cowabunga, and so forth.

Holy moly, where have I been?  Lost in my own head somewhere.  But I’m popping out of my narcissistic stupor for a moment to say, “Hello, Internets!”  And because I know you missed me, it’s time for another edition of…

What is Caro thinking right now?

  • I found the perfect underwear.  They’re simple, they’re comfortable, and they’re the granny-panties of my dreams.  Every time I put them on, I feel like my butt is getting a big, soft, warm hug.  I mean, wouldn’t you hug your butt if it was physically possible?  Sure you would.
  • I celebrated a birthday somewhere toward the end of January, and I spent most of it moping.  However, I did remember to treat myself to an online shopping spree of epic proportions.  And then I celebrated by slathering myself with Philosophy’s Vanilla Birthday Cake and Buttercream Frosting body washes.  My shower smells like a bakery, which helps me forget about the fact that I have too much gray hair for a 24-year-old, and that I still can’t wash away that unsightly bathtub ring.
  • Bonus points if you got the TMNT reference in that last sentence.
  • A certain popular video game expansion pack that was released a couple weeks ago has given me a reason to live play WoW again.  Sheara will get to level 70 if only because she needs a flying mount to be able to fish the highland lakes in Terokkar Forest.  No, really.  Raiding?  What?  I pay 15 bucks a month to fish!  Level 66 and counting.
  • All hail the mighty Tax Refund!
  • Three letters:  Dee Vee Arrrrrr.  That’s right.  The S.O. and I finally joined the 21st century and signed up for digital cable, complete with DVR.  When he was little, my brother the bird bladder (sorry J!) would sit down with the rest of the family to watch TV, and five minutes into the show he’d say, “Mum, pause it, I need to go to the bathroom.”  My mother would respond with, “You can’t pause television, silly.”  Now, eighteen years later, my bro’s bird bladder dreams have been realized.  Who’s the silly one now, huh!?!  HUH?!?!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be in the living room, obsessively pausing and rewinding 24.  Just because I can.

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weekend recap

Happy Halloween, Voxers!

I’d been meaning to write about our Boston trip, but MMS caught up to me.  Unfortunately there are no documentary photos to go along with this, as I never got a chance to buy film for my Olympus XA-2 point-and-shoot, and I didn’t want to drag the big, digital Pentax *ist D around.  Apologies, though this entry is not entirely without illustration.

I have to admit, I went into this trip feeling ambivalent for a number of reasons:

1) It’s a long drive from Bangor to Boston, and we weren’t familiar with the area at all.  We actually stopped and spent the night in Portland, waking up early Saturday morning to head south instead of doing the whole trip down in one night.  This wasn’t the original plan, but was a good idea nonetheless.  We got lost in Boston even in daylight, so trying to navigate the neighborhood at midnight would have been hell.

2) I’m not a city girl, and the S.O. is even less a city boy.  We’re country mice.  I love the idea of living within walking distance of everything you could possibly want to do or see, but the crowds kill me.  2-3 days in the big city and I’m ready to see wide open spaces again.

3) I knew that we’d only have a short amount of time to explore, and while I certainly wanted to see some sights, the original reason we were there was to see my friend and her future hubby.  I hadn’t really thought about it until she brought it up, but we hadn’t actually seen each other in three years!  Where the hell does the time go?  Anyway, rushing around from one stop to another like regular tourists wasn’t going to work, ’cause there was much catching up to do.

4) Finally, we planned this entirely at the last minute, and spontenaiety is not my strong suit.  The fact that we went through with it at all is a tribute to the S.O.’s patience and my own ability to hold my silly nerves at bay.  I think I did particularly well considering I only flipped out at traffic once – a giant truck came flying up on our right side, and at the time I didn’t realize we’d moved from a two-lane high-way to a three-lane.  I thought said giant truck was trying to pass us in the breakdown lane, and this meant certain death for us in our tiny little Golf.   I’m such a dork.

Anyway, as is usually the case, I had absolutely nothing to worry about.  We had a great time and did quite a bit, all things considered.

