Tauren Gravy

Closing up shop and moving!

2010-01-07T19:14:00.001-04:00

To here!

May the Heavy Breathing Begin!

2010-01-07T12:35:00.000-04:00

I spent last evening thrilled to bits. Why, you ask? Because, thanks to Darthregis, we now have Vent for our guild family! Hearing our friends’ voices sent me into fits of delightful giggles and even though I could only respond through guild/party chat I was having a great time. I squealed with joy when I heard my sister hunter, Chawakanda, for the first time since oh...2007? I’m equally looking forward to hearing our New Zealand branch on Vent!

Then everyone died in Heroic Forge of Souls while I was healing and that was a bad time. I was quite confident that I had healed it on heroic before and I think this was merely a matter of some poor timing/positioning on my part. I tend to run around needlessly and I still have to practice on calming down. Our second attempt proved easier and we all survived (yay!), plus a few of us got some nice upgrade from the run (double/triple yay!).

I’m looking forward to going to our next peek into Ulduar with people on Vent. It’s going to make the encounter easier to explain (hopefully) and I think it will be a lot of fun!

Oculus and You

2010-01-06T16:49:00.001-04:00

I'm actually starting to ~~like~~ not hate Oculus but I'll be the first to admit that it is not my favourite - it's confusing, it's loud and the boss mechanics are ugly. Even with the nerf people still drop their LFD groups when they end up there. For sticking it out Blizzard is going to give us a chance at getting nice rewards and even a mount – how kind!

I've never attempted to tank it because when it comes to the dragon mounts a) I don't know where I'm going and b) people don't know where they are going. After doing it a few times with the guild and in LFD I've learned a simple solution to make your experience better in Oculus for yourself:

Follow. The. Leader.

Look for the red dragon and target it. Look at what they are targeting and target that dragon. Mount when they mount and land when they land. Don't wander, don't stray and don't make the tank chase you because it's annoying. This should sound familiar, as in it should sound like what you would do in any dungeon and since Oculus is now an instance worth doing you may as well make it as enjoyable as possible.

Thank you!

2010-01-03T12:42:00.000-04:00

For Christmas I gave my husband what would be one of the geekiest gifts since the TARDIS cufflinks: The Mechano-hog!

My original plan was to switch my priest's jewelcrafting skill to enginnering so I could do it entirely in secret, but thanks to a very generous rogue in our guild all I had to do was grind a bit of gold :)

Here we are taking a lovely drive through Dalaran! I do admit that one of the reasons I wanted him to have it was so I could ride in the sidecar - something that I have always dreamed of doing in real life.

Devastated

2010-01-01T21:27:00.000-04:00

We just finished watching Doctor Who: The End of Time (Part 2) which was also the end of David Tennant as the tenth Doctor. I've never been good at goodbyes and Russel T. Davies milks them for all they are worth.

All I can say is that I'm devastated. Some of the saddest tears are also the nerdiest tears.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T08:58:00.000-04:00

As a follow up to yesterday's post regarding ugly PuGs (puglies?) we did have a nice experience last evening in LFD.

Four of us were on and wanted to run a dungeon (DK, Rogue, Mage and me on heals). To make things easy we popped into regular Forge of Souls and ended up grouping with a nice paladin from Stromreaver, who was talkative and responsive and overall, very nice. After a successful run we decided to continue onto to Pit of Saron which was new to both the paladin and our rogue (and to me - healing wise). Even with one wipe, it went well and a few people got upgrades! (yay!)

So there is hope that out there in the big WoW universe there are players who are courteous and pleasant and play the game to have fun- people like the Zug Initiative! It was a nice way to end 2009.

Happy New Year to all!

LFG? I'm Fine Thanks

2009-12-31T13:05:00.000-04:00

Just when I think that I might try to queue for a random dungeon I read horror stories of players being generally nasty in every which way in PuG's and I opt to wait for a guild run.

Say you're at a wedding and you're sitting with four or five people you've never met. You wouldn't eat your meal in silence and then vote to remove one person so there would be an extra dessert. You would make poliete conversation and then comment about what they were wearing AFTER they left the table.

(Okay, maybe the dessert analogy is a bad one, because I can get ruthless when it comes to sweets - but you guys get the point.)

I'm sure they are not all that bad, but no one ever says "best pug ever!". The "best" pugs now seem to be ones where no one talks and you don't get kicked out before loot drops. That still seems very ugly to me.

I'm still here!

2009-12-22T21:46:00.001-04:00

How do people get ready for Christmas and continue to play WoW? I'm having a hard time figuring out where all the hours in the evening go between cooking and cleaning and wrapping and shopping

I did manage to fit in the Winter Veil achievement - woot!

