Farewell and good riddance to the Aughts

Here's the fourth installment of the year in review.  This time, we're saying goodbye to a decade ... my second full.  I'm not sad to see the "aughts" go.  There were generally more good than bad, but the bad moments were so trying and life-altering.


May the 2010 decade bring much happiness, prosperity, merriment and lots of posts!

Three Words to Describe 2009: Loss, Historic, Ripples

TV Show: Two way tie: Grey's Anatomy & Doctor Who

New TV Show: Gotta give this to a radio/cable tv show moment ... Danettes Dodge Ball Bets.  I would get DirectTV just for that (luckily, they are posted on YouTube)

Song: Not Meant to Be - Theory of a Deadman

Book: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

Movie: The biggest disappointment I had when I finally got to see  ... Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.  Crappy Ending to a series that started out great!

Most Notable NFL Moment: The sign from Sunday: 75% percent of the world is covered by water, the rest is covered by Charles Woodson  (the person who thought that up is BRILLIANT)

I'll turn the channel when: any thing with Sarah Palin on! (Please, Please GO AWAY!)

Gift Given: Kelly's toys ... too, too fun

Best new tradition/habit: Ten Dozen Minutes with Jick & Skully internet-radio show. 

KoL:

Wine: 9 ~ Tomato Wine from my mom's coworker, maybe not the best as compared to "professional wines" but most interesting

Best Blog: Dooce.com

Most Unique To Do's I've had

My stove area has a weird spill-over burnt smell.  Cleaned it twice to no avail.  Tonight as I was microwaving some green beans, I realized it's the microwave.

To Do List
1. Clean the Microwave

America's Test Kitchen just told my not to buy my normal brand of diced tomatos--and I didn't think they tasted bad.  Their choice is 60 cents more--I'm sticking with mine.

To Do List
1. Clean the Microwave
2. Look at my tomatoes with satisfaction



I love the way my hair looks when it was damp.  It's not soaking wet, it's not quite dry. It's straight and flipping and doesn't feel as heavy.  But then it dries--thickens (is that possible?) and gets that ugly wavy to it.


To Do List
1. Clean the Microwave
2. Look at my tomatoes with satisfaction
3. Straighten my hair

Christmas music is awesome! It totally brightened my mood and helped my decorating move along.

To Do List
1. Clean the Microwave
2. Look at my tomatoes with satisfaction
3. Straighten my hair
4. Listen to more Christmas music.  Add to phone and/or MP3 player

Fall decorations have exploded all over my living room and dining room.  I had half of it put away, but then had to dig it out again to find some ornaments.  I'm in the point where it's gets much worse before it gets better.

To Do List
1. Clean the Microwave
2. Look at my tomatoes with satisfaction
3. Straighten my hair
4. Listen to more Christmas music.  Add to phone and/or MP3 player
5. Put away fall decorations, try not to let the Christmas stuff vomit over everything. Post pictures of exploding, vomiting and the pretty aftermath

I've been discouraged with adventuring because it's taking forever to reach level 30.  I've done all I can do in Hobopolis, and underwater isn't fantastically entertaining.  But, it's Crimbo, and I get to work for a mob penguin.

To Do List
1. Clean the Microwave
2. Look at my tomatoes with satisfaction
3. Straighten my hair
4. Listen to more Christmas music.  Add to phone and/or MP3 player
5. Put away fall decorations, try not to let the Christmas stuff vomit over everything. Post pictures of exploding, vomiting and the pretty aftermath
6. Keep adventuring.  Hope to reach Level 30 before I turn 30.  Hire some hobos. Punch Advent calendar.


I'm shamefully enjoying the trailor of the squeakal of Alvin and Chipmonks.  Who knew Rite Round and Single Ladies were more entertaining when sang by a chipmonk?

To Do List
1. Clean the Microwave
2. Look at my tomatoes with satisfaction
3. Straighten my hair
4. Listen to more Christmas music.  Add to phone and/or MP3 player
5. Put away fall decorations, try not to let the Christmas stuff vomit over everything. Post pictures of exploding, vomiting and the pretty aftermath
6. Keep adventuring.  Hope to reach Level 30 before I turn 30.  Hire some hobos. Punch Advent calendar.
7. Enjoy that Chipmonk commercial.  Laugh. Every. Time.


On the subject of singing.  I'm horrible.  I'm the person Simon Cowell says is atrocious because i thought I had some sliver of talent.  My music teacher in seventh grade said i had expressive eyebrows when i sang, i should have realized how bad of a sign that was.

To Do List
1. Clean the Microwave
2. Look at my tomatoes with satisfaction
3. Straighten my hair
4. Listen to more Christmas music.  Add to phone and/or MP3 player
5. Put away fall decorations, try not to let the Christmas stuff vomit over everything. Post pictures of exploding, vomiting and the pretty aftermath
6. Keep adventuring.  Hope to reach Level 30 before I turn 30.  Hire some hobos. Punch Advent calendar.
7. Enjoy that Chipmonk commercial.  Laugh. Every. Time.
8. Keep singing. Just not in public.  Never listen to myself sing.  Ever again.

Best of the Year

My third annual year in review ... totally irrelevant, completely useless and purely Stacey.

My favorites ...

Three Words to Describe 2008: Change, Obama, Giants

TV Show: Three way tie: Grey's Anatomy, Doctor Who, Sarah Connor Chronicles

New TV Show:  (new to me) Dexter!

Song: You Found Me ~ The Fray

Book: The Lazarus Vendetta ~ Robert Ludlum

Movie (in Theater): I don’t think I went to any movies this year … how very sad

Movie (Rental): Capote

Biggest NFL Surprise: Miami Dolphins

Biggest NFL Disappointment: the New Orleans Saints

I'll turn the channel when: any thing with The Former or Sarah Palin on!

