Saraabi is 80!

My little baby Paladin is all grown up! Between myself and my hubby, we got together some new gear for her, so she's just about ready to rock. Not quite ready for Heroics, her defense is still a tad low, but there's plenty of time for that. Hubby's tree is ready to go too, I think tonight might be some 5-man fun. There are some things I'm nervous about tanking, such as Utgarde Pinnacle, with that whole gauntlet thing on Skadi (I think it's Skadi), and both Halls of Lightning and Halls of Stone, mostly because I haven't really been there before. I'll be back with a report tomorrow though, for sure! :)

Noble? Me? Pssh.

Once the realms came up yesterday (dang maintenance), hubby and I started up our new characters, to see how far we could get with them, since our bonus XP ends today. We ended the night at level 20, not bad for the time we had available. I have to say that I prefer the Night Elf cat form to the Tauren one, but since I'll be spending most of my time as bear, I won't complain too much. :)

I also took some time to run Asara around Dalaran to find a Tauren female and a Dwarf female to put bunny ears on, and get her Noble title. Then I ran Alainds around Dolanaar a bit to get him enough chocolates to buy a Spring Circlet, because he wanted one. It took surprisingly little time to do, considering how many people were there. Some people were camping, others were patrolling the egg spawns, but there are so many around that inn, that it wasn't out of the ordinary to get three or four very close together.

I have to say here that I love how WoW looks on my new computer. The graphics are nice and clear, and the speed is great. And the size of that monitor.. it still feels enormous. I'm slowly rebuilding my UI, I'll probably go whole-hog on Bartender and whatnot over the weekend. The only problem I'm having is that my files aren't being stored properly in the WDB folder (it actually never created one, I had to make it myself), so it doesn't seem to be saving my settings like it should. I ran the repair utility, but it didn't seem to make a difference. If it gets annoying, I'll have to look into it some more.

News at home.. there isn't much, as usual. Andy had his first field trip yesterday, to the Children's museum downtown. His group chaperone told me he was very good, and very polite the whole time. We took Emily to the doctor for a checkup yesterday, and he said she's doing just fine, she's actually tall for her age. Andy is too, I think, so it must just run in the family :) She got the green light for preschool, so we just have to get some forms from the school filled out, and hopefully she'll be able to go to the same school Andy does this fall. *sigh* They're getting so big, so FAST!

I got a new toy!

I'm so excited. :)

Hubby's been frustrated with the performance of WoW on his laptop lately. Last night he finally gave up on it, and we headed to Best Buy. He said that he'd take my computer, and I would be able to get a new one. Woo!

This is the one I got: New Awesome Computer

It's not the best one out there, but it's definitely an upgrade for me. The monitor itself seems just enormous, even though mine was only 2 inches smaller. We spent last evening installing WoW on it, but I didn't get a chance to play yet. That will be tonight, and I really can't wait to get home and see what's what. Of course, this means I'll have to redo my UI again, but I don't think that will be a big issue. It's not even a priority right now, since I'm not raiding.

I did get some play time in before we headed to the store. I headed out to Goldshire to see what was going on with the Noblegarden holiday. The inn was just covered in people trying to get eggs as they spawned. I managed to find a good spot, and settled in for a while. I managed to get two Elegant Dresses and two Tuxedo shirts while I was there. Then hubby logged in, and we took our main alts out to Icecrown, in order to level them up to 80, since they both have been sitting at 79 for quite some time now.

Hubby's druid dinged 80 during some Jotunheim quests, but Saraabi didn't quite make it. She's still got about 20% of her level to grind out. That will probably be first on the list tonight. Or maybe tomorrow, depending on what time I get out of work.

In other exciting news...

My buddy SQT runs a fantasy and sci-fi blog, and she also does book reviews. She was contacted recently by the publisher that is putting out the newest book in the World of Warcraft series, the one about Arthas. She emailed me, because she knows how much I love WoW, and asked me to review it, and it finally showed up in the mail this weekend. YAY! I think hubby is even more excited about having this book than I am, because he really enjoys game lore. So we're going to get to reading, and I'll probably include his opinion in my review as well. Besides that, SQT is also having a contest to give away five copies of the book to five lucky people.

Here is the link to SQT's contest.

It's open to residents of the US and Canada, and all you have to do is either send her an email, or leave a comment on her post with a way she can contact you if you win BEFORE MAY 5. So go and enter, all you WoW players out there! There are only 16 comments on the post right now, and with five books being given away, that's about a one in three chance that you'll win! Of course, I don't know how many emails have been sent, but still, I'm sure the odds are still really good!

