A bit more game talk

Who ya gonna call? Ghost hunting in action.

So I've had more time to dig into The Sims 3: Ambitions expansion and have decided that this is one expansion I'm really glad I purchased. I take back my previous statement that the Education career path is new - I realize now it was in the original game all along, I just never played it - and instead give you laundry! Yes, for all those who had been asking, EA finally broke down and gave you the ability for your sims to do laundry.

I've created a new sim, Eleanor Rigby, and she's moving up the chain in the Ghost Hunter profession.  Currently she's at level 8, though the image to the left shows her at a lower level as she busts some seriously angry ghosts.  On top of that, she has maxed out her Inventor skill and now I just need to work through the chain of items that the science lab wants me to turn in before I can make my first robot.  Love, love, love this expansion.

Everyone should have a two headed, flaming doggie!

Remember when I talked about getting my WoW account hacked?  Well it took about ten days, but Blizzard finally got everything sorted out.  I have my level 80 toons back and everything that was taken has been returned to all the toons on my account plus to the guild master of the guild my 80's are in.  Whew.  So I decided it was time to invest in a little more security for my account.  I purchased (and received via UPS today) the Blizzard authenticator gizmo and it has been set up on my account.  The added bonus, for me anyway because I have a huge vanity pet addiction, is that the authenticator purchase comes with an in game pet: the corehound.  So now my tree can wander around with a two-headed, flaming beast behind him all the time.  It doesn't hurt that the idle animations are adorable - the two heads fight over a bone, it rolls over and begs.

In book news:  Kobo is having a week long iPad giveaway so I broke down and ordered seven ebooks (entry limit was six, but there was one more I wanted anyway) and will keep my fingers crossed.  So now I have my ereader loaded up with two series - Molly Harper's Nice Girls ... books as well as Rhiannon Frater's As the World Dies zombie trilogy - and a stand alone vampire novel (Pretty When She Dies also by Frater).

I'm currently working my way through Markus Zusak's The Book Thief for my latest Refer-A-Book Friday read.  On deck is Town House by Tish Cohen, an impulse buy at Costco.  I'll post reviews when I'm done.
I did write a review for Columbine over at Goodreads, but I haven't brought it over here.  I've been thinking about how my reviews are written and I may just try a more conversational tone, like I did with the Sims Ambitions post.  I found it easier to write that than the last few reviews I've posted.  Still trying to find my 'book review' voice, I guess you could say.

'til next time.

In which our heroine has her WoW account hacked...

So, I have been playing World of Warcraft for almost five years now. It's my way of letting off some steam and having a good time in a multi-user environment. My guildies are great people and it is actually nice to have adults I can chat with over ventrillo to offset the toddler language that I get during the day most of the time.

In the time I've been playing Warcraft, I've had to deal with the GM's (in game support staff) on a couple of occasions and they were all very curteous and helpful in resolving the issues I had contacted them about. I had listened to various people in the game and in my guild discuss their efforts in dealing with hacked accounts and getting their toons and/or items back. Not once did I contemplate that I might have to go through this myself.

Well... was I wrong :p

Sims, Warcraft and the library

Heh. I've been working on a single family in Sims 3 lately. The Jones family started out with Devon, single female who painted and gardened her way through life until she ended up pregnant by Stiles McGraw. She decided to keep the baby, but her relationship with Stiles never went anywhere... the two aren't even on speaking terms now.

So, Devon raised Tiffany all on her own and, just recently, was tickled pink when Tiffany got married to Shayne. Everyone in the house helps out with the garden (which containes a lot of perfect generation plants) and the house and they all get along really well. When Tiffany /finally/ got pregnant, somethine strange happened to Shayne. He took to shutting himself up in a tiny room all alone, spending days in there just gabbing on the phone, until one day he just... dropped dead. So Tiffany's twin girls will never know their dad. *tear*

Patch day was yesterday in WoW. No major changes for resto druids, which is nice, but lots of improvements to the dungeon finder and some of the more annoying dungeons with loooooooong ass intro animations. Didn't even bother logging in yesterday until just before the weekly raid time for the guild. Noth the plaguebringing went down fast and netted everyone their 5 frost badges.

Took the little guy out today to the library. Came home with more books than I took back, but can't complain too much. Going Bovine by Libba Bray, Little Bee by Chris Cleave, The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, Horns by Joe Hill all decided to follow me home... all in hardcover :p The only downfall to getting things from the library.

Weather is starting to get nicer and nicer. May have to set aside a weekend to force all the guys to help with some spring cleaning!

Housekeeping and ramblings

Finally found a layout that I actually like for this blog. Got it working with very little difficulty, I must say.

Still surrounded by piles of books that I absolutely must get read. Down to only one library book, which is awsome, though I did put another one on hold because I need it for a potluck read for Novel Ladies (one of the groups I belong to on Goodreads). My recommendation for April's group read actually got selected, so I'll be reading The Little Giant of Aberdeen County by Tiffany Baker next month.

Right now I've just finished the third book in the Allie Beckstrom series, Magic in the Shadows and started Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory.

The Allie Beckstrom series by Devon Monk is a really great set of books to read if you are into urban fantasy with a female main character. Allie lives in a world where ordinary people have access to magic; she is a Hound -- a person who can track a spell back to the person who cast it -- and is good at what she does. Thankfully, Ms. Monk decided not to make Allie an uberheroine; the girl pays a physical price for each spell she uses ranging from headaches all the way to the full blown flu and worse. Good action, some romance (not alot to put of non-romance types) and great plot lines make this series one that I'm eagerly waiting for the next installment from.

In other news, the guild decided to try an ICC 25man run this evening. Was nice to see we only needed a couple of non-guild bodies to fill out the ranks. Unfortunately, even though we managed to clear the trash without many issues, Lord Marrowgar turned out to be too much for us to handle at this stage of the game. Five wipes later we decided to call it. Both of the ten man groups will continue to run their weekly run, but I think it'll take a few more 25 man runs for the two teams to be able to gel enough to get Marrowgar down.

I'm making some progress on leveling my jewelcrafting on my death knight. I just need to spend more time actually leveling /her/ and not just her craft. My priest also needs some work so that I can catch up to the man's warrior. He dinged 49 tonight and that puts him 9 levels past me.

My resto druid is going to need to undergo some gear changes, I think. I may have to toss some of my leather pieces to go with cloth for the extra bonus healing/spell power. I may be hitting the #2 spot in some of the groups I heal for, but I still feel like something is really lacking when it comes to his healing performance. Time to scour the web for more infos I suppose.

Currently Reading: Pandemonium by Daryl Gregory