Oh my Goodness!

I went to visit J and baby Z the other day. Goodness gracious is he a cutie! He slept most of the time, except when he woke up to eat, and the only time he cried is when they gave him a bath. I got to hold him (never really been around a 1 week old baby, let alone hold one!). I'm so happy for J and her hubs, but it makes me a little jealous. I guess my biological clock is trying to tell me something! Not that I don't have plenty of time (I'm a month younger than J) but it brings those feelings of wanting a baby to the forefront, when I normally keep them tucked away. And then I feel guilty for feeling jealous!
And damn my mind-reading husband. He always knows when something is wrong, and knew that seeing J's baby had caused it. He reminded me that he wants kids to, but we just aren't in a good place financially to have kids. And I know he's right, and now I feel bad for bringing up the subject (so to speak).

On another (happier?) note, we only have FOUR DAYS until we go to China!!!!!
I'm about 33% packed, just gotta finish doing laundry and get a few things from walmart. I have lists to make sure I don't forget anything, and checking things off helps me feel a littler calmer about the whole situation. We got our Chinese money, Renminbi Yuan, the other day. 9800 rnb equals approx $1500 US. The exchange rate is crazy! $1rnb = $0.16 US. So, one of their $100 bills is worth less than a $20 US bill!! And, it looks like monopoly money, lol:

 

Countdown, part two:

Thanksgiving is over; seen all M's relatives. (Black Friday was insane).
Our doggies will now be with M's parents until January.
3 days til I see my parents and leave my kitty-cat there.
3 weeks, 5 days til Christmas.

J's due date has come and gone. She's getting induced tomorrow morning.
Hopefully I'll be able to go say hi to little Z before I go to my parents house.

1 week, 1 day until Cataclysm is out. The shattering has already began and it is awesome. Ame is 79.

2 weeks from tomorrow we'll be on our way to China (aaahh!!).

The countdown begins

25 Days until we leave for China

19 Days until Cataclysm comes out, which means:
19 Days to level Ame to 80 (she's 75% thru 78) and level alts a little bit, and
6 Days to play around with Cata, if I decided not to play in China

7 Days (or less) until J had her baby

Also:
7 Days until Thanksgiving and driving to M's parent's house and leaving our puppies with them, and
8 Days until Black Friday, which I have agreed to participate in (not sure why...)
14 Days until we go see my parents and drop off my kittycat
37 Days until Christmas, and video chatting with M's parents via Skype
44 Days until the New Year, and

60 Days until we return from China

Progress

After I finished pouting about not getting the Sinister Squashing pet (the only thing holding me back from the Hallowed achievement) I actually starting playing Ame, and really got a lot done. I leveled to 77. I'm two days of dailies away from being Exhalted with the Kalu'ak. I finished exploring Northrend, and so got my Explorer's Achievement and tabard. And I've started the grind toward Ambassador. I was already exhalted with Stormwind, I was 17278/21000 with Ironforge, 16782/21000 with Darnassus, 12019/21000 with Exodar, and 8681/21000 with Gnomeragon. After doing the NE starting area and part of Dolanaar, I hit exalted with darn. Then I moved on the the dranei starting area, did most of the quests in Azurewatch and some of the ones in Bloodwatch before I hit exhalted with the Dranei. I had also managed to do a few that gave If and gnomer rep, so my totals were as follows for them: 19763/21000 with Ironforge, and 11578/21000 with Gnomeragon. Also, at the end of play yesterday, I was 75% thru 77, which just amazed me because it seems like it took forever to get thru 76.

My strange mother

So, today my mom calls me. Says, "do they make 'snugglies' for animals".
I'm confused and say "what are you talking about, crazy woman?"
She says "you know, the thing I carried you around in as a baby. A snuggly. Because I'm trying to do house work and she doesn't want me to put her down" (referring to the new kitten she got
"I have no idea mama, check petsmart"
Then she says "What colors are turkeys eyes"
I'm now suffering from mental whiplash, exacerbated by the fact that I only woke up about 10 minutes before she called and I haven't had any caffeine yet, so I said
"brownish-yellow, I think. I haven't exactly gotten face-to-face with a turkey. Why?"
She says "I made a turkey out of pine cones and feathers. I'm gonna use horse hair for his beard, but I need to figure out what to make the eyes and wattle out of"
So now I'm trolling the internet, trying to find pictures of turkeys so I can help my mom make a turkey...

Hallow's End Frustrations

Hallow'd End has been great for my lowbies. Several of them have leveled up, a couple got the squashling pet, and all of them have a great supply of candy. Ame, though, is a different story. I had already finished most of the achievements for this holiday, and just lacked GNERD rage and getting the squashling. Well, did two battlegrounds and finished GNERD rage. I had the Hallowed Helm from last year (although, its currently not showing up in my achievements, I may have to open a ticket) so all I lack is the Squashling. I have been trick-or-treating every chance I get. So frustrating!!

Hello, my name is Amy, and I'm a Altoholic. . .

So, patch 4.0.1 hit yesterday. Took longer for the servers to come up than what they orginally said, but that's nothing new. The changes they made include changes to spells and talents. Now, this is the bad thing about having half a dozen characters; I have to re-do all the talents and make changes to their spell rotations. Now, this isn't a huge deal on most of my characters, as most of them are in their 20s. But my main, Amemalia, my DK Skatha, and my warlock Wysteriea, are high enough levels that its going to take a little bit of time and research to get them squared away.
So, on Ame, I decided to spec back into fire, because I like the changes made, and although I've been specced arcane lately, I've always been a fire girl at heart.
This is my new rotation/order of importance:
-fireball/pyroblast macro (fb in combat, pyro if not): for the damage
-frostfire: damage and slowing
At this point, everything can be cast while moving, excellent for kiting.
-living bomb: DoT damage
-combustion: DoT damage
-scorch: damage, cast as running, b/c spec into firestarter, no mana b/c spec into imp scorch
-ice lance: damage, low mana cost
-fireblast: damage
-frost nova: small damage, freeze in place
-dragon breath: damage and disorient for mobs in my face
-cone of cold: to slow things down when frostnova not up
-blast wave: AoE damage and slow

If I really need to damage multiple mobs (something I try to stay away from)
-flamestrike, blizzard, arcane explosion

Spells I tend to ignore:
-arcane missiles, frost bolt and arcane blast, mainly because they have long cast times
-ice block because its not that useful if there isn't someone else to take the aggro

Spells that are useful, but I tend to forget to use:
-spellsteal, counterspell, remove curse (all fairly self-explanatory)

A new one that sounds pretty cool is mirror image, which makes 3 copies of yourself to help you fight enemies.