Celeb I'm sick of: The Former

Gift Given: Adele CD for Sarah

Gift Received: Get Fuzzy Calendar

Best new tradition/habit: Thursdays with Bob Ross

Commercial:  that Mercedes-Benz commercial with the guy with the sexy voice

Traveling: down that rocky road of adulthood

KoL: 10 million meat and the Boring Crimbo (not my favorite, but notable)

Wine: 9 ~ Moscato Asti, sparkling wine to toast the Giant’s Victory

Best Blog: Dooce.com

Other Notables: Finally! We have friendly cats … Sassy, George, Benny, Ava and Dexter (Ava and Dexter are gone, but we’re kept busy with the other three)

Here's to 2009 and GW out of office!

Anything but Maple Nut

It snowed again.  So I must remove the snow.  I'm sorry ... talking about weather again.  How uninteresting.  I swear I won't do it again ... at least not any more this year.

Day two of vacation ... it's 12:18 ... and I'm not dressed.  Darn.  I ate breakfast, had coffee, two episodes of Curious George and one of Martha Speaks in honor of Sarah and brother Ben.  I have to finish wrapping presents today ... something I've been saying I'll do for at least the last week.  I don't know why it's such a pain this year.

My thumbs hurt.  And it has nothing to do with the fact that I cut my thumb right through the nail.  That's actually not painful at all--as long as the nail doesn't separate or rip.  Thank you inventors of nail glue--bet they didn't dream that I'd one day use it as a band-aid.  ANYWAY my thumbs ache for no reason I can think of.  They hurt so much that it's painful to pick up my water bottle, coffee cup, dish soap.

I guess this means I don't have to do dishes!

So my big ponder today was what to eat for lunch.  I'm having leftover jambulya for supper and that doesn't leave much else in my fridge (beyond hunks of squash and cranberries that I have to find some way to use).  I have the last bit of my Irish Beef Stew leftover ... but I'm so sick of it (be proud, I resisted the urge to use all caps).

I made it about a month ago and froze half.  Even freezing that much I ate leftovers for at least a week.  And when the last bit was gone ... I probably did a happy dance.  It was good.  Not the best, but tasty.  After a week though ... it made my eyeballs nausious.  And I'm a person who cannot eat the same thing two days in a row, the same cereal, flavor of coffee, soda ... etc, etc.  I blame my father and his ever-loving Maple Nut Ice Cream and unwilliness to try something new (that doesn't include any of the following salts: garlic, seasoning or celery).

But over the weekend I thought I had enough time between the first week of stew and now.  So I pulled it out and had it as a quick supper.  The first night it was good ... by lunch the next day my eyeballs were threatening to barf all over the kitchen.

With very little options (perhaps popcorn? PB&J or maybe a pizza??) I came up with a brilliant idea.  I made my nearly famous fried potatos and then heated up the stew, drained some of the excess liquid and BOOM! Irish Beef with peas and carrots over fried potatos.  I think even my dad would be proud.

A KoL Note, brief because I don't want to be that person .... Crimbo is so uninteresting this year.  And the lag makes it so tedious to get through the adventures ... for very little drops.  Maybe Jick & Co. will whip out something fantastic (I just hope I don't miss it), but ususally ... it's something I look forward too ... and there my KoL tab is sitting, neglected.

Must resist urge to worship Seth MacFarlane

Tonight we're going to get our first major snowstorm of the season.  They say totals are going to be any where from 4 to 10+ inches.  The "future forecast" shows that in my neck of the woods will be around six inches.  Oh goodie.

I used my snowblower for the first time today.  In preparation for this huge snowfall I figured I better know how to start and operate it so I can get out of my driveway and go to work (though I would much rather just stay in my house and read blogs, watch television and play games all day).  I figured it out and effectively cleared my driveway (with it's less than two inches of snow pile up) in 15 minutes or less.  God bless modern machinery. 

I shoveled around 2.5 inches the other day and it took me around 30 minutes.  Add this to my sustaining memories of HOURS of raking and bagging leaves.  And the really horrible part is that leaves should only be raked one time (that is when your neighbor's tree doesn't dump all it's leaves until after your beautiful clean yard is cleared) tangent aside ... leaves need to be raked once or twice.  Snow can be every damn day!

I think we've gotten around a half inch.  I don't know when it happened, because I've been sitting by the window the whole time.

I Love the new Peyton Manning commericial for World MasterCard.  The people around him are telling him to take a hike, choke on it, you're going down.  And he says "Yeah, I'll cut it up into little pieces and put it in a fruit salad" (and the like).

Brilliant.

Peyton has come a long way since his first two years in the NFL.  I remember watching an interview and he was saying what his routine was, studying, living with a legendary father.  And part of the interview he showed his closet, organized by his wife so he can pick out something suitable to wear when she's not home. 

I remember thinking to myself that this man is a very clever man, a football genius, but didn't have the ability to match a pair of pants with a shirt.  The whole interview was very awkward.

And now that awkward man is a funny, personable, clever man.

I have a cramp in my left leg.  It's really annoying. 

Snow update: none has arrived since that half inch that mysteriously fell earlier.

I have a couple of blogs cooking up in my head.  And if I ever put pen to paper they're going to be really good.  Really Good.

But ... well ... I've been reading dooce.com.  A lot.  It has me transfixed.  I found it through a Copyblogger newsletter and the post I read had me laughing out loud.  I had to share it was Sarah and she loved it too.  Dooce is famous for losing her job because she wrote about it on her blog.  She started writing in 2001. 

And I'm in 2004.  I didn't read it all weekend ... and I missed it. 

Goals for this week:  1. Sweep the house.  2. Finish the online Christmas shopping (for the love of god stop procrastinating!)  3. Start wrapping presents and write some cards out.

