway. In short (if that’s possible for me), here’s the scoop:
I saw the PCP at the beginning of January and he said that I’m out for the rest of the (hockey) season. Of course that absolutely killed me. Both he and my pdoc agree that I need a change of scenery and climate, so I’ll be spending some time with my family in Las Vegas, which of course I’m anxious about, especially because I still can’t bring myself out of the house on my own, though I think I’ve figured out why. Guess you’ll have to wait and read about that if I blog about it.
Here’s some good news: when I saw my pdoc last week or the week before, he decided to ban ECT as treatment for me!!!! Yay!!! Woohoo!!! How cool is that?! Of course it isn’t necessarily permanent, but so what? It hasn’t been working anyway, and my forgetfulness and concentration are just absolutely A-W-F-U-L. I mean, I forget whether or not I’ve conditioned my hair while I’m in the shower (on the days that I shower, which are increasing).
Other good news: Basil’s pancreatitis of the pancreas, as Brian calls it, is nearly all healed up!!!! The vet called near the end of December and left a voice mail about Basil’s last blood test that I couldn’t really understand, but basically some sort of something that was at 500+ last time is now at 100+, which is awesome, and all the other levels that they tested have either decreased or increased, whichever is the positive result.
Anyway, ’til whenever . . .
Love and kisses,
Barb
I’ve been having problems with my Blogrolling account for quite some time now. Although my sidebar lists all of the blogs I’ve added to my blogroll, when I log in to my account (which I can’t do at the moment because the site’s down), only one link shows up! So I’ve been afraid to even mess with the sidebar widget containing the javascript for my blogroll for fear of losing all of those site URLs. Yeah, yeah, I know haven’t been reading blogs for a million years, anyway. Well, maybe this is a good time to just start over and redo my blogroll — by hand.
So for now, I’m going to use this Autoroll thing, though I’m not sure if visitors need a Criteo Autoroll widget for their sites’ links to show up or what. Meanwhile, I’m just going to create a separate page that’ll contain my blogroll and type in all of the URLs by hand. Or I might just give in to Google (I’m a Yahoo person myself) and use one of their Google Reader widgets on my blog. Decisions, decisions. Twitter, which I’ve been using for quite a while now, is becoming even more and more attractive. As is Crackbook.
. . . a real blog post! A very good blog friend called me last week to make sure I’m OK. She noticed that I hadn’t posted anything in ten days, which surprised even me. I realize that most of what I’ve been posting is “filler” unless you’re absolutely interested in the Star Wars and hockey components of my blog, the former of which I’ve been neglecting, the latter of which I know there’s definitely some interest, especially to anyone (me) who’s been tracking my progress of overcoming depression enough to start playing hockey again; well, really, my progress as a goalie. 
Hey — at least I haven’t been posting only memes and quizzes!
I haven’t posted anything personal because things are bad. There’s been so much going on that I’m afraid to even list my problems because I’ll feel even more overwhelmed. The main problem, I think, is increased anxiety, and all of that has been because of the fibroid; the GI thing, which had been under control until a couple of accidents recently; making sure I’m able to keep my commitments (the only ones I’ve managed to are to hockey); settling in to the regular hockey season after only playing maybe once a week since the Puck Cancer Tournament in August; not working out as much as I should be; taking the train to see my therapist instead of driving (one of the items on my 43 Things list is to start taking public transportation again); issues with my mom and family life; probably things that I make worse in my mind than they are in real life; and, my blog friend pointed out, the fact that I’m constantly beating up on myself. She hit the nail right on the head with that one.
There. So I’ve listed some of the stuff that’s been causing stress, increasing my anxiety, and in turn, feeding my depression. There’s really more to it than what I’ve just written, but I’ll try to write about one thing at a time. However, you’ll have to “put up” with two more hockey posts this week (I don’t want to get behind again) because I’m a week behind, and we played two games this past weekend. And probably a few more Star Wars reviews because where I’m at on the Star Wars timeline, it’s all comic books, which are obviously quicker to read than novels. The next book won’t be coming for another another five SW years. Aren’t you excited? 
