I teased Ron, saying it was the four stages of Ron sleepiness.

Until he gets on Facebook... and then suddenly he's wide awake again. Silly man.

A haiku for the birthday of Coyotl, by Yichimet:

It's admission time:
I have a crush on your TeamSpeak
"Yichi screwed up" laugh.

A haiku for the birthday of Abric, by Yichimet:

It's admission time:
I have a crush on your TS
"Yichi screwed up" YELL.

Love it. Heheheh.

Thursday: Dad dropped me off at the airport at the crack of dawn. Okay, maybe not the crack of dawn but fraking early (read: 6:50am). I had enough time to stand in an obnoxiously long Starbucks line for a croissant and water, inhale said croissant and then jump into my boarding line. And might I just say, goddamned small planes!!

Anywho. I had one layover in Phoenix, which wasn't awful. I had originally taken an aisle seat on the first leg of the flight and switched to the window for the second half -- which proved to be a mistake, as the plane filled and I later had to use the restroom. But yeah. Flying into Tampa was amazing. We had to go through this thick cloud cover first (of course, Tampa discovers rain when I'm coming in!), and then the Gulf looked beautiful. There was a lady behind me who kept marveling about how much water there was, and I couldn't help but to laugh. But yes, there is a fuckton of water in Florida.

Not wanting to get lost in the airport, I was texting Ron like crazy making sure I was going the right way. There's a tram in the airport! A fraking tram. Thankfully he was waiting at the end of the tram for me. Since I was silly and not properly thinking, I checked my itty-bitty bag instead of carrying it on (a mistake I did not make when coming back home!). So, we got to wait around for them to unload everything before taking off.

Waiting in the car was a rose, awww.

On the way home, we stopped at Wright's (a deli) to eat. The apartment was a brief stop, since we had stopped to eat. I got to look around and be amazed at how the office is absolutely full of boxes. Boxes upon boxes. Of boxes. Heheheh. I can see why he kept insisting that he still needed to unpack. The balcony is huge! In fact, the whole apartment is huge and gorgeous.

After settling in some, we headed out for Busch Gardens. Aside from a small handful of haunted houses we went on Montu, which I loved, and then Sheikra... which I will kill people if they attempt to get me on it again. My hands literally cramped up around the bars, I was so absolutely terrified. Nope, ain't going on that ride ever again. ~200' 90 degree dive? No fucking thank you! At that point, I was done for the night. Nevermind the fact that Sheikra's line was about a hour long... ugh. But we were there with his friends who were on their honeymoon; it made for good company.

Friday: While Ron had to work, he did make plans to come in late and leave early; he's been mucking with his work schedule a lot lately. He dropped me off at the spa -- yes, a spa -- and scooted off to work. I had a massage, facial, lunch and finally a manicure and pedicure. So un-me! Heheh. On the brightside, I got like three hand massages, so the cramping from Sheikra dissolved entirely.

After picking me up, we hurried to Big Cat Rescue (my pics).

Big Cat Rescue was amazing, in the sense that you get to see these gorgeous cats up close. It was also heartbreaking, hearing the stories of neglect that most of the cats went through. But they seemed happy and well-cared for, so I think BCR is a great place. Our tour was led by an intern, who ended up running it long.

We went to Ybor afterward to have dinner at The Laughing Cat, a great little Italian restaurant. Justin had told me that if Ron took me to Ybor, he obviously didn't like me; heheh. I didn't see anything wrong with the place, and Ron sure hyped it up as this awful zone (admittedly, he was talking about Ybor at night with all the bars going). We got to walk around some to see the place in it's 'natural glory' before it was taken over the following night by Guavaween.

Friday night was a crazy time. Hell, all of Friday was packed. That night we went to Best Buy and ended up buying a TV different than we'd originally looked at. The one that we'd both settled on had been a 46" Samsung LCD, but one of the employees started talking it over with Ron (mostly asking what the TV was mostly going to be used for) and he pointed us in the direction of a 50" Samsung plasma, for quite a bit cheaper than the 46". While they couldn't deliver it prior to a week later, Ron arranged for delivery but said we'd likely be back that night or the next day with a truck. That didn't work. Heh. At least, not for that night. Lowe's only does rentals for items bought within the store, and it was past rental hours anyway, so we didn't bother trying Home Depot.

Instead, we went and watched Saw V.

At the worst AMC - in. the. world! WORST!

