Ellen, for now... mine seems to be fine.

I did an update on the incredibly crap windows 8 and cleared the Cookies and Cache again, and touch wood.... no problems so far. Not even the slow site and database you are describing. Though, that is around 1am my time

So fingers crossed, that it stays sorted. I did imagine it was my end, just thought you might have had some ideas!

Jono, you should bookmark http://www.isup.me/midnight-shadows.org for future reference. It will tell you if MS is actually down or its a problem on your end ("its just you").