The talents I chose are as follows:
2/2 Master of elements: refunds mana (always good)
3/3 Burning soul: reduces cast time loss from taking damage
2/2 Improved fireblast: increases critical strike chance and range
3/3 Ignite: Critical strike causes more damage
1/3 Firepower: increased damage (yay damage)
2/2 Blazing speed: increases movement when hit
2/2 Impact: chance to reset fireblast cooldown and stun target
2/2 Cauterize: Instead of dying, go to 40% health, losing 12% basehealth every 1.5 sec for 6 sec
(being raised from the dead, yes please!)
1/1 Blastwave: damage spell
1/1 Hotstreak: chance for pyro to be instant with no mana cost
2/2 Improved scorch: reduces mana cost by 100%
1/1 Molten shields: reduce mageward cooldown and triggers blazing speed
1/1 Combustion: DoT damage
2/2 Improved hot streak: 2 critical strikes trigger hot streak
1/1 Firestarter: allows you to cast scorch while moving when you have Molten Shield
1/1 Dragon's Breath: a damage spell
3/3 Molten fury: increases damage caused
3/3 Critical mass: increases damage and causes target to be vulnerable to spell damage
1/1 Living bomb: DoT damage

Currently, that brings me to 34 talent points. As I level up, I'll grab the other two points in firepower, and then 5 more points in one of these 3 to bring me up to 41:
Arcane concentration: clearcasting to reduce mana (extra mana always good)
Netherwind presence: Increases spell haste
Piercing ice: increases critical strike chance

The things in the fire tree I skipped:
Improved flamestrike: reduces the cooldown of flamestrike - I don't use flamestrike often
Pyromaniac: increases haste if taking on 3 or more targes - I try not to take on 3 mobs :)

Now I just have to get my glyphs lined out. The minor ones I have I'll keep: slowfall (no reagent), penguin (cute!), and Conjuring (reduce mana cost). I'll keep my Frostnova major glyph (increases damage taken before it breaks) but I'll get rid of arcane missiles major glyph, as I don't really use it. That leaves a major glyph and 3 prime glyphs to get.

China, here we come!

It's all but official. We will be going to China in December so that M can get stem cell treatments for his eyes. We've applied and gotten confirmation. We have our passports and plane tickets. We're working on getting our Visas and vaccinations. We'll be paying the deposit in less than two weeks. I'm going out of my head trying to figure out how much clothes to pack for a month, how much/what kind (if any) food items we should take. We'll be staying in a hospital suite, which has a fridge and water cooler (because the water in China is about like the water in Mexico). There is a communal kitchen that we can use, with limited cookware, but not dinnerware or cutlery. Food and toiletries are not provided (except for a towel each). They have a decently priced laundry service, van service, and you can order-in food if you want to. M is alternating between excited and worried about the treatments (injections of stem cells in his spine and eyes). Our families are being super-supportive and helpful. They provide a blog for M to record what happens, but I will be updating here as well.

This is hard to say

Buddy, my sweet little baby dog, my little man, the "weasel", passed away Wednesday night around 11pm. He had been sick for about a week and a half. At first he wasn't eating, was constipated, and had a bit of bloody stool. After xrays and bloodwork, only showing low blood cells and protein, and no foreign objects, and testing negative for parvo, the vet diagnosed him as having ulcers in his stomach and gave him some meds to settle and heal his stomach, and suggested canned chicken as a bland food for him to eat. After a week had passed, he seemed to be getting better. Was still not eating as much as usual, and was not as active, but he did seem to be getting better. Tuesday, he had bloody diarrhea, which basically looked like all blood, so back to the vet we went. He was pretty anemic, so the vet added an iron supplement to his meds and said it may be a autoimmune issue with his GI tract. Took him home and that night he had more bloody diarrhea. Woke up Wednesday morning and he was vomiting (which he hadn't done before) and too weak to stand up properly. Back to the vet again. This time the vet wanted to give him a blood transfusion, and told me to come back after 2:00 to see him. Came back and he looked so much better. He was up and wagging his tail, and even ate a little bit of food out of my hand. They wanted us to leave him overnight for observation. The vet called me around 11:00pm, said she had come in for an emergency call. Checked in on him, he was breathing a bit heavy, did whatever she came in for, looked back in on him, and he had passed.
After she told me that I had to pass the phone to M, I couldn't do anything except cry for about an hour. He talked to the vet and after asking me, we decided to cremate him, so we could bury him at my parents house; I couldn't think of burying him at our rent house, or having the vet "dispose" of him. I called my mom, because she was about as much attached to him as I was, and we cried together for awhile. I tried to go to sleep, but couldn't because I kept thinking about him and crying. I got up, took a Dramamine, and read a little bit to take my mind off of things. I finally got so tired, around 3:00am that I had to go to sleep.
Thursday I walked around in a funk, crying if M said something that reminded me of him, or when I saw Buddy's little bed or food bowl or toy. M keeps reminding me to remember the good times, and I try to.
Today has been a bit better. I suppose I will be a tiny bit better every day, but it's going to take awhile until I'm totally back to normal. I love that little dog so much. I've never had kids, but he was my baby, and a little piece of my heart went with him.

Yay, brewfest!

It's that time of the year again, Brewfest in WoW. The only thing my main char has to do to get the Brewmaster title is Direbrewfest, but it seems I'm not high enough level (at 76) to queue for it in the RDF. :(

My reputation is great!

