Neon Tetra Fish On Crack

So I have been playing World of Warcraft for....8 and a half years? I got the little WoW 'anniversary' gift earlier this year, so it's over 8 years for sure. I do a little of everything on there - raiding, pvp, lore-grinding, professions - but my raison d'être is Achievement Points. I love to collect things. I must have ALL OF THE THINGS!

And two important things happened this weekend:

1. I got the Ultramarine Battle Tank, otherwise known as the blue bug mount, which is an archaeology-only pattern for the Tol'Vir and which I have been farming since the beginning of the last expansion. No way to buy it, no way to rush it, no way to farm it OTHER than doing archaeology, which may be the most boring profession in the history of MMORPG.

2. This morning, I finally, finally, finally found one of the last two enchanting recipes I was missing to have all of the recipes that are actually available in the game. It is also the only one left that I had a chance of buying on the Auction House. I tried farming it myself, but it's a world-drop off of any level 50-ish character, therefore pretty much impossible to farm efficiently. The downside is that whoever put it up for sale knew what it was worth, and made me pay 20,000 gold. But my little collector heart is singing with joy. I don't even know how long I've been farming/looking for this recipe. Maybe 3 years. Maybe 4.

Now if I could only get the last glove enchant recipe from AQ40 to drop, I would in-game die happy. :D

Hey guys,

I'm a huge believer in Kickstarter projects; I've funded about a dozen so far and I've never been disappointed. I thought for sure this one would be a shoo-in, but it's just over a day left now and they're still a few thousands short of the goal.

This project combines a love of reading and an understanding of how powerful gaming can be as a medium, in order to promote reading and discovery of new books/authors (and not just the mainstream ones). Since I know many of you share these interests of mine, I thought I would post about it here as well. Have a look.

The Game of Books kickstarter.

Me, to Milks: The cheesecake is ready; would you take it out and bring me a quarter?

Milks: *Takes cheesecake out, cuts it up in quarters, then comes back and hands me a quarter. As in, the coin.*

NB: We make small cheesecakes. A quarter is not as much as it sounds. :D

At 3:30 this morning Tilson woke me up to go outside. I opened the door and he took off at a dead run, barking. Yep. That wasn't a good sign. And then this incredible nauseous smell, like burning garlic, filled the house. I think it came in through the open window in the office where the cats access the outdoor enclosure.

Burning garlic. I had no idea skunk could smell like that.

So for the first time in 30-odd years of owning a dog I had to deal with skunk smell.

It is not pretty.

He got hit in the face, right between the eyes, but luckily nothing seems to have actually gone into the eyes (no redness or irritation or rubbing, etc.). I'm actually wondering now if he got some of it in his actual mouth, because there's some residual smell that we couldn't get out despite two applications of the peroxide/baking soda shit and one of doggy shampoo.

The smell on him isn't the burnt garlic smell that is permeating the whole house; it's a lot more...chemical. And gut-wrenchingly nauseating. Mostly gone, now, but I still catch whiffs of it every few minutes. We have placed bowls of vinegar in every room in the house to try to counter it.

And my dog is terrified of baths, so while we were soaking him over and over, he got so stressed out that he emptied out his entire stomach contents in the tub. There was so much bile and shit that it clogged the drain.

It has been such a pleasant morning so far, you can't imagine.

Oh, and the back yard reeks of burnt garlic. And the internet tells me the smell can last up to 2 years.

Oh frabjous day.

Ok, no quite, but yesterday my father-in-law and I went to our local Cineplex to watch the live satellite broadcast of La Traviata from the MET. The experience itself was pleasurable - imagine seeing an opera in real-time but with the added bonus of getting constant close-ups on the faces and the parts of the stage that are important, AND being able to bring in popcorn. :D Not that I did, popcorn is not on the list of approved diet foods, but I can still appreciate it!

Unfortunately I wasn't crazy about the production itself. The last time I saw this opera was the 1982 movie version with Teresa Stratas and Placido Domingo, where the backgrounds were, well, extravagant even by movie standards. This production was very modern and stark (they used this stage), and the chorus was in business suits (even the women) at all times and they were kind of scary instead of harmless hedonists. I know it was to create contrast, but it just didn't work for me.

Also, their Alfredo was a spoiled brat. I hated him during the entire piece. Hard to feel emotionally connected when you kind of hope that the love interest would just have an unfortunate accident and die, and she could run off with his rival. When I watch the movie, I end up bawling by the last act; yesterday I just tuned everyone out to listen to the soprano, Natalie Dessay. My, what a voice. She got two thumbs up.

Next season they're doing 12 of these broadcasts, including Aida. Will try to catch that one for sure.