I think that's about enough.  If I can pull myself away from the old adventures of dooce, the bearded husband, chuck and baby Leta ... I might get something done!

(oooh and the Advent for Adventurers Season Started .... mutated elves and penguins glore in Crimbo Town, WHoohoo!)

Plant a Tree, Please a Pirate (Arrrrrr)

Gooooooooooood morning boys and girls, but then again I was told it isn't morning.  Oh well, I guess I get confused by those kind of things.

There is a great newer holiday in the Kingdom of Loathing, and in my green spirit I'm so pleased I can do my part to make the Kingdom a better place (other than slaughtering monsters and rescuing the King from a prism prison).  It's Arrrbor Day where a friendly pirate encourages Adventurers to give back to their Kingdom by planting trees in the Arrrrrboretum.

Nevermind that pirates use trees for wood to make their boats.  And between you and me, they cut down every last tree I planted last Arrrbor Day and all I got in return were pine needles.  Now that doesn't sound like advancing the common good or a way to create opportunities of a better life for everyone ... (stinking lying pirates)

Bitterness aside, check out all the fabulous and funny adventures you can have on Arrrbor Day: Check out the Arrrbor Day Adventures  (courtesy of KoL Wiki)

My Favorites are:
The Fellowship of the Fudge (LotR Reference)
The Submissive Tree (Giving Tree Reference)
A Hare Raising Propsal (Little Bunny FooFoo Reference) 
Sheer Comedic Gold (LotR Reference)
A Foxy Proposal (Firefox spoof)

Quite amusing, I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.  Those writers and developers are brilliant.

Don't look now, but I think summer's here

I hit some tennis balls yesterday. Man, did that feel awesome. I have to try to that every day. I even got about 15-30 minutes of volley in with a friend.

Time is so … I don’t know what the more accurate term: relative or non-existent. I have no concept of time when I’m outside in the summer.

I hope I can say this with no ill effects, but summer is here. Tending to the herbs. Tennis. Writing (and reading) in the gazebo. Tan lines where my rings are.

New content rolled out in the Kingdom: Hobopolis.

I haven’t read any of the threads, but there's been a lot of chatter about it on Wiki and in the forum. I haven’t’ ventured there yet, because (and here’s the kicker) it costs 10 million meat.

While I’m quite a market whore, I’m not a market player or meat farmer by any means. I unloaded quite a bit of my duplicate inventory and extra food stuffs in the last two softcore runs, but it’s taken me three years to raise around six million meat (and I was happy at that amount for my adventure style and purposes). Really most of the profit has come post-NS13. I think I’ve been averaging between 200,000 and 300,000 a run.

I had big plans for this meat: outfit items for tattoos, the 99 red balloon trophy, etc.

Other than Hobopolis there are a lot of newer goals I am playing towards. I really need to take a look at what I want in order to do more focused adventuring. There’s a lot of long-term trophies I’m shooting for: perming the six Spookyraven skills, perming the zero level skills, the six level 30 trophies, battling 240 black puddings, eating 420 herb brownies, getting the cursed pirate tattoo, having a couple pirate skeletons in my closet … and on, and on.

And for the life of me, I can’t figure out how the elemental (hotform, coldform, etc) trophies work.

All and all it’s been a great weekend. Yummy coffee. Fun tennis. Good episode of Doctor Who (and watching RENT!). The only down side is it ends.

I am older than the Quarterbacks for the Packers (all of them!)

Morning came too early today. In fact I might just crawl back into bed sometime today for a nap. Either that or the coffee needs to kick in--or get pumped into me with an IV drip.

The Sunday Morning Show is previewing the summer movies. I'm looking forward to Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, The Dark Knight and quite a few others. This looks like a good summer for movies. Now I would have watched The Dark Knight regardless, but I have a high level of anticipation since it was Heath Ledger's last complete movie.

He goes so twisted and dark ... I think I might have a hard time rooting against him. I have always had that odd dark fascination for the ... well, the dark and insanely odd (hence my interest in Marilyn Manson -- I certainly would be interested in the psychology that is behind that).

Okay, back from a shower. I am now slightly more awake, if not slightly less tired. And still slightly slippy from lotion.

Onward and forth! (or some such things)

So there was a birthday. And there is some internal struggle. And a lot of external resentment because there's no life manual.

There's also a banana nut muffin, but that has nothing to do with any of it. It's just breakfast.

Wasn't it Elaine and Kramer on Seinfeld who created a muffin tops business?

Sure, it seems like a great concept (and then they had the problem of what do you do with the bottoms) but I like the whole muffin. I do enjoy pulling the top off and eating it separately. But there's different good things about both. The top is caramelized and slightly more crispy. The bottom, oh the bottom is cakey and pure delicious muffin essence all the way through.

So I guess what I'm trying to say here to you is that muffin tops only is a flawed concept.

I think they should have removed the tops, but sold the bottoms also (you'd get a deal if you bought both a top and bottom). They coulda called it: Top of the Muffin to You (and Bottoms too!)

Around a month ago I received a newsletter from some public interest group I found. It's called Free-range Thinking, it raises a point of view and generates discussion from authors and gives "food for thought" opportunities.

As an aside: It has a brown cow in the masthead. I think that cow knows that I drink soy milk and i think in her own silent way (silent because she is only a picture and I'm not that crazy that pictures of cows talk to me) she's thanking me for it.

Anyway, this month's topic is Why Do You Do What You Do? I'm not going to recap the history, etc. (because that's boring and unoriginal and a pet peeve) so if you want that insight google it (again, GoodSearch for our philanthropic friends).

Moral of the story is that many of us don't actually reflect on why we do what we do. And when that contemplation comes ... it's a stirring moment, or series of moments, and creates a genuine reflection.