First things first, shopping!  Because you can’t visit the big city without getting mall-ed at the mall (hah-hah).  We braved the weather and headed out to the monstrousity known as the CambridgeSide Galleria.  The S.O. drooled himself silly at the Apple store (iPods) and Borders (Sony’s new book reader), while my friend and I shopped for clothes (mostly for her, some for me).  I found the best scarf and hat at Old Navy, and thoroughly enjoyed my very first Cinnabon.  Yes, I said my first – I was a Cinnabon virgin until last weekend, and I didn’t know what I’d been missing.  I probably should have stayed in the dark, because if they ever bring Cinnabon to Bangor, they’ll have to roll me out of the store like Violet from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

But I digress.  After the shopping spree our legs and feet were quite sore, so we lunched at the California Pizza Kitchen, then headed to the science museum to catch an Imax movie about Greece history.  I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I was also an Imax virgin (giving my friend a second chance to look at me incredulously and say, “You’ve never what?!?”).  The movie was okay, but the experience itself was a riot.  Now I want to see all my favorite films on a 180-degree dome screen, just for the novelty factor.

After the film, we visited the Body Worlds 2 exhibit.  It was interesting, though I enjoyed it more for the art sculpture than for the human anatomy lesson.  I understood that these were real human body parts, plasticized, but everything still looked… well, like plastic.  I really had to admire the amount of work that went into each of the sculptures, though.  It’s an artform in its own right.

After the exhibit we crashed at my friend’s place, ordered take-out, and talked until all hours.  The next morning we got up early and headed out around 9 to explore Harvard and Harvard Square.  Taking the T was easy-breezy, and the S.O. only got panhandled once!  Good times!  I enjoyed my very first (so many firsts!) chocolate croissant from Au Bon Pain, then we wandered over to the Harvard Museum of Natural History (free admission to local residents, so my friend got us in at no cost).  I’m pretty sure I visited this particular museum as a child, but I didn’t realize it was so huge.  So many exhibits!  I particularly enjoyed the minerals exhibit, the glass flowers exhibit, and the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology.  I think we spent a good two hours wandering the place and still didn’t see everything, but by that point we needed to think about lunch, since the S.O. and I wanted to head back to Maine around 1 or 2.  I did stop at the museum’s gift shop before we left and bought a souvenir – Cranky – the most awesome little wind-up toy.  He’s currently sitting on my desk at work, holding up my tag from the natural history museum in his left paw.   I’m in love with him, and now I want an army of crazy wind-up toys from Kikkerland.

We also stopped at the Lush body shop in Harvard Square, where I almost lost my sense of smell from sniffing all the fancy soaps and washes and cremes.  Mmmm.  After fifteen minutes there, everything smelled like cocoa butter – my hands, my clothes, my S.O. (rawr!).  When we told him we were going to the Lush shop, the S.O. thought we were talking about a liquor store, and it might as well have been just that!  A place to get drunk on smelly stuff, mmmm, smelly stuff.  I passed on purchasing anything then, but I might have to order some Chocolate Whipstick lip balm.

Finally, we had a long lunch at UNO’s before it was off into the wild blue yonder.  All around, it was a great trip.  We didn’t get a chance to do everything I wanted (we never made it out to the pastry shops in the North end, and I would have liked to have spent more time at the museums) but I expected that much.  Next time we’ll have to take a couple days off from work and do a long weekend in the city, now that we know a bit more about the area firsthand.  Thanks to everyone who recommended things to see and do!

A quick gaming update:  The S.O. and I missed it since we were out of town, but our guild finally defeated Ragnaros on Saturday; this was only their second serious attempt, but they got him, even though half the “regular” raiders were off at Halloween parties or touring Boston (*ahem*).  Now we can officially say we’ve cleared Molten Core (though I’d like to see it for myself sometime soon!)  Since it seems the Burning Crusade expansion won’t hit the shelves until January 2007, it looks like we’ll all have a shot at trying Blackwing Lair as level 60’s.  Mmm, more dragons.

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can we skip friday entirely?

I have this burning desire to write something, but I have absolutely nothing to say.  Maybe this is a cry for attention.  Or perhaps I’m just desperate for the last 20 minutes of my work day to be over, and need whatever distraction I can possibly get.