WTB 1 Extra Hour

2009-12-18T13:28:00.001-04:00

Friday evening to do list:

Go to grocery store

Make genoise chocolate cake

Make dairy-free chocolate cake

Make meringue mushrooms

Make coconut ice cream

Mix up artichoke & spinach dip

Caramelize onions

Slice cheese for platter

Frost sugar cookies

Make chocolate mousse

Make mocha cakes

KILL MALYGOS!

I think I can fit it all in*. I've been prepping for our party tomorrow and Christmas in general so WoW is taking a bit of a hit this week (and next). I did manage to correctly perform the "Fa-la-la-la-la Ogri'la" Achievement last evening and I only need 22 more kills as a gnome to finish off Winter Veil.

Then all I have to do is wait patiently to OPEN PRESENTS!!!!!!!!!

*I will not fit it all this in!

To Vent or Not to Vent

2009-12-16T16:45:00.001-04:00

Our [wonderful] guild is full of friends and family and couples. Because we are also all altaholics at any one time we have one or two combinations of Tank/Healer, Tank/DPS, Healer/Healer and DPS/Healer couples. It can make some fights easier. For example, our first time fighting Ingis my husband tanked and I shattered the adds. He would call out to me when and where he was pulling the adds and I was there to help. Healers can talk to each other if things start to go south and a tank/healer couple generally have a good sense of what the other person is doing (ie – are they ready or are they in the kitchen getting beers).

We've gone through every one of the dungeons in WoW and many of the raids without using Vent. Our method is for one or two people to explain the fight to anyone new (or in need of a refresher), people ask questions and then we go in. Sometimes we have a learning curve with a wipe or two but once we all know our role we can down the boss. I think that in this way getting achievements or doing content the first time really feels like a genuine achievement. You have to remember things like "am I supposed to stand still during FLAME WREATH or run around and kill the raid" or "I know the Zombie Chow is heading toward Gluth but Decimate is not up – I'll let the kiters do their job and continue burning the boss down".

Of course, this would all be easier if we all communicated through Vent to each other. We could say, "Don't. Stand. In. Stuff" and know that we were heard, rather than frantically type it and hope that we notice it in party/raid chat. Sometimes lines of text get lost in guild chat or in item rolls which is bad if you miss an "afk 1 sec".

Pros of Vent:

Explaining fights would be easier.

Easier to correct mistakes or apologizing for said mistakes.

We could understand sarcasm better.

We could hear the angelic voices of our guild (and I know at least one of them has a great singing voice!)

Cons of Vent:

Doesn't it cost money?

We might lose our fast typing skills!

People might find out that I'm a girl!

With Deadly Boss Mods, raid warnings, quick typers and an overall very capable guild, we may not need Vent. However, it might be worth it to hear everyone especially while celebrating when we down a boss for the first time!

Fa-la-la-la-la Ogri-WTF!!

2009-12-16T15:40:00.001-04:00

You do not have to do the group quest chain in Blades Edge to open up the Ogrila quests now (hooray!). A few of us grouped up to help some alts farm the shards and also because it's more fun with a group. After we had collected enough shards we all set off to do the bombing run.

As the three others got their achievement and I was ready to hit "Print Scrn" to document my achievement but nothing happened because I had dismounted before handing in!

Durr – I felt a little dumb and much eyerolling (on my part) ensued. You can guide this hunter by the hand and dress me up in fancy gear, but I will still manage to be a bonehead from time to time!

Ah well, I'll just do it this evening and perhaps finish off the last 10 quests there for the Outland Loremaster Achievement.

BTW - You can now use your mount in the Pools of Vision in Thunder Bluff! Yippee!

wait a minute....

2009-12-12T11:09:00.000-04:00

My druid got to exalted with Sons of Hodir this morning. I know the shoulder enchants are bind on account now so you can choose if you want to grind rep with these friendly giants. It's still a nice chunk of gold to farm and the herbs - they are plentiful.

Today I noticed a few changes in the dailies:

When flying through Brunnhildar Village you do not turn into a blue lady. At least while in flight form. This is sad only for the comedic affect of flying through the air like Superman when passing through that village. I didn't test it out, but I hope you remain hilariously oversized while mounted.

The Hot and Cold daily now requires 6 essence of ice instead of 5. The drop rate seems to be 100% until you get to 6 (note that the essences of ice do not stack in 6's so you'll need another spot in your inventory).

I'm sure the drake for Thrusting Hodir's Sword takes on a different route than before. I used to start that quest just outside the Frozen Fortress, circle around and end up in almost the same place but today I ended up in Brunnhildar.

The end.

My First Post (12 months late)

2009-12-12T05:50:00.000-04:00

Aww,

Here's something I drafted back in January when I started having notions of starting a blog. How far we've come in a year!

____________________________________________________

Okay – first post is always the hardest - doing this like taking off a band aid. You just have to get it over with.

This blog is just various items – it'll be probably be my World of Warcraft adventures mixed with posts about cupcakes and/or pastry goods with a smattering of crafts. I've invested a lot of time, money and caloric intake into each.