Now, my answer, at least until I come up with something better, is: to contribute to something greater than myself.

That's ultimately why I write. Yeah, I'm an incredibly vain person who wants to send her words out into the world for others to read, but I'm doing it give something better or more meaningful then just me.

Numbers don't fulfill that need in me, neither does working in medicine. But it's why I have friendships, connect with family, find meaning in music and movies, try to live greener and even sit in the backyard listening to the wind, water and birds.

That's all for today.

This blog wins the award for most random subjects and tangent filled.

Statues crumble for me

I think last week's blue post was primarily weather-driven. Later that day I went outside and did a little work and walked around on the soggy lawn. I felt better in the cool breeze and warm sunlight.

Better days ahead ... this weekend is/was the NFL Draft. We're that much closer to the start of a new season. And a new season means ... anticipation. The first year without Brett Favre. Now, I'm not ready to do my Brett Favre reflections quite yet. The more I contemplate it, the less I'm sure when I'll be ready.

But what I am ready for is to see what Aaron Rodgers can do. I'm excited to see it. I want to move forward. Not that I have any animosity towards Favre, but the off season chatter makes me feel so stagnant. It's not as easy as putting away the helmet and walking off the field into the sunset. It's a life full of speculation and I'm getting sick of it.

Do I wish they would have signed Randy Moss or a multitude of other play makers? Do I wish Brett would have come back for one more year? Yes. In the same vein, am I ready for Brett to retire? ... yes.

Don't get me wrong, if he could give the Packers 10 more years of his "best level" of performance, I'd take it. Without a second thought.

But it had to happen sooner or later. In a fitting sort of way, it ended on an interception, in the NFC Championship. (and it hurts to even type it)

I guess my point is that it happened. And we all better start accepting it and moving on. Stop reading between the lines "some thing's bound to happen." Stop wishing he'll come back. Don't start booing Rodgers after the second interception and don't start chanting "We want Favre."

Because FYI--the magnificent Brett Favre leads the league in all-time interceptions. Remember we lived by Favre, we died by Favre. And when we died, it was often by a massacre.

I've learned to never say never, but I don't think he's coming back. And I'm even more positive that he wouldn't go to another team. I've said it before, it's a win now league. And to do that Favre would have to invest a lot of time and effort to learn new coaching schemes, a new playbook and new personnel. Mentally tired and 50+ learning hours a week don't skip down any beaches hand-in-hand.

So just stop it already.

Okay, okay, rant aside (I guess I needed to get that out). I think his little stint on Letterman was an audition to see if he had a future in broadcast/commentary. Sports jacket over the jeans and nice shirt. In-depth break down of his last game and the Super Bowl Champions.

And now back to the draft. I'm very happy they picked up a quarterback. They need some depth in that position. Last year at one time, didn't the Packers place one of the wide-outs in the QB slot on the depth chart? I was hoping for John David Booty---but I guess the Packers drafted best player at the time ... and I only know JDB b/c he got a fair amount of air time on ESPN Radio.

I don't know much about the other players they selected, but I'm sure I'll learn more this week. A fan calling in to ESPN Radio just said they should have picked up someone in the secondary and an offensive line tackle. Then they said something about the aging team and the QB they drafted was too short at 6'2".

The Packers do need some more help and depth in the secondary. But this is a better acquisition by free agent or trade. I think the secondary is one of the hardest areas for a young player to succeed. Traditionally, the Packers have done much better to bring in veteran.

Offensive tackle: yes there is some age with Clifton and Tauscher, but in that point of the draft most of the OT's (or maybe the OT's that they wanted) were taken. This should be another position they could get on the free agent market. Plus the current duo have been very reliable and don't traditionally miss a lot of games due to injury.

Aging team---hello, where have you been the past two years? The Packers were the youngest team in the league (and that was with Favre skewing their average).

6'2" too short for a QB (somewhere Doug Flutie spit out his Flutie Flakes): I think the roster lists Favre as 6'2". No more to say here.

It's amazing to see how quickly the screen fills when I'm blogging about football.

I've been doing softcore runs in KoL lately. Really going after trophies/tattoos (and being a mall whore, but it's so exillarating to see the meat roll in). I have 23 trophies, 57 tattoos and 4,531,546 meat.

I think I've gotten all the easy trophies. And I'm working on some that will take forever... 420 herb brownies, 80 around the worlds and the last run I've gotten my first tomato daquiri. Yes, around 23 acesnions, who knows how many exploded chef-in-a-boxes and 1 tomato daquiri. I battled each dungeon of doom monster 120 times and made a pretty good chunk of change from all the bang potions I put in my store.

I'm almost out of Ronin, but I wish they would make it easier to do mass-pulls from Hagnks. It's so tedious to go item by item. After Ronin, I typically just take it all out. This of course makes my inventory huge and makes it a longer process to put things in my store. They revamped the combat format with the new bar. So why can Jick & Co. put a little effort into Hagnks? Afterall, the poor guy just got a new facility, he could use a little help inside too.

Happy New Year!

Here is another edition of a year in review ... for purely entertainment, non-historical purposes.

My favorites ...

TV Show: Three way tie: Grey's Anatomy, Family Guy and CSI:NY
New TV Show: Pushing Daisies
CD: +44: When Your Heart Stops Beating
Song: No It Isn't ~ +44
Movie (in Theater): Bourne Ultimatium
Movie (Rental): Big Fish
Football Player: The Ever Impressive: Brett Favre
Football Player I'd like to watch more: Big Ben Rothelisberger
Biggest NFL Surprise: Green Bay Packers! & the Cleveland Browns
Biggest NFL Disappointment: the New Orleans Saints
I'll turn the channel when: any thing with the Patriots is on!
Celeb I'm sick of: Tiki Barber
Gift Given: new MP3 Player for mom
Gift Received: Lap desk
Best new tradition/habit: Get Fuzzy! 365 days a year
Commercial: Dallas Yawn ~ Pepsi Max
Traveling: to New York City for a week ~ with 7 inches of rain! Theatre Tour: 5 shows, Comedy club, Regis & Kelly ~ Starry Night at the MoMA and RENT!!!
KoL: Roll out of NS13, a less than 2 week run, 3 million meat (whoohoo!)
Wine: 17 bottles, Wollersham Winery, Domaine Reserve

Other Notables: CSI teased that Sara Siedl was going to die. When she didn't, i refused to watch the show again.

