Without Dark You Cannot Have Light

I love you all. Most of you know everything and are very update, but for the few of you who we don't talk often enough, I still love you and here's a quick run down.

*Tajei has sworn in to the USAF and is official
*We've packed, and moved out
*We've unpacked and moved in
*Lou, Padren, and Auriea have all come to visit
*I'm receiving physical therapy for my back finally
Mom's Portuguese Water Dog, Sampson has terminal cancer but is receiving life extending treatments. Currently he doesn't even know he is sick, he is happy, active and his normal self. We don't know how long we have or if his Oncology visits are working, if the shots work, we might have a couple years.. if they don't only a few months.
*Maggie-Mae is allergic to plastic, has a bald neck, new collar and new bowl
*Dixie's allergies are doing fantastic
*Sharkbait is still doing great despite how badly mauled he was all those months ago
*We'll be moving to Ill in the late spring/early summer, near Scott A.F.B
*We'll be BUYING our first house!
*I will be -finally- going back to Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville (SIUE) 12 years after the car accident stole my musical future and forced me out of school.
*Dungeons and Dragons online is hot, WoW is not.
*Taj and I went to see Phantom of the Opera at the Fox for my birthday and it was as always breathtaking, moving, incredible.
*Webkinz is still cool, Auriea got me a phoenix for my birthday, Mom got me the Opal dog, and the caring valley brown dog, Taj got me a zumbuddy.
*Tajei got to visit California for a week to see his family
*Dad was in the hospital due to his COPD and his continuing to smoke, he is now home and "ok"
*I've missed a lot of things, but I'm so damn tired, the last couple months have been traumatic. A theme park ride: up, down, sideways, and inside out.

Love you all. I'm sorry I'm so terrible at keeping in touch. I intend to fix that.

My Remedy is to curl in bed with my stuffed Pterodactyl, my hubby, my dog, and my kitties. Usually (And my favorite!) My mom stops by with soup and sprite and something sweet for me. I either sleep, watch TV, or play my Nintendo DS (Something mindless and silly like MySims Kingdom) and pout for snuggles and attention :)

As for actual remedy things, I swear by Sobe life waters with Vit C and their soothing flavors. IN addition herbal teas, specifically mandarin orange with honey instead of sugar. Add to this blueberries, and cream of wheat to eat.... it works!

I know so many of my friends who've met my mom over the years love her. She has and does love each of you very much and you all know that. Mom does not have this blog address and for once I'm very glad. My mother is a very proud woman and she'd have my hide for this. Mom is scared. Mom has basal cell carcinoma on her nose. You can read about this at Mayo Clinic Here The cancer itself is not in danger of spreading to a life threatening place. The problem is, the cancer is on her nose, and the size of a dime.

Mom has now been sent from her doctor, to an oncologist, to a plastic surgeon/oncologist. She will be having surgery Next Friday 11 Sept 2009. All along she has convinced herself this was a tiny procedure that would be done in a doctor's office, even though we've tried to convince her it wasn't. She got the news last Thursday she was dreading. This is major surgery.

Kidding with the doctor she asked for a sexier nose when he finishes... he grimly looked at her and told her she'd be lucky if it was passable. Now, she is terrified. She isn't afraid of the surgery but of what will become of her nose. He has warned her there will be double black eyes, and massive swelling. She will be receiving a skin graft, and they will be cutting a swatch of skin from her cheek to fold over her nose. We're all very worried for her. She is an amazing strong woman, she's lived through so much bad in her life.. she doesn't deserve this.

The point of this is to ask all of you who have had their lives touched by my mom directly or indirectly, or even just know me to think of my mom. Please, if you pray to a God or diety, please pray for my mom. We do not care which God as mom and I both believe that God shows himself to each people as they are intended to see him... meaning all Gods are God. The God. Just coming to the people in the manner they understand. We're Christians, and we will be praying too. Those who are not religious, or who are pagan, or atheists .... please keep mom in your heart, light a candle for mom, blow a kiss in the wind for mom... anything. Just hold mom in your thoughts and maybe somehow she'll feel it and know how loved she is.

Whoa. What does this mean? This means that I will soon be displaying this image on the page, in the car, and everywhere possible. Tajei has decided that it is never too late to chase the dream you threw away when you were young. He has always intended to join the Air Force. He comes from a military family and did ROTC in school. Like many of us though, when he got out of school he snagged a job paying what was to a highschooler a large amount of money, and his dream was tossed away. Now at 27 he is taking control of his life and his dream and making it happen.

