My sweet friend Madge is having quite the good time making fun of my commentless blog.  But being the trooper she is, she has offered to host my comments.  What a gal!  In appreciation for her kindness, please go over there and just leave the best blonde joke you can think of in the comments.  No explanation or anything.  Trust me, she LOVES blonde jokes.   Really, she does.

Update:  The very observant Isabelle pointed out that the techy's were apparently looking at whyaskwhy.spaces.live.com.  Which is not even my Space and contains pretty much nothing, which would explain why they thought I was hoping for imaginary comments from my imaginary friends on my imaginary blog.  Thanks to that little observation and the fact that they have received reports from some of you, they are now 'looking into the matter'.  Yay!  I am hoping to get this cleared up so I can leave on vacation for a week and you will have absolutely nothing on which to comment anyway.  Isn't that the way it goes sometimes? 

Problem:  No one can comment on my blog.

Solution:  Ask Windows Live support for help.  Surely they would know about this.  They can help, right?

So I wrote to them.  I answered a plethora of questions including:
People say they can't leave comments
Frequency of the issue:
  Always present

They wrote back:

Hello Jane,

Thank you for writing to Windows Live Spaces Technical Support. My name is Dana and based on your e-mail, there are people who seem to be unable to add comments to your Space. I understand how inconvenient this can be.

I simulated this issue, but did not receive any error in leaving a comment. We need more details about this matter and may need to correspond with the people who cannot add comments. You may ask them to contact us about this issue so that we can assist them.

We appreciate your continued support as we strive to provide you with the highest quality service available. Thank you for using Windows Live Spaces.

Sincerely,

Dana

Windows Live Spaces Technical Support

I wrote back:

The unanimous problem is that when people try to comment it says
'The server has encountered and error.  Please try again.'
I have had complaints about this sporadically but now, it seems NO ONE can comment.  At.  ALL.

They responded:

Hello Jane, 
Thank you for writing back to Windows Live Spaces Technical Support. My name is Damen and I understand that other people are unable to post comments on your Space.  I know how inconvenient this can be.
In order for us to assist you better, please reply to this e-mail with the following information:
- The outline of steps these people have taken in posting comment on your Space
- The exact error message they received
I have also checked your Space, (http://whyaskwhy.spaces.live.com) and found that there is no Blog entry of photos on it where you can post comments.
We appreciate your continued support as we strive to provide you with the highest quality service available. Thank you for using Windows Live Spaces. We look forward to hearing from you soon.
Sincerely,
Damen
Windows Live Spaces Technical Support

Me back at them:

When trying to comment on either of the last two blog entries (thru the add a comment link below the blog), people get this error message:
The server has encountered an error. Please try again.

I don't know what you mean about the photos where you can leave comments.

What has me confused is that I did not change any settings or even colors between when the comments worked and when they didn't work.

And finally from them:

Thank you for writing back to Windows Live Spaces Technical Support. My name is Hext and I understand that peaple are unable to leave comments on your Space. I appreciate the time you spent in writing back to us. 

Jane, we may need to correspond directly to those Members who are experiencing this issue. You may ask them to contact us about this matter and inform them to provide us with a detailed description of the issue.

1. The step-by-step procedure they did that lead to the problem.

2. Have they tried using another computer? Did they also encounter the same issue?

We appreciate your continued support as we strive to provide you with the highest quality service available. Thank you for We look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

Hext

I am speechless. Let me think... if everyone who tries to comment, can't, will it really help for them to move to another computer????  I'm no tech supporter or ace detective but I'm thinking that is not going to be the winning solution.  

So, am I speaking the wrong language?  Why do they keep telling me the same thing?  WTF are peaple anyway? 

Ideas anyone?  You will have to email or message them to me probably.  Feel free to contact them yourselves if you're feeling masochistic.  I think I better go to bed before I say something that might get my blog accidentally erased.

• Weightlifting for Tiling and Masonry  Start out with 3 pound bricks, work up to those castle-wall back-busting blocks in no time.  Also good for toting backerboard and BIG, heavy boxes of tile.
• Handyperson's Pilates  Works all the major muscle groups when you don't know what's going to break next around that money pit you call home.
• Painter's Yoga  Bend, stretch, reachforthatreallyhighspot! In with the new color... out with the bad.  Get in shape for ceilings in less than a week!
• Core-building for Carpenters  Tote, saw, hold and hammer wood pieces for any project with ease.  In no time you will build enough torso strength to leglift Al Borland and the Tool Time girls.

Sounds good? Yea-uh. Think of the time you could save, too, especially if they installed a Starbucks.  You'd have your workout, your latte and your tile grout all in one convenient location.  No chance of being distracted by a BOGO shoe sale or getting sucked into Barnes'n Noble for half the day.  They already sell Coke and candy as well as those awesome dawgs with all the trimmings.  You wouldn't have to go home until your credit card is maxed and your truck is full. 

Pretty smart.  Think about it.  You'll see I'm right.

 

1. Calculator batteries
2. Milk
3. Textbook covers
4. Gas

Well, here I am, back at the crib a day early.  That can't be good, you say?  You would be right.  It was nothing tragic, mind you.  All four family members made it home with all their fingers and toes and, more remarkably, their souls.  Big deal, you say?  Yes, it is.

It turns out that this was not our trip.  As in 'this is not my day'.  Only times 43. 

Here's the trip as planned:

• We pack up all our stuff Saturday morning.
• Drive 100ish miles to the reservoir - in 2 cars because the pickup which pulls the boat is only capable of carrying 3 people unless the intent is to reduce the family size whereby you can stuff in 4 and see which member gets tossed out the window by his or her irritated cab-mates.  Since no one was feeling like a rumble, we also planned to take my car.
• Put the boat in the water, load it with all our worldly 3 days worth of necessary junk.
• Motor off to the boat-access only campground.
• Lug 3 days worth of excessive paraphernalia across 100 yards of beach - uphill.
• Set up camp.
• Sit back and enjoy 2+ days of fun in the sun and wonder on the water.