I am half-way to Exalted with the Kalu'ak, and just reached Revered with Sporeggar. Then I can buy the little sporebat and penguin pets! Those along with the pet from the DirectTv purchase of Blizzcon will get me to 64 pets, only 11 away from the Fawn!

Vacation: Day 4 & 5

Woke up early, drove to DC, and walked around all the major monuments and memorials. Took lots of pics, but will post later. Really tired, feet hurt, guys are sleeping, going to join them!
Ok, here are some pics:

 

 

 

Day 5:
We went to the Air and Space Museum (pics below), the National Archives, which was just amazing. We saw the Magna Carta, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution. Then we went to the Museum of Natural History. By this time we were completely worn-out. We thought about going to the Museum of American History, but two full days of walking pretty much took it all out of us.

 

 

Vacation: Day 3

Today was mostly for lazing around. We did go hike a part of the Appalachian Trail, but (once again) we got a late start, plus M was experiencing some pain in conjunction with a cough and no-one had appropriate hiking shoes. Coupled with the fact that Y had to meet a guy at 5pm to pick up an AC unit, it just wasn't the right time for hiking.
AC has been complicated. The ones the landlord provided were pretty much crap. ALL of the stores in the area were sold out (its been abnormally hot here) and the one he ended up getting required some rigging to get it to work, but it works really good now!
We ate pizza at a place called Pizza Man; we ordered pepperoni, but I also got a slice of "white" pizza: mozzarella, tomato, garlic and oil. Delicious!

Vacation: Day 2, part2

We went to Gettysburg. It was almost 4pm by the time we got there, but with the waiting for the landlord and then the window fiasco, we got a late start, plus the landlord suggested the scenic route, which, while very pretty, was also about twice as long. We got there in time to watch the cyclorama show, and the area itself is open pretty late, but since the visitor center closed at 6:00, we were unable to get a personal tour. We purchased a cd audio tour, which came with a guidebook, and was very thorough and informative. We barely got through it all (and were rushing a little at the end) in order to see it all. I will post pics as soon as the internet is better.

Vacation: Day 2, part 1

The day started out normally enough; got up, had some oatmeal and coffee. Y's landlord came by, since he had met us at the airport to sign the lease. Then things started going downhill. We used boxfans to cool the house last night, but turns out the landlord had some window units that we could use. Y was carrying the window unit, and I was taking the boxfan out of the window. I told Y to watch out for the laptop which was laying in the floor where M had used it last. He told me to move it, so I did, and in doing so let go of the window. Well, it fell and broke the glass. Dammit. I felt really bad, cuz Y's been here less than a day and he already has to call his landlord to tell him a window was broken. Then, Y and M are out on the porch and I join them, shutting the front door behind me. That was mistake #2. Apparently, the door automatically locks when you shut it (depending on which way a little switch is on the knob - its an old door). Luckily, they were able to go around to the back door and get in that way. After that I said I wasn't gonna touch anything else. Then we decided to go to the hardware store to get the glass replaced in the window. Well, the second we get in the car, my stomach starts hurting. Now, the only dairy I've had today was a splash of lactose free milk in my coffee.

Vacation: Day 1

Since our roomie Y got a promotion, he had to move to Pennsylvania. M and I decided to go with him, help him move in, and make a vacation out of it. Woke up at 4:00am (!!!) so we could make our 7:00 flight. Had a layover in Cincinnati and got to PA about noon. My husband noticed that along the main highways they don't really do alot of upkeep. (In Texas, they keep the roadsides mowed, especially in the spring and summer). I wonder if this is normal here or not. I LOVE the houses here!! The one that Y moved into is a bit shabby, but pretty workable for what he needs. Alot of the older homes (especially on this street) have been made into duplexes, either split down the middle or upstairs/downstairs. Some of them are really cool looking. We went to Wally world and got a lot of basic stuff (dishes, an air mattress, coffee pot, towels, etc). M crashed out several hours ago, and I have a feeling he'll be waking up about 2-3am; right when I'm ready to go to bed! I'm amazed that I'm not sleepy (being as I only got 5-6 hrs of sleep last night, and have been up since 4am.

Exploration, part 5: Dwarven farm

From IF airport, I slid and jumped down the mountain. Not sure if there is a "safe" way to do this, as I used slowfall, but apparently, there is another way to get there by climbing the mountains by the orc camps near the excavation site. There are several areas with buildings, a field with cows and chickens, a little pond with a waterfall. If you follow the road up around the pond, there is a tunnel that leads to nowhere (I think you will probably fall for a long time before you die). There are dwarven farmers, and also Ironforge Mountaineers which will give you directions to Kharanos.

 

If you follow the road and go past the big tree at 28,62, you will end up on weird looking, flat, obviously unfinished terrain. If you go to 45, 61, there is a lake that overlooks the Dun Algaz pass. You'll notice on your map that this area shows up as a blank, "unexplored" area. The safest way to get down (note: I didn't try that hard, as I did not find the mountain climbing way of actually getting up; that would be the best way down) is to go to the area where the orc camps meet the excavation site. There is a short fall to a hill there, and you can climb safely down the rest of the way.

Exploration, part 4: Ironforge Airport

So, to get the the IF airport, the most common way seems to be to start in Loch modan at the northgate pass (19,17) and jump up a ravine behind the tree there. I could not for the life of me get up there, either mounted or not, but luckily, I'm a mage, and therefore have other options :) I went to IF, but instead of going into the gates, I turned right until I came to the edge of the cliff (you may remember, this is where the Day of the Dead celebration took place). I took a running jump, hit slow fall, and landed on a slope next to a few trees. Then I started climbing. About halfway there (below the "E" in Ironforge on my map) I happened along a little camp:

 

Not much there, but kinda interesting. Finally, I was overlooking the airport, jumped, hit slow fall and floated safely to the ground. There are several buildings, airplanes and other machinery, a non-working gryphon flight area, and lots of dwarves.

