So yesterday Melanie called me and said, “You know, I think I want to move such-and-such on my blog,” and I was all, “Oh, I can do that for you right this second; I actually moved that very thing on my blog this past week,” and so we chatted and giggled as I logged in to her blog and worked my bloggy magic because I AM A TOTAL BLOGGING PRO, Y’ALL, and then I clicked to view my changes and when I saw what had happened I simultaneously screamed and laughed nervously as my heart dropped straight into my stomach.
Because clearly something had gone horribly awry.
I attempted to move one little thing for Mel – one TEENSY WEENSY thing – and the whole template went haywire. And the weird thing is that I didn’t even delete critical parts of code like I have done on my own blog about four hundred and twenty two times. I just copied and pasted some stuff to a different area of her sidebar, and then suddenly the header was gone and the verse of the day was stretched sixteen miles long and the posts were all at the bottom and I’m pretty sure that I saw some jet-black smoke pouring out of her blogroll.
And like I told her last night: as much as I want to log in to her template again and try to fix whatever it is that I did, the rational part of my brain knows that I’d better stay away because any more tampering with HTML on my end of things may cause the whole interweb to explode in a fiery ball.
So I’m staying away. And Melanie and I both have summoned the professionals to undo the damage.
Really, it’s sort of a shame that Mel and I aren’t some sort of bloggy rivals, because if we were this whole HTML fiasco would be like that episode of “Designing Women” where we find out that Suzanne was sabotaged in the talent portion of a pageant when another contestant put extra fuel in Suzanne’s fire batons, thus causing Suzanne to wipe out the power of an entire arena when she threw one of the fire batons up in the air and accidentally ignited all manner of wiring.
Or like that girl in that pageant in Puerto Rico who says that someone doused her evening gown with pepper spray.
So I guess basically what I’m saying is that if y’all will provide Big Mama and me with some evening gowns and some crowns, we will turn my ineptitude with HTML code into some first-rate bloggy drama. We could even stage some sort of catfight in the tradition of Krystle Carrington and Alexis Carrington Colby Dexter Rowan. Of Moldavia.
Except that Melanie and I would want to skip the catfight part and just eat chips and queso in our evening gowns.
And also: perhaps if I devoted as much attention to HTML as I apparently once did to Dynasty, I could have avoided this whole hot mess altogether.
Anyhoo.
There’s actually a very important lesson in this woeful tale: if you’re going to inadvertently tear up someone’s blog template (I RURNT it! I just RURNT it!), it makes things much easier if your victim is a very close friend with an extraordinarily well-developed sense of humor.
Because yesterday? When I got so flustered on the phone with Mel that I dropped a box of lasagna noodles and then knocked myself in the head with a cabinet door because my NERVES, ohmylands my NERVES? She laughed so hard that I think she began to wheeze.
But still. I am so very sad. And so very sorry.
Did I mention that I am sad and sorry?
I believe I will eat some more chocolate now.
Tell Melanie I said you stove up her template.
And OH BY THE WAY. . .have you HAD the Tia Rosa Megathin tortilla chips?????? It’s like a Tex Mex chip basket in a bag–but they are available at your local grocer.
sounds like are forgiven…..i just came from mel’s site and she tells the story just as humorously as you!
OH. MY. WORD! that is the funniest thing I think I’ve read in…forever!
I am such a technological dunce that my best friend Juliemom had to start a blog FOR me. I was so intimidated by the whole thing that I had refused to start a blog, and then one day on her blog was a post about MY new blog. What a friend, HUH?
I think I just won the world record for number of times the word blog was used in the same sentence!
Thanks for the giggles….
And that. Was the night. That the lights. Went out. In Georgia.
An academic friend and I once planned a lifelong fake professional feud. There are a lot of scholars who hate each other, and it irked us, so we thought we would mockingly imitate them. She plans, when my name is mentioned, to shake her head in disgust, turn angry red, and leave the room, muttering something about “@#$% tube tops.”
Now I have it. I should just pretend she ruined my blog.
I killed mine yesterday, too.
And cried. And threw things.
But alas, when insomnia struck this morning after only 1/5 of blessed slumber, I committed the three kicking brain cells left in my head to fixing. the. dern. html. code.
Lo and behold, miracle or miracles!
6 short hours later, things were looking better.
Then I woke up with my head on my keyboard and went back to bed.
Haha! You are cracking me up. Computers. Their fanciness scares me.
LOL you had me totally belly laughing!! I’m headed over to mel’s to read her side of the story!!
So I’m guessing that Big Mama may respectfully decline if you offer to help her get her hair sizzle on?
I once had a friend “help” me with a home hair highlighting kit. After we stopped laughing at the insanity upon my head, we did a lot of scrunchy shopping (this was a time when a hair scrunchy was FAB! I swear!)