Best Blog: Grey Matter~blog of the writers from Grey's Anatomy, new post after each show, unforunately cut down because of the writer's strike.

The walls will fall before we do

Friday night was the season finale of The Next Great American Band. Now if you've seen this show (or promos for it) you'll know why it glued me to the television.

Yes, Johnny Rzeznik, frontman for The Goo Goo Dolls (only my absolute favorite singer and band) is a judge.

What a treat to see John every week and gleen a little more information about him. Oh. Yeah.

The first two weeks of the live shows he had some trouble handling the crowd boo after his comments. I'll cut him some slack on that since I'm sure it was an adjustment to go from artist to judge. He had a little too many "you guys are great, what more can I say?" type comments, but when he did give criticizm it was thoughtful and right on (in my opinion).

But now my weekly indulgence in Johnny is over. The Goo Goo Dolls performed Black Balloon on this finale show, far outshining the performance of his fellow judge Shelia E and the actual contestants of the show. I, of course, am biasis on this matter.

I was nervous about the series (what if JR acted like a loser or real jackass?) or what if the network execs hated it and pulled it from the airwaves before it finished the competition? But it didn't disappoint. The actual music was too country/folky for my tastes. I did enjoy Dot Dot Dot and Rocket (I totally agree with Johnny, the lead singer of Rocket need to work on her singing).

I'm hoping it's picked up again and more importantly, Johnny is still a judge. The host did say We'll see you again next year... so here's hoping.

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I want to complain about certain aspects of Christmas cards, but don't want to piss people off who do what I don't like.

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Last week on American Dad's Christmas Show, Stan Smith died and met God--who was voiced by Seth MacFarlane. "It's true! I knew Seth MacFarlane is a god!"

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Our 13 day wait for the arrival of Crimbo themed adventures was slightly unbearable. The wait was worth it, I'm enjoying adventuring in the Sinister Dodecahdron for the 12 days of Crimborg. This holiday season was festooned with references from Star Trek's Borg & the Collective as well as many Terminator references. I'm quite satisfied, this Crimbo season has been as enjoyable as the others I've participated in.

I'm frustrated by the stat scaling---I wasn't used to having to hit an enemy more than once, so I'm sure NS is going to be a bitch to defeat. I think I'll give her a try tomorrow.

It's such a huge disappointment that I won't be able to use all these items in a run for my main adventurer The long run has enabled me to reach Level 16 as a Seal Clubber, so I was able to gain pulverize the new nuances to this skill have been interesting/exciting/frustrating.

I've spent most of my time in the Toy Factory, collecting as much material as I can I'll keep each of the items Uncle Crimbo makes and sell the rest. I know, I'm such a mall whore. I've lost count of how many doll hives I have so I'm swimming in Tiny Plastic Series 2.

And from my visit with Rudolph the Red, I think Father Crimbo may come back, oh what a plot twist we could be in for!

(Non-KoL related babbled): I've started reading Wicked but I'm not very far because there was so many other holiday related things to get done. I'm going to try to read more in the new year.

I've been playing a lot of free cell solitare lately--do you think that makes your brain function better like crossword puzzles are supposed to?

It's been snowing and blowing all day, so I might have to draw a picture for dad's tractor instead of taking a picture. The BackStory: Dad wanted a compact tractor (but didn't want to spend his own money for one) so mom and I combined our money and bought him one. It cleaned out my mad money for shopping and entertainment that I had saved. So that's going to be his Christmas, birthday, Father's Day gift for the next 12 years (I'm not kidding, I did the math).

*Heavy Sigh*

*Heavy Sigh*

It's been a hard morning. The Naughty Sorcerous is Kicking. My. Ass. Seriously.

I've lost count of how many times she's handed it to me. But it's been enough that she's pretty much depleted my whole inventory of combat items and I think I've spent around 40,000 meat on healing items. I don't get it. Yeah, I've been having a harder time with her than I had before NS13. But nothing like this.

Our grey kitten was killed this morning. He was a man of many names: Grey, Neville, Luke, Collins ... and I'm sure the black and white kitten will miss him.

What else? I'm really digging myself out of a hole for the fantasy game this week. If I win, it will be a miracle.

And tonight. I'm so excited. Dallas vs. Patriots. I'm rooting for Dallas, and I love it. I'm sure a little part of my soul died. I really don't want to hate the Pats...but I do. Very much so. I thinking the "hating" came after the second Super Bowl win when the Dynasty talk started. Everyone thinks about them above the game. Unbeatable. Even when they lose. I guess that's the anti-mainstream part of me screaming out .... don't like them because everyone else does! I also have huge issues with Belicheck.

I'm trying not to hate the Patriots, I really am.

But nonetheless. I plan to have a fan-tab-ulas day and I promise to get the Week 5 game online today and start writing for week 6.

As an Era Ends

Last night, or this morning rather, I finished "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows." It took me three days to read it. And now before you "I read it in two days or less" people scoff at me, I could have finished it in one day if I wasn't being all responsible and sleeping because I had to work so pffft.