WoW-wise I don't have much to offer because I'm crap at stats and strategies. I play a hunter and a druid as my two "mains"…but there are lots, lots more alts. Some are banks and some are jokes and some just sit in Ogrimmar until I can bear going back to Stonetalon Mountains.

Pastry-wise I know a thing or two (about consuming them). Over the past few months I've jumped on the cupcake bandwagon to try a few different things. My favourite has been the Sprinkles Strawberry cupcake recipe because of it's very flavourful and very, very pink icing (it tastes exactly like strawberry ice cream). My next adventure might be these chocolate bread pudding cupcakes. Still not sure what way I'm going to go.

I used to do way more crafts and sewing before playing WoW, but I still love to peruse the aisles at Michaels and I. Love. Glitter.

We've recently started getting in the Wrath heroics. It's been fun and frustrating and disappointing at the same time. I'm still waiting for that crossbow to drop in Heroic UK, but so far, nada. I'm not sure what my first piece of badge gear will be – most likely the neck piece, although the tier 7 gloves do look tempting.

Sweet!

2009-12-10T19:06:00.001-04:00

Blizzard is holding a dessert contest! WoW and desserts are two of my favourite things! I don't know if I'll have time to do anything with Chrismtas a-comin' but I will try!

The prize is nice, many of those books are great. Currently I'm just barely choking down the War of the Ancients trilogy. Richard Knaak's power to bore knows no bounds. At this point I would rather quest in Azshara than read about her.

With This Ring, I Thee Heal

2009-12-10T16:37:00.001-04:00

I healed a Forge of Souls alt run last night. Two ret palidans, 1 death knight and a feral tank. It was fine until the last boss when the palidans died followed by the tank dying just as the boss went down. The Death Knight (my husband) remained at full health.

Did I subconsciously heal him more than the others because we're married and I'm honour bound to save his life at all costs? Or did he stay out of the purple stuff? I guess we'll never know.

2009-12-09T19:12:00.001-04:00

The Devourer of Souls is hands down the funniest bit of voice acting in WoW.

ZOONS!

2009-12-08T16:46:00.000-04:00

Chawa must have been reading over my shoulder because I was drafting a post on the exact same topic. Out of the patch notes the one that caught my eye today was the new emote to say “You’re Welcome”. Using it to be polite is awesome, but even better when you can be passive aggressive and/or sarcastic at the same time. For example, a fun time to use it would be just before you kill a rogue in a BG. “You’re Welcome!” [KILL SHOT]. (jerk)

So “thanks”, Chawa, for posting before me and “thanks” for saying it much better than I could have. Actually, that last “thanks” should not have been in air quotes because that part wasn’t sarcastic – or was it? (heart you!)

The patch is here and the heroic dailies are gone. I did not manage to get the Proof of Demise achievement. The few times Old Kingdom was the daily I shunned it for being ridiculously hard. I love our healers but they are just VILE AND MEAN AND IMPOSSIBLE TO KILL during the Insanity phase.

No matter – with all the new content and instances we will soon all forget about those old dungeons, like Occulus, which despite any changes will always be stupid and most likely smell like farts.

Don't You Wish Your Girlfriend Cooked Dinner Like Me?

2009-12-07T18:16:00.004-04:00

Our guild has a lot of foodies and, from personal experience, a lot of great cooks. Guild chat conversations sometimes get steered towards food discussions and suggestions. A long time ago I had aspirations of starting a cooking blog. As you can see it’s not going getting a lot of love right now, but I am going to try to post a few things like recipes/pictures/etc. These are recipes that I intend to make for our Christmas dinner (which will probably be either on Boxing Day or later) and around the holidays.

For The Christmas Tree!

2009-12-06T18:27:00.007-04:00

To get into the Christmas and Winter Veil spirit I made some Horde ornaments for our "tree".

With a bit of sparkly red felt, a little jingle bell, some thread and some ribbon you too can make this fun craft!

A few of them tacked to our tree (which is made of cardboard, wrapped in paper).

A close up to show you all the sparkles - it's not Christmas without glitter! Yay Glitter!

I hope you guys like them!

10 more sleeps!

2009-12-06T10:30:00.001-04:00

Christmas is coming upon us quickly and soon the stores and streets will be full of cheery shoppers and tables will be bending under delicious turkeys, pies and sweets.

This is our first Christmas together in our own place so we've decided to stay in the city. We'll eat a big breakfast starring bacon, with an appearance by hollandaise sauce but croissants will certainly steal the show. After coffee and presents we'll most likely turn to WoW for a bit and then to our parents for tasty turkey dinner! We'll end the evening as we've done in the past by watching the Doctor Who Christmas episode. I'm already feeling cozy and festive just by typing this!