Good luck to everyone who enters, and be sure to check back in the next week or so for my review! I'll put a link here when it gets published, too.

Taking things out of context is fun.

Whistler: "You don't have to swallow it, just put it in your mouth and spit it out".

He was asking one of our coworkers to taste some salami, because he and my boss were trying to figure out whether or not the salt had been added properly when it was made. But still, in my head I heard Michael Scott... "That's what she said".

Still not dead :)

Just busy. Had someone out on vacation for two days, which meant super duper long hours, and today I've been going nuts trying to catch up with everything. And going to the doctor. Nothing serious, don't worry guys :) We're going to be working on Saturday, then I've got a relatively normal week next week, except my boss is out on Friday. I think I might sneak a vacation day in some time soon. I just got back from a week away, and I am already looking for another day off. Sigh. I'll really need some time off after July, the calendar is practically full of people with vacation during that month. So maybe I'll give it a while yet.

In WoW news, my baby troll hunter is not such a baby any more! Level 18, with three pets already. She got her red raptor, who is now named ChompyJr., a blue turtle named Leonardo, and, of course, Echeyakee, now named Nimbus. I can't decide right now who to level along with me, the turtle would be very handy since hubby and I are both ranged DPS. With the new change to Thunderstomp, it sounds even nicer. That's probably what I'll do, now I just have to level the little thing up to get the skill! Hubby is doing amazingly well in the gold gathering department, we already have enough to get our first mounts at level 30. I'll have pictures for that, I'm sure! :)

I got demoted back down to non-raider on Asara, which is probably for the best right now. I'm not ready for Ulduar yet, so I asked my class leader just to keep me in the loop when Naxx runs are scheduled, and I'll try to make those. Oh, and I'm thinking about taking off my Entrecard. I still get drops on it, but I'm wondering if some of the spam traffic is coming from there. I don't really know what's going on with the new paid ad things, and how that affects my blog. Any of you all out there who still has one have any thoughts on that?

Besides that, I got an awesome email from a certain Fantasy and Sci-Fi blogger I know, which promises something cool... there will be more on that later, I promise! Hope you all are having a great week so far!

So far, so good...

As those who have been brave enough to comment in the past couple of days have probably noticed, I turned on word verification the other day. So far, no more spam comments in crazy languages. I'll probably leave it on for a week or so, then take it off and see what happens. I hate doing word verifications, and I hate making you guys do them, but I hate those annoying comments worse, so I do apologize for this inconvenience.

Still no troll progress yet. Hubby had installed Portal on my computer to play, because he's been having issues with his graphics card. So when I got home, he says, you should try to play it! So I sat down, and was hooked after a couple of puzzles. I finished it at about 11 PM. It would have taken me longer, but hubby has beaten it twice now, and gave me a couple of hints when I got really stuck and frustrated. Then he showed me this video, which I would not have understood at all had I not played the game, but had me practically rolling out of my chair with laughter now that I have. I hope you enjoy it as well! (There's a bit of swearing, so it might be NSFW)

What a morning!

So I had a few extra minutes this morning, and I hopped on WoW to do my cooking daily. I was one cooking award away from the last recipe I needed for the Northrend Gourmet (Cuttlesteak), and I had fished up the Moonglow Cuttlefish yesterday morning before work. Thank goodness I did too, with the patch keeping servers down for as long as it did. Because I finished grabbing my mushrooms from the sewers, bought my recipe, and...Ta da! Chef Asara is born! Now to save up 100 awards for that sweet Chef's hat, and I'll really look the part! I didn't have to leave for work quite yet, even after finishing that, so I thought I'd give the new fishing dailies a try. The lovely lady by the fountain sent me back into the Underbelly to fish up some old jewelry from the sewers. I have had a love/hate relationship going with fishing in the sewers for quite some time now. Every time I get a chance, I'm down there trying to get myself a Giant Sewer Rat, but never had any luck. I've been standing next to someone who fished it up several times, though. Imagine my surprise and utter shock then, when I fish up the quest item, and with it is a little whisker with a blue name next to it... and my screen lights up with yet another achievement. At first I thought it was just for getting the quest item, then I read the achievement itself. And what do you know...