When I started reading it last night, I didn't even intend to finish it. I was thinking about 50 pages would be fine and then I'd finish the final 250 pages today. I started at 9:51 and ended at 12:15. Once I started I couldn't stop. I told myself I was at an exciting part, just get to lull and end. Well little did I know there wasn't a lull. I don't think there was a lull in the whole book.

After I finished it, I watched television for 10 minutes to distract myself from it. I could feel my heart pounding from the whole exciting ordeal. There was a point last night (probably about 10 seconds after I closed the book) that I wanted to open it up and read it all over again. As far as I can remember, I've never wanted to read a book again right after I finished (with the exception of There's a Monster at the End of This Book). And I've only done that with a handful of movies.

It was such a good book. So much so that I can't imagine there ever being another Harry Potter book to top it. There are some things I wished JK Rowling would have covered before she ended it. I'm still satisfied with the ending, so I'm tryng not to think about it. But somehow thoughts of Harry and the gang keep edging it's way to the back of my mind.

Well, enough of Harry. *sniffle*

I'd say for the past month or two I haven't been in the mood to cook. I don't know if it's because it's summer, so I'd rather be outside or I don't want to make the house hotter by using the oven. But I've had no interest.

I got that interest back yesterday. I made a cucumber salsa, fresh tomato sauce, gnocelli (which I'm sure I'm spelling wrong, but am too lazy to look up--they're little pasta-like potato dumplings), stuffed zucchini and this morning I made zucchini bread. I used half wheat flour for the bread, and it's not as good as all white flour. I find that odd, because most other recipes using wheat have turned out better than their all white flour verisons.

On a KoL note: I just hit level 12, and I'm still working on the Quest of MacGuffin's Diary *coughdirtybastardcough*. I've gone through this quest faster than last time around. I need to get a dusty bottle of Marsala (that's NOT dropping!!), fight Lord Spookyraven and do the Pyramid Quest, and then I'm done.

Unfortunately for my stats, I'm on day 26. It's been so busy that I haven't been able to get my adventuring in properly each day. Plus I missed three days of adventuring last weekend.

Disco Bandit skills suck. So, I'm not sure what one to make permanent. The attacking ones are practically worthless.

I've been in pre-season football heaven: three days, three games! I'm jotting down notes and getting names for fantasy football. Plus it's just a rush to see it again. Oh, how I love football. I missed the first quarter of last night's Packers-Steelers game, and I didn't get to see Ben Rothelisberger play. Very disappointed.

If I could, I'd only want to make you smile

I don't have any organized thing to blog about, so I'll just chat with you. It's like the Fireside Chats ... except there's no fire by my side and I'm not-so-presidential.

Last week I ascended--my first since NS13 roll out. I should have counted how many times I had to go back and get healing items. It wasn't pretty. So much for my "Defeated in One Try" wand of Nagamar collection.

I'm been in a huge M*A*S*H* phase lately. Almost every night I watch one or two episodes. In June I started from the beginning, and am at Season Six. Now we finally have all the seasons. I'm not sure if I ever saw the last episode.

I checked out Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix from the library last week. I want to read it and 'Half Blood Prince again before I read 'Deathly Hallows (hollows?). I think I might get them in. But it might be close. I reserved my copy of the new one about two weeks ago, and I'm number 47. For whatever reason they had two lists, and the other one was 141. I just need to finish the Robert Ludlum book I'm reading and get to Harry.

Last week Hok got kicked off So You Think You Can Dance?. Oh well, I guess. There are still the other ones I like. Wade hit on the head with Lacey, she's very talented and a good performer. But she's also one-dimensional. With her and Danny, I think the judges (at least Mary) won't kick them off, unless they really mess up. Mary said when Danny and his partner were in the bottom three, "You're not going home this week." If I was Nigel I would have kicked her under the table. You can't say that until they do their solo...because that's what you're supposedly judging them on.

Each time when I log into blogger, the dashboard gives me an overview of my writing history. X posts, last edited on such and such day. This morning it told me that I've made 130 posts. I've been blogging for two years, so that's about five posts a month. Which is about right. I wish i would have way more than that, but it's lack of inspiration and lack of typing time that limits me.

What have I been doing with myself? Writing, reading, working, watching M*A*S*H*, working on my tan ... yup. Oh yeah, and adventuring.

Summer is here and so is NS-13 (tomorrow!)

Summer is officially here, though it's been quite warm for some time. Last night we had our first campfire of the summer. It was nice, though we didn't stay out long. I made a pizza over the fire and we watched the cats try to sneak over and steal some food.

We discovered that one of the cats looks like Hitler. It has a little patch of black under its nose. I'll try to get a picture of it to post. I can just picture it doing the salute and the march. I can also picture it holding meetings with the other cats plotting ways to destroy us. And that worries me.

I finished my last hardcore ascension before NS13 rolls out. I checked my stat page and it was 13 day run! I didn't use my full adventures two days of the run, so it would have been even faster. I have mixed emotions about that. It's cool because I finally got under two weeks--and could have done even better. But now with the changes coming tomorrow, I probably won't see a fast run for a long time.

The anticipation for NS13 is dreadful and exciting. There's been strange weather in the Kingdom lately, storm clouds over the map and a particularly nasty one over the Sorceress' lair. I hope she has a lightning rod and has turned off her appliances. Last year a meteorite was heading for the Kingdom and eventually collided with one of our moons, Grimace. Well, this created a small third moon the orbits the other two. And the meteor, or maybe it was a chunk of Grimace, fell to the Kingdom and created a crater on the northern-most region of the Desert Beach. After awhile, the penguins mysteriously appeared and set up camp. Soon we learned they were mining the grimacite. This lead to the opening of the raffle house and grimacite prizes.

Now, exactly one year after the site was created, we have been granted access to it. No one really knows how, but speculation is the mob penguin guarding the site (who've we all spoken to, but could never get past) left his post or was over run. The penguins are battling and dropping items--something that hasn't happened in three years!

