Turn out, quite as expected today! We’d planned – or rather, I’d planned on trotting around looking at entertainment units, and nice (read: “pretty”) storage boxes in which to store things under the bed… However, going through the wardrobe in here yesterday had a very strange effect on himself’s brain! He decided to start reclaiming the spare room, and to do that he first had to empty out, and clean, the rest of the computer cupboard (read: the wardrobe we cleared the clothes out of yesterday) That endeavour took most of the morning, and did I say yesterday that I’d never realised we had so many clothes? I did, didn’t I… and I also didn’t realise – and neither did he – just how many spare keyboards… monitors… computers and computer cases… that we had! Not to mention all the spare routers and other computerie bits and pieces, languishing there at the back of the top shelf. We could almost have opened up a second hand computer shop! He cleaned them up, took photos, and offered them, free to a good home, on his favourite forum, Overclockers. If anyone reading this blog is looking to adopt various computer bits and pieces, stick your hand up by leaving a comment, telling us what you’re looking to adopt, and your contact details, and we’ll get back to you. Anyway, by the time all of that had been done it was after lunch, and himself started getting stuck into the spare room. Things that we were going to keep got stored in big plastic bins with lids, and stacked into the newly cleaned and emptied computer cupboard; the things we weren’t going to keep got stored in big plastic rubbish bags and stacked by the front door. These will be carted off to the tip tomorrow. Tomorrow. Traditionally our day for romping gaily through Telara… This time, we’ve decided to have our Sunday on Tuesday instead, so that himself can keep on with the cleanup and not lose momentum. You know, I can see the spare room as in a vision… look! There’s actually a floor in there! Tiled, too, like the rest of the house. A chest of drawers stands against the wall to your left as you enter the room, and a large bookshelf full of those quaint old fashioned cardboard, leather, and paper objects called “books” stands against the window wall. Two beautiful Michael Parkes prints decorate the wall facing the door, and under the prints is a comfortable looking sofa bed with a fluffy throw rug and colourful scatter cushions. There are side tables at each end of the sofa, with Tiffany lamps, which make the room glow with a warm golden light in the evenings. A woven oval rug lies on the floor in the middle of the room, and a round, carved, Chinese coffee table completes the room…. As I said… a vision! A vision of what the room could look like, if we ever get a round tuit. Well, at least it’s almost half emptied out now, so hopefully the rest can be done tomorrow… then, as well as going out and looking for a new entertainment unit, and nice (read: “pretty”) storage boxes, we can also look for a comfy looking sofa bed, a fluffy throw rug, and some colourful scatter cushions! 🙂 Then all we’ll have to get is the oval rug, the side tables, and the Tiffany lamps. *sigh* I suppose it’ll get finished one day…

Whilst all of that was going on, I was blissfully unaware, leveling up Wyntercat’s Runecrafting and Artificing skills. I managed to get her Alchemy crafting up to maximum yesterday, and today I also got her Runecrafting (magical gems which can be added to your gear and armor to boost up your attributes, like Intelligence, Wisdom, Endurance, Strength, etc., sometimes by as much as +110!) up to maximum (450/450) I did her Artificing last – I’ve found it a bit disappointing, actually, because Artificing is the art of making magical weapons – Staves, bows, wands, totems, etc. You can also make “Augments” for those items, they’re a little bit like Runes (see above), but are incorporated into the actual fabric of the item you’re making… what I found so disappointing was that there are virtually no Augments that are of terribly much use to Mages. There are a few that would suite a Cleric, or a Rogue, but not much for Mages, and just about all my girls are Mages. As I said. Disappointing. So anyway, by the time I’d taken care of my Merry Minions, and then upped Wyntercat’s last two crafts, it was late(ish) afternoon, and too late to start any serious questing. Unfortunately, the poor old Guild bank isn’t looking too healthy. There was almost 5000 platinum in its coffers before Jademoss and Dramiel turned 65 and we upgraded all their gear, and then I maxed out Jademoss’s two crafts, and Wyntercat’s three… and now there’s only about 887 platinum left! It’s not as easy as it once was to make money on Rift – before Minions came on the scene, if you needed a lot of money fast, you went out and farmed whatever was doing well on the Auction House. Skins, herbs, metal – it all sold well, especially the higher level gatherables… Now, your Minions bring in most of the high level stuff that once you had to go out and farm to make money, and they bring in a lot of it! What’s more, everyone of a certain level has Minions, and all the Minions go on the same Adventures, and they all bring in the same items – more or less – and so what happens when there’s a glut?! The prices go down! and it’s not good for the Telaran economy! Oh, we’ll eventually make the money back – if we farm hard, and Jademoss and Wyntercat turn the fruits of our farming labours into sellable items – gear, weapons, whatever – maybe we can sell the finished product for a profit (except that everyone else will be doing the same thing – catch 22!)

Weigh-in this morning was “bad” (as in “up = bad”, “down = good”, “stay the same = boring”) I knew it had to happen – soon – and it did, this morning. I went up 1 point, from 107.7kg to 107.8kg. I’m not going to grizzle too much about it, I’ve been expecting it, and it was only one point, but if it does it again, let me just say that I’ll not be best pleased… Let’s see what happens tomorrow morning, before deciding on severe reactions… 😉

So call in again tomorrow night, and find out how I amused myself in Telara on my own, whilst himself amused himself cleaning out the spare room 😉 Hopefully by Wednesday we’ll be ready to go sofa bed shopping (I noticed that they has some quite nice ones in Hardly Normal when we were getting my new computer chair!) as well as all the other items on my nice, long shopping list! 🙂 I’ll let you know what my new Chrome Violet nail polish looks like on actual nails, and not just in the bottle, and fill you in on what my weight is doing… which will be going down again, hopefully! Anyway, bee good, and bee-have yourselves until tomorrow – ciao, all! 🙂