So…

What is Caro thinking right now?:

  • I could really get into this bento thing.
  • I love my car, Tyrtle, a little green Volkswagen Golf.  It is a wonderful car, except this morning it leaked on me.  It seems there is a broken seal around the moonroof, because when the S.O. braked, water from last night’s rain came streaming into my lap.  Good morning, Caro!  Fancy a shower?
  • I do not have enough money to warrant having such a bad case of the gimme-gimmes.
  • There need to be more games like GrowCube.
  • Speaking of growing, my job is growing on me.  Growing on me like mold on stale bread.
  • I can walk!
  • I am going home to a new dishwasher!  Though word around the cubicle is, the S.O. left the house and forgot to turn off the tap.  I may be going home to a flooded kitchen, too.
  • 4:21?  It’s only 4:21?  Arrrgh!
  • Finally, I just want to take a moment to thank Mr. Columbus for making the upcoming three-day weekend possible.  Now if it would only get here faster.

 

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my other ride is a succubus!

Good news:  I am mobile!  As in, walking!  As in, HURRAH!

And being that I’ve spent the last three weeks cooped up in the house with nowhere to go and nothing to do (unless it involves the world of Azeroth), I spent most of the weekend jumping for joy on my not-entirely-healed-but-getting-there foot.

Saturday:  “We needa go here!  And there!  And here!  And over there!  And oh, look!  Shopping!  Movies!  Shopping!  Assembling furniture!  Rearranging furniture!  Cleaning!  There here there here there here WEEHEEEEEEEE.”

Sunday:  “Owwwwww, why does my foot hurt so much?”

Very surprised the S.O. didn’t shoot me full of tranquilizers, or better yet, break my other foot.  But no, being the wonderful S.O. that he is, he mostly just tried to keep up with me in his quiet, humble way.

In any case, it was a good weekend, full of movement.  And walking.  And did I mention the walking?  Grand.

In other exciting news, we’re getting a dishwasher.  One of those portable/convertible ones, on wheels.  This is particularly exciting because currently the only portable dishwasher in the house is yours truly (and I haven’t exactly been portable for the last few weeks!).  So, I’m being replaced by a GE Nautilus on Thursday, and we are purposely letting the dishes pile up in the sink until then, because what fun is a new dishwasher if you don’t have dirty dishes to wash?  That’s what I’m telling myself, anyhow.

Not Your Average Family Portrait
Mmm, Shiny Dead Things

And finally, it wouldn’t truly be an update unless I talked about WoW, would it?

My guild made its first attempt on Hakkar a week or so ago, and we killed him on the second try.  This was a particularly big accomplishment for us, since we’ve been running Zul’Gurub for over a year now – we can finally say we’ve cleared it.  Our recent success had us acting all, “C’mon Blizzard!  Why dontcha throw something hard our way for once, eh?  BRING IT!”

And then, there was Ragnaros.  Back to the drawing board, guild!

Meanwhile, Cyspar ventured into Dire Maul last night with a group of familiar faces:  Mom’s mage, Dad’s priest, the S.O.’s druid, a guild tank and myself.  The family that plays WoW together dies mercilessly together… many, many times.  Our objective:  To attempt Cyspar’s epic Dreadsteed quest.

Much glass chewing ensued, mostly because I’d forgotten how hard it is to run 5-man instances when you’re not outfitted in epics.  Situations that would be a piece of cake for Sheara are near-deadly for Cyspar.  It doesn’t help that I’m still not used to playing a DPS class instead of a healer – I spent most of the run watching health bars go up and down, and panicking when the tank dropped below 20%.  “Oh crap!  Gotta heal him!   Bandage, bandage, banda… oh, wait, we have a priest.  And a druid.  Right.  Throw a freakin’ shadow bolt now and again, won’t you?”

In the end, we succeeded… barely.  We survived the summoning ritual – waves upon waves of imps and big ugly demons – and defeated the dreadsteed itself, but died at the stinky feet of his ugly demon companion.  The entire thing had me shrieking obscenities at my laptop while the S.O. looked on in something that came precariously close to amusement (but he knows better than to admit it).  Thankfully we were able to run back as a group and defeat the big guy, and now Cyspar has a flaming, pointy, demon-horsey.  Rawr!

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you do not have the required proficiency for that item

Over the weekend I went to the local hospital’s walk-in clinic for a follow-up on The Foot Fiasco ™.