So thousands of adventurers have depleted grimacite in their inventory. I'm just hoping this doesn't lead to some kind of nuclear poisoning and there's not another great plague.

There's also been a secretive mason hanging around the wrong side of the tracks. He claims he's using grimacite to rebuild Hagnk's. Hagnk's is where adventurers store their belongings when they ascend and during hardcore runs. Poor Hagnk's has been burned down, hit by the meteor and flooded. Now most of us have a soft spot for Hagnk, so we'd all be pretty willing to donate a chunk or two of grimacite to the worthy cause of helping him. Along with the rock, the mason asks for 25,000 meat because the grimacite ruins his tools has he shapes them into bricks. Smells like a scam (or meatsink) to me.

Well my Accordian Thief is having issues with little miss naughty up in her tower. Gah, she can't just give me a break. Since I won't be seeing her until Level 13 now she needs to inflict as much pain as possible right now when she has the chance.

Rejected Adventure

Back during St Patrick's Day week, aka: Week of Drunk Lovin' II (yeah, that's a week in the KoL Community) the clan of Nobleese Obligiation (or some sort name) had a drunken stuper writing contest. I submitted this one, and sadly, it didn't place. I'm still proud of it though, so I decided to share it from you.

Cold, Wet & Sticky ~ Brilliant!

You’re that special kind of drunk where you are a better driver since your senses are heightened because you know you’re drunk. To celebrate your intoxicitity (which is a word on St. Sneaky Pete’s Day) you hit Seaside Town.

You stumble into the lair of the pretentious painter. He refuses to paint your portrait because you’re clothes aren’t good enough for him.

You’re just about to give him a piece of your mind when he asks why your tongue is green.

Forgetting that you’ve downed more than few green beers, you run away terrified and bump into a suspicious looking guy. He’s outraged at the drunken debauchery around him on this his holy day. Hey—Suspicious Looking Guy is Irish!

You stop to argue that everyone is Irish on St. Sneaky Pete’s day, and he takes a break from his rant to break you in half.

He dumps a thick black beer down your back and leaves you in a puddle with nothing but beads around your neck and your flashing button pinned to your socks.

You lose 17 chutzpah.
You gain Stale Beer Smell (10 turns)

KoL adventure text has pop culture references. Mine include: Family Guy episode where Peter and his friends are drunk and are deciding who should be the driver. Reference to the Pretencious Painter, when you visit him w/o an outfit he turns you away b/c you have bland clothing. Guinness. Flashing button was the item drop for Sneaky Pete's day.

Sneezy, sniffy days

Friday as I was out and about I found myself taking deep breaths. Ahhh fresh cut grass smell. Unfortunately, with the fresh cut grass smell there was also pollen. Just last weekend I was thinking, "Wow, I haven't had itchy eyes or a runny nose at all this year. Usually it starts around April."

Yeah, if there's one lesson in life every one needs to learn early, it's never make that statement. You know the one. "Gee, XYZ hasn't happened yet (it usually does) or (I really expected it to)." By uttering those words (or even in my case, just thinking it), you just set in motion forces in this world that will ensure Condition XYZ will indeed happen. And most likely, in ten fold.

So now I'm sniffling and sneezing, taking allergy pills here and there. Yippee.

I ascended last night. It took a lot longer than I would have hoped because I haven't been able to get all my adventures in every day. I decided to go for Accordian Thief to pick up one or two skills before ... well, I'll tell you about that in just a bit. Doing an accordian thief run with my multi really was helpful. It's not that Accordian Thieves are incredibly hard, it's just that it's way harder without all the other skills from the other classes. As I'm adventuring, I'm always going for entangling noodles, or a reagant potion and the like. And there are a couple of really good buffs from the AT that I'd like before ...

Before, that is, NS13 rolls out. Now, I'm not going to bore anyone who doesn't care (though, I've probably done so already). So if you want to know what that is, or might be, GoodSearch it (or google it for you non-philanthropic types). Nonetheless--from the way it's hyped up, it's going to be big. More content, more items, more quests, more monsters----and a whole lot harder. So I gotta start pulling in the most important HP skills and mighty quickly b/c they announced NS13 rolls out in 29 days! So it's all no path HC runs so I can get the most skills I possibly can.

I need to finish a roll of film so I can get the rest of my New York pictures.

Before you go, there's something you should know:

This is a double dip Sunday, because I wrote the previous blog Thursday night and didn't get to post it until now. And now ...... I'm not completely sure what to write. Nothing of form is coming to me, so I guess this might be a random topic rambling.

I leave for New York Saturday... less than a week away. Whoohoo! I'll be able to scratch off a couple of my life goal's. Seeing Starry Night, meeting someone famous (we're going to Regis and Kelly, so I'm hoping to pop down and shake her hand), seeing RENT on Broadway. Whooo! Or maybe it's off broadway. I learned that on, off and off off is not based on location, but how many seats the theater has. Curious.

I also learned today that vanilla beans come from Orchid plants, a notoriously hideous-smelling flower. Even more curious.

Back to New York. I need to crack down and get packing. I gotta see if need film and get everything else together. Also gotta read the security-bag restrictions, different from the last time I flew. I'm bringing band-aids and TWO pairs of walking shoes, so hopefully I can avoid the bleeding feet.

Unfortunately I don't think I'll go to Food for Thought again this year. I don't know, i might be too tired. I'm trying to think of when I got back from San Francisco. I did editing and worked on our cases paper, which were mentally exhausting--though I'm sure I had a shit-ton of caffeine. But I didn't need to be sociable and pleasant to anyone. SO I dunno. I just hate missing it two years now that I'm back in town. Oh well, I guess.