But before Christmas is here we've got another fun world event jingling towards us! Winter Veil!! You may have your shopping done for your sweet heart, but do you have your Winter Veil presents wrapped yet? Azeroth is like a giant mall and there are no lines at any of the stores! In fact most of the gifts you can give are ones that are free - as long as you are fine with a bit of bloodshed. I know you are!!!

A few stacks of wool cloth might be nice for a lowbie alt to help them level first aid or tailoring.

If you've got a high level tailor why not make their alt a few frostweave bags? I always find questing and grinding much more enjoyable when I do not have to struggle with inventory space.

Or maybe run them through a low level dungeon for some nice twink items. With all that empty inventory from their new bags they are free to collect all that wonderful garbage that at one point you may have coveted.

But what if your husband/wife/girlfriend/boyfriend/BFF has 10 characters all over level 70 and most sitting at 80? What do you give them if they already have 20 stacks of chilled meat for the cooking dailies?

Most of the ideas I have either use an exorbitant amount of game gold or even a considerate amount of real money. The two in-game pets that Blizzard released are pretty cute. There may be some pets on the AH house to get that could potentially set you back a bit of gold - everyone likes pets right?. A piece of crafted epic gear for a high level alt would be a nice gift too!

The best gift of all, of course, it that of time. Spending time with your significant nerd either in the game or snuggled up eating cookies and drinking eggnog is the best gift to give and won't cost you anything! (aww)

Besides, Winter Veil is all about having fun and wearing a gnome costume!

Death Knight <3

2009-12-05T18:42:00.003-04:00

Coincidently with Chawa's recent post, I have fallen a bit smitten with my Death Knight too! Ploughing my way through Outland has been very enjoyable. This morning I was 63 and now I'm halfway to 68. (Yes I played all day - what of it!?)

I think that I would like trying to tank with him in Northrend. I like the ability of pulling casters more reliably. Feral tanking is fun, but there are times when I just cannot see what is going on other than how good my behind looks.

We're off for birthday dinner at our favorite place: The Hungry Chili! Hot numbing chicken here I come! Followed by hot numbing cake perhaps?

edit: hello Northrend! Goodbye Outland you peepee-soaked heck hole!

2009-12-04T00:00:00.000-04:00

Yippee! Our second venture into Ulduar gave us a few achievements! Hooray for Hot Pocket!
("Why did she link that?" /singsong voice)

Have I mentioned that AWESOME GUILD IS AWESOME??? I love when we get bosses down after a few "learning curves" - I could hug each and everyone of you in person but that would be a lot of traveling!

The Horde & Cake: A Happy Marriage

2009-11-30T15:08:00.000-04:00

PinkCakeBox makes the most fabulous looking cakes with realistic gumpaste flowers and whismical little fondant people. Just looking at their pictures fills me with sugary happiness! Today they feature a Warcraft themed Groom's cake, but this could easily be for a gamer-bride! It's a little Horde hut complete with an orc! Be sure to take a peek at all their gorgeous and dramatic cakes that anyone would be lucky to have at their event. I'm sure they are as tasty as they look, but how could you bring yourself to cut into them!?

For our wedding we gave the Groomsmen copies of the game and time cards (or maybe it was just time cards?). That was the only mention of World of Warcraft. The guys went down the aisle to a Mark Mothersbaugh jingle from Rushmore, I floated down the aisle to Moon River. The girls carried gorgeous bouquets of handcrafted paper flowers. My father married us in the most delightful, sweetest and touching ceremony ever. Then we went on to celebrate and ate pink wedding cake.

If I were planning our wedding now I would have my husband carry an Ogrimmar banner with his Groomsmen following behind beating drums, wearing Horde tabards (over suits). I would have walked down the aisle to Lady Sylvanas' haunting melody with rose petals following me! There would be penguins, pandas and pachyderms following us! My Dad would have dressed up as Thrall to give his Warchief Blessing! Then we would all dance, eat and kick gnomes hired for our special day!

The wedding cake would remain PINK.

Sigh! A girl can dream, can't she?

ding!

2009-11-29T22:58:00.000-04:00

I can't believe that this guy turned out to be my third 80!

Now I can go to bed.

Stuffed!

2009-11-26T16:09:00.000-04:00

I got the Pilgrim title last evening thanks to a very kind dwarf idling outside of the Dalaran bank. Also a /cheer to a kindly Draenei Shaman, Daresa, who shared the boat from Darnassus with me and passed food to me at the Exodar table – even though I was flagged and had to kill one of their guards. After murder, I build up an appetite that only can only be satisfied by eating cranberry sauce.

Favourite part of this holiday? My very own PIE CHAIR MINION. How I would love to have one of these in real life! The pie selection has something to be desired and pumpkin is not my favourite. WTB lemon pie chair!

As a quick follow up to yesterday’s post, we’re celebrating American Thanksgiving this year at the Propeller Brewery on Saturday! It’s one of our very tasty (okay favourite) local craft breweries! I’m particularly fond of their honey wheat beer and I think it will go well with the apple pie cookies I’m bringing (via Evil Shenanigans).