The good news is:  It’s not broken!  Hurrah!  Apparently the tiny line they thought was a fracture is actually my little toe’s joint.  I have weird-looking toe bones.  Go figure.

The bad news is:  I have what’s called a crush injury or contusion, and the bruise will take the same amount of time to heal.  So, I can’t ditch the crutches just yet, and I’m under strict orders to keep it wrapped, keep it elevated, keep it iced.  I really overdid it last week, so I took another day off yesterday and planted my butt firmly on the couch.

Of course, being couch-bound for another day gave Cyspar ample time to reach 60!  Hurrah!  Now she’s working on the warlock epic mount quest.

I’m so adding this shirt and these stickers to my Christmas wishlist.

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pardon, your rant is showing

*big sigh*  The whole broken foot thing was nice for the first couple days.  In the recent past I’d contemplated the idea of taking a day off just for the hell of it, and voila, a forced vacation!  Sweet, right?

Well, not really.

Cyspar not only made it to level 57, but she kept on going and reached level 58 over the weekend.  I have to say, though, that’s the most I’ve accomplished, outside of going back to work.

It is maddeningly frustrating to not just be able to hop off the couch and do something without making an ordeal of it, and even when I’m up, I’m limited as to what types of activities I can do.  Anything that involves carrying stuff is out, since both hands are usually grappling with the dreaded crutches.  Also, anything that requires standing for long periods of time is difficult… I can make it through a 10 minute shower before my right leg starts to cramp.  And stairs are only to be used in emergencies, which is great, because our bathroom at home is – you guessed it – upstairs.

True to his nature, the S.O. has been incredibly helpful, but I’m ultimately frustrated because I want to have freedom of movement again!  Also, not to have to wear a baggie over my stocking-ed foot when it rains, because I’m certain the high fashion gurus will back me up when I say Hannaford grocery bags are so not what they’re wearing in Paris these days.

My coworkers have taken to calling me “Hopalong,” which would be funny if it weren’t so true.  My 15 minute break involves crutching to the bathroom and back – down the loooong hallway, through two sets of (heavy!) fire doors, and into the tiny bathroom stall.  Thankfully the coworkers have also been great about getting lunch ready for me (yay for the 3-minute microwavable meal), or filling up my water bottle at the cooler, and they’ve managed to ask me only sixteen gajillion times “how on earth did you break your foot?”  I wish I could say I was bungee jumping in the Grand Canyon and the cord broke, while I managed to land on only one foot – the broken one – heroically saving a puppy in the process.  Unfortunately the real answer is, “I fell because I’m a klutz.”

And I do feel a bit silly about that, because only little old ladies “have a fall” and break things, right?  A few more weeks of this, though, and I’ll be shaking my crutches at strangers on the street and mumbling incoherantly to myself.  Just put me in Depends and call me Eleanor.

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a little clarification at table three, please.

Okay.  Stop the damn ride, I want off for a moment.

I may have, at one point or another, asked for something “exciting” to happen.  We all get bored with the daily grind once in a while, right?  Need something out of the ordinary to put a little spice in your life.

But when one asks for something exciting, one should perhaps be more clear about what “exciting” means to them.  Because apparently, to the powers that be, “exciting” means I will be spending the next three days planted firmly on my ass, and the next four weeks hobbling about on crutches.

So, yeah.  The S.O. and I weren’t ten minutes into a family gathering by the lake before I decided I just couldn’t take it anymore, and threw myself down a boat launch pad and broke my foot.  It’s only a small fracture, but tell that to my foot; one side turned purple and swelled up to the size of a golf ball.  Two hours in the Emergency Room, and they sent me home with a prescription for good drugs and a buddy splint.  I’m only hoping that work will understand, and allow me to work from home for a few days instead of forcing me to use what limited sick time I have.

Anyway!  In much better news, the accompanying illustration is a screenshot of Sheara standing before a really big, ugly dragon.  A really DEAD big, ugly dragon.  Wooohoo!  Prior to the foot-breakage, there was much dragon-slayage.  Sheara even picked up an 18-slot Onyxia Hide Bag.   And now that I’m stuck on the couch for a while, Cyspar will probably reach level 57 much faster than I’d originally anticipated.

I suppose there’s a silver lining to every dark cloud, no?

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QotD: Game On

What was the last game you played?