Ugh. So yeah, this theater is on the never-again list. Let's start with - it is old. I don't know if these even have the large screens (and I passionately hate small screens, though in comparison this was a medium size; heh). The seating was untiered on flat ground, but the seats were so broken (in?) that you leaned back and never really noticed the people in front of you. Okay, so we're looking at the standard old theater thing, right?

When the previews started, I wasn't even sure if it was about to be the actual previews -- the house lights were on almost the whole time! And then randomly near the beginning of the movie, the picture slid up onto the ceiling partially and it took them way too long to correct it.

But the worst part ever ... rude people. OMG. I thought LA was rude. Dear god, the people in there were awful. I had Giggles the Drunken Girl behind me, who was actually drunk and sounded no older than 13. Okay, fine... 15. Amazingly though, she did shut up once the movie got rolling, but for a few comments here and there. The topper to Giggles was this guy who walked into the middle of the theater and started yelling his woman's name. And she was sitting in the same row as Giggles, so now Mr. Obnoxious shoves his fat ass through the row to get to his seat. He was a talker, and had way too many comments to make during the movie.

Ron at one point (around the time of the picture on the ceiling, I believe) asked if I just wanted to go get a refund and see the movie elsewhere. I was afraid that they would say 'no refunds' and we'd have lost out on however much of the movie while talking with someone there. It could have been worse; thankfully Giggles didn't get sick (something I did think about when I realized she was drunk).

Fun night!

Ooooh, yes. Friday night was also "Birthday Night" - Ron got me the massive Nightmare Before Christmas 'boxset', with the talking bust of Jack. Very awesome! (He also got me a NBC pillow and the newest 'soundtrack' that Marilyn Manson put together.)

Saturday: After breakfast, we went to Home Depot to rent a truck which was a challenge in itself. Mostly because the guy working the rental counter was absolutely nowhere to be found. When we finally got the truck, we headed over to Best Buy and picked up the TV -- another time consuming process. TV rescued, we headed back to the apartment and had the fun of bringing the box upstairs ourselves. After returning the truck, we went back to Best Buy and picked up a PS3 and three games (Midnight Club: Los Angeles, Eternal Sonata and Star Wars: Force Unleashed), along with a second controller and a wireless router.

Back at the apartment, we got everything hooked up but the cables that came with the PS3 were either bad, or the TV simply refused to dignify showing the PS3 without HDMI. (I wouldn't be surprised!) So later that night we went and bought HDMI cables, but that was after Guavaween.

Guavaween? Yes, Guavaween. We showed up late -- I forget why now! -- but we got there after the parade and the streets of Ybor were calm, much unlike I'd been warned they would be. Muahahah. So, unlike the madness I'd been expecting of ((Hollywood Blvd. + Halloween) * booooooooze), Guavaween proved to be a costumed block party with flowing booze. Seeking out a clean restroom, we wound our way to Gameworks. This time he brought his card (he'd forgotten it on Friday when we went to dinner), so we got to enjoy the run of the place. It, like the main street, was lacking many people. But, we got clean restrooms, video games galore (Tekken 5, Initial D, Indy 500, Star Wars podracer, some shooting one (House of the Dead?)) and a great bar playing Game 3 of the World Series.

Oh yeah, we'd originally been trying to go to the James Joyce Irish Pub, but they weren't allowing anymore people in. That's when we sought out Gameworks. At the bar, Ron insisted that I have my first Irish Car Bomb. I'd already had a Jagerbomb, though minus the 'bomb' part since everywhere it seemed was serving in plastic cups since people were wandering the street with their drink; GW was not, thankfully. ICB? Messy! Don't recall being too terribly "yuck" about the Guinness, and it did indeed taste like a milkshake by the end. Mm, not bad. The bartender then gave me a Chocolate Covered Cherry (on the house), which was damned good. Then I finished up the night with a strong ass Kamikaze. The bartender was awesome, and we left before the Rays had a chance to lose. Heh.

On the way home we stopped for a HDMI cable, and ended up buying also seasons 1 and 2 of Beavis and Butthead (ah yes, we'd set up his DVDs earlier), along with Soul Caliber IV.

After getting the HDMI hooked up, we spent far too much time playing video games!