WTB: One dwarf rogue!

2009-11-25T14:45:00.000-04:00

It’s Thanksgiving in America as well as Azeroth. This week If you find yourself reading this blog from either of those locales I hope that you have an excellent holiday with your family . We celebrate American Thanksgiving with a dear friend of mine who moved to Canada a few years ago from Ohio. We all gather with delicious hot dishes and celebrate all that we are thankful for: our friends, family and a life rich with love. I have to say that I love to see a group of people gathering around cooking up a storm!

The first year I made the candied yams , a dish that is rare on Canadian Thanksgiving tables, and under close supervision I made the dish according to his instructions. This dish starts with sliced sweet potatoes. Okay, I’m down with that. Yum – sweet potatoes are delicious in curry as well in French fry form. Then you add a bottle of corn syrup. Not a cup, not a tablespoon, an entire bottle. Intrigued? Well you’ll love what comes next: a modest sprinkle of a ¼ cup of brown sugar! Just like Mom makes it! Actually, this was exactly like his mother makes it so I had to oblige.

You bake this confectionary for about an hour. The sweet potatoes soften and the sauce becomes thick and syrupy. Thanksgiving is surely complete once it is golden brown.

But wait. It’s not ready. There is yet another layer to make it a classic side dish. Just before you serve you sprinkle a layer of marshmallows on top and stick under the broiler until golden brown or just slightly scorched.

This dish tastes like you think it would. Awful. The mushy starch that tastes nothing of sweet potato with sickly sweet syrup and marshmallow that is so out of place. However, the look on my friend's face as he ate a forkful of it was priceless. Like he had gone home and relived all his happiest Thanksgiving memories in an instant. Or maybe he was going into a sugar coma.

Either way he loved it and I smiled politely while pushing mine to the side. I love my friend and his traditions, but you can’t put gravy on candied yams with good result and therefore, they are taking up valuable plate real estate which I could fill with a second scoop of mashed potatoes.

So happy (American) Thanksgiving and happy turkey hunting in Tirisfal Glades everyone! I just need to find one stinking dwarf rogue and preferably not while they are murdering the hell out of me in Wintergrasp!

Happy Five Years!

2009-11-23T19:51:00.001-04:00

Another WoW-iversary! Even though I have only been playing since 2007 World of Warcraft has been in my life since it’s release. At first it was a curiosity. I liked watching my boyfriend (now husband) play his Orc Shaman and I giggled every time his undead warrior hissed “Need more rage!”.

There was a short peroid where it became an annoyance mainly because I would have to wait to check my email :P

I’m not one to suffer in silence and a quick solution was to get me playing video games. We got a Game Cube and I got loads of enjoyment out of Zelda: Wind Waker and It’s a Wonderful Life (and it’s sequel, “It’s Another Wonderful Life”) where I literally farmed for hours and hours.

In February of 2007 I asked if I could make a character and was very excited when I found out you could wear DRESSES! I settled on a Female Draenei Preist and my very patient husband guided me through the first few levels chuckling as I talked to my character and the environment and freaking out if I saw another player. We could both see that I was enjoying myself so it was suggested that if I wanted to play with my husband and our friends I would have to roll Horde. I immediately went through the Hordes races and classes and chose my Tauren Hunter.

He’s still my favourite. To this day I still squeal with delight when I click on his character screen before logging in. Pacheco and I have been through a lot. Sometimes he is awesome and is up to his muscely tits in dps and other times he does stupid things like stand in stuff that kills him and keeps viper sting on through Patchwerk. I’ve given and taken away his pets, I’ve spent his gold on very frivolous items without too much thought and I’ve made him do all of the Silithus quests leading up AQ. Yet he still continues to delight me with his deep throaty chuckle and his Peanut Butter Jelly Time dance. Even with three fingers he is so deft with a gun and a bow only misses occasionally, bless him. And he occaisionally wears dresses :)

I’ve had a zeppelin load of fun immersed in Azeroth made even more enjoyable by spending it with my husband and our dear/amazing guild. Happy Five Years World of Warcraft! Let’s all have a big dance party with our Onyixan welps!

Thank you Blizzard!

Well Fed!

2009-11-17T22:16:00.000-04:00

Either I'm a great cook or Manny has eaten all of the other pets in my stable because he is one well fed puppy!

Raid for the Cure!

2009-11-14T17:24:00.000-04:00

What a fun event to bring servers and factions together! You can't go wrong with a sea of pink!

/cheer for Julie, our mothers, sisters, friends and loved ones all around!

Happy Wrath-iversary! Let's Eat Cake!

2009-11-13T13:27:00.000-04:00

One year ago today I sewed some pink sparkly "FTW" letters onto a toque. Donned my Horde t-shirt over my Coronation Street long sleeve shirt. Over top of my coat was my [4th] Doctor Who-esque scarf with some rainbow gloves to match.