Which is why I only mess with my mom’s template, because she has to continue to love me unconditionally if I screw up. I’m giving her grandchildren, forgoodnesssake.
Ok…you seriously need a middle name like my friend Cathy Jane..b/c you so fit in the classic “i only have friends that come with middle names” category. And further more – all your episodes…like the html disaster (do you think it’ll become as widely known as the y2k scare or a catch-phrase like wmd?) lol. Anyway…all of your episodes merit something like this, “Sophie Louise…what on earth were you thinking messing with that dern confusin’ html code?”
:)
I don’t know what to say other than thank goodness for wonderful friends who laugh with us and realize it will all be ok…..
eventually.
Note to Self: Keep BooMama away from your blog template. :)
But seriously, I loved reading both of your renditions of this. I hope it gets fixed soon.
You know, I’m glad you saved the word RURNT for later in the post because if you’da started off with “I RURNT Melanie’s template” I’d not have been able to read the rest of your post for just sittin’ here bein’ all elated and vindicated for the seein’ of the word RURNT in print. Because it IS a word, I REJECT any implications to the contrary, and it is just heartwarming to see you give it its rightful place in literature here on your widely read and respected blog.
Nevertheless I feel for you and your predicament, I am sorry about the broken noodles and the goose aig on your noggin from the cabinet door and I do hope that blog gets UNRURNT real soon. Hugs to both of you sweet little ladies.
M
Well, in these times of html turmoil, you know my philosophy.
Just keep eatin’. Just keep eatin’.
And for the record, I was almost fell down from the laughter when the lasagna noodles hit the ground.
Wow! Singlehandedly took down a whole empire… I guess you didn’t know your own strength ;-)
LOL Good thing that you’re friends. Close friends. BFF Otherwise, she might kick your butt. Just kidding.
Nan
I just did the same thing to my own blog on Friday. I am in fact a dumb#ss and Emily at Swank, God love her and bless her and keep her, fixed it while I went shopping and cleaned out Joanne’s of Christmas decorations. I heart Emily. She didn’t even call me a dumb#ss even though she should have.
I live in Georgia, and in the COUNTRY in GEORGIA. So, rurnt is a real word, and, in fact, I even heard it today at the playground…just after I heard “get gone.”
I remember that Designing Women and as I recall, that was the night that the lights went out in Georgia.
;>)
Am I supposed to tell you that your font is completely different and it is bigger? It’s not a bad thing, but going from what you had to what you have now is like reading the enlarged print version of the Guideposts magazine. Just wanted to let you know.
And this is precisely the reason that I read y’alls’ blogs…where else can I go to re-live episodes of Designing Women, only New! And Improved!
Oh BooMama, if it’s chocolate you need, come on over to my blog. There’s so much chocolate there, you’ll never want to look at it again, much less eat it.
No, wait…maybe that’s just me. ;)
First of all, that was hilarious, BooMama!
Secondly, that’s so sweet that you guys are such good friends that a.) she’d trust you to log onto her blog and work your magic and b.)laugh when your magic went bad c.)laugh until she wheezed at the ensuing comedy of errors.
You’re a very gifted writer, BooMama! It’s always a pleasure to read your blog.
*Snort!*
Fabulous. I absolutely. LOVE. it.
BTW: Thanks for the comment! I feel totally validated now and no, I am not being facetious! Crap, no I RURNT a kindred connection in the blogging world, didn’t I? : /
Have you updated your 2007 Reading List lately?
I’m thinking I’m going to go over your 215 suggestions and pick a few for myself in 2008. Great list…
I read way too much… I should clean more… probably.
Boy oh boy, can HTML and CSS be kind of scary! I always have a slight heart attack when I mess up something on my blog! Yikes! Hope you both can work it out soon;)
oh my word! That is hilarious!!! I was cracking up at your reference to Dynasty and then all the names of Alexis! Help me! I can’t breath! That is toooooo funny!
Ya’ll are too funny. Thanks for the smiles. I LOVE DESIGNING WOMEN!!! Seriously. I love the reruns….love those southern gals….so thanks for the reminder of a show I never get to see anymore. Really, ya’ll are just my favorites…can’t we be BFFs???? ;)
i read about this on her blog yesterday! So glad that the two of you can laugh about it.
HTML scares me too.
A good part of my teen years was spent as a Dynasty (aka Die Nasty) devotee. The Colby’s, too; don’t forget them…
Well at least you’re not the Harding/Kerrigan of the internet…
I must now, head held in shame, retract my comment WHICH was FIRST, because I thought you meant Melanie over at This Ain’t New York. . .didn’t know they both had the same name.
email me.