We've signed a zillion papers and he's been poked and prodded, and we have a zillion more papers to sign. He will take his official Oath the beginning of October, and will be on his Journey to be a flying Crew Chief in the United States Air Force. Stationed out of Scott he intends for this to be a career choice. This is not a decision made lightly, or on a whim. We've talked many many nights til 4 and 5 am about this. I support him 100%, my family supports him 100%, and his family supports him 100%.

I am very very proud of him. The choice took me by surprise, but I am so glad he made it. We love his recruiter too, she is wonderful, supportive and goes out of her way to involve me in the process. She has involved the whole family. The Air Force it turns out, really takes care of its families. Nice to know!

But that is where we stand. Taj has taken his tests (Scored extremely high!) on paper, emotional, and physical and did great. He is on a waiting list to go to basic and tech school ASAP but at the moment the only slot available is Swear in Oct, leave Jan. She is fairly sure we'll find a spot sooner for him though.

In addition to the USAF Taj has just picked up work with a temp service to do off and on between his leaving. We've decided to make a tough choice along side this one as well. We had enlist the help of family to make this choice, and we've all talked and are doing it.

When Taj gets out of schooling with his pay and the large signing bonus for his specific career, combined with insanely cheap housing in the areas around the AFB... we will be in a position to purchase our first home! We've done a lot of searching already and found some amazingly adorable 2 and 3 bedroom homes for 50 grand. Yes that is 50,000, yes these homes are lovely, no they aren't trash dumps. This is the going cost for suburban-rural in these areas of Illinois. To say we're excited would be an understatement.

The choice though we made that was so tough is.... Stop throwing away 700 dollars a month rent, 100 dollars a month cable, 110 dollars a month electricity, 70 gas... and save all that money for our new home. So. In the next couple weeks we're moving into my mom's basement until he gets home from school. Another reason for this choice is, with my injury I need help plain and simple. Especially if I have surgery while he is gone. So we'll be making a temporary home of my mom's basement, as a stop on our journey towards a new life! Honestly, moving home sucks, but I intend to make the best of it for everyone's sake. I want to help everyone enjoy this rather than hate it. Sooo we'll be taking our bed and computers and desks and some random furniture and putting the rest in cheap storage. The basement is lovely, large and would be a nice home on its own so we won't be miserable. The birds will love the large window, and so will the kitties! Dixie loves grandma's yard so... it will help.

Anyway. Thank you to Doug, Eric, and Ryan for supporting us through all these things. Without our friends we would be nowhere. Paul and Wulfe we still love you and miss you. Brian, yes you, we miss you too and Chris as well!


Everyone will be hearing and seeing a lot more of us, we promise to communicate better as well pull ourselves out of the dank dark badness that has followed us so long, and climb into a whole new exciting life!

Hello There. Its been quite some time. Its been quite some changes! I'll actually lay this out in a couple of posts, the first one being my back :)

Firstly, for those I've not kept in as close contact as I should have, I'm sorry. I still adore you, and do miss you. This back injury thing has been horrific. While It is no excuse for losing touch, it unfortunately has consumed me.

I am finally getting treatment! We worked a program with my doctors who are part of a very large Catholic Organization, and they are paying for the large amount of treatment I need. This started with an MRI to see exactly what we are dealing with. Turns out the doctor is right, she really knows her stuff. Though she was more right than she knew lol. I have a herniated (ruptured) disc between L3 and L4 and have a bulging almost ruptured disc between L4 and L5. This is no doubt what is causing my sciatica as well as my pain. It is a good thing to finally have a diagnosis and not guesswork.

After the diagnosis the treatment is starting. I had my first two physical therapy sessions this week. I am back on muscle relaxers, and am still on almost constant painkillers. I sleep a lot which sucks, but hopefully that will be changing. I'll be going in for "pain management" which will be a lumbar steroid shot. Yes, in my spine. Yes it has risks. I know the risks, and we've weighed the options so please don't preach. If you love me you know the pain I'm in and you'll realize most of the "omg don't do that" comes from people not researching. It is NOT that dangerous. Everything has risks. I have a better chance of being hit by a bus than of this going wrong.

Also, in addition to the therapy and pain management I will most likely be having surgery. I've chosen to have an epidural rather than be put under. Again, I know it has its risks but anesthesia has far more in my mind. I've been under before and my body does not react well, they have a difficult time waking me and its terrifying. The surgery involves them removing a small piece of bone over the disc (s) then removing the problem material. The surgery is of course serious, anything involving the spine is serious, but it also very routine and performed often. After the surgery it will be 4-6 weeks of not sitting for more than 15-20 minutes, that will suck far more than surgery!

The one big downside is even surgery isn't guaranteed to work. The hope is that therapy + surgery will stabilized the area ad diminish or end the pain completely. The risk of reinjury will always be there though.


Anyway this is all actually good. I can finally get treatment, finally get on with life! Finally you know... leave the house? lol.

pickle sniffer, that is all.

Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.

So hi.


Well Padren and Auriea's trip is coming soon! They will be driving up on the 3rd and staying about a week. Sometime during that week maybe for the fourth Ryan will be coming up too. If he can't come up here we may go down there and ambush him!


Shark Bait is doing amazingly well. He loves his new habitat with its tree branches, vines, and waterfall. He even has a new friend. Our two permanent residents are now Shark Bait the green anole and Padren (yes.. padren lol) the Chubby frog. Two very cute little guys to share a lovely vivarium.

So now both my mom AND my dad have gotten a tattoo.. I tease tease them they're going through a very late midlife crisis at 60 :) When Rich and I went over and saw the tattoos for the first time we giggled. They are cute though. Mom got Thumper sitting on his rump holding his big feets with his paws, and a butterfly on his nose. Dad got Yosemite Sam with guns blazing, rofl.

Maggie's new medicine is wonderful. We've finally gotten our kitty back after the last few years of hell. She snuggles, she's sweet, she plays.... she still doesn't like Bo too much but she's Maggie again not some crazed demon!

Dixie is doing amazing. Her allgeries AND her thyroid are under control and its just amazing. We even found a non prescription food she can eat, and man does she love it. She lives for meal times. Its called "Blue" can only be bought at pet stores, and she can only eat the lamb formula but its real food..... not special hypoallergenic food. She loves it.


One bit of sad news.. after having had my pond goldfish for 6 years, moving with them 4 times, them living through 2 seven day power outages and countless other craziness.....they were eaten Sunday night sometime by something. It was horrible. We're pretty upset, we drained the pond and its sitting empty at the moment. We're not sure we'll even refill it. I was so bummed Taj got me the chubby frog to live with Shark Bait because I refused more goldfish. Don't even want the pond filled at the moment.

Will post birdie and anole and froggie pics and whatnot soon, need to get them from the phone to the web, not easy to do!



OH! one last thing of BIG news. We don't have medical insurance (so many employers cutting it due to the economy) so I've been still sitting in eternal pain, on nasty narcotics since my fall. My doctor has desperately wanted an MRI and physical therapy. Well the financial director from her office talked to me.. and they set me up with a program they run. (All of the hospitals here are Catholic hospitals, my doctor and all her offices are no exception) So... I qualify since we have no insurance and I can't work, for full medical coverage for at least a year.. everything... past current and future.... Blood work, X Rays, Hospital trips, Surgeries, anything... I'm finally going to get my back fixed!

So first off Yoda was depressed that we named him Yoda. We called him Herbie (The name he came with) and he instantly was a different bird, so he is now Herbie again. We now have:


Normal Green Cheek Conure: 2 years old, presumed male "Herbie"

Yellow Sided Green Cheek Conure: 10 weeks old, non DNA sexed, we call it male! "Naboo"

Herbie is a rehomed parrot so he has some challenges. He is extremely sweet and loves to be out with his people. On the downside his previous people loved him but not in quite the right manner. They didn't snuggle him, or cuddle him. They didn't touch his wings and his beak and his toes. They just left the cage door open (he stood on top) all day or he rode on their shoulders.

We've taught him to like his beak touched. We're still working on his wings and scritches. He likes pets and he's awesome at step up and step down. He is starting to watch the baby and learning from him. He has learned to explore a little more rather than sit stoically on a shoulder. He has also started to learn to fly by watching Naboo!

He finally took to fresh fruit and veggies too. We struggled with that a few weeks. His family had him on zupreem and occassionally dehydrated fruits and veggies but not the fresh stuff. So after talking with Tracy and Mike at Varitees and Dr. Weltig our Avian Vet, we switched Herbie over from zupreem to RoudyBush and finally got him eating fresh fruits and veggies!

The zupreem is a good food, but it is colored. Colored food means added waste products and unneeded things in their diet. We all decided it was better to feed the Roudybush without the added colors and whatnot. Not to mention birds..... keeping an eye on the color of their poop is a way of keeping tabs on their health... on the zupreem their poop is whatever color pellet they chose to eat that day so you have no way of knowing what normal is. On the Roudybush its tan, the same as the pellet lol.


Naboo is doing fantastic! He was handraised and handtamed at Varitees and for 2 weeks or so before he came home we visited him almost daily and helped socialize him. From that day I've worked on manhandling him to teach him that A) its ok and B) to love it. He loves having his wings stretched out, he loves being petted under his wings. He loves having his beak "beeped" and held. In fact he snuggles and sleeps with you and while he does he likes you to gently hold his beak. He's now about half baby half adult in his mannerisms and Dr. Weltig says its ok and expected for him to hold onto these mannerisms until about ten months. Yay! More baby time!

