Bullies and The Escapist

The deck was done and it was a thing of beauty. The incessant shrieking of our fearful little girl dog quieted. My husband was pleased, I was pleased, all was good in the land … for less than 24 hours … but hey … you take what you can get, right?

Non-fearful dog and I were coming back from our morning walk and we were followed into our driveway by a county vehicle. Oh … another deck inspection I guess. I got a rl screen shot of the inspector. Perhaps he was having a bad day.

He’s quite a large gentleman, he steps out of his county vehicle and throws his cigarette on the lawn. I guess to establish who was in charge here. I have a theory that some people placed in authority really shouldn’t have it.

My husband’s cousin, who was a few years older than my husband, used to stand in the hallway and demand payment to pass by his room when my husband visited. Payment or beat down … your choice. He later went on to become a policeman … hmm.

Anyway, inspector said yeah … I’ll bet you paid a bundle for this … ??? … um, no the price was reasonable. Well you may think so but I KNOW they charge about three times what they pay for materials. OMG! They’re making a profit! Those devils! No, I didn’t SAY that, I was deceitful and feigned respect.

He went on to grab a stair support post and try to yank it out of the ground all the while saying this isn’t going to last, look at this … okay … it’s fine now but in a few years … and this is a trip hazard … and there should be … yeah … my time in the sun was over. This inspector was a bully, maybe he didn’t like the way my dog looked at him. Maybe he had it in for deck builders, maybe someone built him a bad one, who knows. If only RNG had returned the first inspector who was really nice and liked dogs. Evil inspector handed me my F and with a smirk, wished me a good day. Rat bastard.

I was upset … I’m a worrier. Actually I’m a world class worrier … not good.

There are all kinds of WoW players, it’s been pretty well established that the whole hardcore/casual thing doesn’t really work. There are competitors, completists, collectors and varying combinations of all WoW types. I’m an escapist. I do dailies and quests as an excuse to hang around in the beautiful content Blizzard created. I like living there. I used to live in books when I was young now I live here.

I leave the real world and worry about mobs, rep, dailies and after a while I calm down. Yes, I’ve said it … WoW is my Xanax. Right or wrong after an hour in-game I usually calm down and regain some perspective. That and hyperboleing to death any event that upsets me on the blog. Oh and making up new words … cause I can … I’m the boss here.

So yeah now I’m all fine with it. Stupidhead inspector can bite me. This too shall pass. I don’t have time to worry about it, I have saronite to mine.

The Agony and the Ecstasy

I’ve always liked professions, I’ve always felt good that my band of misfits can help each other out, and I’m just a little sad when another character reaches the level cap. Nowadays professions are somewhat borked, leveling characters and professions no longer mesh … but I still enjoy them.

Except for this. HOW MANY DAMN GLADIATOR PIECES ARE THERE? NO! No … thanks, but don’t tell me. I don’t think I could handle the truth. All Cat wants is her Snow Lily Belt, she’s still wearing that butt ugly thing she got from Galleon ages ago because SHE KNEW she’d have a nice upgrade soon. HA!

Cim the Warlock who has way fewer patterns to learn bought her belt off the AH rather than wait but Cat being Cat … she wants to CRAFT her own, it seems to be a big issue to her … so she waits … and waits. OH! OH! Not a PvP piece! It’s a … it’s a … oh … healy leather. Another week goes by. OH! This is something good! This might be it … mail.

She sniffs her disappointment once again and runs off to decimate anything on the Isle that drops leather, hopeful that tomorrow will be THE DAY. Poor thing.

You know Alts are kinda spoiled brats. I know, I know. It’s totally my fault. I think Liwu made us buy her Hula Doll when she was around level 65 cause she was afraid they might be out of stock when she hit 70. I know, crazy. I think Griftah has an endless supply of that stuff but we all humored her.

We would have humored her a lot more with mats but that low level stuff isn’t available, at least on our AH. So instead she wheedles Death Knight to go out and speed mine and TA DA! Turbo-Charged Flying Machine was hers! I know the driving force that got her leveled to 71 was that ride. I’ll be interested to see if the speed at which she levels continues. Can the thought of Sky Golem at the end of the road keep her rolling … we’ll see.

Okay, I see my problem now. I wrote this thing this morning and then came back to check for typos and stuff before I published it. This is dangerous, it seems that whenever I don’t just throw caution to the wind and post immediately I later decide to trash the post. Maybe I’ll just forget about typos, it’ll be like live TV! Anything can happen! Teh unedided post!