I got myself a rat, at long last! He really is giant too, compared to the size of most of the other pets. After I turned in the quest, I opened up my little bag of fishing treasures, and there was a diamond-tipped cane in there. I sent that off to hubby before I logged off for work, because I think it will accent his pimp outfit nicely.

Tonight, provided I'm not at work until bedtime, will be Troll Time. I still haven't picked a pet for Neztraz, I'll have to do some thinking about that today. This set of characters will be interesting to level, as we don't have higher-level characters on Cenarion Circle to feed gear and money to them as they go, like we did on Malfurion. We do have a plan for that though, we're going to make a pair of Death Knights and take them into Outlands to quest. What we make from vendoring rewards should be a help, and they will also serve to run each other through low-level instances, at least for a while. I can't wait to see how far we get!

Quickie post day!

Mezzaluna is now officially level 60. She and Rhonson finished out their tour of Azeroth last night in the Plaguelands, and are now relaxing in Ironforge awaiting their entry into Outland. Shortly thereafter, our troll pair dinged level 10, and my new hunter, Neztraz (randomly generated name, I really couldn't think of anything) went out and finished her taming quests. She has yet to decide what sort of companion she wants, but she's leaning toward a blood-red raptor. She will also need a name for said raptor, does anyone have any suggestions?

Other than that, I just have this little quizzy thing that my brother-in-law tagged me with over on Facebook. I'm really not surprised at the result!

I got an award!

I'm a little late in posting this, please forgive me.

The wonderful Naissa, from Naissa's Rage, has tagged me with the Honest Scrap award, which has been searing its way through the WoW blogosphere. I was honestly surprised, and sincerely honored, when I got the email that I'd been tagged. I know a lot of the people who read my blog have been buddies of mine for a while, so for someone I don't really know or haven't had lengthy Twitter/Plurk discussions with, to email me out of the blue and tell me that they really like my blog... well, it made my day. So thank you again, Naissa!

And of course, there have to be rules:

1. When accepting this auspicious award, you must write a post bragging about it, including the name of the misguided soul who thinks you deserve such acclaim, and link back to the said person so everyone knows she/he is real.
2. Choose a minimum of seven (7) blogs that you find brilliant in content or design. Or improvise by including bloggers who have no idea who you are because you don’t have seven friends. Show the seven random victims’ names and links and leave a harassing comment informing them that they were prized with Honest Weblog. Well, there’s no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon.
3. List at least ten (10) honest things about yourself. Then pass it on!

The Honest Things:

1. I love Peeps. I still have to get some this year, hopefully I'll be able to find some on sale. I like to eat the tail end first and work my way up to their heads and beady little eyes. I'll eat any color ones, but I prefer the classic yellow. Yum.

2. When I woke up to my alarm for work this morning, it took me a while to remember that yes, I really did have to get up at 4:30, because my boss decided to take today off to welcome me back to the daily grind or something like that.

3. There isn't nearly as much work here waiting for me as I expected there to be. I'm sure that's because I'm forgetting about something that I need to be doing.

4. My refer-a-friend Priest, Mezzaluna, dinged 58 yesterday. I can't believe she's ready for Outland already when I have three other alts that seem to be stuck in the 40's. Hubby and I are going to get those characters to 60, to make the most of the shared bonus, then we've made new Horde alts over on Cenarion Circle. I've got a troll huntress, and he's got a mage. We'll see how far these two get before our bonus runs out at the end of the month!

5. I'm stealing one from Naissa and mentioning my love of reading. I am almost never without a book, even if it's one I've read three or four times already.

6. I used to have a really serious library habit, but I kept a book too long thanks to a move, and now I'm scared to go back because they want $60 in fines for said book. I could buy like 10 books for that much!

7. In September, I'll have been working at my current place of employment for ten years. The perks of that? I get another week of vacation every year from here on out, and I get a $100 gift card at the Christmas, er... I mean "Holiday" party at the end of the year.

8. Making this list is harder than I thought it would be!

9. I eat my french fries with mayonnaise any time I can get it. This is totally the fault of a friend from high school, who handed me one at McDonald's after a musical practice one afternoon.

10. Yep, I was in musicals in high school. I never had a lead part, I was just in the chorus, but they were all very fun to be a part of. I was in Oklahoma! and Guys and Dolls. I haven't done any theater since, though sometimes I think I'd like to audition for a local production. Then I look at my life and the time I wouldn't have to attend practices, and I remember why I haven't done so.

