Over the weekend I made some very wholesome food.

Slow Cooker Pork Ribs. I've used this recipe before. I follow it more or less exactly, except for the fact that James and I don't like to measure, so we just put in whatever amount of things we want; and we add most of an onion and a bottle of beer, mainly so we can refer to them as Beer Basted Boar Ribs. This is a great recipe and it's so easy to start, then you get the delicious slow-cookery smell in the house all day.

Yesterday I also made homemade chicken stock using this recipe from Get Rich Slowly. I don't buy those Safeway rotisserie chickens that often since the amount of oil they come soaked in suggests they're probably not great for you. But I did buy one on a whim a couple days before so after cutting off most of the meat I threw the bones into my largest pot with some veggies and herbs. Not only did I put several containers of stock in the freezer, but my house smelled even more delicious all day and into the evening, so it was a double-win. (I guess the closest WOW-analogue would be Steaming Chicken Soup?)

In addition to my housewifely achievements, I also:

Went to see Where the Wild Things Are. It was weird and quite wonderful! I liked those Wild Things a lot-- they were just the right mix of weird, scary and funny. I don't have that much to say about it, though. I need to watch it again.

Played a lot of WOW. Like, A LOT. I go through these phases where that is all I feel like doing. James and I decided to play through some of the old content (from the original game, a couple expansions ago) which we are now way overpowered for. We played through Scholomance and Stratholme (multiple times on each, because we needed the reputation [ps, go read that linked article, or at least the Socrates quote at the beginning of it]), both dungeons designed for 5 level-60 players. Either of us (at level 80) could probably have cleared them alone, but as a team it was even more fun-- we would run through a room grabbing all the monsters, then kill them all at once. We were taking on probably 30 or 40 or more guys at a time and still couldn't really cast spells because things were dying too fast. Very violent! This cancels out the wholesomeness of the chicken stock that was cooking while we were clearing trash mobs.

Anyway, the mini project we were working on-- getting to Exalted reputation with the Argent Dawn-- was accomplished and now we might go play through the rest of the old-world dungeons just for fun.

Sometimes I remind myself of everyone else in the world because I wish I could afford to not have a job so I could do these things-- playing Warcraft, cooking-- all day. Except I know I would get tired of that after 1 week.

I meant to tell you

Last night I made some of these freezer breakfast burritos after seeing the idea on The Simple Dollar. I froze them last night and then defrosted one this morning for breakfast. [Obviously, I could have just left one in the fridge overnight, but I wanted to see how the egg would survive the freezing and thawing. I was doing science.] DELICIOUS! Seriously! I feel like my whole life is 3% better, and my breakfast problems are 39% better. That's a significant improvement. Tim Horton's will be getting slightly less of my money in the future. And that means more of my money for me! And by "me," I mean "Etsy"!

I was going to take some pictures of the burrito-making process, but then as it turned out I was too lazy (who would have thought?) so you'll have to take my word for it that they look, and taste, great. I didn't use beans (I hate them!) and I threw in some turkey bacon, since meat in the morning is one of my favourite things in the world. I also added some red pepper along with the red onion, because vegetables are good for you. Anyway, this recipe is an epic win and I highly suggest it.

Also last night, I got to level 80 in WOW (FINALLY) and packed some boxes and watched some CSI. Unlike the last time I moved, I have some boxes labeled "art." Thanks Etsy, for taking so much of my money and making me pack more stuff!

Oh, and I impatiently thought about my tax refund for awhile. I'm getting more $$ back than I had originally thought, so (in addition to paying off a WHOLE CREDIT CARD, and buying a sewing table from IKEA) I'm going to sponsor a kid through WorldVision. I keep shopping for kids on their website, and then I feel guilty, like I'm being superficial. Does a slightly less-cute kid deserve my money less? I've decided that what I am going to do, instead, is sponsor one of the kids without photos. That way I know I'm not being a jerk.

James and I have been doing the same thing with dogs on rescue society websites, actually. After we move (March 28th!) I'm getting a rescue dog, and you can't stop me, Internet. What with the shopping for orphans and rescue dogs on the Internet like they were jewelry or housewares, I think I am the worst good person ever.

Boxes packed: 5

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Now playing: Melissa McClelland - Passenger 24
via FoxyTunes

Do not read, unless you love hilarious fake World of Warcraft Achievements

Yesterday:

We ran a weird, unbalanced, shorthanded--yet overpowered!--group through Drak'Tharon Keep. Two paladins (one holy, one prot), two priests (one shadow, one holy/discipline). Wack. And yet! We rocked it. I'm at level 79 1/3 -- meaning that I need to get my act together and get to 80.

more google ads hilarity

Last night, after a few hours of solo questing, I made this and sent it to James:


And here < are the ads google provided for our email thread. Apparently, after making such a lame, warcraft related lolcat type joke, I am going to need advice on how to get my ex back. Really, google? Was it that bad? I thought it was funny.