If you go to Starbucks (at least in Ontario) this week, the free 'Pick of the Week' download card for iTunes is Coeur de Pirate's 'Adieu'. I quite like this song and had already purchased the entire album, so thumbs up for a good pick.

Few weeks ago it was 'Wait' by M83, which has also grown on me. I call it the whale song; if you hear it, you'll know why. :D

Other things on repeat in the Milks household lately are the acoustic version of Maroon 5's 'Never gonna leave this bed', Coldplay's 'Us against the world', OneRepublic's 'Good Life' and Walk Off The Earth's 'Somebody that I used to know'. All highly recommended.

What are you guys listening to?

Upon logging into WoW to do some herbalism on one of his characters: "On some level I am a bit disturbed that I log into a video game several times a day to pick flowers."

Yep. o.O

Best holiday wishes to everyone.

I really enjoyed Hugo. I found out by serendipity that it would no longer be showing as of Wednesday this week so Milks and I had an impromptu movie date tonight. It was lovely. I do agree it was somewhat slow at the beginning, but the beauty of the set and the music and the child actors more than made up for any pacing issues. And when the story threads start to come together I was quietly cheering inside my head the entire time.

I'm glad we saw it in 3D, but I'm looking forward to watching it at home again.

I love setting iTunes to shuffle. I have all this music that I purchase or download (like all the free weekly music or the free Starbucks cards) and I never listen to it until it shows up on shuffle. Tonight's hit: Airplane by Plain White T's. It's moody and mellow and I love it. I bought the album for one song and never listened to the rest of it. Silly Gwen.

Was going through some papers tonight and found my weekly agenda from 2008. In it were tucked a bunch of hastily scribbled notes from those times when I'd be in the car and would hear something come on the radio and fall in love. I'm looking them up now. I'm always amused at what strikes my fancy. A sampling:

Mimi Blais - Valse Mirroir
Willie Nelson - All of Me
Matthew Barber - Sleep Please Come to Me
Bruckner - Symphony #2, Scherzo
David Grey - Babylon

I enjoyed going back and listening to these again. Glad I took the time to write them down! I especially liked the Matthew Barber song. Wonder why I don't have anything by him on my play list. Oh well, easily fixed.

Hehe. Go to google.com. Click the tall green guy. Press any of the arrow keys ~20 times. Enjoy.

(Thanks to my baby brother for the hint. :D)

Guess who's going to see Monty Python's Spamalot in January?

:D

Jeremie and Allison's wedding video. I even make a tiny cameo appearance! It was shot by her cousin, and he did an amazing job. I'm so impressed.

Paid off my car today! Our super awesome tax refund came in - I can't say it finally came in, because it was my fault for filing really really late - and in one fell swoop I was able to pay the outstanding balance on the car loan. With the money we save on that monthly payment we should be able to lay to rest at least one of my remaining student loans by Christmas.

It's so nice to be married to an accountant. :D

I'm not sure if this is an open post, but the photographers my brother and his wife hired just put up about 30 pics of the wedding shoot here. Hope it works for those not on Facebook. Worth a look, they are so gorgeous. :D

So far today: baked oat bran muffins, did dishes, applied for EI, dropped off record of employment, shopped for groceries, prepared marinade for tonight's supper, changed address on both health card and driver's license, paid bills and did laundry. Up next: vacuuming and setting out cushions on patio furniture. Tonight: feast.

I saw the new Dyson bladeless fans (called 'air multipliers') at Canadian Tire the other day. They are oh-so-sexy. But not worth $375 in order to look futuristic when I can spend $30 and get a standard no-name brand fan instead. Shame.

On Trade Chat tonight in WoW, someone started posting letter chain stuff. You know what I mean. Do this five times and your true love will kiss you in 10 days. If you don't do it you'll have bad luck for 10 years.

Good god. Will there ever be a time when these things finally go extinct?

I hate hearing sirens when I know Matt is on his way home. o.O That's the one childhood fear I've never grown out of.

You guys know those videos in which they take a ranting person - perhaps a voicemail, or a forum comment, or something similar - and turn it into an over-exaggerated visual representation of the rant? Sometimes with funny voiceovers in the case of text-based rants?

Yeah.

I love them.

And by far, the king of all is Dot dot dot. Here, have a listen again. 'Beacuase' kills me, every time. :D

If you are going to eat oatmeal for breakfast on a regular basis, clean out the bowl right away. That shit is hardcore. o.O

Illuminate Parkinson's. Check it out.

Milks: "Your dog loves you. And I love you. And two out of three of your cats love you. Which isn't bad; they are cats, after all."