He started eating fruits and veggies yesterday! I was getting worried, he never even visted that bowl until yesterday. All of a sudden he was just chowing down on his broccoli! He is very social, very cuddly, and very sweet. He is also a monkey who hangs upside down, runs around in circles, plays with everything and destroys everything wood. He's amazing. We just have to keep doing what we're doing and he'll stay like this, loving everyone and everything. (I'm still waiting for his "Oh I have a beak, and I'm gonna be in charge stage. That will probably make me cry when my little baby decides to be a monster, fortunately their bites don't hurt because they've both been trained not to bite hard)



This product is awesome. Carrots, Broccoli, and cabbage all already in parrot friendly strips! They both love this stuff and their list of "yes I'll eat that" grows by the day we've got

Herbie:
Cantalope (one of his favs)
Honeydew
Grapes
Hot peppers of any type
Bell peppers of any type
Pineapple
Sweet Potato (one of his favs)
Broccoli
Carrots
Cabbage
This is a far cry from the first week we had him when he wouldn't eat a single fresh fruit or veggie! He tries and likes more every day now

Naboo:
broccoli
carrots
cabbage
pineapple (a little bit)
bell pepper (a little bit)
He isn't eating much but he's eating more every day, we're proud of him! He has learned from watching Herbie!


We have tons of pictures we'll be uploading them as soon as we can remember the password to taj's online t-mobile album :)



More updates coming later today on the other critters and whatnot.

Happy Birthday to You! Happy Birthday to You! Happy Birthday Auuuuuuriea Happy Birthday to You!




p.s. the pic is bigger for some reason LJ is smallifying it
just click it to see

I am -so- fucking finished. I am -so- fucking over Blizzard and WoW. In One morning I came across three more reasons to hate blizzard and stop fucking playing WoW, a game I used to love. I met my husband on WoW, I met three of my best friends in the world on WoW. Now, I hope WoW dies in a burning pile of garbage. Why? Because this morning I found Dev/Blue posts stating the following: (sic)

1. We're going to continue to nerf Ulduar because we like seeing everyone in purples. We're truly pleased at the amount of people in epics and want to see an even larger amount of the population in epics as well.

2. Fuck you holy paladins we're going to nerf you purely out of spite because we're sick of you

3. We're nerfing Jewel Crafting for NO good reason, simply to fuck up the game YET again.



Re: #1
This is such bullshit. I now have 0 desire to see the rest of any raid content. I've seen enough Ulduar and have enough Ulduar pieces. I have NO desire to step foot in again. Why? Because I like many others play this game for firsts... for bests, to show off. I have no desire to BE LIKE EVERYONE ELSE. Why the hell would I want to run an instance constantly, to look exactly like everyone else? To have nothing. To be mediocre. To be everyone else? What the fuck is the point? There is no more accomplishment. There is nothing to brag about. There is nothing to strive for. There is no point.

I don't even need to play for friends, why? Because the only ones I truly care about are REAL friends, and we don't need WoW to interact. Other than Ryan, Doug, and Eric I could care less if I "lose" the others. The five of us are the only ones that truly matter out of the WoW crew. Since we can hang out in real life, we'll get over it, and we'll find a new game to have a blast in together. Fuck you Blizzard for taking away my ability to stand in Iron Forge and be oggled and oohed over.


Re: #2
You know when a game has been nerfed into oblivion and all you really have left is the relationship between the developers and the community.. hearing a blue use an attitude that truly says "we're doing this to spite you" is bad business. Fuck you Blizzard.

Re: #3
First, Engineering... they get told "too bad you're not getting better benefits because we FREELY ADMIT you are a GIMMICK profession and LIKE it that way." Then they have their stealth bonus taken off all their items.. and get NOTHING in return for it.

THEN they nerf Jewel Crafting by taking away our prismatic slots. Fucking meta gems, losing out on bonus etc.

All of this after they destroyed professions in wotlk to begin with. No -good- BOP recipes? Most professions with nothing after 440? No epic recipes worth using past heroics? WTF?



Here are the actual posts made:

"Nerfed" raid instances
We changed some of the base design of the game to cut down on the idea of content (and the items come with it) being only for a certain group of the playerbase. We have tried to open up content and give more people more things to do.

I don't have any numbers to share, but we are seeing more people in the raid instances than in the past, so people are running things and picking up as many epics as possible. A lot of players are skipping normal dungeons because it's faster to do so, but they have done it on other characters already so they know the fights and just want to get geared up asap. Sure, we could limit the number of epics to certain content and whatnot, but we don't feel that would be a real benefit to the game.
_____________________________________________

In the next major content patch we will be removing the prismatic quality of the jewelcrafter-only Dragon’s Eye gems. Like other gems, they will have to match the socket color to receive a socket bonus. When this change occurs, players with qualifying jewelcrafting skill will be provided a yet to be determined amount of Dalaran Jewelecrafter Tokens as compensation.

