Sunday, June 26, 2011

the camping trip

we went camping last weekend and we had a good time. we arrived at the camping spot about 11ish at night so the kids were ready to go to bed almost right away (they did wake up for a little bit and we had to set up the tent still). after less sleep than i should have had we all got up the next morning. the kids were ready to start fishing right away. with the assistance of grandma C, they both managed to catch a fish. i didn't do much the first day, just mostly relaxing...
the next day was about the same in the morning... just relaxing and such and then my brother in law decided that we should go for a nice afternoon hike. i should have known better when i asked where we were headed and he just pointed up. there was no trail, or even really a plan, we just got some water and went. a couple hours later we had managed to get to the acceptable top (the original top we could now see and it looked a lot more difficult than the original assessment). and there were rain clouds headed our way and we were completely unprepared for pretty much anything that may have happened (my scout leaders from when i was a kid would have been sooooo disappointed!). we headed back down and minus some scrapes on our legs from the brush, we were in pretty good shape.it rained a lot that evening and there was a lot of drinking and fun. the next day was just mellow again and we were getting ready to go so not a lot of action on this day for us. we had a good time and the kids slept for a decent chunk of the ride home.

now they wanna go camping again...

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

summertime!!

it is finally summer!!! i really am getting tired of the cold in my old age!

all of the kids passed their classes and are moving on to the next grade. yay for them!! G will be in 4th grade (i can't believe this at all) amd M will be moving on to 1st grade. CJ will get another year of preschool which he absolutely loved this year and i am sure he will again next year as well. G has decided that he wouls like to play the violin next year in the orchestra. i tihnk i am going to invest in a nice pair of earplugs... i remember when i was a kid and my younger brother would play the violin. beginning strings instruments is not pretty!G went to visit his dad for the summer in hawaii again this year, but before he left we had a nice weekend of fun. we played at the park, had ice cream, went to the movies and played in the fountain downtown. we had grandma and grandpa over for grilling and uncle david came by for the day as well. we will miss him, but he will be back soon enough.
M & CJ have lots of fun planned for the summer. they have both started swimming lessons and they have many field trips to go on this summer with day camp. we are also going camping a few times this summer!
it's gonna go by way too fast - i can already tell. and then it will be cold again and i will return to grumpy once again...

Monday, April 11, 2011

i had some extra time this weekend... the kids were at grandma's and the hubby had gone to work... so i decided to really get in and play some WoW.

now for anyone who isn't aware, i have been avoiding the dungeon finder. not avoiding in the way you avoid doing the dishes. "i don't want to do them right now, but eventually either the sink is going to be full and stinky or there are going to be no more dishes to eat off of." i have been doing everything else i can think of to do without going into a dungeon. i did all the quests in Cata. all of them. every new zone complete. i did the dailies out in deepholm. i am exalted with the big rock people (on 2 toons). then instead of doing dungeons i leveled my priest. and my hunter. and another Shaman (like completely 1-85 brand new toon on another server). i even did dailies out in tol barad even though i have no interest in pvp on this toon. i have been "geared" enough for heroics for a few months and still i would sit in stormwind and keep the daily quest givers happy by filling their requests.

well, i did it.

i queued for a heroic.

i was promptly ported to grim batol (a dungeon i had not been in on regular yet). i did the necessary look at your group and see what we have. i got a bear tank. not just any bear tank, but one with less HP than half the group. seriously.

...

he died on more than half the pulls. out of 5 or so that he lasted he died at least 3 times. i ran OOM on the very first pull trying to keep him alive and as i sat down to drink he ran ahead and pulled another group. seriously.

i was able to salvage that pull with almost no mana sacrificing only him. technically he sacrificed himself. after flying around on the drakes torching stuff he ran right into mobs and got himself killed again. during all of this he is the one saying "gogogo... i only have a few minutes to finish this." and on his last pull i see that he has targeted the pally in the group. he wasn't even targeting mobs anymore (curiously enough this was a pull that he survived as he had zero aggro). after that pull we figured out that he had put himself on follow and left.

seriously.

being the somewhat smart people that we are, we kick him for a real tank. luckily we got one and the rest of the dungeon was pretty easy.

so, with my new-found confidence i decide to run another one on sunday. we all get ported into halls of origination and we are buffed and ready to go. first pull, we have our cc up and the tank is all over the place as are the remaining mobs and just as he is about to die he leaves group. so we are sitting there with a trapped mob and a sheeped mob waiting for a new tank.

WTF Blizzard?!?!?! Why are you punishing me??? i would like to know what i did so i can promptly remedy this!

we got a new tank and all we had to do was re-sheep one of the mobs. and we were again able to make it through the remainder of the place with only a couple of deaths. i did get a mad mage on the last boss. he was yelling that he didn't get any heals. in my own defense, he was on the other side of the room and i did run over to that side of the room to heal him, i was just too late.

overall, i am pleased with the level of difficulty that the dungeons present. i couldn't put myself on follow and tab out to play farmville. i just hope that the tanks that shouldn't be tanking stop torturing me soon and go back to DPS.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

so... i'm 33 now. the party was fun, though the bar scene is just not the same as it used to be. i would rather just hang out at home or a friend's house any day.

so, both G & M got awards the other day at school for their writing skills. to anyone else this would be great news. but to me, this is just a sign of trouble. you see, i was reminded of my own writing skills in high school and how they landed me in the principal's office. maybe i will just have to teach them discretion as well...


in wow news, i have made a goblin shaman and i made my hunter into a blood elf and i have been playing the other side for a bit. i am up to level 83 on both and have really been having fun. i rolled on a PvE server, so the loss of world PvP has made it a bit quicker to level. i have also been leveling enhancement which is a completely new spec for me. i like it a lot so far, but it really is a lot different being right up in the action. the goblin totems are by far the most awesome of all the shamans.



not much else going on lately... just life i guess.