Sunday: Sunday was our mellow day. Mostly we went to the beach and drove around, which was nice. I can see why he was amazed by our huge beach, because their sand was like 20 yards before you reached the water? Tops? Not very far. Yet it was still gorgeous and I had to mock him by 'touching the Gulf'. Heheh. Tom called and said that he was going to be stuck at work, which was fine because I wasn't looking forward to the drive to Orlando. Instead we drove around the beachsides and hit one bar before heading back to the apartment. Along the way we decided on Four Green Fields for dinner; which I think made Ron very happy. He talks about the place all the time! Besides, where better to get Corned Beef and Cabbage? Ooooh, nomnomnom!

We also watched Heroes, since we both missed it last week. Thank god for DVRs!

Monday: It was hard to drag myself out of bed on Monday. Thankfully I'd been wise and packed up everything Sunday night. Well, almost everything. Apparently I left behind one of my cute black t-shirts that I love. Sigh! My clothing supply keeps shrinking!! (Ignore the fact that I gained a thick Jack hoodie, a too large BlizzCon '08 shirt and a Guinness shirt....)

My original flight had been from Tampa to LA with two stops inbetween, think it was Indianapolis (ugh) and then Las Vegas. They were just layovers though, not connecting flights. However it would have been on that plane from like 7am to 3pm (all Pac times there). The moment I stepped through security, I heard my name called overhead and found my way to the gate. They had overbooked the flight and were trying to find people who would switch flights, and offered me a flight leaving later (a hour) and arriving about 30mins earlier. Along with the shortened flight time would be a voucher for the cost of the flight plus like 100$ I believe they said. While it meant switching planes in Vegas, it did mean shorter flight. I then had time to grab something to eat and chill for a bit, which was nice.

Both flights were smooth. I had enough time in Vegas to shove a few bucks into a slot machine (and lost it all), text Ryan to make sure his ass was awake and then talk to Mom. LA to Vegas is only 45min (about a hour "gate to gate"). I had never realized it would be such a short flight! I barely had time to read any of the magazine I bought!

Anyway, Ryan picked me up and we stopped at work so that I could grab my paycheck. After picking up his mail, we stopped at the bank and I gave him the 20$ I still owed from the move (tolls and motel), then we hit Tito's for lunch. Mmmm, Tito's. I also gave him some extra for gas. I then spent the rest of the afternoon and evening relaxing. Yay.

And Tuesday was just another boring day at work. Hours have been cut, yay. -_- Ah well, I just need to pay bills at the moment, nothing major. It also meant that I had two hours before Mom picked me up, so I went and bought Spore. Muahahah!

Raid was short people, so we grabbed 10 for ZA and tore the place apart. I think we one shot everything and the only time I actually remember dying was when Morgan accidently pulled a patrol. I also got three pieces of gear out of there, cus my priest is awesome! Woot.

Oh yeah, and Justin sailed out this morning. :( But he'll be back in about a month.

We got to the airport a touch early, so he decided that we should just go for a drive. We barely get back outside LAX when I get a text: Ron's flight landed early. Surprise, surprise. (I knew that would happen, as soon as Ryan decided that we should go driving.) So we swing back to the airport and park; on the walk to the terminal Ryan says, "Should I look for the biggest dork?" I said, "Yes, yes you should. He's still in his work clothes."

Dork, yes. But still, it was unbelievably nice to see him again.

After waiting for his bag, we headed out. On the way to the house, we stopped at In-and-Out and gorged ourselves. Nomnomnom!

The hotel was out in Sherman Oaks, but so very easy to get to. Rather nice as well! And HBO! Woohoo! We saw a couple episodes of True Blood while there. Too bad we didn't see the first, but we did see enough to wish we had.

Friday: After sleeping in most of the morning, we headed to Universal City Walk, to go see Quarantine. I have to say, that it was actually the first movie I can recall ever making me feel nauseous, and it wasn't due to the camera motion but rather the gore. Yes, the gore. I actually found myself peeking around a hand a few times; aghast at what was on-screen. Shocking!

After leaving the theater Ron saw that he had a message, and it was fucking bizarre. Thankfully I said, "Why don't you check Missed Calls to see who it was?" Duh! Heheh. Don't know what was up with the message unless it was just interferance the first time he listened to it, but man, after a creepy movie it was just kind of startling. Since we had wasted away half the morning, we ended up getting out of the theater late and ended up neck-deep in rush hour traffic trying to get home for dinner.