______________________________________________

MP5 Gear isn't really useful for Holy paladins
Yes, that is exactly what I said. You are saying you’ll just use the shaman gear. Why? Because you don’t care about the mana regen. Why? Because your mana regen is so good based on things like Illumination that mana regen stats are not attractive. That doesn’t mean we stop putting regen stats on plate. That means we nerf Illumination. An even better solution would be to get rid of MP5 and make Illumination return mana based on your spirit. Now not only do you want a regen stat, but you want the same stat that other healers want.

_______________________________________________

We recently made some changes to items that grant stealth detection. We felt these items provided a necessary advantage in competitive PVP and forced players to use lower level equipment even when more powerful items were available to them.

This item can no longer be used in the Arena:

* Ultra-Spectropic Detection Goggles


We have removed stealth detection from the following items:

* All epic engineering goggles


We have reduced the stealth detection of the following items:

* Catseye Ultra Goggles
* Blood Guard's Dragonhide Gauntlets
* Marshal's Dragonhide Gauntlets
* Knight-Lieutenant's Dragonhide Gloves
* General's Dragonhide Gloves
* Bloodvine Lens
* Knight-Lieutenant's Dragonhide Grips
* Blood Guard's Dragonhide Grips
* The Night Watchman


All of these changes are already active and the tooltips will be updated with the next minor patch.

____________________________________________________________

All of these and more can be found via the blue tracker on the official forums, or on mmo champion.





fuck you blizzard

Don't ya just LOVE when people make assumptions? It makes me absolutely giddy to find someone who has such a guilty heart and soul, that they can take a one sentence comment and turn it into some massive verbal onslaught against them. It is definitely a lovely mix of Vanity, Narcissism, and a guilty soul.

Evidently, after one doles out hundreds of lies to tens of people (as well as verbal, and emotional abuse and even assault,) When they see a few words that are frequently said among friends to each other in vent: that those words must CERTAINLY be about them. Oh! AND they MUST be a direct verbal attack and assault. Yanno as opposed to a friendly jibe at someone. Well ya know.. it makes sense because that person cannot keep friends longer than their lies last... that of COURSE other people couldn't POSSIBLY be wishing a friend happy birthday, amirite?

You walked onto the scene like there were holes in your shoes and you were begging for food.
Your tears were crocodile and lies so wild.
Your mouth it was full of shit
Everyone should have told you then, to just get the fuck over it.
And everyone thought they'd be a friend, and save the waif
They thought they could help and soothe and...

You're so vain, you probably think this post is about you...
You're so vain, I'll bet you think this post is about you
Don't you? Don't you?

You had us all several months ago when we were quite naive
You were abused, used, and needed us, please?
And you said we were all you had
Til your bitch ass lies showed the heart you never had
But you lied and cried to the ones you "loved" and played the strings
We had all had our dreams of friendship, good luck bitch with what Karma brings.

You're so vain, you probably think this post is about you...
You're so vain, I'll bet you think this post is about you
Don't you? Don't you?

Here's hoping your dreams drown in your coffee
Drown in your coffee...
Here's hoping you learn the hurt you spew out
Here's hoping no one else gets burned by your lying pout
Black bitch lying, Fake ass crying, never stops trying
Here's hoping your dreams drown in your coffee
Drown in your coffee...

You're so Vain...

So, I've not posted here much because we've been very busy! Taj's parents came into town for several days and in the middle of that we made a new addition to our family. Yoda the Green Cheek Conure has joined our family. We thought it was going to be months until we could afford a bird of any type let alone a parrot. Well we stumbled on one hell of a deal and Taj's parents bought us Yoda for his birthday.

Yoda formerly known as Herbie belonged to a wonderful family who loved him very very much. He is 2 years old and they have had him since he was 8 months old. Unfortunately the Dad is an electric company line-man so is gone constantly. The children are 5 and 7 and suddenly got into sports, they are gone 4 nights a week. The mother works and is gone constantly as well. They are gone so much they have only seen their horses twice in the last 4 months. (They are well cared for at a stable) So Yoda's family decided to the right thing for Yoda and find him a new home.

Yoda came to us with
a gorgeous 300 dollar cage (It is an HQ cage)
a massive bag of zupreem pellets for conures
a bucket of nutriberries
a bag of millet spray
a rope perch
a wooden perch
a real wood branch perch
3 stainless steel dishes
3 toys
1 hammock
1 fabric covered hanging pipe hide away

All of this including Yoda was 100 dollars. This is beyond amazing. The cage is 300, the toys are about 10 bucks a piece, the hammock is 15, the pipe is 20, the food and nutri berries and millet is about 25 dollars... and Yoda were we to purchase him from the Varitees (a family owned, and run bird only store, who breeds their own birds and has thousands of supplies) would be 175 which is the "going price" for green cheek conures here.