Beware! The Old Lady Raiders Ride!

The inaugural run of The Old Ladies’ Raiding Guild was Blackwing Descent. I’d never seen it so I was really thrilled at the chance. It was great to see some of the people I remembered from JD’s Laid Back Raids. I didn’t realize just how much I missed it until last night.

Thank you so much Matty for making this happen! I get to see content I wouldn’t otherwise AND a chance to have some fun with great people with no worries of behavior of the acrimonious kind! Win! Win! Win!

Repgrind even kindly got us Vent but I found I’d uninstalled it, next Saturday I’ll be ready. Geez, I might even buy a headset that doesn’t hurt my ears and I can talk with for this.

The only bad behavior displayed was by, I’m sad to say my Warlock Cim.

Repgrind’s Kerick was there and Cim just kept crowding him, I thought this kind of behavior was exclusive to Cat but apparently not. It seems Cim has a thing for Human Males too … sigh … what am I to do with these girls.

If you’re interested in coming along, you don’t have to be an old lady, you don’t even have to be female. You just have to be there for the fun. Check out Matty’s post.

The Dog Ate my Homework, a Non-WoW Rant with a Scary Dog Picture

Okay, it’s happening again … I’m bored of me. I can always tell because I write posts, read them, then trash them cause they’re boring to me. Sooooo … I’m going to rant instead! Yay! It’s totally un-WoW related so you don’t have to listen if you don’t want to. It will be my therapy so that hopefully if and when these gentleman show up again I don’t run out the front door screaming fuckityfuckfuck at them at least until after they’re done.

So a friend said YOU MUST try Angie’s List, she said she got the most wonderful contractor to redo her bathroom there. Okay, alright … I’ll give it a try since the deck is about to detach from the house. I signed up and got some estimates. I picked the contractor with a A+ best deck builder EVER rating mostly because he assured me that his workers were his employees, not subcontractors as happens with many builders.

In hindsight it’s easy to see that I was lulled into complacency by that GIANT A+ and didn’t ask the appropriate questions. I asked how many days the job would take, yes, but I didn’t ask WOULD THEY BE CONSECUTIVE DAYS. What a big dummy I am. I was repeatedly told this was a three day job. GREAT! That’s wonderful, I think I can live through three days of intense hysterical barking from our little girl as she tries to alert us to the fact that the devil is pounding on the side of the house. Our other dog isn’t really concerned but he likes to support her in everything she does so he joins in.

The deal was done, the contract brought out. Hmm … a little strange … but BIG A+ remember! If it’s a three day job why have they allowed a MONTH AND A HALF to complete it? Oh, probably for weather I’m sure … cause GIANT A+ rating so no worries. Hmm … this IS odd. My contracts require 50% deposit and the remaining 50% when the job’s completed. Theirs says 45% DEPOSIT, 45% when deck platform hung and 10% on completion. Odd … but remember, BIG FREAKING A+ so just sign the damn thing already.

So they arrive, they park a freaking big dumpster in front of our house, essentially making our street one lane now which I’m sure the neighbors enjoy and BEGIN! Yay! They work three days, hang the deck platform. Day four … nope. I finally get a call from the tricksy management guys. Oh hey, sorry. Roberto is sick. Really sorry but there’s just one day’s work left. He’ll be back when he’s well. And by the way I’ll be by later to pick up the 45% for the deck platform later today.

You know I don’t mind so much the fact that I’m probably going to walk out the door because I’ll forget the deck isn’t there and fall to my … if not death at least a full body cast. Yeah, that’s not it. It’s not the worry that the neighbor’s cat will fall into one of the GIANT holes in the yard … I mean I’m worried, but that’s not it.

COME ON! Roberto got sick just as he hung the platform getting you 90% of your money? Roberto who arrived at 8:30am every one of the three days and worked all day with about a 20 minute break for lunch and stayed until it was too dark to see including the day he was stricken with disease?

AND THE DOG ATE MY HOMEWORK? How about that next? Yes, this is what I can’t take. It’s bad enough we have to put up with politicians lying to us and in their stupid arrogance thinking they’re pulling one over on us yokels but now I have to pretend to believe contractors?

I DIDN’T JUST FALL OUT OF THE TURNIP TRUCK!  Roberto is not freakin’ sick, he’s on another job and you’ll fit us in somewhere in the next month and a half cause I gave you all the freaking MONEY … except for 10% but yeah … why hurry for that.