So it's Oyster Egg Day in KoL---and Happy Easter to you real life folks---I got my basket, but there's no proclamation the main page and not a single f'ing egg has dropped. So I'm thinking Jick & Co. have a bug that delayed the Oysters. Maybe it'll be a double holiday like Sneaky Pete's. I haven't gotten drunk yet, so if it implements before I sign off today hopefully I can partake in the egg-hunting goodness.

The latest obsession is +44. (Click the music link below this post and you'll find my jabbering about them already.) The whole break up, secrecy, Tom's revolution and mental breakdown (in my opinion) fascinates me. Add in that they split early 2005 (i think) and I didn't find out until October 2006 when I saw +44's first video and thought I recognized Mark and then was almost positive when I saw Travis. Not to mention that Travis broke his arm during the filming of the video and when I watched them on Letterman (which I had fallen asleep and woke up just as they were being introduced) and noticed Travis was drumming with one arm. It's just a great, multi-faceted story. Mark's blog (which is updated more than mine, but I bet he doesn't have dial-up) keeps me hooked.

I have started practicing the guitar again. And I was re-introduced to the fact that I have very short fingers and my pinkie doesn't go to the top string without dislocation or go-go-gadget pinkies. I'm torn between giving up and hoping that somewhere there's an artist that doesn't have normal to long fingers and they have found a way to play and I just need to keep working at it. But then I think maybe I should take up violin, but I'm sure there's something inherent about me that will make me unable to play that either.

Learning to play the guitar is another of my life goal things. I don't know if I'll be able to fulfill that one. I need more. I'd like to get 100 or so, but now I have less than 32. There are somethings that people would put on that I just don't care about--like visiting all 50 states. What if I don't want to go to Wyoming? Huh? What about that then?

I'm not sure what else to write, but don't really want to end it like this. I could complain about the weather, but there's nothing I can do about it, so why bother. I just hope it's nice in NYC next week. I'm trying to get to Level 9 with my multi and buy a store in the mall, but that also means I need 60,000 meat (I think?). I'm finding jsut how frickin hard it is to adventure the first time around again. Even though I know stuff now. I forgot just how reliant I am on my ghoul whelp (or any familiar other than the volleyball and mosquito) and all the skills I've aquired along the way. I don't know how people who don't ascend can do it. Getting skills from others and bots just doesn't feel right.

Oh, I did a 14 day run. It was so cool, I ascended (I almost went oxy (eeep!)) and then clicked on my ascension tracker and there it was 14 days! Cool beans.

Well now I'm really running out of things to say. I've been horribly mis-spelling words all over the place. Yay for spell check.

That's all folks, sorry there wasn't a big finish.

Happy Easter. Eat an egg and some chocolate (dark, please) for me. Just not mixed together.

And it shall pass

Last week I was in a foul mood, and it lasted the wole week. I know why, and it will pass (and hopefully, has passed). But that didn't change the fact that I was grumpy.

I made cinnamon swirl cake to satisfy my sweet, spongy cake craving. I also succeeded in crossing another thing off my life goals list. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I am able to crack an egg with one hand.

I have not yet perfected this skill, but I have cracked five in a row with relative ease. Now I need to work on keeping my hand cleaner and being faster about it.

My workload is piling up or myabe I'm just looking too far ahead. But it's making me start to panic. My vacation is growing closer and even though I need it desparately, I still am nervous about leaving and the work I'll be coming back to.

I ascended again Thursday, a 17 day run. It's getting very frustrating that I can't get to two weeks or less. I just don't know what I'm doing wrong.

I ascended as a Seal Clubber again, thinking that maybe the same type of run will help me do a two-weeker. I'm not quite sure what skill I'll keep. I'm debating one of the passive melee or protection skills or the meatsmithing one. I'd need to read up on it, because I'm not sure if I ever meatsmithed anything ... and maybe that's why I'm not breaking the two weeks.

So far I'm Level 7 in four days ... which I believe is a record for me ... now I just need to sustain it. I've done an all-volleyball run before, but it didn't seem to help me go any faster. Especially in the higher areas. Maybe I'll wait until I'm in the Goatlet to go pure-sombrero. Right now, I'll start doing 10-turn runs with the sombrero in the Friars to level him up.

I created my first multi Wednesday--which means I got another KoL character. I chose an Accordian Thief. I figured I should go with the one class I've had the most trouble with. It'll be a softcore run, no time worries, no restrictions and maybe I'll learn something that'll help my hardcore runs.

Off to Emerald city

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

and

Happy St. Sneaky Pete's Day!

Since everyone is Irish on 17 O'March and I'm not entirely sure that my roots aren't at least part Irish, I'm wearing a green shamrock shirt and there's Guinness chillin' for some Sneaky Pete's day ... or St. Patrick's Day fun.

First in the Kingdom, I must ready myself by increasing my intoxicitity (yes, that's a word on Sneaky Pete's Day) to 26 so I am falling down drunk. About six advanced cocktailcrafting drinks, a bubbly potion and three green beers later (my first green beer I've ever made!!)....

You drink the green beer. It makes you feel lucky. Or maybe it just makes you feel drunk, and feeling drunk makes you feel lucky. Either way, hooray!

The spirit of St. Sneaky Pete's Day makes you feel like you could drink a whole bathtub full of this stuff!

You gain 2 Adventures.
You gain 1 Drunkenness.

Tally forth~ On to DruNken deBatcHery =x=x=

http://kol.coldfront.net/thekolwiki/index.php/St._Sneaky_Pete%27s_Day_Stupor

Click on the various titles to see all the witty adventures.

"Watch where you're going" and "What, is this some kind of a joke?" are particulary funny.

lOOT tALLY:

• Flashing Novelty button
• Pink Glowstick
• 4 strings of blue beads
• 3 strings of red beads
• 6 string of green beads