So Yoda joined our family and unlike what we would have expected... He came to us sweetly, knowing several words:

herbie
I love You
Thank you
good bird
whatchya doin'

He knows step up and step down perfectly, and never moped, or bit us. He sleeps late, and goes to bed like a good birdie. He is amazing. Everyone expected a long settling in process, pfffft he loves his new home! He has also learned a couple new phrases in the 1 week we have had him.

Fuck you (said ONCE, he instantly learned. oops.)
Damnit (said ONCE, he instantly learned. double oops.)
good girl (to dixie)
hey buddy

He says a lot of other things that are clearly English, he is clearly trying to speak and repeat them but we can't quite decipher them yet as green cheeks don't have the clear voice of an amazon or cockatoo.

_______________________________________________________________________


On the same note, we've come into some luck. Taj's Census position has ended but he's found Humane Society work. We also finally settled his car case! We've got enough to catch up all the bills and then some. Finally. Most of the leftover is going into savings of course, BUT Taj.... (Who Yoda favors, Yoda loves me but favors Taj) surprised me by taking me to Varitees (our favorite place now btw) and putting down a deposit on a baby! Yes... We have a deposit down on a baby yellow sided green cheek conure! It is a color morph of the green cheek. The yellow sided has LOTS of red and yellow on it. This baby picked me... I had originally had the deposit on a cinnamon color morph until everytime I walked past the play place.. this little yellow sided flew over and sat on my shoulder. The little one is still on baby food, 1-3 weeks until weened yet flew over to me constantly and snuggled me!

The yellow sided are actually 275 a hundred more than we were going to spend... but we spend so much time in there that the lady gave him to us for 200. Whenever he is weened he will get to come home to us! I can't wait! They won't share a cage. We have an extra cage, thanks to a very very generous person and that will be the little one's home. We don't want them sharing a cage as they would bond closer to each other than us.

I just can't think of a name... We are going to visit the baby today though and I can't wait!

___________________________________________________________________________

Also Shark Bait (ooo ha ha) is doing miraculously well. I think.. he's going to make it. His swelling is all gone, his stress marks are all gone.... hes just a little bruised. He's eating 3-4 crickets a day, running around and acting like a normal anole. You'd never know he'd been chomped by maggie. I'm SO glad. Mom and I going to the pet store this weekend.. she's popping for all kinds of stuff for him. Taj found an old 10 gallon with reptile lid in mom's basement and mom was quite excited that we'll have a MUCH more cat proof home for shark bait.. so she is buying the extra necessities to decorate his new home for him :) (We wanted to wait and be sure he was going to make it first...)

______________________________________________________________________________

You're welcome Jon :) Hope your birthday was very very Happy. Come visit again soon! Ryan will be visiting soon, and Auriea and Padren will be visiting for a whole week!

_________________________________________________________________________________



Fuck you and get bent. Happy birthday bitch.

Happy Birthday Wulfe, old Soul, old Friend.
We love you.

This is from CNN, I'm saving here and now because I want to use this list, and ask my own mother these things.






(REAL SIMPLE) -- "Mom, I have to ask you something," my seven-year-old Henry begins. He stares at me with those solemn eyes and I steel myself.
Asking your mother questions like, "how am I like you," can open door to communication.

Asking your mother questions like, "how am I like you," can open door to communication.

Considering our unique family, it could be any number of things. Why do you and Dad live in separate places? (We are married but never could stand to live together.)

Why is Gus so different from other kids? (Henry's twin brother is mildly autistic.)

Why does Dad look tired all the time? (My husband was 68 when our sons were born... You do the math.)

I'm ready.

"Do you think spit cleans better than water?" he asks. "You always use it to clean my face."

You know, it isn't a bad question. And, in a way, every burst of curiosity gives me hope that my boys will continue to quiz me about ever more interesting and personal things. Because, as adults, so many of us don't ask enough about our mothers. (Maybe we're scared. More likely we just don't get around to it.) iReport: Interview your mom
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* Real Simple: Eco-friendly entertaining gear
* Real Simple: Mother's Day gift guide

Yet there's no better way to become closer to a person, even if you've known her all your life. So, after an utterly unscientific survey of friends and acquaintances, I've come up with 10 queries to get you started. Try them out this Mother's Day. You may even learn something about yourself.