 

At the gryphons, I got ready for my next adventure.

Exploration, part 3: Outlands and Newmans Landing

I finished exploring Outlands, now I just need to level up to 77 so I can finish exploring Northrend.
I also went to another "easter egg" location, but it appears that things have changed a bit since PinkToque posted. This is no longer abandoned! There are 3 inhabitants: 2 Booty Bay Bruisers, and one High Admiral "Shelly" Jorrik (Retired):

 

Also, no sign lists it as Newmans Landing. Its pretty easy to get to, just swim north from Stormwind's Bay until you are in the middle of the "S" in Easter. My coords read as 41,64 The Great Sea. Oddly, while swimming, you zone map will go to Westfall, even though that is further south than where you started. Actually getting up on the dock proved a bit tricky. Finally, I got on the land under the dock, on the left side (facing the dock) and went under the edge there to actually get to the dock and house.

 

Exploration, part 2

I finished exploring Kalimdor, plus I started my exploration of the hard-to-get-to places. I went the the abandoned Tauren farm that is located on the southwest corner of Kalimdor. It's not really hard to get to, but it is time-consuming. I started in Feralas, and went south along the Forgotten Coast. After I ran out of land, I began swimming:

 

After about 4 minutes of swimming, I was in the Veiled Sea, and my coordinates read 0,0 (and stayed that way for the remainder of the trip. Occasionally, there were small outcroppings of land that I could run on:

 

Finally, after 20 minutes of swimming, I reached my destination:

 

There are two abandoned buildings, one looking quite cozy, with the fires still burning and everything, plus a fenced area and 2 canoes sitting by the coastline. There is also a windmill high on a hill.

 

Seeing another tree around the corner of the cove, I decided to investigate. Turns out there is cave there. It's empty, but still quite spooky looking.

 

Exploration

So, I have decided to get my explorer's title and tabard before Cata comes out; so far I've done the Eastern Kingdoms, and am working on Kalimdor. In addition to this, I've decided to explore the "hidden places" in Wow. Now, I'm not talking about exploitive things, like old IF or under SW. I'm referring to hard-to-get-to places, as mentioned on Pinktoque's website A few of them are accessible by swimming around the edge of the continent, while a few others require some mountain climbing (preferably with a fast mount) and some controlled falling. I guess I could just wait until cata comes out (with the capability of flying in the old world), but that would just take all the fun out of it. :)

And this is why I don't join guilds

Most of my WoW characters only belong to my own personal guild. Occasionally I will join a guild if someone asks me. But for the most part I don't really belong to guilds or do stuff in groups. And after the problems my husband has had with his current guild and the previous one, its no wonder I don't join guilds.

Guild #1. My husband was recruited as a healer (shaman) to a guild. He is in it for maybe a month when they ask him to do dps for a few fights before he goes back to doing healz. He's fine with this as the guild leader is bringing in his own pally, and apparently these particular fights are done better with a pally than a shammy. Then the guild leader decides that he wants to play his pally permanently and tells M that he has to do dps from now on. Basically, even though he was recruited as a healer, when the guild leader decides he wants to heal instead, M is kicked to dps without a choice in the matter. M tries to explain that while he doesn't mind doing dps for a few fights, healing is what he does. Its what he's geared and specced for. Its why he created this char. No dice. So he gquits.

Guild #2. Seems to be pretty nice. Definitely has a better raid schedule. Doing good until the other day. M gets some gems cut, pays the person, all is great as far as he knows. Then he gets a mail from the guild leader. Says that when he got the gems cut, he was given one extra, says this looks bad for the guilds reputation. To me, this sounds like a mistake on the JC's part. But instead of whispering M, this person whispered the guild leader instead, and is making it seem like M's fault that this person handed out and extra gem and M didn't notice. Wants gem returned or compensated. So, M (against my advice) submits a ticket to Blizz because he doesn't know the Jc's name, and the guild leader did not tell him and it not currently online. I have no idea if things are taken care of or not. Today, M gets a mail from the guild leader, saying that he has temporarily kicked M from the guild until things are straightened out. Says he has already compensated the JC, but wants M to send an apology to that person, and send him (the GL) a copy of the apology note as well. So M sends an "apology" note (you know, the kind of apology note that says, I apologize that you made a mistake). Not sure yet what the outcome is going to be, or if M even wants to rejoin the guild.
So much drama. And M wonders why I don't want to transfer my char to his server and switch to Horde to raid with him. No way I'm gonna spend that kind of money just to bounce from guild to guild because people are egotistical assholes.

Oh Shit

I made a mistake on Monday. Two LDS guys came by; they caught me unawares, so instead of saying I'm not interested in any way, shape or form, I just stuttered along being polite (never opened the screen door, and was holding back two dogs), and then made the fatal error or "agreeing" to allow them to come back today at 7pm. Only when they'd gone away did I realize the mistake. I was so intent on getting them to go away (and yet trying to be polite) that I didn't think about the fact that allowing them to come back means that I'll have to deal with them again. I think I'm gonna have to find a good movie to watch at the theater tonight. Or just ignore the door. Whatever I do, the dogs are definitely gonna stay out in the yard around that time. Nothing is as good a deterrent as three barking growling dogs (expect more and/or larger dogs).

WoW-time

Now that I've leveled my rogue and my druid up to 25, my next goal is to get the explorer title and tabard with Amemalia before the expansion comes out. Yeah, I know that is just another thing taking away from my getting her to 80, but since I will never raid on her its just not that big of a deal, but since the oldworld landscape is going to change, and I have more than 1/2 of it explored already, I decided to go ahead and get it done before everything changes (because I'm not sure whats going to happen when the expansion comes out as far as that achievement goes.

(Oh, and according to my mom, my toe is not broken, but is possibly mildly jammed. Which I don't really care about; I'm just glad I don't have to tape it to the other toe, that way I can wear flip flops!)