Hey Canadians! This week's free music video from iTunes Canada is Adele's Rolling in the Deep. You should check it out if you haven't heard it yet; a) it's an amazing song; b) the video has this dancing ninja in fake snow. I think. I don't really know why. Watch it and tell me what you think. ;P

Listening to Quirks and Quarks on CBC driving home today, where the host was interviewing Dr. Barbara Sherwood Lollar, Professor of Geology at the University of Toronto, about some water billions of years old found at the bottom of a South African mine. This lady is fascinating, gave a great interview. I'm always interested in people who are good at explaining complex concepts in a short time to an audience with no background knowledge. She must give incredible lectures! Anyone from UofT ever heard of her?

ETA: Cool! Check it out, you can hear the interview online courtesy of CBC!

Old house is sold. I went through last Wednesday and took a bunch of pictures, expecting to feel nostalgic. But to be honest, I feel equal parts excited and relieved! I love the new place, we're completely settled now, and life is good.

Made a nice chunk of change from the place we sold. Have a meeting with the bank next week to invest some of it. We'll then apply the tax refund to our highest interest loan, which is my blazer. Should be able to clear that and my RRSPs will double.

And this summer, we start the adoption process. :D

Some years ago, the dog developed the habit of picking up his metal food dish and dropping it loudly on the floor in order to communicate that, hey, the dish was empty and he was hungry. It's why I laughed when I asked Milks to watch him when we had just just started dating and he said 'But how will I know what he wants?!?' My dog is a master at communicating with the dumb.

For example, if making an incredibly loud CLANG! from dropping the bowl the first time didn't immediately summon us, he would step on it, grab the edge in his teeth, and toss the dish across the living room resulting in an even louder noise. He's not subtle.

We therefore spent some time training him to drop it gently on a soft surface, usually his dog bed. It took no time at all since we used the good treats made out of bull penises. He loves those. So mostly now he will pick up his dish and bring it to his bed, lay it down without a sound, and look at us expectantly. We get a few minutes to realize what has happened before he moves on to the noise strategy.

Tonight, like many nights, he dropped his bowl on the dog bed in the office. I praised him for dropping it silently and filled it up. Five minutes later, he dropped the bowl (full of food) on the kitchen floor, then for good measure stomped on it, picked it up and threw it again. When I ran to see wtf had happened, he pointedly looked at the spilled food, then looked at the stove where the burger juice was cooling from our supper, then at me.

Oh, hell no, dog. I understand perfectly well what you want, and while I can appreciate the smarts God gave you, the answer is still hell, no. >:(

Had my wisdom teeth out today. I'm sore, but overall it was not as huge a deal as I feared. Still, I never want to do that again.

Have been home alternating between sleeping and surfing the net as a distraction. Nintendo's email from a few minutes ago introduced me to Zombie Panic in Wonderland.

I...I may have to buy that.

Our house, she is listed.

Fingers crossed!

So tomorrow is the big move! We're bringing the animals over first at 7:30 in the morning, then I'm going to try to work for a bit. Meeting the movers at noon for all the 'big' stuff, and tomorrow we sleep in our new home.

The animals all know something is up; Tilson is worried, Gunner is freaking out, Misha is aloof but on high alert, and Libby thinks all these boxes and stuff everywhere is the best. thing. ever.

We disconnect the computers in a few minutes, and I'm now expecting delays for internet service at the new place because of a small misunderstanding about what type of service was previously in place. So I shall leave you with Hyperbole and a Half's Dogs Don't Understand Basic Concepts, about her move with her two dogs. I laughed 'til I cried.

See you on the flip side, internets!

Oil tank removal people are here.

WETT certification people are coming this afternoon.

Real Estate person is coming tonight.

Movers on Friday.

I am feeling overwhelmed! Help, help, I need an adult!

ETA: And of course, the baby cat is trying desperately to see what's happening with the oil tank. You know, the one they're draining of flammable oil and then going to cut in half with power tools. Cats, man. Bloody cats.

You may remember SNC from their awesome video of '12 Days of Christmas'. The current group is doing a Canada tour! They are sadly not coming my way, but they will be in lots of places where you guys are. :D

Tour dates here.

Breaking radio silence to spread the word about a Kickstarter project of one of Neil Gaiman's short stories, The Price.

I enjoyed that story, and I love the Kickstarter principle. I've done it several times now for some webcomics I support and it is painless, I promise. :D

These images from Tom Hussey were shot as part of an ad campaign for the Exelon Patch (for the treatment of Alzheimer's). Each shows an older person looking at a reflection of their younger self. Very moving.

How do you know I'm procrastinating?

I just watched a video of a dude making an ocarina out of carrots.

"Oh puppy! You ate that jujube like it was Samuel L. Jackson!

(one of my top 10 movie moments, btw :D)