Throwback Thursday

So my post the other day got me feeling a little nostalgic, and I thought I'd share some other old screenshots with you.

There was that time we convinced a noob level 17 to come into Shadow Labs with us...

And that time Vare and Loihi stood on the steps of the Cathedral...

The time we attempted to raid Crossroads...

And had guild meetings under Stormwind...

There was the time my cat tried to eat all of the candy...

And the day Loihi got her dreadsteed...

And the time we visited the happy face under Kara...

Sadly, I've lost most of the screenshots I've taken over the years. I never remember to back them up, and I've gone through quite a few new computers/operating system changes/reformats. But these are some of my favorites that I did manage to backup.

Level 100 Hordies!

We did it!!

As you can see, I hit level 100 picking up a piece of treasure. Josh was burned out on questing, so I suggested we go on a treasure hunt instead. From 98 through 100, all we did was pick up treasures. No quests. Just treasures (and rares, but they hardly give any xp). I was both surprised and not surprised that we were able to do it. And I think we only got maybe half the treasures in Nagrand. 22200xp per treasure...pretty sweet. It was different and fun, too. Using all of the gliders to try to get to the ones in otherwise-impossible-to-reach places. I'm not necessarily saying I would do it again, but it was a fun way to finish out the grind.

What a nice family portrait! haha. I didn't have time to turn the names off. Zelu never sits still long enough for that. I had to snap the pic the moment I saw the opportunity!

But I did turn them off after that in case the opportunity presented itself again. And it did. Sort of. We went to visit Khadgar to get our rings, and Zelu was standing there looking all badass. Funny story, Amayaa started out with that blue/purple hair. But it made them look like brother and sister. We couldn't have that. She went platinum when the barber shop came out and never looked back.

Oh, you want to see? Here she is looking scandalous at level 29.

The date on this picture is 3/19/2008!

Oh, and here's one of the twins.

Awkwarddd...

Finding a Balance

Yikes, it has been three weeks again.

I'm having a lot of trouble juggling everything in my life, and everything is suffering for it. The last time Josh and I were part of a raid group, we were working dinner shift at a restaurant. We were in a west coast guild (we live on the east coast) and it worked out perfectly. We would come home from work around 10 and jump into our raids. We didn't have to be up early in the morning and we had our days off.

Now we both have grown-up jobs. Josh has to be at work at 6:30am, so long gone are the days of raiding until 1:30am. Our guild raids Mondays and Wednesdays from 8:30 to 11, which is pretty perfect for us. Our first raid was on January 7th. I've been blessed with the opportunity to go back to school this semester and finally finish up my degree. My class started on January 8th. It's Tuesdays and Thursdays from right after work until 6:30. I think I bit off more than I could chew, getting on a new raiding schedule and starting classes at exactly the same time. Both my contributions to the raids and to my class have been suffering. It's been a long time since I really had to manage my time - 6 years since I was last in school. I've already had to sit out two raids because of it. I'm determined to find the balance, though. I can make it work.

Josh and I are also struggling to find a balance because it has recently become abundantly clear that my heart lies with the horde, and his lies with the alliance. He has humored me, and we've been working on Zelu and Amayaa. Slowly but surely. We are making sure that we only play when we have an abundance of rest. We've made it to level 97 so far. But any time we aren't playing together, he is playing alliance and I'm playing horde.

And maybe it's not even so much a horde/alliance thing as a warlock thing. Being at the bottom of the meter in every raid because your class is just plain awful is not a good feeling. I'm good at my class; I know I am. But my performance looks bad because warlocks are bad right now. It's extremely frustrating and disheartening. The horde has always been my refuge, and maybe that's what it is right now.

I'm also getting some iffy vibes from the guild Loihi and Popkorn are in. At first I thought it was a perfect match. Even after my first raid night with them, I thought it was a perfect match. But lately I'm not so sure.

I have been indiscriminately recruiting for Diabolical, Zelu and Amayaa's guild. We've gotten quite a few people, and we have another tank and a healer who seem pretty serious and reliable. They may end up leaving because Josh and I aren't leveling fast enough, but if they stick around, I'd really like to get a raid group together. But when am I going to have time for that?! I can barely manage what I've got going on. I have my weekends, but I have always been pretty adamantly opposed to raiding on the weekends. So I guess we'll see what happens.

Here. Have some screenshots of my pretty ladies.