And... the tags (dun dun DUN!):

1. Tisha, from Crazy Working Mom.

2. Mo, from It's a Blog Eat Blog World

3. Spooker, Daphne, Chloe, Jazper, Little Isis, and Pete Underfeet at Purrchance to Dream

4. Linda, from Are We There Yet?

5. SQT, from Fantasy and Sci-Fi Lovin' Blog

6. Amazing Gracie, from Echoes of Grace

7. Kiyotoe, from The Garden of Kiyotoe, even though I know he probably won't post it :)

A quick Happy Easter to all!

We'll be heading out to my parents' house in a jiffy for Easter dinner, then over to my brother-in-law's for a birthday party for my nephew. Also, it's an early night for me, my boss said that he would be out tomorrow, a nice welcome back from vacation for me... sigh. At any rate, Happy Easter to all, I hope your baskets are overflowing with your absolute favorite kind of candy. Peeps and Cadbury eggs for me, I hope! :)

Hello again from Cincinnatti!

We made it safe and sound yesterday evening. I drove this time, and phew, that was exhausting! The longest I've ever driven was about an hour and a half for work training once, and that was quite a few years ago!

Hubby is still not feeling great, so we're sticking around the hotel for now. I'd like to take the kids down to the pool in a while though, to make use of it while we're here. Tomorrow we'll be heading out to the zoo, and I picked up a couple of disposable cameras for while we're there.

That's about all for now.. oh, there is one more thing. I'm going to give it a couple more days, but I may have to turn on comment moderation or word verification. I've gotten more spam comments in the past week than I have in the entire time I've had this blog, which is over a year now. They're weird too, you can probably still see them in my comment widget over on the side there. I know I have no idea what language they're written in, and I don't dare try the links in them. On top of that, I can't seem to pin down where they're coming from... I'll have to keep a weather eye on my traffic if I can.

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a great week, by this time next week I hope to have vacation pictures for you all!

It's 3AM, I must be lonely.

Not really. The family is all here and sleeping soundly in their beds. I don't know why I can't seem to make myself join them. Insomnia ftl.

But there was one bright spot in all of this, and I'm sure the WoW bloggers out there (especially my fellow hunters) will be linking to it before too much longer. Most of them probably still have to get out of bed, the lazy bums. ;)

TJ asked those of us who had been touched by BRK's teachings in any way to contribute to a project, and a few hours ago, she posted the result.

It is here.

I am proud to say the screenshot I submitted made it into the video, though all of the submissions will be sent along as well. Mine is the first one from Sharvan's Running of the Bulls, with my silly Tauren standing next to Blood Elf BRK. That was the first of two times I actually encountered him in-game, the other being at Orcapalooza. The man knew how to throw a party, I tell ya!

Anyway...

I just wanted to say again, thank you to BRK, and thank you TJ, for being such a great friend to the man who brought out the MQoSRDPS in all of us.

Zzzzzz....

Sorry it's been so quiet around here this week. I've had some projects going on at work that sucked away all of my free time. Even though it's been three days since I last posted, I still don't have much to talk about. I'm on vacation next week, which is exciting. We're going back to Cincinnatti, but with the kids this time, to take them to the zoo. Hopefully the weather will be a little warmer, so more of the animals will be out. I'm going to see if my sister-in-law will let us borrow that little video camera again, so I can take some video of the stuff I missed last time.

Other than that, hubby and I will probably get in some WoW time. My parents are taking the kids tonight so they can go to Palm Sunday at church tomorrow. Every year my church buys a bunch of palm fronds, and all of the kids get to walk down the aisles waving them in the air. Then next Sunday is Easter, and the Hallelujah chorus at the end of the service. I'm going to try to go this year, I think.

Anyway, I'm at work now, and I'd better get back to it. We've got a full day scheduled, and I want to get it over with as soon as possible!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Happy April!

Not much to say this morning, I'm tired of course, from staying up so late last night. Hopefully tonight I'll be able to sleep better. I'm signed up to raid, but we'll see how I feel.

The oldies station that the Whistler listens to is playing all of their songs in different languages today. Someone just called, and they were wondering why. The DJ told her to switch off the station and switch back, because he wasn't hearing different languages on the songs at all. Then he played a song in French. XD

Also, I'm loving the new layout over at YouTube, what do you guys think? Oh, and this new tool from Gmail! How handy!

I'm waiting to see what Blizzard has up their sleeve today. I'm sure it will be great! :)