Mom made some seriously kick ass tacos for dinner; nomnomnom! After dinner we hung out for quite awhile, watching them play Wii Bowling (hilarious) and then poking online some. We talked to Justin a bit about going to Magic Mountain (now that he wasn't acting so butt-hurt over us not telling him that Ron was coming out until Wednesday night), and our plans got totally altered. Originally we were going to hit Magic Mountain on Saturday, but Jess (Taki) really wanted him to come to Disney after BlizzCon on Saturday, so MM got moved to Sunday. Whew!

Also talked to Ryan, and ended up not going to Bunker. He had to work all day and wasn't all that excited about going in the firstplace (outside of getting to hang out with us). So we just called it off entirely.

Saturday: Fun day! And yet another morning slept in. Muahahah. After dragging ourselves out of bed, we headed toward home. We were both hungry, so we had Tito's. It was absolutely packed there, so instead we drove to the park and ate there; but the wind had kicked up and was frigid. Needless to say, we ate fast! Aside from the wind, we were being threatened by seagulls who lingered way too close!

After eating, we headed out to Venice Beach. Ron got to experience the joy of hunting down parking. We wove through the streets for quite a bit before discovering a spot. Thankfully a non-metered spot too! Though it was still windy, the sun kept it comfortable. We walked the length of the Boardwalk, and then headed down the beach so that he could "touch the Pacific." Dork. (Heheheh.) We followed the shore back along the way we'd come and then headed back toward the Boardwalk. Ron was amazed at the width of the beach; just proves that West Coast beaches are better than East Coast, because we've more than 20' of sand!

From Venice, we went up to Santa Monica. Didn't do much there except wander through some shops -- browsed some cookbooks in Borders, got him a Vanilla Blended from Coffee Bean (nomnomnom!!) -- and then wound our way back to the car. Oooh, we did find an absolutely awesome copy of Clue at Restoration Hardware. (That store is actually really amazing and has been added to my "I wanna go home shopping!" list along with World Market.)

Since I had sand in my shoes (even after shaking them out quite a bit), we headed back to the house so I could switch Vans; then took off for Disneyland.

Our luck with traffic blows. We hit a solid hour (maybe more?) of traffic, which was all aimed at one single exit. It was horrific. Then we got off at a bad exit ourselves (due to Dad's advice, yikes! Been awhile since he was wrong). Even still, it was about 30+ minutes until Justin and Jess got to Disney. *sigh*

We had a blast at Disney, riding Pirates of the Caribbean, (Nightmare Before Christmas) Haunted Mansion, Matterhorn, and the revamped formerly known as 20 Thousand Leagues Under the Sea (now a Nemo ride). And then shopped! Shot glasses, Jack hoodie and a Jack hat later, it was almost 1am and the park had been closed since Midnight. So nice of them to slowly close up. The four of us went to dinner at Denny's and then called it a night; good thing too since Ron was exhausted and nearly falling asleep on the way back to the hotel. What had been a 1 hour+ drive from home to Disney became a 45 min ride from Disney to the hotel (15-20mins north of home).

Sunday: Only after getting a call from Justin saying he was taking Jess to the airport did Ron and I drag ourselves out of bed. Hell, I was barely out of the shower when he got to the hotel.

Magic Mountain was fucking amazing! We managed to get the front row on 11 rides... and only rode 11 rides. There were only two rides we didn't get to go on: Ninja (closed for a Halloween maze) and Superman (broked!). We rode: Goliath, Deja Vu, X2, Viper, Revolution, Batman, Tatsu, Collosus (in reverse!!), Scream, Riddler's Revenge, and Goldrusher. It was after 8 when we finally left, and let a Yoda-voiced TomTom lead us to a closed Black Angus. Thankfully there was an Olive Garden directly behind it. Yum!

Monday: Sad day! After waking up, we packed all of our stuff up and headed to the house, once again hitting extraordinarily horrific traffic. Dad took us to the airport and we got Ron there in time for his flight. Sigh! (Ron kept joking about, "If I miss my flight, its no big deal.")

So yeah, it was a great weekend overall. And in eight days, I'll be in Tampa!

Yes - yes, I can has burr.

My scrub priest now has an Amani War Bear. It cost a friend 10.5k gold; 1.5k more than the going rate because he wanted it done 'now'. I think he's under the impression that the patch is landing Tuesday, though Blizz said October.

Bear!! ZOMG. Ron's amused cus that means Mutiny has a bear... Heheh. And Justin thought I wanted it on Coy -- I think that was his not-so-subtle way of trying to talk me into tanking ZA. But really, a bear on a bear? No. Just... no.