1. What's the one thing you would have done differently as a mom? Recently I had this conversation with someone I had considered one of the best mothers I know -- the kind who never missed a kid's concert or a PTA conference. Her children are grown now, and they are neither independent nor particularly grateful. Real Simple: Mother's Day gift basket ideas

"I should have let them fail," she told me. "When my daughter forgot to do her homework, I shouldn't have done it for her. When the other one got caught shoplifting, I should have let her spend a night in jail." For better or worse, your mother has probably given this subject a good deal of thought.

2. Why did you choose to be with my father? "Look at him!" my mother says adoringly. "He looks just like Jascha Heifetz!" He does, actually. But Heifetz, perhaps the world's greatest violinist, was one weird-looking dude. And my dad doesn't even play the violin. (Which is a bit like an accountant being the spitting image of Mick Jagger.)

So was there anything else? "Well, he liked smart women," says my mom, who was in medical school when they met in the 1950s. "So many men didn't back then." Not a bad reason to marry someone. I'm glad I asked.

3. In what ways do you think I'm like you? And not like you? Accuracy is not important here; you want to know her perceptions. Does she think you share her best qualities or her worst? (And do you agree?) Are your similarities and differences complementary -- they make the two of you click -- or are they the cause of all your conflicts? Real Simple: Greatest gift your mother ever gave you?

4. Which one of us kids did you like the best? OK, chances are she'll dodge this question. But you'll probably force a compliment out of her -- "You were the one who set the table when you were three" -- and get a little insight into how she viewed each of you. And if she gives a straight answer? Well, you'll all have something new to fixate upon.

5. Is there anything you have always wanted to tell me but never have? The woman who suggested this question had learned late in life that the "aunt" who had lived with her parents while she was growing up was, in fact, her father's lover -- an arrangement that apparently suited all involved. Your mom's secrets might be a little less stunning. But hearing something she has been holding back may take your relationship into (good) uncharted territory. Real Simple: What to do about aging parents

6. Do you think it's easier or harder to be a mother now than when you were raising our family? We might agonize about working more hours outside the home and competing with our kids' cell phones for attention, but our mothers had other battles. "My mom thinks that if she had had a career, she would have been less frustrated and a better mother," reports one friend. The two of you needn't have a "Terms of Endearment moment over this one, but by understanding what she went through, you may appreciate your own situation more.

7. Is there anything you regret not having asked your parents? In my informal survey, the list went on and on, covering everything from "Did you ever think about leaving my dad for someone else?" and "Did you ever want to just throw in the towel?" to "What music do you want played at your funeral?" People regretted what they hadn't asked -- never what they had.

8. What's the best thing I can do for you right now? My mother is not subtle: "Call every day. If you don't, I think you're dead."

Other friends who had asked this question over the years were invariably surprised. One mom wanted her daughter to teach her to use a computer; another wanted her son, a plastic surgeon, to give her a face-lift. ("I had a moment where I didn't exactly love lifting my mother's skin off, but I thought I could do a better job than anyone else," he says.)

The mom of a young colleague wanted to meet her friends. "I'd always thought she wasn't interested in them," she says. "In fact, my mom was just shy."

9. Is there anything that you wish had been different between us -- or that you would still like to change? This inquiry prompted one mother to plan a trip with her 30-year-old daughter -- their first ever. She and her husband had always vacationed alone when their children were young, and she had felt bad about it for years. Whether you're 25 or 55, chances are there is some dynamic between you and your mother that could be better. Give her a chance to put it out there.

10. When did you realize you were no longer a child? I know what the answer will be for me, and I was startled to hear my mother give the same response: "I knew it when my own mother died," she told me. "That's the last time there would be anyone in the world who always put me before herself."

The following is posted by Narhym Here



It's a good post, Aavryn. Thank you for taking the time to write up some good feedback for us. :)

With that said, I think our views on raid content are at odds. If you're having difficulty comparing the raid content of Wrath to the raid content of Burning Crusade, it's because our philosophy changed a little bit. You say Ulduar's difficulty is supposed to be on par with SSC and TK, but that's not really true. The primary goal in this expansion -- and the reason we've implemented 10/25-player, and hard modes -- is to give as many people access to the raid content as possible. Just given the nature of raid dungeons, so many resources need to be poured into making them, from art, design, and story boarding, to programming and testing. It's a very intensive process and we want our players to experience the end result.

For this reason we're continuing with the philosophy that pick-up groups should have some level of success when raiding. Coordination and effort will still be necessary, as will the appropriate level of gear; but we don't want capable groups hitting brick walls, at least not within the first few boss encounters of Ulduar.