Thanks … I think it helped to get that off my chest. I’ve gone from Defcon FUCKITYFUCKFUCK down to Defcon FREAKING. I don’t want to blow it and start calling them rotten little stupidhead liars until the job’s completed. They might tell Roberto to bobby trap the deck or something.

So remember, don’t be like me and be glamored by BIG A+ reviews … read the bad ones too. I did. Too late.

But you know what? I can’t wait for the month and a half to go by … no not having the deck … writing MY REVIEW at Angie’s List. Ah, can’t wait.

The Good Old Bad Old Days

Liwu made it to level 60 and with the help of Death Knight’s fast mining was able to make her Flying Machine. What made it all even better is it’s Hallow’s End a favorite time of mine. Disguised as a Goblin she set out to enjoy one of my favorite expansions. I told her she’d love it, just wait and see. I’ve always loved leveling alts through these quiet zones. I remember how I loved … what is that lunatic doing … there’s a Troll named Troll, possibly a 90 as he’s one-shoting everything, running around the Hold. How is this fun? No really, I really wonder about that.

Never mind Liwu, let’s go look for ore, I really want to get your engineering going. There’s a node! Just have to kill those two Orcs standing by it … WTF! Do you not see me standing on this ore fighting for it? What is wrong with you … you … you IDIOT! Some people, I swear. Never mind, one bad apple.

Look! There’s more Fel Iron over here! Just have to clear out that Hellboar, this is great, we’ll have enough … WTF! Dammit, do these people just follow you around, enjoying stealing your ore while you fight? What kind of entertainment is that? Who are these people? And you know what really hurts is that it’s always your own side doing it.

Thanks to the advanced technology of CRZ, it became clear that the memories of the halcyon days of my WoW youth that I’d been telling Liwu about were false memories. Distance and nostalgia had put a glow on what had been a GIANT PITA!

It’s all coming back to me now. Dead quest givers, ore ninjas, flagged opposition members dancing on your kills when you tried to loot them. Waiting for what seems forever for a respawn and then a Death Knight runs in and death grips it away, no group kills back then. Wow … how did I forget all that.

Never mind Liwu, we’ll have some peace and quiet once we reach your homeland. It’s lovely and deserted and … oh no … connected realms. OMG! HURRY LIWU HURRY!

Slowhand or Death by Predatory Swiftness

A little while back Big Bear had a post about getting old. I so know what he meant although I’m not sure if it’s worse to remember better times or never to have had them. I arrived in Azeroth past my prime. Totally devoid of youthful reflexes. I don’t have any glory days to remember. First I was an old noob then I became just … older … and kinda beat up.

I don’t know if my hand-eye coordination was any better in my youth. I tried to think, but the only thing that I was ever competitive at was riding, and I think that’s a whole other skill set … more like balance and rapport with large beasts. Apparently I must have had balance and I definitely have rapport with beasts, probably more than with humans.

My right hand was broken once and never really got “right” again. With the bad comes some good, because now I have a handy built-in barometer. The hand hurts when air pressure changes and I do as good or better than the weatherman on TV with predictions. I haven’t figured out how to monetize that yet though.

I was born with crappy eyesight so I’m used to that and it’s never been a problem until recently. Because of Presbyopia I have an ever increasing cache of cheap eyeglasses with varying levels of magnification stashed around the house. Finding just the right combination of bifocal contacts paired with cheap glasses to see the fire I’m standing in with at least one eye is a science that I don’t always get just right.

THEN … reflexes. I SEE that I’m standing in something bad. I react as fast as I possibly can … now I’m almost dead … or dead. I was doing Cinderfall the other day and he shot fire out his butt or whatever he does and I MOVED out of it as fast as I could … dead. There was another person standing right by me and they seemed to move BEFORE he even shot his fiery flame of death at us. I KNOW it’s not my connection or my computer’s fault … it’s me.

I occasionally don’t even NEED a great bolt of fire to kill me. I kill myself. For those of you who aren’t Feral Druids there is a wonderful spell called Predatory Swiftness. For me it’s an instant heal based off combo points, it’s a life saver … and a killer.

I have a great big damn display counting out the seconds I have left on it, you can see it up there, it’s hard to miss. I have 3 more seconds to use it or lose it. This is the point of no return … 3 seconds. If I get cocky and think I can hit that key with 1 second showing, I’ve killed myself … and I do it more frequently than I’d care to mention. If I miss the timing, Cat will shoot up into squishy, wimpy caster form to be instantly beaten to death before I can regain cat form. I just killed her … sigh.

