LJ does sometimes do strange things. I too have the not there then there issue with friend's posts. Every once in a while I will specifically go directly to LJs of people I haven't seen in a while or who are extra special to me. There will be posts that didn't make it to my friends page.

I had a problem last night when I couldn't do enter and make the typing create a new paragraph. No matter how many times I hit enter no blank lines appeared.