Ouch

Yesterday I took Buddy to the vet to get him neutered and microchipped. This particular vet keeps him for a full 24hrs, so I couldn't pick him up until this morning. He was a bit whiny (and very hungry) but he's fine now (maybe slightly upset that I wouldn't let him hog down a whole bowl of food and water, but I didn't want him to barf everywhere).
After dropping M off at school yesterday, I somehow managed to injure myself by stubbing my toe on the rocking chair outside. I have a chunk of flesh and a flap of toenail that are both hanging by a thread, plus I'm pretty sure I broke it (swollen, hurts to bend, sharp needle-like pains if I move it the wrong way). Yesterday I didn't wear shoes after I hurt it, but I had to put on shoes to pick up Buddy this morning. It made me realize two things: 1. I have ALOT of between-the-toe type of flip flops (did I mention this was the big toe on my left foot? and that it is currently buddy-taped to the adjoining toe?) and 2. it is easier to walk without bending your toes if you are barefoot than if you are wearing sandals.

Ranch visit

I hadn't been to see my parents in a while, so last Thursday after picking M up from class, I took the dogs and drove up there. M stayed home to do homework and have some "guy time" with our roommate . My mom already had a few things planned that she wanted/needed to do, so right when I got there, we loaded up my pony Clover to take him to the vet. For the past year, he's had some bumps on his nose that we've had to get cut off, and they seem to have gone away, but he since has developed a lump under his jaw the size of my fist. We are hoping its just his lymph nodes and not cancer. The vet wasn't in, but had left instructions to drop him off and he'd look at him the next day. Next up on the agenda was to shave my mom's two indoor cats, to cut down on shedding and to keep them cool. I also shaved Buddy's paws, since they just trap dirt.

Friday we got up and drove to Sherman so my mom could go to the fabric store. We didn't find what she was looking for, but I did get some yarn that I needed to finish J's baby blanket. On the way back we decided to call the vet to check on Clover. He said he had been unable to reach us at the house, so he called my dad's cell phone. It turns out it was cancer, and after talking to my dad, they decided to put him down there (originally, my mom and I had wanted to take him home, have my dad put him down, so the ranch would be his final resting place, but the logistics weren't working with us). It was a sad day, but we kinda knew it was coming.

Saturday my mom went to work, and my dad woke me up early to help him pen some calves to sell. After sorting thru the cattle, we loaded up the trailer with 10 good-sized calves, mostly steers, but a couple of heifers too. He ended up getting $600+ per calf (which was pretty good). That evening, when it started cooling down, I helped him drive the hay trailer to the horse lot so he could take the hay back to the barn.

Sunday I slept until about 9:30 (which was the latest I slept the whole time I was there) and after breakfast, I helped my dad haul hay from jimmys meadow. This time, we had borrowed the neighbor's hay trailer, which held 6 bales, and then hooked our trailer behind it, so a total of 10 bales could be hauled at once. I felt like I was driving a train! I managed to leave about noon and got back home at around 4:30. Overall, a relaxing long weekend with my parents (and the dogs had fun too!)

Midsummer - Northrend

Well, that didn't take as long as I thought it would! Of course, it helped that I already had most of the flightpaths. The only ones I had to run to were The Argent Stand, but I had the Zim Torga fp, so it wasn't a long run. I also had to run to Windrunner's Overlook. Well, actually I ran from Dal port place to Sunreaver's Command, and then died when I accidentally ran through a whole bunch of level 79-ish stealthed mobs. Luckily, I rezzed in the Windrunner graveyard. So, here are the coords:

Borean Tundra: Fizzcrank Airstrip (A) 55,20 (west); Bor'gorok Outpost (H) 51,12 (south of town)
Sholazar Basin: River Heart for both Horde and Alliance; Alliance at 47,66 (south of basin) and Horde at 47,62 (northwest corner of basin)
Crystalsong Forest: Windrunner's Overlook (A) 78,75 (northeast of town); Sunreaver's Command (H) 80,53 (south of town)
Dragonblight: Wintergarde Keep (A) 75,44 (northwest of town); Agmar's Hammer (H) 39,48 (southeast of town)
Grizzly Hills: Amberpine Lodge (A) 34,61 (southeast of town); Conquest Hold (H) 19,61 (north of town)
Howling Fjord: Fort Wildevar (A) 58,18 (west of town); Camp Winterhoof (H)48,13 south of town
Zul'Drak: The Argent Stand for both Alliance and Horde; 41,61 for Alliance (north of town); 43,71 for Horde (southwest of town
Stormpeaks: K3 for both; 42,87 for Alliance (east side); 40,88 for Horde (west side)

Honoring and desecrating the flames in Outland and Northrend gave me 470050xp and 130 gold. I ending up gaining about 2/3 of a level (started at 4 bars into 74, ended with less than 1 bar into 75).

I'm really glad they made the Stormpeaks ones available even if you weren't level 77 yet. Now all I have to do is the juggling achievement (which shouldn't be too hard if I can find a "quiet" spot in Dalaran) and then kill Ahune (which also shouldn't be too hard with the RDF). Then I will have the Flame Warden Title!

WoW Spam!!

 

This was whispered to me today. I screenshotted it (and marked out insignificant text, as well as the fake website) to point out the flaws. (You may have to click the picture to make out the spammers words).

Midsummer - Outlands

For Outlands I started out in Shattrath, then flew from one zone to the other, sometimes using my regular flying mount, sometimes on a gryphon. There aren't that many places when compared with Eastern Kingdom or Kalimdor, so I'll list the coords and general areas, but not the path I took to get there.
Terokkar Forest: Allerian Stronghold (A) 55,55 (west of city); Stonebreaker Hold (H) 52,43 (east of city)
Shadowmoon Valley: Wildhammer Stronghold (A) 40,55 (east of city); Shadowmoon Village (H) 33,38 (east of city)
Nagrand: Telaar (A) 50,70 (west of city); Garadar (H) 51,34 (west of city)
Zangarmarsh: Telredor (A) 69,52 (south of city); Zabra'jin (H) 38,52 (east of city)
Hellfire Peninsula: Honor Hold (A) 62,58 (east of city); Thrallmar (H) 55,40 (southeast of city)
Blade's Edge Mountains: Sylvanaar (A) 42,66 (east of city); Thunderlord Stronghold (H) 50,59 (south of city)
Netherstorm: both are in K3: Alliance northwest of city (31,63); Horde south of city (32,68)

Since I was still 74, I was getting the same amount of experience and gold for these, up until the last 3, when I hit 75. Then I got 20950xp and 5g90s for desecrating a flame; and 10500xp and 3g for honoring a flame. That was a 100 pt jump in xp for honor and 200 for desecrate; and a 20s increase for honor and a 30s increase for desecrate.

