Sorry about that, auntjen. I hope it isn't "contagious" to the rest of us, and that whatever "ails" you and your computers gets well soon. No sign of it on my three computers....still zippy here.

No problems here either. I go on several different computers without issues.

This is freakin' bizarre ... The site has suddenly started loading at lightning speed for me, just like it used to do.

Maybe all I had to do was "call it out" to make the gremlins go away?
;-)

I really don't know what the problem is, but over the past couple of months, the speed has been slow enough to make me spend my time elsewhere.

I actually did notice and was wondering! I have that problem from time to time with my computer. Then it just goes away. I really hope yours continues to cooperate.

That's how RMS is for me. Takes so long for everything to load I can't stand it.

Thanks for noticing my absence, Sheesharee! :-) Yeah, I never bother to go to RMS anymore because I don't care to spend 5 minutes waiting for pages to load. Ugh ... And to think we used to have dial-up a few years ago, where you were forced to sit and wait and wait and wait. Obviously, I'm terribly spoiled by high speed technology now.

Sometimes the cookies that are embedded into your computer by the site and/or it's advertisers can influence the download speeds dramatically since every click goes through them first, you know, companies like double click? I've found that deleting cookies once a week helps but Double Click always ends up coming back. (hate that because it's so intrusive) Another issue I ran into with Mozilla is some of their tools including the one that cuts out all the ads slows the download of data considerably too.

Mine was loading slow for a while, too, Jen. DH went in and deleted all the cookies and it's much faster now. And, yes, I've missed you here! I thought you were off vacationing in Mexico again and I'd just missed your post about going. Glad to see you back!
Lynn

Yes, I have been thinking and wondering about you too Aunt Jen. Thought perhaps you were on one of your fabulous vacations again.

....Jane

I also was wondering where auntjen was !!! I even scrolled down the threads to figure out if you had been to PV already.

Odd about the slow speed ; it happened to me last year and I had to stop using Safari as my browser; a few months later, went back to Safari with no problems. It's one of those unexplainable occurences.

I also thought of you last week in Nordstroms when I saw the Borne wedges with the big turquoise flower on top, on last year's shoe thread, you loved those.

Weird-- I was just wondering about you and now I see this! Is it fine now?

O.K. weird for me too! I was just thinking about you -- thought you had jetted back to Mexico! :)

Yep -- sometimes my computer is so "sticky" about this site or YouTube -- that I give up in frustration. Sometimes DH says that I need a new one with lots more memory to make these sites flow faster. Can't do that -- I think we need a new fridge ..... (sigh.)

BUT -- it DOES help to clean out any stuff that I'm not using or old files, plus do a Defrag (go to your START and find your Tools section -- do a couple of clean ups and then a couple of Defragment sessions)

Just some thoughts -- Glad to see you back! :)

Jan at Rosemary Cottage (wonder if the DFW area will see any Winter Precipitation (LOL!) tonight or tomorrow?)

Thanks for the kind thoughts! I just noticed the blurb from GW at the top of the page about slow loading - but for me it's not a recent development. I have been clearing my cookies and that seems to help, at least momentarily. The slowness invariably returns though.

Jan, I'm hoping we don't see anything close to what we saw week before last. My neighborhood is still cleaning up from all the damage to the big old trees (thankfully we had very minimal tree damage at our house, but many of our neighbors were hit hard). I am so ready for Spring. ::sigh::

Yup, I was wondering about you--and mari too. Glad to see you back!

Have you cleaned out the cookies and temporary files on your computer lately? If you use Mozilla, go up top to the menu bar and click on Tools/Clear Private Data. If you are on a Microsoft type browser, click Tools/Options/Internet Options and then (I'm doing this from memory) click on cleaning up cookies and temp files.

That might make a huge difference in your speed.

You always have something interesting to say, sometimes even funny!! I would miss you if you weren't here. susan

Auntjen! Please fix whatever is wrong. It just isn't the same without you. Of course I noticed. I have been working out of town much of January - without a computer - but when I am able to catch up here, it isn't the same without you.

Fly! Same with you! You have been pretty darn quiet lately.

I been missing you for weeks now. Figured you got sucked into Hot Topics or didn't come back from Mexico this time! ;-)

Nice to see you back. And Mari, too. I'll shoot Fly an e-mail...

Missed ya!

-Lena

I had thought you were either getting ready to go to Mexico or were too busy getting organized after a trip to Mexico. Or perhaps there was one to many margaritas.....

Welcom Back Aunt Jen! I have missed all of your wonderful input. I go through spurts on visiting GW. With the cold weather now, I am enjoying being back as well. Hope your computer continues to stay speedy on this great site!

Thank you so very much for the wonderfully kind words! It appears I have a bit of a reputation for overindulging in Mexico and margaritas - and you may be right, on both counts. ;-D (Although I haven't had a drop to drink since we were in Puerto Vallarta, save for a tiny taste of champagne at a reception this past weekend, which ended up giving me an awful headache.) Now that DH and I are in "get fit mode", I'd rather eat my calories and enjoy them that way than drink them.

So this site loaded quickly for me yesterday - for a while. Today it's bogging down and running a bit slowly. Not a good sign. ::sigh::

I too thought you were in Mexico again, Jen, with a margarita in your hand and sand between your toes. :-)

beache and amysrq, thanks for the nice thoughts. My computer croaked in mid-December and it took me a while to get another one. (Freecyclers tend to have an interesting definition of "working" when it comes to computers...) While the library has computers for public use, lines were long and time limited so that by the time I got through basic email and "business" (one of the drawbacks of being on electronic payment and paperless billing for everything!) there was no time left for fun.

Hey, has anyone else been here long enough to remember that there was a lot less downtime, lost posts, and general messed-up-ness when Spike ran this joint? (That'll probably get me a Friendly Reminder, eh?)

Hey, has anyone else been here long enough to remember that there was a lot less downtime, lost posts, and general messed-up-ness when Spike ran this joint? (That'll probably get me a Friendly Reminder, eh?)

Yeah, be veddy careful *finger to lips*
I remember those days. Some paid for access to premium forums, too.

Since ivillage takeover the membership roster just seemed to skyrocket. I remember a time when Home Dec was a smaller, more intimate atmosphere, but that's not to put a bigger/more active forum down, variety is good! Just my humble .02, and I could be way off base, I'm wondering if the software, (not necessarily what we see/use) servers, etc are becoming obsolete in that the technology is unable to handle both the high volume of daily activity as wel as monstrous amount of posts stored?

I remember the "old days" here. I had a really old, slow computer and there were so few ads here that it was one of the few sites that I could download easily. I paid for my premium membership and within 2 months Spike was gone and all the forums were free!

Spike's membership fee was also so you didn't have to see any ads at all (which was why I coughed up, because there were a LOT of ads, although they weren't the obnoxious "crawlers" and horrid things like we have now!), and for a while you got a T-shirt, which I got covered in paint and it eventually got too ruined even for the ragpile. I figured it was worth two bucks a month for the amount of entertainment I got - $2 was less than the price of a cup of coffee at the coffee shop, and at an ordinary place, not a foofoo one like Charbucks-I-mean-Starbucks.