Just a quick screenshot to say:

Don't mess with me. My mace is gigantic, it glows, and it's very pokey.

I got my first taste of raiding last night, and that was my booty.

Tee hee, booty.

Seriously, though, I feel like I've ascended to a new level of nerdiness in which sitting at one's desk wearing a headset for almost 6 hours seems like an enticing way to spend a Friday night. Although, keep in mind, I don't have cable.

(Also: in the newest Warcraft patch you can get your character's nose pierced. Yup, I paid (pretend) money for that, in much the same way I spent real money to get my real nose pierced.)

Me, pretending to be a wedding website

"If you're like most women, you've probably been dreaming of the day you would obtain a melee weapon that does more than 200dps since you were a little girl."

Your a noob

This morning I discovered the WOW Insider license plate gallery. This one is my favourite:

Customer service, with a side of mockery

Haha, OK, there are these twelve-year-old boys who spend all day every day at my library playing Runescape. I created an account on the site just to see what it's like. Now I feel doubly disdainful of them because (a) they spend all day at the public library, trying to con the library staff into giving them more computer time; (b) they do that in order to play a game that is on the lame, so-cheezy-you-can't-play-it-without-crackers (albeit free) side. So next time I have to kick them off the computers I might also make fun of them. Or just be like, "Look, I play a real MMO, and I have a Hammer of Destiny so... get off the computers."

The fangirl in me is geeking out over not one but TWO articles in the blogipelago today, on the awesomeness that is Scully: Scully have I loved [at Salon], and Feminism and the X-Files (My Ode to Dana Scully) [on Feministing]. Squeeeee. Even if the movie sucks, I've been collecting all the DVDs so I can just start again at the pilot. I watch to forget.

They like me! They really like me!

This is the main thing I accomplished today:

Yeah, I will smite you.

I also watched no less than 3 movies. I will smite you, and then lie on my couch. Violence is exhausting, but the antidote is cinematized violence in the form of The Outsiders. I don't want to spoil this movie for anyone, but it is THE MOST DRAMATIC MOVIE I HAVE EVER SEEN. Seriously. It would just like to remind you, the audience, of its dramaticness. And it has so many actors in it that can really only be referred to, in its 1983-ness, as "rising stars." Matt Dillon! Rob Lowe! Tom Cruise! Patrick Swayze! Emilio Estevez! It is the best-looking gang in gang history. Why are you still reading this? To the batmo-video store!

Finally I can sleep

Salient points of this photo: small "70" in upper left-hand corner, boyfriend and sister supportively standing by, somehow the screenshot managed to miss both the additional attribute points and the golden halo of light... oh well.

this chart from 1o9 compares the BMIs of Marvel superheroes (male and female) with real men and women. Unsurprising conclusion: "The average Marvel female is approaching underweight despite a presumably active lifestyle. This may corroborate sociological and literary observations that in the Marvel Universe, women must fulfil criteria for being attractive by Western standards before fulfilling the criteria of biological realism."

One of the things I love about my paladin is that, despite her oh-so-normative flippy hair and perky breasts, she also has pretty big, sturdy-looking thighs. She looks like she could actually KILL AN OGRE. And then she DOES. (Plus, her breasts don't look like they would actually impede her melee fighting, unlike some female MMO characters, superheroes, etc. Oh, and less back pain!)

I'm feeling a bit stabby today, but as long as I don't move my head, I won't throw up. Probably.

2 boring updates

1. a Warcraft "Booyah":
I think all the biggest blocks are all Sundays.

2. I updated my links list. My daily blogroll grows ever longer in proportion to my busyness at work. I do take stuff off, too, though--things that aren't being updated anymore, or that I have grown weary of.

Actually it seems kind of pathetic that my whole Internet Experience can basically be summarized on one page, and that that one page has remained in its essential form since I was in high school. Shouldn't I be taking risks, or exploring the semantic web, or something?

No.

It also fills me with a bizarre sense of pride. Do other people have their online reading all organized on a separate page, for optimally efficient time-wasting? They don't.

but you're not really there, it's just the radio

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Now playing: Sonic Youth - Superstar
http://foxytunes.com/artist/sonic+youth/track/superstar

Update: living in the past

So, I DON'T have a radio as it happens. It's OK because the venerable CBC webcasts all their radio though. I LOVE the CBC. I wish I could marry it, and have 1,000 of its babies.