Now I'm off to do Northrend. Luckily, the bonfires in Stormpeaks are at k3, which means they are reachable even if you aren't 77 yet!

Midsummer Festival

Last year I posted all the coords and a suggested walk-thru for the flames to honor and extinguish in Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor. This year I'll post the ones for Outlands that I never got around to doing last year, plus as many Northrend ones as I can reach (my main character was 4 bars into level 74 when I started this). Also, I'm going to explain why this is probably one of the most lucrative world events, for both XP and gold.

Like I said, I was 4 bars into 74 before I started the midsummer events (maybe just a touch over). Yesterday I completed all the ones in Eastern Kingdom and Kalimdor (excluding the major Horde cities, as I had already completed the quest, and as far as I can find out, that yields blossoms and food, but not XP or gold.

Now, the XP and gold amounts are going to vary based on level; like I said, this is at level 74.

Kalimdor has 11 alliance fires and 12 horde fires. I got 10400xp per alliance fire honored and 20750xp per horde fire desecrated. This equaled out to 363,400xp (approx 3 bars of xp). Eastern kingdom has 14 alliance fires and 11 horde fires. This gave me 373,850xp (once again, about 3 bars). For those of you keeping up with the math, that is 25 alliance fires and 24 horde fires. (Which means that horde will actually profit more from this.) In addition to xp, I got 2 gold 80 silver per alliance fire honored and 5 gold 60 silver for each horde fires desecrated, which gave me just under 200 gold. Desecrating gave 10 blossoms while honoring gave 5 blossoms, which equals 355 blossoms. Since I have the whole outfit, as well as the scorchling, the only thing left to buy was the dancing dranei brazier. And of course I had to pull it out and dance with it first thing:



Now remember, I haven't done Outlands or Northrend yet, so there are more blossoms to come. If you are somehow 80 and haven't done this yet, you could probably get the whole set, minus the pet and brazier all at once.

So, if you are horde, you should get 353300xp for Kalimdor and 404900xp for Eastern Kingdoms; this is 20950 more xp than Alliance - a pretty good chunk. And you get a tad bit over 200 gold, and 365 blossoms (10 more than allies). I'm really gonna have to talk to Blizzard about this unfair advantage (just kidding - I really don't care, plus I play both sides).

ETA: Why am I blogging about this instead of playing? Because its Tuesday maintenence!

The good and the bad

The good:
- homemade mocha, consisting of 1/2 glass of lactose-free milk, 1/2 glass of coffee, and a large amount of hershey's syrup.
- Cinnamon tea. Mostly cinnamon, a little tea. Delicious by itself or when mixed 1/2 & 1/2 with regular black tea or herbal peach tea.

The bad:
- The @#$! Cottonwood tree by the house. Yeah, sure, it provides nice shade for the yard, but the one month out of the year when its spewing cotton-crap all over my yard makes me want to kill it!

Yum

The boys went to go eat lunch/dinner at a weird time yesterday (after I had already eaten lunch) so, for dinner, I made myself this:


Asparagus, mushrooms, red bell pepper, & a clove of garlic sauteed in olive oil, a splash of worcestershire sauce and a sprinkle of steak seasoning. MMmmmmm....

Also, aren't my dishes pretty? They are the ones I got for my wedding, but have never used them until we moved into this place, because it has more cabinet space.

Warning: Rant Ahead!!

So, more than 1 month after we moved out of our other place, we finally got our deposit back. The check is for... $229.04.... Our deposit was $500!!! All of which is theorhetically refundable. Luckily, they sent us an itemized statement of what they charged us for.

Water bill from 3/29-5/15: $30.96
I have no problem with this

Shampoo-deodorize-deflea carpet (cat in unit): $90
Yes, thats about how much it costs, except we already did these things!! I also take offense to the "cat in unit" comment. The dogs were more likely to infest the place with fleas than the cat, because the cat does not go outside. And she knows the cat does not go outside, because of the lost cat incident when we moved out. Regardless, all of our animals are on parasite a flea preventatives/deterrents.

Cleaning charge: window sills and panes dirty, mini-blinds dirty, ceiling fan blades dirty, stove dirty inside and underneath, (found lots of pet hair and toys); master bathtub dirty: $150
Ok, I cleaned the window sills and panes on the inside (yes the outside was dirty), I have no idea how the mini-blinds could have been dirty as THEY WERE BRAND-NEW!! I replaced them because the cat messed them up! I also cleaned the ceiling fans; I even sat on my husbands shoulders to clean the one in the living room, because I forgot about it and the stool was already packed. I do admit to the underneath of the stove being dirty (although I did clean the inside, outside and under burners). I don't remember that being on the list, plus I did not know it was possible or safe to move a stove (after thinking about why I think that, I realize its because I am used to gas stoves). As far as the tub being dirty, I scrubbed it, but it was stained since I moved in. Aside from pouring straight bleach in it (which would not be safe) I didn't know what else to do.