Is there anyone besides me who isn’t Web-design/developer-inclined and gets frustrated every time WP decides to upgrade? Why can’t they just wait until one version is secure before upgrading? It doesn’t even give the theme designers or plugin developers a chance to update their own work to be compatible with the “latest and greatest” version. So unless the end user is Web-design/developer-inclined, or hasn’t started a blog yet, or is just switching over from a different platform, they — WE! — are screwed!
Because that plugin no longer exists/works, or whatever. I am using WP 2.1.3, I think. They upgrade so fast you can’t even keep track anymore. Does anyone else agree that they should make sure one version is completely bug-free before they work on a newer version? Or am I in the minority here? It isn’t that I don’t like change; I like change if I know it works!
Anyway, there’s been a ton of hockey going on lately. Aside from the summer league, I got some Tigers together to play in the Puck Cancer Cup. We played four games in that tournament, and I’m still trying to decide if I should post four separate posts or just one long one. I mean, there are other things going on in my life, such as the fact that my Internet is down!
For the past few days they kept saying it was a power outage. Now they’re sending a tech over tomorrow between 8:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. Brian’s been the one dealing with this entire fiasco, so he’ll stay home ’til the — I’m assuming — guy shows up and fixes the damn thing. We’ve actually been discussing getting a land line, and lately Comcast has been airing these “enlightenment” commercials about their digital land lines that help the Lovie & (insert his wife’s name here) Smith Foundation for who knows what? Well, I’m not exactly enlightened with their Internet service.
So there it is.
First of all, thanks to everyone’s concern for Basil. I picked him up from the vet last evening. He’s had tummy trouble before, but it’s been years, and he was much younger then, so obviously there was more concern this time around. The vet said the X-rays showed that his small intestines look a little thick, which could indicate lymphoma but he doesn’t show any of those symptoms, thankfully. She sent us home with an anti-nausea medication called Metoclopramide, Pepcid AC, and Hill’s Prescription i/d, all of which he only has to consume for a few days.
He was pretty listless when I brought him to the vet in the morning, but by the afternoon he was sitting in the front of his cage eating baby food and drinking water. His appetite seems to be back to normal, though he still seems a little weary. Needless to say, his dental for today has been canceled!
The cable guys arrived at 1:15, which was impressive, considering we were told they’d be here between 1:00 and 5:00 p.m. I have Internet at home again — yay!!!!!!
Pink Floyd, my Pink team, made it to the playoffs. We’re still in third place and will be up against the Sweet Potatas, who are currently in second. I’ve only played against them once (Week 4: The Sweet Potatas vs. the Turtles), and they have some really strong players. Also, no subs are allowed in the playoffs and finals. So, game on tonight!
I am worried sick about Basil. He began having diarrhea and started vomiting yesterday. His appetite seemed OK, but this morning he vomited quite a bit — and it wasn’t scarf and barf — and I couldn’t find him anywhere. When I did, he seemed pretty listless.
He’s supposed to have a dental tomorrow, but Angelo will have it instead. They both just had their check-ups this past Saturday and both need dentals, but with Basil being in this condition, we’ll just have to wait even though he has the more severe dental problems. Obviously, they don’t want to put him under anesthesia while he’s sick. He even lost some weight since Saturday!
It doesn’t help that my therapist just canceled on me today because she isn’t feeling well, but that’s life. Brian’s working on a huge proposal at work and probably won’t be home ’til midnight. AND I have no Internet at home. We haven’t for a few days, actually, and Comcast can’t come over ’til tomorrow afternoon. I wanted to post about last week’s game, but I left the stupid stats at home, and I’m at a coffee shop.
Plus I just had ECT on Monday and although it took me most of the day yesterday to recover from the anesthesia, I feel better today — just anxious and worried.
We have our creative writing class tonight and I totally forgot that I’m supposed to distribute my piece. I don’t even have one to distribute! Brian can’t go, so I don’t know if I will or not. It all depends on when I can pick up Basil, or if he’ll have to stay overnight.