Getting old in Azeroth is dangerous business, no doubt about it. So Cat and Cim have worked it out, Cim does things like the Celestial bosses if someone’s getting a group together, Cat does not. Cat handles tricky things like pet battles, Cim does not. They’ve worked out a plan that suits them and me. The crafty Warlock is much better at killing things while preserving herself … figures.

Cat’s much better at sneaking in undetected and pouncing on Gulp Frogs although in fairness to Cim she doesn’t need to sneak in she pretty much just blasts her way through on the never ending quest to get Bufo to cough up that pet.

One day … maybe one day Matty will get that Old Lady Raiders guild going but until then Slowhand Cat will pick her fights and leave the fire-shooting bad guys to that crazy Warlock because I’m not leaving no matter how freaking old I get … so there Cinderfall.

And no, the whole post wasn’t just an excuse to sneak Eric Clapton in, I DO kill myself with Predatory Swiftness with some regularity.

Placeholder Post

I have actual posts to write, even have the screen shots for them but I’ve not been writing them. I’ve been goofing off instead. Yeah, Cat didn’t waste any time buying the Dandelion Frolicker who was on her “must have” list. Cat’s seen the crystal once and the Warlock did it once. Cat did much better at it than Cim but both of them are really talented at arriving in the vicinity to watch someone kill the sprites so … hooray for the AH! I am a crappy camper.

My Hunter was feeling that she was getting the whole huntery thing down until she aggroed a pack of things. OW OW OW!!!! She was doing such a bad job of AoE damage she drew a crowd. They all just stopped and stared in horror. So embarrassing, she’s hiding in that tent over there scared to come out.

But what’s really taking up our time is Liwu the Monk. I think it’s because she’s nearing 60 and yes, flying! And not just flying but FLYING MACHINE! Kind of makes no sense that I start a new Rogue which immediately revives my interest in my Monk … go figure, but that’s what happened. She’s about to enter Outland, I hope she’s prepared. I mean I even approached grumpy Death Knight to see if she’d be willing to head over there and gather the materials for Liwu. Squee! So excited! Yes, yes, doesn’t take much at all. I’m easily pleased. Flying Machine will be ours!

Okay … just wanted to say hi. If I can just get her to 60 and make that Flying Machine I’m sure things will go back to normal … well, whatever passes for normal here. And WordPress just congratulated me on my third year anniversary today, so I thought I should say something to commemorate the day I started talking about wow in the hope of finding like-minded people to communicate with … since there sure aren’t any in this house. I’m happy to say it worked!

Yay! Yay! Yay!

Have an anniversary cookie!

The Isle of It was Dead When I Got There

Yesterday was one of those days. As Cim approached the Timeless Isle she saw this incredible piece of real estate. She got off her mount to inquire as to whether it might be for sale but Ky-Le took her inquiry the wrong way I guess and she ended up flagged … and forgot about it. Of course when she reached the Isle someone killed her while she was killing a turtle. Later on while doing AoE on a rare someone ran up and killed her. Someday she should really learn how to PvP.

So yeah … she called for a taxi and the bird took the Voidlord instead … sigh. She finally gets up to the lake to camp Garnia, whew. I found she has a talent for logging in right after someone else kills Garnia.

Cim needs four more rares for the achievement and most reside up around the sanctuary. So after missing Garnia again she went to take a look and found Flintlord Gairan was standing there. She called out and called out and nope, nobody coming. Probably should have looked him up first. If I had I would have read, “don’t pull him from maximum range or he’ll charge you and probably one-shot you.”

No probably about it. Okay, this isn’t fun anymore. What else can I do?

Because MoP has had so much to do, I’m about to lose my membership in the Azerothian Altoholics Society. And I’ve been jealous of all those handsome Blood Elves people have so that’s it! Roll a Blood Elf male!

There he is! Salty Purloin the Rogue. I really should train fishing on him or he’ll look like a big poser. He was invited to a posh party and there he is dancing … wait a minute … what’s he staring at? OMG! Of all the nerve! If I were you Purloin I’d stop checking out that girl before her boyfriend sees you.

Hmm … we’ll see how this goes. This guy looks to be trouble to me.

A Hunting We Will Go

My Hunter was my first WoW character. There she is, Elder Zorakar. The last time I played her semi-seriously was in the pre-focus days when mana was important, since then she wanders about looking for pets to tame and picks flowers. Cat and Cim sent her Timeless Mail from the Isle until she had a whole set. Yeah … you see where this is going don’t you.