Hooboy, I dunno, this is a toughie.

Ummm.

*cough*

Last night was our regular Wednesday Molten Core Lucifron/Magmadar/Gehennas/Garr run.  I picked up these beauties!  /flex   That’s my fourth piece in the Prophecy set.

I also leveled my warlock, Cyspar, to 56.  Her last few levels went fast because she is always well-rested (in game terms), so she gets twice the experience for killing mobs.  Rested experience is also referred to as, “that experience you get when you neglectfully leave your character to do nothing but drink pints with the Orgrimmar Innkeeper for months at a time because you’re too busy kissing the floor of Onyxia’s Lair with your main character.”  If she ever gets there, Cyspar will be my second level 60 toon, but that’s a big “if”.

Unfortunately our server is down for hardware maintenance until Friday afternoonish, so I’m taking a brief, forced vacation from WoW.

*steps warily into the light of day, squinting, eyes bloodshot, face pale, fingers cramped*  My god, it’s bright out here!

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i ! because i care.

The holiday weekend was pretty uneventful in my little corner of the world.  The S.O. worked overtime all weekend, the unfortunate consequence of being employed by a university retail store at the start of the fall semester.  So I stayed at home and tried to keep busy by cleaning, leveling my warlock, shaving my legs (because I know you all wanted the intimate details of my shower-time endeavors), and watching season 3 of Nip/Tuck on DVD.  Oh, Julian McMahon, you’re cute, but it’s so hard to have a crush on you when you have the same name as my younger brother.

So, school’s in!  I’m currently registered for two classes, one of which I’m 85% sure I’m going to drop.  I glanced at the syllabus and the reading materials and wasn’t intrigued, but that’s what I get for registering for a class based solely on the title.  Pop!Tech sounded interesting at first, but from what I’ve read so far the course will be neither Pop-y nor Tech-y, and gratuitous use of the exclamation point annoys me.

I’ve come to the conclusion, post-graduation, that New Media was not the right major for me… so why would I willingly subject myself to more New Media courses?  Old habits die hard.  I really wanted to give my brain a (light, fun) work-out this semester, but I don’t know if this class is the way to get back into the academic groove, or if participating will just lead to frustration on my part.  I’ll give it a week or two.

On the other hand, I think my sit-down class will be fun, primarily because the only reading I’ll have to do involves sheet music.  It’s been years since I’ve sung in a formal chorus.  Hopefully my voice isn’t too rusty!

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corruption of the innocent

I am not supposed to eat the frosted animal crackers sitting on my desk right now.  Why?  Because I made the mistake of looking at the nutrition information while I was noting future food consumption for the day over at fitday.com.

I figured, hey, they’re animal crackers!  With frosting!  Wholesome childhood good-ness covered with sugar and those hard little confetti candies that could cut diamonds!  How bad can they be?

Oh, I really didn’t want to know.  I really didn’t want to know, because even if I were to successfully ignore the small bag on my desk, there’s still a giant bag of them at home, purchased on one of those dreadful, “I’m hungry, let’s go grocery shopping!” trips.

Damn you, Keebler, and all your little elves.

On another subject, I’m curious and have a question.  What do you do at work when you have one of “those days”?  And by “those days” I mean, “I should be working, but I can’t bring myself to do anything constructive, so I’m just going to make myself look busy while I’m really ____________”.

Fill in the blank!  I’ll go first.

  • Browsing photography Web sites.  Right now I’m enjoying the works of Lovisa Ringborg and Janieta Eyre.
  • Browsing for new WoW mods.  Someday I’ll teach myself how to code my own.  Right now I’m stuck on Serenity and Tinypad.
  • Catching up on For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston.
  • Charting my course around campus on Gmaps Pedometer.
  • Cursing cookie-worshipping, height-disadvantaged peoples in my Vox blog.
  • If I’m feeling adventurous, I’ll hit the “Stumble!” button on my browser’s Stumbleupon extension.  You never know what you’re going to get, though.
  • If I’m in a really masochistic mood, I’ll see what’s happening on the official WoW forums.  In case of emergency, break glass, slit wrists – that kind of mood.

And finally…

  • Avoiding, at all costs, the bag of frosted animal crackers on my desk.

*twitch*

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