Here's the trip as it actually unfolded.

• Homer has a work emergency that takes up most of Saturday morning.
• Jane packs the stuff Homer had laid out Friday night into a duffle for his pretrip inspection.
• Jane, Alpha and Omega pack and load 3 days worth of crapola into the boat and Jane's car.
• Homer arrives 15 minutes pre-departure.
• We drive 100ish miles to the reservoir, put the boat in the water, boat to the campground, lug all the stuff, including the 62 pieces of firewood that Homer packed at the last minute, UP the hill to the campsite.
• Set up camp.  Homer and Alpha do a little wakeboarding.
• Jane makes a superb, Eagle Scoutess worthy fire on which she cooks brats and fresh corn on the cob. 

Does this not appear to be the life?

And this?

And the view from my kitchen.

This is where the trouble starts. 

• Jane forgot the green onions for the salsa that she planned to make from FRESH garden tomatoes and pepper.  Oops.  Oh well, big deal, it still tastes wunnerful.
• When it comes time for S'mores the graham crackers seem to be, um... still at the store?  Oops.  No problem.  Omega creates a scrumptious new variation by pulling the toasted marshmallow off the stick and shoving a piece of Hershey*bar into the hole of the melted marshmallow.  Heaven, I tell you.  Who needs Kee*bler elves anyway?
• So I'm off to bed, listening to drunk 22-year-olds up the hill sing Sublime until all hours.  Okay, like 9:30, but I had a hard day.  I was tired.  And almost asleep when Homer came into the tent looking for his duffle bag. He said... she said... bottom line, it's determined that his bag is still at home.  Oops.  Lucky thing he is wearing swim trunks.  I mean what else does he REALLY need?  For starters:  medication... and deodorant... toothbrush... and a sweatshirt because it's gotten a bit nippy.   
• Okay, that's 3 things that were forgotten.  If you believe in Joisey's theory of threes, we should be good.

Turns out threes can overlap.

• So there is Homer's forgotten suitcase - for one.
• Number two would be when he and Alpha cruise off on Saturday morning to check out the lake and Homer hitchhikes back to the campsite 3 hours later with tales of a stranded boat down at the marina.  Unfortunately, it is not the marina that contains the truck and boat trailer.  Omega and I decline to join the fun when he takes his truck keys and leave.  Four hours and a few raging thunderstorms later, Alpha calls and says that they can't get Bob fixed and Homer wants to go home because he isn't willing to leave Bob in the marina parking lot unattended all night.
• A bunch of trouble later, we are rambling down the highway headed home.  Omega, my copilot wants nothing more for her day's worth of trouble than a chocolate shake from Mickey D's.  We swing off the freeway, grab two shakes because no one should drink alone and resume our trip now at the tail end of the family procession.  But not for long because a few miles down the road I see Homer's pickup and Bob in the emergency lane along with a stray SUV, which I learn had flagged them down to tell Homer that one of Bob's 4 tires had gone flat.  Homer's number 3.

What holds the amazement for me in this good trip gone bad is the incredible lack of bad feelings or anger or frustration throughout the whole weekend.  It was like living with the Brady Bunch, except well, Alice wasn't there to cook and clean and Homer has no bad perm.  I'm not sure if it was some kind of zodiacal alignment, or the fact that I packed not one but TWO kinds of squirt cheese but several things were conspicuously missing from this aborted camping trip.

• Homer did not pitch into his usual string of sailor-blushing profanity that he usually uses when anything of a mechanical nature goes wrong.
• Alpha did not launch into super-B mode at the prospect of spending 4 hours lunchless in the hot sun, assisting Homer, the non-mechanic disassemble and reassemble his boat engine.
• Omega was content to hang out in the tent with her mom, holding up the walls in the torrential rain.  Even laughing hysterically with same mom when it was discovered that the gazebo was GONE!  And laughing some more when they trudged up a steep hill in search of same gazebo, accumulating 4" of mud layers on the bottom of their flip flops.  Seriously, it was like walking on top of a frosted cake - each layer of mud would attach to the previous layer making platform shoes of our flat sandals and leaving little exposed patches of dirt cake.  Have you really tried to walk up and down a hill with platform thongs on your feet?  And all this time?  Omega was barely able to text any of her friends because of the sketchy cell reception.  I know... the girl has the patience of that cop who interviewed Senator Craig.
• And Jane, who also deserves her due, did not freak out at being left at the campsite FOR-EVER without so much as an update, while wind and rain soaked most everything but the insides of her tent. She did not get the least bit huffy when asked to pack up THE ENTIRE CAMPSITE in 15 minutes.  She did not say 'I told you so' to the man who has put off installing his depth finder for NINE years - the same man who she learned drove aground, filling the engine with all kinds of lake bottom which caused the engine to overheat to which said man responded by - get this - DRIVING FASTER.  When the whole story of the boat engine gone bad came out, including the fire extinguisher that didn't work - she held her tongue.  Oh My, did she hold her tongue.  When she wanted to ask how someone doesn't know that they are towing something with a flat tire, she did not even ask.  Does this mean that she isn't storing any of this away for future use?  Kind of like a screwup bank.  Well, let's not assume too much.  She's only human, you know.

Jane got some new kicks. 

I know... you love 'em or you hate 'em. 

 I'm just glad I don't have to play basketball in them.  

Yes, Kat, I may even wear them with jeans some day.