And as for it being $150, they enclosed a note, saying that they charge us what the maid company charges them, and the minimum charge is $100. I think they need to find a different maid service. This is something I actually looked into when we were living there, and for the first time clean, it was $88, and (depending on how often you had it done) it was $60-$80 for each time after that. I think they need to find a different maid service! They say if you have any concerns to contact them by email or regular mail (they refuse to answer or discuss this over the phone). I was going to email them, but my husband said it probably wouldn't do any good, and I agree.
It still upsets me though. Especially because while we were living there, our unit flooded 2 times and they never compensated us for it in any way (the maintenance guy said they would give us a restaurant gift certificate, or some money off our rent, but sadly, he's not in charge of such things, and it never happened). I guess we should have been more upset and angry at them when it happened.
I never want to live anywhere run by a company again. Give me a rental that is owned by an individual any day. We may have to wait a week for a new dryer, but when they replace it, its brand new, and I know that if we take care of this place a clean it when we move out, we'll get all of our deposit back.
What really gets me is it seems Wright Properties will charge you no matter what for cleaning (so I guess you might as well not do it), but if they had just said upfront, oh, half of your deposit is non-refundable, and used for cleaning, I would have been ok with that. But since I busted my ass cleaning for two days, I was expecting most of the $500 back!

It's a boy!

So my bestie had went to the dr today, and they have announced that the baby is a boy! I've already decided on some cute things to make for him (it feeds my baby fever without me actually reproducing).

Babies everywhere

Seriously. I think everyone I know is having babies. Not only that, but they have to broadcast it to the entire world. My best friend from middle school/high school it about 4 months. She just posted a sonagram pic that supposedly shows its a boy. Also she updates her "baby bump" pictures every couple of weeks. A friend from college and frat sister is pregnant with her second and is constantly talking about either the pregnancy or her toddler on facebook. My best friend is also pregnant. She called me just today to whine about puking, which I tried to be understanding about. It's hard to be understanding when that's pretty much standard with pregnancy, and if I were pregnant I would try to NOT be whiny. My logical side knows that M and I are in no position to reproduce. We are both unemployed. He's in school. We're sharing a 2-bedroom house with a friend of ours. We simply could not support a kid right now (although, my M-I-L likes to say that if we wait until we can afford a kid, we'll never have one). However, the emotional-baby-loving-biological-clock-ticking-maternal side wants a baby NOW. And, oddly, I don't just want a baby. I want to be pregnant and all that entails, both the good and bad. I really don't know what I'm gonna do when I see my best friend. She's getting to the stage where she is starting to show, but is not obviously pregnant. I haven't seen her since she told me, living in different towns and all, but now that I really have no commitments, other than taking my husband to school, perhaps I could make a weekend trip up to visit. Hopefully I don't burst into tears or something. I'm generally not emotional, but the thought of babies does something strange to me.

It's over

The last few months have been crazy busy, but now its over.

First off, M and I were contemplating extending out lease at the duplex, maybe staying until August. So, one day when I stayed home from work, one of my chores was to go turn in the lease extension papers. Before I get a chance to do that, M comes home from work during lunch and tells me don't do it and if I already did it call the landlord and ask to not extend it (my procrastination paid off that day). It turns out the call center I work for had lost its contract with bighugesatellitetv company (because the company wants everything done in their call centers instead of being outsourced to 3rd-party call centers. Guess where "their" call centers are located?? Freaking south america!!! Yeah... anyways) and everyone who worked there (about 200-something people) would be laid off on May 15th. Which, coincidentally, was the same day our lease was up. So, instead of extending out contract until August, it was now my duty to beg the landlord to allow us one more day so we wouldn't have to move out before our last day of work. After some calling back and forth, they did allow us to stay until Sunday, 16th.

Now we have to look for jobs, and then housing, which is stressful. Weeks pass by, we're both applying at lots of jobs in different cities, because at this point we just want to be employed and location is not a huge concern. I don't hear back from any of the places I applied. M hears back from one place, one month after he applied, he got a form email saying, no sorry, job not yours. So, with less than a month until we are unemployed and homeless, M decides that he is going to go back to school and get a 2nd bach. degree, this time in computer information systems, which means we are moving back to S-ville (which is totally fine with me, its closer to both our families and some of our friends). Everyone is bugging me about what I'm going to do (they think I should be a teacher... I'm still debating this).

So, with a plan of sorts in place we spend every "weekend" driving to s-ville. To get M's school stuff settled (because of his disability, his tuition is waived. I find out that although a teaching cert would fall under financial aid, they will not fund a 2nd bach), and to try to find a house. We find a house with less than 2 weeks before we are unemployed/homeless. We decide to share a house with our friend Y.

The "weekend" before we have to be out, my parents come up with a trailer and help us move the majority of our stuff to s-ville. We then have to drive back to CS, work 2 days, then spend Sunday moving the rest of our crap. Now, I can be overly optimistic at times (that is actually the source of my procrastination, I think it isn't going to take me as long as it actually will) and I proclaim that I think I can fit the rest of our stuff in the back of the truck. Now, I did almost make it, but as M says "it wouldn't ride".... whatever that means. So we ended up having to rent a U-haul. Not really a big deal.

The packing was going as planned, we probably could have gotten out of there by about noon or 1:00. But we had a slight hitch. We lost the cat. I had her in her crate, but she was meowing and had been in there for almost 4 hours, so M suggests that I let her into the backyard in case she had to do her business. I'm cleaning the kitchen, so I figure why not. A little while later M asks, where's Susie? I think I saw her in the bedroom last, but after a quick look-around we can't find her. I start panicking, we look everywhere, closets, cupboards, backyard, frontyard. We find her behind the fridge, as I had it pulled out for cleaning. My heart rate goes down to a normal level and here's where I make the mistake. I DON'T PUT HER BACK IN HER CRATE. I figure, well, she didn't actually go anywhere, she'll be fine. An hour later, repeat of previous performance, except we can't find her anywhere. I walk up and down the block calling "kitty, kitty, susie". We look everywhere in the house (even the dishwasher and freezer, because, really, we were getting desperate). In between we are still loading up the u-haul, because we keep thinking she'll turn up. Finally its 3:00, everything has been packed and ready to go for more than an hour. I've tried calling the animal control, they haven't received any cats today. I try calling the animal shelter, they aren't opened on Sundays. I call my landlord and leave a message with her. I call my neighbor, who is currently out of town, and leave a message with her. I am bawling now. Even M looks like he could cry, but he's trying to be strong for me, telling me to think positive thoughts. We end up leaving because there is nothing more that we can do at this point.