Suitably clad in as much warm geek wear as I could find, my husband and I stood in a short line at the Future Shop for an hour or so waiting for 12:00am to get our hands on Wrath of the Lich King. We stood behind a girl dressed as either Lady Sylvanas or a basic night elf hunter. We didn't want to ask, but kudos to her for standing in the freezing cold with just some boots and a cape. (She got second place in the costume contest which got her to the front of the line and a copy of the Collector's Edition.)

When we got our game back home and after a long installation due to some computer memory issues I was in EPL with Gov doing a few of the DK starter quests. Nearing 1:30am I hopped over to Pacheco who was eagerly awaiting the boat to Northrend as well as getting XP for the first time in months. I was so tired, but knew that I couldn't sleep without peaking into Borean Tundra and seeing all the new animals I could skin. :)

Over the year I've only managed to get 2 level 80s and three others into Northrend, but the game is still fun for me. As a guild we have had an awesome time raiding, getting loads of achievements and just having a great time together - which is the most important part!

I think we should all gather in the Dalaran Inn tomorrow for cake and a bit of dancing! mmm cake!

And now for a bit a gravy

2009-11-12T18:01:00.000-04:00

Some days my kitchen is a bit like World of Warcraft. I could spend the whole day happily cooking, cleaning and organizing and feel like I’ve accomplished a lot. I’ll cook a fantastic meal and feel like it’s a true achievement. Ones like:

Over the years my kitchen armoury is also beginning to grow. It started out with [white] items like hand-me-down dishes, which I still use from time to time because I love them or glasses/cups procured through beer purchases (which I sort of hate). Things that will be replaced at some point but work for now.

Blue items I use almost everyday and are of very good quality. My Paderno pot and skillet, for example, are sure to last me a long time and I have been consistently good to me since they were purchased in 2004.

Then there are my epic pieces. These are the large ticket items that not only do amazing things to boost my cooking and baking skill but also look incredibly gorgeous. The red KitchenAid Mixer sat patiently in a box for three years before it found a home on our counter in the new apartment. I try to incorporate it into my weekend baking and cooking as much as possible. It mixes my batters, needs dough, whips icing and mashes potatoes! I love it so much and would encourage everyone to get one in his or her kitchen.

The Le Creuset French Oven is a recent aquisition that I had been lusting after for a while. This extraordinary pot is used everyday. Every. Day. I once wondered why anyone would pay that much for a pot. Now I want my entire kitchen decked out in Le Crueset cookware because of its high quality and gorgeous orange colour. From boiling water to roasting chickens, this beauty will not let you down.

There are loads of “dailies” involved too like dishes, cleaning and sweeping but let’s be honest – I don’t even do in-game dailies everyday. Sometimes you just have log off (or take a nap).

New Guild Website!

2009-11-07T09:54:00.001-04:00

Hey - I made a guild website! I don't know quite what I'm doing yet or what will become of it. But it might be fun for a while!

www.TheZugInitiative.guildlaunch.com

I'll post an ingame code so you can all join! Crossing my fingers that it will work!

Is it Christmas? /rubs eyes

2009-11-06T14:31:00.001-04:00

I woke up to a snow covered Halifax today. (grr)

Sleepily and automatically I was in front of the computer to check email when I saw the most wonderful message - an in-game item had been purchased for me! What a wonderful husband I have!

This will make clearing Naxx all the more delightful :)

Now I have to go over to the WoWLadies LJ to Squee-Squee-Squee all the way home!

HOW CUTE!!!

Ugh, a PuG

2009-11-05T22:50:00.000-04:00

Just because I play a game with 40 Million people doesn't mean I want to meet everyone of them!
You get Perky Pug by doing random dungeons with random groups. I hope that you can also get it just by doing the random dungeons :)

It is pretty cute though...is it worth the pain and suffering of being with four strangers who may or may not know the dungeon or their class? Or worse, know your class more than you?

In other patch news, Tranquility is getting a shortened cool down to 8 mins (from 10 min). This makes me happy! It's a favourite spell of mine - a chorus of pixies sings their haunting healing song and the air sparkles! It's pretty much my life in a nutshell.

Can I get a blog-roll please!!

2009-11-05T10:21:00.000-04:00

I have to give a /shoutout to my wonderful friends and guildmates at The Wayward Initiative . Chawakanda is a fellow Tauren Hunter so you know the girl’s got style! Plus she is a wicked player, achiever, PvP Queen and all around the kindess person you can meet (unless you are a gnome – those hooves are made for kicking and Kill Shot'ting your ass dead). DarthRegis, a founding father of The Zug Initiative is a long time friend and in the land of Best Men - he reigns as King,

I always welcome another blog to read and comment on while at work, because let’s be honest, I don’t have time in the evenings! That's for cooking and playing WoW and thinking about chores!

