cranky pixels

SO I KNOW you have been ON THE EDGE OF YOUR SEAT to hear how I resolved the Sidebar Issue, and I am here to report: the Tumblr idea has paid off. I now have a streaming sidebar again, yay! Plus this time it doesn’t just disappear into the ether after it leaves my site, which: bonus.

I haven’t gotten the little icons back up (and I don’t even know if I’m going to bother with them, except that I love my lovely icons and will miss them if they are not there) and I may still re-code the site because I’m like that. But at least my sidebar isn’t sad anymore.

Well, that didn’t take long.

Here’s what I told Twitter:

Apparently my problem isn’t depression, it’s the fact that every 6mos or so I have a good day. The day after that? SUCKS.

Which pretty much sums it up, so I’ll just move on to the related subject of my sidebar, and how it doesn’t so much have anything in it anymore. Like my head. But unlike my head, the problem lies entirely at the feet of Yahoo! Pipes. You know, a service wherein I painstakingly set up a series of feeds and did magical linking things to make them output a certain way, and then even more painstakingly hacked my way through several PHP tutorials in order to display that output on my site? Yes, those pipes. The ones that are now outputting nothing.

I know, I know, it’s my fault for relying on a third-party service. And clearly I’ve learned my lesson and have not spent the entire night trying to bend Tumblr to my will in order to maybe use it to display my feeds in my sidebar (which…just in case anyone is deeply curious, does not work).

SO NOW I am going to need to re-code my entire fecking theme since I no longer have a lovely and clever lifestream-y sidebar. I WILL GET RIGHT ON THAT.

I woke up this morning and the weirdest thing happened: I didn’t feel like going right back to sleep!

My big strategy for keeping the crazy at bay, as it turns out, is to work so hard I can’t even remember my name. This is lovely as long as I have no desire to think or be interesting, or to do things like sleep regularly or engage with my kid. Also, it’s sort of hard to maintain, what with the pressure and the stress and my weak constitution. But other than that it’s been great!

But things are finally winding down with work, and I’ve sort of almost been sleeping on a regular basis, and last night Not So and I went to a concert like grownup people, and it was a blast.

Which of course does not mean my coping strategies are wrong, exactly. Although if the solution to my depressive tendencies is to regularly see OK Go in concert, I’m pretty cool with that.

I was totally going to be all glib* about my sugar addiction, but then last night, after we’d ridded the house of the Evil Chocolate Cake of Evil and had a sensible, sugar-free dinner, I lost my shit and had to inhale an entire box of Cadbury Creme Eggs just to keep from killing people with my hands. That’s addict behavior, people.

(In related news, the Cadbury Creme Eggs were delicious.)

So apparently kicking my sugar habit is going to be slightly more effort than simply tossing the last of the chocolate cake and not baking another one. Who knew? I’d like to say I’m totally optimistic but let’s face it, I’m not a sugar-free sort of girl. It’s not even like I want to cut out sugar entirely – just processed sugar, mostly, and the goal is to cut down rather than cut out. But for serious, if I have to mainline chocolate just to keep sane? That’s probably, you know, a bad sign.

Though it would definitely help if I could get my hands on some honey and almonds and fresh ricotta. That is a dessert I can get behind.

*And yes, I mean that in the Tom Cruise-iest way possible.

Oh my gosh* it’s been a long week.

Not So is finally back from SXSW, which is utterly lovely and means I can sleep in every once in a while without a very persistent preschooler demanding that I get up and put on Yo Gabba Gabba. I have nothing against Yo Gabba Gabba, but I do have something against mornings. Mornings and I have a long and complicated relationship and I like to deal with them on my terms, which involve coffee and denial.

And then, of course, we’ve got to add Daylight Saving Time into the mix, which is just plain unkind. Oh hey, now I have to get up even earlier in order to look like a functional adult! It’s a good thing my kid sleeps late, is all I’m going to say about that. If I’d had one of those ‘up at dawn’ children I’d be typing this from a padded cell somewhere.

But enough of that! Things are back to normal in the Cranky household, and I have recommitted to the Cranky Pixels blog in a way that does not involve candles and invocations but may involve a blood sacrifice, if cheeseburgers count toward such things, so I will actually start posting things that pop into my head instead of just thinking that would make a good blog post all the damned time. Not that I do that! Because I am deeply sane and also not obsessive at all.

*I am trying to curb my swearing, and it’s been a total fucking success.

So after a rocky and psychosis-enlivening start, our hold-your-breath-and-jump method of financial management has borne fruit of the monetary kind. Dare I say the poorpocalypse has been averted? Will that anger the contract fates? I do not know, but I do know this: it is so nice to have a positive bank balance again. For serious.

Of course, that means I’m busy. Like, crazy busy, the kind of busy where you can feel yourself ctrl-alt-whatevering in your sleep. The kind of busy where you forget what day it is because it’s been that long since you took an actual day off. In my house we call this “normal,” but I suspect that’s just because there are two of us. (Well, three, but the kid’s too short to get a vote.)

But it’s good. Good! I like working, and I like money, and I like the things I buy with money. And it’s nice to see that we can, in fact, make this work. (Note to fates: I am not tempting you.)

But you know what? I totally think we should start saving for a vacation, once we’re back in a position to save for things. Someplace tropical. Except that I’ve been watching Lost lately so we may have to walk there.

Not So got me a set of knitting needles for Christmas, which of course meant that I rewarded him with crochet. Hey, knitting is hard.

Anyway I crocheted this great neck warmer using the Unisex Neck Sock pattern by Wendy C. Brown (add it to your Ravelry queue, for serious). I used Cascade- hey, y’all, if you’re not into this sort of thing, for the love of god, stop reading now. I’m not going to talk about anything else in this post. Anyway: Cascade 220 Superwash in this fabulous slate heather that’s almost black & is just crazy cute. As is my husband, amirite?

Anyway he loves it, and can often be seen wearing it on his head. Because he’s a maverick, see? (Also it keeps his ears warm.) I’m really happy with the way this came out and am totally going to make one for myself. Except with buttons. Because how cute would that be?