So I listened to the webcast of the provincial leadershipd ebate and baked a huge quantity of zucchini bread. At, like, 8:01 pm, James called me and we ranted for about 15 minutes. Hopefully the zucchini bread isn't Like Water for Chocolate Zucchini Bread, ie., tasting like political alienation, discontent, and chocolate chips.

And I DID get to 68 last night, although I can't update my chart because I'm at work. Ding! The nice thing about being the last in my guild to hit 70 (and I am, oh yes I am) is that I am the warcraft-equivalent of the youngest child. Everyone else is always sending me gear they think I could use, giving me advice about quests, and they don't care if I smoke up in my room. I may actually get to 70 this weekend, depending on how much time and effort I decide to commit to it. That is weeks ahead of my Easter long weekend goal! I am such a PROBLEM-SOLVER. I will probably mention this in future job interviews. It translates as something like, "Proven success planning and managing large projects in accordance with deadlines."

Daily Thing for yesterday

Yesterday I made a large number of Mithril Shield Spikes. Then I sold them in the auction house for GOLD! Warcraft brings out all my capitalist ambition.

Previous Things-A-Day
An explanation [of sorts]
Thing-A-Day 2008 homepage

spend more money than i guess i have

This weekend has been top-drawer. i love long weekends where monday is the holiday. Four-day week coming up! It's psychological manipulation, the good kind.

On Saturday James and I went to the farmer's market. I have been there before, many times, but never in actual food-buying mode. It's fabulous! I bought tons of local, organic, non-feedlot meat, and some fresh pasta. Next time I'll take more money because you can also get locally made perogies, green onion cakes, hummous, honey, and cheese! It was very exciting. We'll start to get local vegetables soon too. I can't wait. I already put zucchini in everything, but this summer it's going to be all local zucchini.

Yesterday I watched one of my favourite movies from my childhood: Swiss Family Robinson. Have you seen this movie, Internet? It's actually pretty good! I totes have a crush on the oldest brother (Franz)--he's hot. Actually, I think 25-year-old Jocelyn loves that treehouse as much as 8-year-old Jocelyn did. I'm so impressed by how industrious these people are, too. If I was stranded on a strange, ecologically confused island, it would take me at least a few days to adjust. Not so the family Robison! They get right to work building their little 19th-century paradise, where reward is based on competence and man is free to achieve his full potential. (And it is Man. Woman is mostly free to scream at lizards and marvel at the men's accomplishments, although the mom in this movie is pretty tough, everything considered.)

Today:

*ding* 67. The key to weekend productivity is to intersperse other activities with the warcrafting. I went for a swim today, had a shower, made lunch, applied for a job, did some dishes, and made potatoes in my slow-cooker. In addition to hitting 67. And it's not even 6 yet!

Plus I have a case of the Mondays.

The success of the Thing-A-Day photo initiative is being seriously, negatively impacted by the failure of my digital camera technology implementation. I am experiencing vendor-related delays that are also mitigating outcomes! That's work speak for I can't get the damned thing to work. FAIL!

Please stand by.

Fortunately, I did hit 66 last night though. (I'm pretending that anyone, ANYONE reading this has any possible interest in my World of Warcraft undertakings. I know this is likely not the case, but it's taking up a bit chunk of my time right now, so I think you're just going to have to accept it--like how new parents can't talk about anything but their newborns. Only, obviously, more shallow and faaaaar less responsible.)

Updates on 3 things

It's almost Freedom to Read week again! I just got the results of the Canadian Library Association's 2007 challenges survey in my e-mail inbox. Based on the list of books that were challenged in school and public libraries in 2007, I'm adding a few titles to my to-read list, as usual.

I love making sure that, by challenging a book, a library patron basically ensures that at least a few extra people will read it. I always want to be one of those people. Violence? Nudity? Sexual content? Drug use? Inappropriate language? Sign me up! Those are some of the components of the greatest books.

Also, Thing-A-Day starts today. I'm excited. And yet busy. What Thing will I create? Who knows!

Oh, and:

My paladin hit 65 last night. I wasn't kidding when I said I was done fooling around. I might actually PASS some of the other people in my guild who are leveling their 60-ish characters. Which has never happened for me in the history of Warcraft. OR MANKIND.

That is all. There are PowerPoint issues that require my attention.

Nerdy like a FOX

This chart represents my progress getting my paladin to L70. I am going to try to do this by the end of the Easter long weekend, March 24th. Can I do it? Yes I can! it's a very achieveable goal!