Mmm, bear.

( Ugh, I'm covered in cat fur -- Mom's cat decided to play lovey with me for the last 10mins, until I finally set him on the floor. )

Anyway.

Hm. Paycheck arrived. Then I went to San Diego to spend 5 days with a friend and had an absolute blast. We're both such slackers though; it was to help him unpack, but there was still quite a few boxes left when the days were over. Let's see, he got me to try Thai food (still undecided about that, truth be told!), we went to Sea World (poor Shamu, that "Believe!" show is complete ass!), had a fabulous dinner at Black Angus, and finally, I got to see a bunch of movies I've never seen before (oh hai, I Am Legend, not on a computer monitor?!) and Metalocalypse. And we did two half Kara runs, which lasted far too long in either case, and had to finish them on Monday night.

I finally called Becky about a job, and had to fill out the stupid application a second time. Bleck. The next day she called and said the job was mine.

I've worked two days, and I'm absolutely and wholly exhausted. I'm also going to be late to every raid, because they're usually scheduled for 6:30 server... I get off work at 6 server. This also means I have no downtime between work and raid; my brain is going to be fried.

Oh, and we're down to three tanks. Period. Four, if we count Ron's paladin, because thanks to his full Badge gear, he's the only one anywhere near our level. (Shit, I just compared him to our actual paladin tank and half of their gear is the same; so yeah.) Burn out is going to suck, and it will happen.

We hit Black Temple on Tuesday and killed Naj. We still have minor issues that need to be worked out. Including that we may need a second shadow priest. I'm trying to talk Brian into coming back, especially since he's upset with WotH. But he also dragged Heath and Whisper there, so he doesn't wanna just bail. Though apparently neither of them are happy there either. After BT on Tuesday, we hit Kael on Thursday and were mercilessly slaughtered. We never made it through the weapon phase.

Post-raid Justin called to tell me what they were going to do about that night's main tank, which I'd already known cus Reg cannot keep his mouth shut and relayed the information to everyone in officer chat. He also apologized for the horror that was the raid, largely going back to the tank issue. Which led to the 'down to three' tanks issue. Sigh.

Tired. Babbling. Ending this, now.

I hate that clinging feeling I get.

Ryan and I got back to LA on the 19th.

By the 26th, my check still hadn't arrived. So I called Erin and he discovers it in the safe, with my address here written on a sticky note. Mind you, I asked him personally to mail it, because I thought of anyone he was the most trustworthy.

It's now 3 September, and I still don't have a check. I call up again, Erin checks around and says he doesn't see the check anywhere. Now, when I'd called last week he said he would get it out into the mail himself.

Wrong.

Today he tells me that the stamp machine is gone, so they had no way to mail it. Rosanne said that she had to mail out some things, so she took it. And from there... who freaking knows. At this point, I'm absolutely furious. I was dead silent on the phone with Erin, because I am just pissed as all fuck. I told him to call me when he found out from Rosanne whether or not she actually mailed it--and when! I told him otherwise, they need to overnight me a new check, because I'm dead broke and need that money. Like, desperately.

Grr!

On our last attempt of the night, she died. I'm now 4T5, to my utter joy. Which meant regemming up some and running off to the Caverns of Time for the defense glyph again, but hey. It was worth it. Though, I lost Coy's awesome barrage of horns. Malorne helm is awesome, the Nordrassil circlet less so.

Friday was less than spectular. I felt like ass all morning and it continued to get worse as the day progressed. Mike brought me home at lunchtime, and I slept until like 4:30. Sleeping helped, though my stomach did remain a bit uneasy throughout the evening. I did go to Zul'Aman on my mage though, because they needed CC. Didn't get anything other than a few Badges, and a nasty repair bill, but it was an interesting run nonetheless. I did get to see a new tank, and she's pretty damned good. Would be nice if she could get her TS issue fixed though, because the in-game voice com is atrocious.

Today Mike and I went to see Hancock. I cannot say I was entirely disappointed, but I will say that the story did make me annoyed. As did the faces they had Will Smith making. Okay, the dude doesn't smile, but what the fuck were those faces?! Ugh.

Anyway, got inventory tomorrow night with a follow-up pull night on Monday. On the bright side, Ken will be there tomorrow. Yay! Hopefully he'll be back soon as GM, when Luke leaves. *crosses fingers*

Earlier this year we'd talked to Justin and considered doing a pre-camping trip to AC. Well, when he started looking for tickets they were all outrageously priced. After much back and forth, we decided to cancel AC and simply go to Sharon's a day or two early; at which time he looked for tickets into Philly (much to MIke's sadness).