She wanted to go to the Isle. I told her that while ilevel 480 might seem like a dizzying height to her it really wasn’t, especially for someone who didn’t know their class. Sorry Zor, but you know it’s true.

Please, please! I’ll just stay there long enough to get 20,000 coins so I can replace my Sonic Pulse Generator with the Featherdraw Longbow, that’s all I want!

We took a nostalgia swing by the place it all started and … WHAT THE HELL! OMG! These kids today! They start out with an insta-pet? Unbelievable! So against my better judgement we got her gemmed and enchanted. Surely she aught to be able to kill those little pink flamingo thingies on the Isle without trouble … shouldn’t she?

Zor is Beast Mastery, has always been and probably always will. Okay Zor, we’re here. Do you know what you’re supposed to do? Should I look up your rotation for you?

No, no. I’m good. Let’s go!

We land and TURTLE! Let’s get him! Wait … er … too late. Zor! Zor! Heal you Cat! She’s about … whew. The call went out for the ship event. Oh! Can we do that after the turtle? Sure, just kill the turtle first.

Okay, the ship event is one of the things that actually lasts long enough to get there, I mean if you kill your turtle first. People went racing past us to the ship … still killing turtle … still killing turtle … healing pet … killing turtle …

Next thing I know old Captain Genest is yelling, “This Cannot be! The Vazuvius could never fall to the likes of you!” and everyone comes running by … and we almost got this turtle down. Yes … it took as long as downing the ship. Obviously we’re missing something here. I know her gear is low but not THAT low.

OH! Glaive Toss! Sounds cool, perhaps you should be using that Zor, and oh! Look at this one, you get another pet to attack! Oh, and Focus Fire … THAT’S what the lovely screen display meant!

Wow … we sure got rusty doing nothing but picking flowers but I’m happy to report she’s still alive and doing much better after a little research into the present day Hunter. 15,000 or so coins so far and I’m not sure she’ll be leaving after she gets her bow, she’s having too much fun.

Cat! What are you doing! This is Zor’s post, she hardly ever gets one, stop that at once! Sorry, ever since she saw Cymre doing it she’s been making that poor Moon Moon dance. The poor thing must be exhausted.

So anyway … what I’m worried about is if the Shaman gets wind of this … yeah. She’s in the 470s and sporting two Tankards O’ Terror that I bought her to bonk virmen on the farm. Blizzard considers this as having empty slots … doesn’t bode well.

And I last played her seriously in BC … with a two-hander. I know … Shaman carnage for sure. I’ve sworn all my characters to secrecy, I hope that’s enough. I’m not worried about the Death Knight, all she likes to do is mine and play Rammstein on her black market Goblin iPhone.

The Key to the Trash Bin of le Chien

That’s my dog doing one of his two favorite things. Resting on his couch, which used to be ours by the way, or eating. I was going to take a picture just for this post but I was too chicken to run to the store yesterday for batteries. There was a tornado watch. I WAS SURE if I left the house I’d come back to find it gone. Anyway, had I taken one it would probably have looked just like this one.

Everyday after lunch I go to the basement where I have an exercise contraption, it’s not a treadmill but kind of a skier. I do half an hour while reading. I can’t seem to break the 30 minute mark, but never mind that. I realized that this 30 minutes was my dog’s run through the Palace of Lei Shen.

He impatiently waits for me to finish my lunch, sometimes urging me to hurry by poking me with his nose or snapping his mouth open and closed at me like a crocodile which is his version of cheeky talk. When we get down there he waits for me to climb on board and then he’s off!

He spends the entire time trying to break into The Trash Bin of le Chien. The bag of dog food is kept in a trash bin to protect it from him. I’m always amazed by his optimistic outlook as he’s been doing this for years and not broken in yet but his enthusiasm never wanes.

As soon as the skiing sound stops, so does he and it just hit me the other day, he’s doing the Palace of Lei Shen! Just like me! He’s doing a timed run for treasure which to him is food! It’s like he’s playing his own version of WoW!

I’ve never managed to get through to the other door either! And my enthusiasm hasn’t waned! I still get so excited when I find a Key to the Palace of Lei Shen!

I think my dog’s a gamer, just that he’s cleverer than I am because he made his game up himself while I bought mine.

This behavior HAD to be rewarded, I opened up the Trash Bin of le Chien and gave him his prize. FUD … well that’s how he spells it, geez.