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.