Justin was supposed to fly in on Tuesday the 17th. Monday night, Mike left him a PM on the guild site about calling us if his flight was delayed. Good thing he did, because Justin mistakenly thought he was flying in on Wednesday. Adding to that, he had an important meeting to attend Wednesday morning. So, we shuffle things around; he gets his flight changed to Wednesday, we talk to Sharon and tell her to hold off on dinner until the next night.

On Wednesday we pick up Justin and make the long haul out to Sharon's. She made us dinner, we watched a movie, life was awesome. Thursday we had breakfast and were about to get ready to pack up the trucks when her phone rings. It's Joe, stating he's got transmission problems. Again. Same excuse as last year! After much shit talking, we jump in the trucks and head out to the campgrounds.

When we arrived, we found out that there were already two people there--Mike and Morgan. Well, we knew Mike was one (lady at the desk simply said British accent and we knew), but Morgan didn't actually sign for his pass, so we didn't know until we'd driven to the site. We didn't get the same sites as last year, but close. We were actually one over from before. The depressing thing is that a trailer was sitting on our old campsite. It was actually said by a few people that they wonder if next year these sites will have campers too? I don't get it. Why fill your 'primitive' campgrounds with trailers? Boggles the mind.

We got the two community tents set up and started getting our tents up. Not sure when they groups started trickling in, but by the end of the night Ron and Tara had shown up, Mark, Tawny and then Chris and our other Mark. Yes, two Mikes and two Marks. Small world.

Friday had been designated horseback riding day. Neither Mike or I went this year, which was more than fine with me. That night was also dedicated to getting absolutely drunk. Whooo, man! Poor Boris and his wife Michelle showed up while we were in the middle of getting hammered. So not only did she have to deal with a bunch of strange people she didn't know but drunkards to boot! We even got Sharon drinking, which was fun. Well, from what I can recall. Ron and I got talking about music, so I grabbed my iPod (no headphones, booo!) and was showing him my godly amount of music. Very fun.

Saturday we went rafting. I hadn't been intending to go at first, but it sounded like so much fun that I finally agreed; Mike stayed at the campsite. We had four boats: Sharon, Mark, Mike and I; Justin, Chris and Tara; Ron, Morgan, Boris and Michelle; then Chris and Tawny. The river took us like 3-4 hours, which was tremendously fun. The weather was gorgeous, and there'd been enough rain that we only had to walk in like three spots. At one point, Justin launched himself out of his boat, hitting Sharon and throwing them both into the water. It had gotten to the point where almost everyone had hit the water except Ron (and I, they were being kind with my "I cannot swim!"). We decided that Ron was going in, no matter what. After getting the boats close, Mike leaned over and grabbed Ron by his vest and pulled... and pulled... and pulled! Everyone on Ron's boat was holding onto him, Mike finally had to get down in the water to finally get Ron out. Mike gets back in our boat and all is good, until I glance over and yell for Sharon to move--Ron was sneaking up behind her to pull her in!

We had dinner in town and brought back food for Mike. As we're pulling back into the site, we see someone else beside him. Joe showed up! Apparently it was an electrical issue that he was able to get fixed.

Sunday was paintball, which was so much fun. Tiring, but fun. Mike and Ron hurt themselves, which takes away some of the fun.

Almost everyone went caving on Monday, except Mike and Ron (both injured), Joe, Mark and I. Mark stayed at the campsite, while the four of us used Sharon's GPS to find the closest movie theater to watch The Hulk. Mike bought be a 'Baby Coy', small plush bear. He's absolutely adorable and sitting on my desk. (Scared the cat once, by dancing him toward her and saying, "Nomnomnom"; she nearly fell off the desk.)

Tuesday morning we broke camp. It was kind of sad, just because we'd all been having so much fun.

I miss camping so much. /pout

So the game breaks up close to 1am. Mike and I go to bed, all is good.

Around 5am, something wakes me up. I'm not positive as to what it was, though I've an idea. It takes a few minutes to settle in before I'm like, "Whoa." I rolled onto my back and discover that I'm between Mike... and Fig. I think it was when I put my hand on Fig's leg that woke me up--he was laying upside down in the bed. I couldn't go back to sleep, I tried. Finally I started poking Mike until he woke up. Then I asked him, "What is laying next to me?"