Welcome guys!

Sarth + 1!

2009-11-01T22:25:00.000-04:00

When an achievement really feels like an achievement.... :)

This fight has a lot going on, one of them being that it is impossible to see what is going on - and that was only DPS.

stupid flame wall!

When Worlds Collide

2009-10-31T11:05:00.000-03:00

Harry Potter meets World of Warcraft! The Griffindor team just got a whole lot beefier!

2009-10-30T13:35:00.000-03:00

I am so looking forward to this day to be over…Dinner and drinks with friends and then raiding with the guild! That’s a perfect Friday evening for me!

I’m only one Hallowed Helm short of getting Hallowed on my Mage but at this point I am so sick of The Horseman and his stupid rings that I don’t care if I get it or not. Just crossing my fingers that I’ll get it from Trick or Treating.

Loremaster Kalimdor!

2009-10-25T09:42:00.000-03:00

Completed by escorting the robot chicken in Tanaris :)

Now the Cataclysm can come and reshape Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms and I'll feel that I've visited every nook and cranny of the old world.

I fear that Outlands Loremaster is next on my list - anyone want to help me become King of the Ogres? They loved me in Dire Maul!

GNERD RAGE!!!

2009-10-21T19:39:00.000-03:00

That's right - I did Wintergrasp! Wheee!!!

Loremaster of the Eastern Kingdoms?

2009-10-08T23:03:00.000-03:00

CHECK!

I got this achievement by doing the “Another Message to Wildhammer” quest line. Even though it’s called Loremaster I certainly didn’t read all the text for the 550 quests. Why did those trolls in Grom’gol need blue crystals from goblins? Dunno – don’t care!

It was much the same when I went through the “Well Read” Achievement. It did cross my mind that the books were written and put into the game as little bit of extra lore so I should read them. But a few times I had Alliance guards booting my butt around so many times I just clicked them and was off again. Stupid Alliance!

WTB 70 quests in Kalimdor! From what I’ve read on forums, this one is the challenge, especially for Horde. I’ve also read that the quests for Mauradon count towards the achievement, but we’ll see how desperate I get.

How's My Healing?

2009-10-04T08:08:00.000-03:00

It is sure to be short-lived but I have been enjoying playing Ianto again. We shall see how long it lasts, but healing low level stuff has been ejoyable.

Misdirect>Serpent Sting>Explosive Shot>Black Arrow>Steady Shot>KILL SHOT

2009-10-02T10:50:00.000-03:00

From the 3.3 patch notes:

Hunters

Misdirection: Redesigned. Instead of having finite charges, it now begins a 4-second timer when the hunter using Misdirection performs a threat-generating attack, during which all threat generated by the hunter goes to the friendly target. In addition, multiple hunters can now misdirect threat to the same friendly target simultaneously.

This is a sweet, sweet change. Since we hunters put out such AWESOME DPS misdirect is a blessing. Wait, no, Feign Death is a blessing… When I see a fellow hunter cast misdirect before me I shake my fist in frustration (at myself for not getting there first). But now we can all cast it and blow our dps loads up front and not have to worry about getting too much aggro.

The four-second timer should enable us to squeeze out an extra shot or two. Another win for Hunters everywhere!

2009-10-01T14:00:00.000-03:00

@darthregis Nice work on the BBB reply! Well said!

I’m ticking away at Loremaster (Eastern Kingdoms & Kalimdor) on Pacheco. I am very far away (440/550 and 535/685) from the stage where I’m trying to find quests. I skipped a lot while levelling this toon mostly due to the fact that I shit-scared a lot of the time. Sometimes I would abandon quest chains because I didn’t want to go back to the place I had just been or did not pick up quests that were in the same area. Escort quest? No thanks! Lots of group quests were ignored because up until about my 30’s (when the guild formed) I did not want to talk to anyone and I didn’t respond to /whispers from strangers. In a game with millions of people I preferred to be left alone (and that’s generally still the case).

Sometimes it is boring do all the back and forth traveling and grinding but I’m thinking of it as a way to pay homage to the zones before they get destroyed/reshaped. I could also do this by playing any one of my level 20 alts, but Pacheco gets the “honour”.

We'll be right back after these messages...

2009-09-23T15:14:00.000-03:00

I am looking forward to delving into all that Patch 3.2.2. has to offer, but I’m currently watching True Blood and until I finish season 2 there is nothing happening in our house. Seriously this is an awesome show and I’m not saying that because of the hot vampires being their sexy selves, but I’m not not saying that. Okay, I am saying that.

I haven’t even read the patch notes or looked at the Onyxia encounter. I did try to do some Brewfest stuff, but I got a little confused…I’m just a girl you know.

I did the fishing daily that you have to do in Wintergrasp over the weekend. Even though I was barely in WG, there was no one around and it was 6:00am server with an hour until the next battle, I have never been so tense while fishing.