Sunday sucked. Monday didn't start off much better. The animal shelter didn't open until 10:00. My landlord did call me back and say that she put some tuna out and would have the maintenance men keep a lookout. She was very sympathetic as she had lost her cat a few weeks prior and couldn't find him for 4 days. We have both the internet and tv people out hooking up stuff that morning. It was almost noon (tv guy was still there) and I got a phone call from my landlord. They had found Miss Susie. They said they saw her run in the sliding glass door and into the corner of the cabinet (not an actual cabinet, but the space between). They had to pull a board loose to get to her. I was ecstatic, to say the least, and as soon as the tv guy left, we immediately drove to get her, a 6 hour round trip. So, Monday ended on a great note.

Since then its been unpacking, organizing and cleaning.

Yesterday was me and M's 2nd anniversary. We went to eat and I got flowers. Being unemployed and all, we decided to not spend a whole lot of money,

More funnies from work

Customer: let me waddle up here (in reference to going to the other tv)

Customer: It's covered in coffee stains and fingerprints!! (in reference to receiving refurbished instead of completely brand new equipment. I want to know how he knew they were coffee stains. Did it smell like coffee?)

Customer: I'm sitting sideways; I need to get straight where I can see it. (referring to screen or receiver, I think - never figured out what he meant).

An exchange told to me by a fellow agent:
agent:How can I help you?
Customer: I need help logging into my account.
(some back and forth then establishes that he needs help with his bank account, not his tv accout)
Agent: You would need to contact (banknamehere) sir.
Customer: But I called you.
(Obviously, but that does not mean it was the correct choice!)
Agent: Sir, we have nothing to do with your bank account.
Customer: I pay you with the bank account.
Agent: That may be, but we cannot see that, nor can we help you set up online banking.
(This goes on for about 20 minutes or so until the agent convinces the guy that we cannot help him).

Another one. Same agent with (almost) the most stubborn guy in the world.
(Initial troubleshooting questions determine that the receiver is in single mode when it should be in dual mode.)
Agent: What I need you to do it press the mode button on the front of the receiver.
Customer: I don't want to.
Agent: ... Its very simple, all you have to do is press the button.
Customer: I want you to do it.
Agent: .... You want me to come to your house in (state-on-other-side-of-the-country) and press it for you?
Customer: I know you can do it on your end!
Agent: No sir, its a setting on your receiver. You have to press the button.
Customer: Well, we can sit here all night until you fix it!
Agent: ... Ok.
(They sit for about 10 minutes in complete silence)
Customer: Well, I guess you're more stubborn than I am.
(The customer hangs up. )

My New Puppy!

Buddy: Mini dachshund, 6 weeks old, 2 lbs, 10oz.

Puppy!!!!

I'm getting a puppy for my birthday!! Yesterday I was talking to my mom and mentioned that the week after my birthday I was going to the beach to a friend's concert. My mom said that she did want to ruin my birthday surprise.... BUT she got me a 5&1/2 week old mini dachshund (possibly half schnauzer or long haired dachshund), and wanted to make sure that bringing him to me for my birthday would be alright, since I was going on a trip. So I called the hotel and swapped our reservation to a pet-friendly room. My mom says he is super-tiny, so I'm interested in seeing how Jody and Susie are going to react. I don't think Susie will care (I doubt she's going to be afraid of a dog that's a 1/3 her size. I just gotta make sure that Jody isn't too rough with him. My mom has continued the "tradition" and named him "Buddy", (my brother's girlfriend's dachshund is named "Miller" - just think about the connection there). I think Buddy is a cute and simple name (and goes well with me and M's "tradition" of having animal names that end with the "ee" sound). The only bad part about my mom ruining the surprise is that now I have to wait until Tuesday to meet my puppy!

Work can be amusing... sometimes

Here's a few funny (and not so funny) tales from the workplace:

This happened to me personally:
After assisting with setting up a new receiver, the customer asks me if we can ship her another box and label so she can ship us the defective one back. I ask if we didn't ship a label with the new equipment (as is normal procedure) and she says that her goat ate the box and all the papers in it. (That's right, her GOAT!) Now, I've had a little experience with goats, and I know they will eat just about anything, including paper products (however, it is a myth that they will eat tin cans; they will just eat the labels off them). So I send her another box, no big deal, but later I'm thinking, how did the goat get to the box? Usually UPS drops them off on a porch or garage if there isn't anyone there. Some goats are pretty good escape artists, though.

Another one relayed to me by another agent:
A little old lady (think of someone's 80 year old church-going grandma) had spent the last 5 minutes praising God and Jesus that we were always available to answer her questions and we were so helpful, etc, etc. Finally, she finishes her monologue and the agent asks if there is anything else he can help her with. She says "Yes, you can tell me why the hell my bill is so high!" The agent says he just busted out laughing. He did apologize to her, saying that he just never expected her to say that and it was funny. (Apparently, she did not care that he laughed, thank goodness)

Another one relayed to me by a different agent (this is the not so funny):
I'm helping an agent, asking how her calls are going. She says she is never going to ask someone how there day is going again. I ask why. She says because on the last call she asked "so, how is your saturday going?" The customer responded with "I just got back from a funeral. My cousin died. Of cancer. So, that's how my Saturday is going." The agent was speechless for a moment, then stammered out something like "I'm sorry for your loss".

That leads to one of the things I find strange about this job. Some people will tell you their entire life story when all you are do is trying to make small talk to keep from having an uncomfortable silence. I would never tell a stranger anything even vaguely personal about myself. I can only reason that people do it because of the anonymity of speaking with a person in a call center that you will never talk to again. I still find it strange though. Especially when it ventures into the "TMI" area. I once had a woman tell me more than I wanted to know about her recent Cesarean section. Yeah, lady, I REALLY didn't need to know any of that. I really didn't care that you just had a baby, let alone the gory details of it all.