He thought it was the cat. Then he kept feeling it and got worried. Worried!! He actually backed up closer to the wall! Wuss. /snicker

When I adjusted, he finally saw that it was Fig. Mike yelled at him to wake up and go to his own room; Fig lifted his head, glanced around and said, "Aw, shit."

We told the story like ten times at work. It was hilarious. And to make it funnier, when we got home and asked Fig about it, he had thought it was all a dream. In fact, he stared at us as we told our tale--and he was just shocked.

I told him he owes me, for life. 1. He let the cat out of the room when he came up (not that it matters now, she's jumping over the barrier). 2. I woke up next to him at 5:30am!! 3. He got sick in the bathroom, and I had to clean it up.

He so owes me.

Federal returns for both Mike and I are nice and healthy amounts, roughly 920$ for him and 960$ for me. Yum yum! State on the other hand, can suck a fat one. I hate, hate, HATE, NJ tax forms. Four freaking pages, FOUR! 90% of it has to do with gambling. I bet Nevada's aren't bad! If they have them at all... not sure, I know there's no sales tax, but I don't know about income tax. Anyway.

My refund from NJ is about 19$. Mike's? 88 cents. Yes, 88 cents. It amuses us both greatly, because it'll certainly cost more for them to send him that check, then it's worth.

88 cents... ha!

I could barely sleep at all last night. My head started hurting, my knee was enflamed in pain and I kept coughing. Worse, it's that 'early bronchitis' cough--where it feels like there's liquid in my lungs? Blargh.

Both Mike and I stayed home today. His head felt like it was going to esplode, apparently. I drugged the hell out of myself when Mike got us breakfast: Excedrin, a vitamin pill and a Zyrtec. I'm actually doing well on the Zyrtec, unlike the first time I'd tried it and it kept knocking my ass out. I would swear that this is Zyrtec-D, but it does claim to be the 24hr variety. *shrug*

Bleck.

Now, I got my monitor from CompUSA when it went out of business. About a month later Mike bought an identical one from Best Buy (his was 'better' because it was 'newer'). They're Gateway 24" widescreen LCD--very nice monitors as far as I'm concerned.

And dead sexy sitting side-by-side on my desk.

Video card seems to be handling it quite well. Intially it cut my framerate in WoW in half (to 30fps), but I moved WoW into monitor 2 and it rose back up to 60. I completely unplugged my laptop, and it's now leaning against my 'bookcase' behind me.

God, I need to install my camera onto this computer, so that I can upload pics. Which means I need to take pics of my desk now (along with uploading my computer as it was in pieces).

This morning wasn't pleasant upon waking, so we decided a day off was due. I'm still horribly stiff and my head is kinda stuffy, but it's getting better as the day progresses. Hopefully I'll sleep better than I did last night and end up feeling good tomorrow.

I re-wired yesterday, getting my computer under my desk and actually hooking up my speakers properly, with two on the wall behind me. Mike walked past them later and said something about how they work better with wires. I sighed at him and nudged my Bleach wallscroll--the wires are neatly behind it. I'm really not used to my computer being under my desk, and now there's SO much light coming through the window. With a black case though, that's probably a good thing--don't need it overheating from simple sun exposure.

The computer is running better now that I've disabled the whole sleep mechanism in Vista. Damned thing would absolutely refuse to come out of sleep properly. And with it under the desk--and no longer behind my head when I'm in bed--I can leave it running. Much nicer!

I went to boot up my old computer to hook up the external drive, but it simply won't boot. I acts like it needs a new power supply, which is possible. Right now I'm trying to read up on how to properly clean a mobo, so that I can start working on it and get it running for Fig. New power supply, some better RAM... shit, I may see about getting a better processor for that board even. Cooling won't be an issue, because Fig's room is like the first room in the house that gets cooled. Of course, on the same note it's the first roon that gets heat when that's running too. But at least he doesn't get the NJ summer humid heat, so normal fans should work fine.

I've read so many different opinions on how to clean a motherboard. Most suggest simple canned air and soft brushes, but... this old thing is a wall of dust. I suppose I can start out with that, but it may come down to me washing the board. I've seen more than one mention of Scrubbing Bubbles too, to really get the grime out. Hmm.

Building a PC from scratch was fun; fixing my old one for Fig ought to be the true adventure!