The difference in difficulty between 10-player and 25-player modes should also be fairly minimal. The distinction here is between the guilds that might not have the resources to more-than-double the size of their raid. 25-player content should be more difficult, but only incrementally. You'll find all the brick walls and incredibly challenging encounters in hard modes, and they're worth the effort and status for the experienced raiders.

I hope you don't take any of this to mean we expect anyone to waltz through Ulduar. That's not necessarily the case. You still need to know what you're doing and be appropriately geared for the fights. Even so, we want to get players in the door and have them feeling a natural, though slight progression in difficulty with each boss encountered.

When it comes to nerfing difficulty, we do intentionally tend to slightly over-tune things at the start. Our goal is to watch players of all levels of skill attempt each encounter, and then adjust the encounters according to the percentage of raids we expect to be killing specific bosses. While some may see this as us giving content to be people who don't deserve it, we feel it's a lot better than taking away content if we were, say, to make encounters too easy from the start and then buff them up after the fact.

The days of a marginal amount of players having a go at our raid dungeons are mostly over. We're continuing to brain storm ideas to keep the most-skilled raiders feeling challenged and rewarded, but we're going to continue ensuring that smaller guilds and players who haven't as much time to play each week get a reasonable chance to progress in each Wrath raid dungeon released.

please?

Sooo Taj is now on his way home from Kentucky. He says the trip ended way too soon! The first thing he said is OMFG Padren isn't fat! Soo Padren Mr. Low Self Esteem has a belly but isn't fat at all! Surprise!

The second thing he said is Lou (Ryan) is exactly like I thought he'd be! The third thing he said or well gushed was about Kiera Lou's dog who is evidently pretty damn amazing.

He isn't going to be home for a couple hours but he had an awesome time and is coming home with goodies. I think.. the first time I turn the new computer on I might cry... Seriously... I can't believe Lou is doing this... OMG. Taj is dying to get his new monitor going too, AND surprise surprise taj's old monitor (his 19 inch LCD) we had to return? Came today! Brand new, ready to go.. so I'm getting a new computer AND new monitor, holy fuck! No more first generations 15 inch LCD monitor.... No more 10 (almost 11) year old dell.. I don't know what to freaking to do with myself!

Oh my gosh, so many things I want to see and do.. Like fucking use dalaran... actually heal in 25 mans.. instead of pushing buttons and hoping... OH EMM GEE!

So its Monday April 27th at 154 PM (CST), and today is Taj's birthday. It is silent in the house, only myself and the critters here.. why? Because Taj is with Padren and Lou! They all met up at Lou's (Ryan) place in Kentucky and are spending the day down there. I can't go this time due to my back/hip/leg but the guys are hanging out and its Taj's birthday so all is great. They already sent me a couple pics of Kiera lol. Evidently when they got there she didn't even bark once she ran and got her toys and started bringing them to Taj and Padren lol, very cool!

Wish I was there.. tonight will be different for me though as the trip is bringing with it a new computer. I've used the same computer since 1999, and I'm so very bad at change that it is a bit scary. My computer however faithful it has been though is long long past its prime. Browsing the net? Sure no problem. Webkinz? Works good, little slow but works good. WoW? More unplayable by the day. Dalaran is impossible, Dragonblight is impossible, Icecrown is impossible.. and its getting worse every moment of the day. I have two choices.... use a new computer incredibly sweetly and generously loaned to me, or continue not being able to play with my friends. Hmm. New computer it is!

Its a little scary but also very exciting.


Lots of storms today. Will have to keep close eye on the sky for severe storms.. I pray to God we don't get a tornado warning with the sirens.... How I'll get the cats and dog downstairs... or even myself downstairs in my condition... yea that thought scares the shit out of me.


Ulduar is amazing btw. Very very cool, our little group is sporting quite a few pieces of shiny new 219 gear and we've downed the first 5 bosses.. not to bad!

Taj and I sincerely hope you all had a beautiful Easter, or spring celebration. We spent Easter with my parents and it was wonderful. Good food, perfect company, and a 4 hour long game of Phase 10 lol.

Mom got me a beautiful red and white betta for my little desk fish tank? Yea .. beautiful though he is, he is the nippiest betta I have ever had. We removed him out of the tank. He's in a makeshift old old critter keeper with an air stone on Taj's desk now. Once Taj gets a paycheck or two we'll spend a few dollars to get him into a nice tiny tank. We found a lovely one with LED lighting, a whisper filter, and bubbler for 17 dollars.. add in the glass gravel we love, and one tiny little live plant (like we started with in the platy/female betta/swordtail tank, which has now grown to epic jungle proportions) and he'll be good to go for under 25 dollars. Damn expensive Easter present!


Oh Clicks are love... this is my latest batch of unicreatures click.. share them with people, just get people to click please! I've gotten 32 achievements on the site, working towards 40 for a special unique pet.