2009-09-18T08:41:00.001-03:00

Because everyone is still in summer-break spirit I have levelled cooking (350) and fishing (280). All because of those silly achievements…and possibly the chef’s hat reward.

8 hours later...

2009-04-26T17:03:00.000-03:00

1 Spring Rabbit's foot: 100 chocolates
1 set Spring Robes: 50 chocolates
1 bunch of Spring flowers: 50 chocolates
Chocoholic achievement: 100 chocolates

Finding the Spring Rabbit's foot immediately after you pay the vendor for it? priiiiiceless!!

310 chocolates later, elegant dress x 2, tuxedo shirt x4 and tuxedo pants x 6 a tour around the deserts of Azeroth and a very grueling hour searching for females who seemed to all be hiding (blood elves aside):

My favourite item is the Spring Circlet. That gem will sit in my bank for a long, long time. So I guess it was worth it?

Naxx Cleared!

2009-04-26T08:30:00.000-03:00

In our guild first (well, guild + 1 more) we cleared Naxx in one lockout! I love when an achievement feels like an achievement and this was a shining moment for us.

I found the fights pretty intense but very fun as a hunter. There was an "oh shit" moment when I found myself planted directly behind Sapphirion's swishing tail - whoops! That fight isn't all that SV friendly as you are constantly repositioning yourself running from blizzards and frantically searching for an ice block; Sniper Training doesn't get much of a chance to proc. For Kel'thuzad, once you fight a sweet spot that is not near anyone else you are golden.

I got Claymore of Ancient Power from Four Horsemen last night which made me very happy. A pink sword?! Holler.

Passive Aggressive Guild LF1M Naxx:

2009-04-24T11:58:00.001-03:00

Must begin by appearing to know their class in order to give us a false sense of security;

Must claim to know boss encounters;

Must proceed to ignore all boss mechanics including but not limited to:

1. Standing in place when injected on Grobbulous, killing healers;

2. AoE'ing Zombie Chow when decimate is not active; and

3. Standing in one place on Thaddius regardless of charge.

Must type nonsensically in chat while others are explaining raid strategies.

Rolling on all gear is a must and winning 75% of said rolls, including shards, would be an asset.

(There, I've qq'd about it – I can move on.)

Turns out it was worth it

2009-04-20T23:21:00.001-03:00

25g later and Thunderbluff FTW! This might be the most blah of all the Horde doublets, but I couldn't not buy it!

10/25 Valiant Seals today :)

Me Want

2009-04-19T09:20:00.000-03:00

Holy Hot Damn - I thought that the Argent Tournament was just all mounts and tabards and feeling all Knighty...but the Staff of Feral Furies actually gives me something to grind for. Once for my hunter and again for my druid. :)

Bless you Blizzard for making weapons on Taurens look so hilariously oversized, bless you!

I like the shirts you can buy from the souvenier vendor, however, you can't see them with your tabard and gear. At 25g you'll have to decide if its worth it to know what faction you are sporting without others seeing your colours.

Today I should be getting to the Argent Valour acheivement . Yay!

A hunting I will Go

2009-04-15T19:55:00.000-03:00

How did I miss this change? The Nagrand Nesingwary quests have been shortened to 12 kills as opposed to 30 kills?

(My 6 alts who haven't been there sing in harmony)

2009-04-14T18:47:00.002-03:00

Here it is: Patch 3.1!

Things I’m excited for.

Dual specs (obvs). I respecced my druid tank to resto just to see if I liked healing before I laid down the gold. It’s fine and I think that I’m okay to go ahead with it. I still tend to freak out and smash at random buttons. I will more thank likely possibly my priest, who I have been power levelling for the past two weeks. My hunter will stay SV.

Black Arrow. It will be cool to have a DoT shot that isn’t serpent sting. It will make me feel special, and when hunters are a dime/dozen anything helps.

Argent Tournament. Just to find out what the heck it is.

Watching the Ulduar cinematic again. Any time Thrall leaves Ogrimmar you know it’s serious biz. It’s pretty fun and the voice acting for Bronzebeard somehow isn’t quite as atrocious as the Halls of Stone event (blech!). Also, Rhonin could sound a teensy bit more manly, but that’s just the lorenerd in me.

Waiting for the servers to go online...

Warcraft Cupcakes!

2009-04-06T21:18:00.000-03:00

I made these cupcakes for a little guild gathering on the weekend. They are chocolate chocolate chip and were quite delicious.

For the symbols, I just used a horde template and cut them out of red fondant. The hearthstones are white chocolate with a little blue fondant to make the swirl. I also dusted them with some iridescent sparkles to make 'em special. The Zug Zug's are just some piped chocolate.

They were a lot of fun to make!

2009-03-24T18:35:00.000-03:00

One more WoW blog to add to the millions. I don't know much about stats or strats - but I know that I love Taurens! You should too!

/wave