All day today, working my fingers to the bone, for a fairly old and neglected character on what was a “spare” shard! Well, I did! This morning after breakfast I couldn’t wait to get stuck into Rift, have a look at all the new features, both documented and undocumented 😉 and generally get a feel for the new patch. I had a feeling something might have been up when instead of logging in, I got an update for Glyph, the Rift program launcher. “Hullo”, thinks me, “I wonder what’s up?” Glyph updated itself just fine… but it wasn’t a matter of “what’s up”, it was a matter of “what’s not up”! Rift wasn’t up! Again! So I did what I always do when I want to play Rift and it isn’t available – I played Solitaire. Every two games, I’d check to see if Rift was up again… and eventually it was. I logged on and sorted out my Minions, then thought about playing with my newly moved Kelari Jadenfyre, who’s now on Greybriar. But I couldn’t help thinking about the spare water breathing necklace that a character on Wolfsbane had. How could I get it across to Greybriar? Well, I could shuffle the character across from Wolfsbane to Greybriar… but surely there was another way? Going from shard to shard, I came across a character on the shard Hailol that I decided I wanted to use, too, but she was too “young” to move. Of course I became typically side-tracked as I leveled her up – her name’s Satai, as in the Mimbari Ambassador Delen, from the television series “Babylon 5” – one of the best “space opera” series since the original Star Trek. “Satai” is an honorific reserved for members of the ruling Grey Council on Mimbar, and somehow or other, when I decided to try to call this character “Satai”, I was lucky enough to get it! Anyway, I started leveling her up, and got her to level 15. Time to move! Unfortunately a lot of other people were lucky enough to get that name too, on all the available shards I could move her to. It was a matter of move her, and change her name, or leave her where she was and forget about her (again), or… move everyone to her, and make Hailol the secondary shard. Until today, Hailol had been a quiet little backwater that I used as a transition shard for my numerous Character Shuffles between here and there. Today it became an energetic, frenetically efficient, bustling hive of scum and villainy – oh, sorry, wrong scenario! I meant a bustling hive of fun and activity! First, I tidied out all the other characters on the shard. Made sure all their ui’s and key locks were the same, that their hair was neatly brushed, and that they were all wearing clean socks. Next, I had to get Winterthyme on Wolfsbane organised for the move. She was the Guild Leader on Wolfsbane, and as such, she had the option of taking her Guild (and the Guild Bank) with her (but not the Guild Members) or, she could make someone else Guild Leader and renounce her membership. Well, if Hailol was to become the new secondary shard, it was going to need a Guild, and a Guild Bank, so she took it with her. *sigh* This meant going through every character on Wolfsbane in order to see what they could contribute to the cause… and guess what I found! 🙂 A second, higher level, water breathing necklace! Naturally Winterthyme commandeered this, and put it in her backpack, along with about 108 platinum, and everything that had been in the Guild Bank. Unfortunately there’s a limit to the amount of money you can take with you when you transfer between shards – the formula is 3 platinum per level of the character transferring. Winterthyme was only leavel 36, so she could only take 108 platinum… some of the money had to remain on Wolfsbane. The shortfall was made up by Julian moving one of his largely unused characters from Laethys, after “borrowing” a small sum of money from the Laethys Guild Bank. So there it was. Winterthyme brought her Guild, Guild Bank, and two water breathing necklaces to Hailol, Maereke (pronounced “Mereck”!) brought himself and 124 platinum. All the Hailol denizens were inducted into the Guild, the Guild Bank was set up neatly, and by six thirty this evening, it was all done. I have three Rogues on Hailol that I’ll probably never use again, so one will become the Auctionator, and one will become the Guild Bank Overflow Branch. I’ll most likely move the third one to another shard, and either create a new character to take her place, or import someone I like – maybe Jadenfyre, after seven days, because you can only move characters every seven days – yes, I think I’ll do that… I know it doesn’t sound like much, but believe me, it took all day, and was a hell of a lot of hard work! I’m toying with the idea of making either Satai or Winterthyme the recipient of the Minion’s largesse, but unless the rewards are scaled to the level of the Minion keepers, or the zone that the Minion keepers are in, it wouldn’t work, because I don’t have anyone of a high enough level to smelt the ore and tan the hides that they’re currently bringing in… I’ll look into it tomorrow…

Weigh-in this morning was a pleasant surprise, for once! I went down to 105.5kg, which was most gratifying! Hopefully tomorrow will see another drop (but I’m not going to hold my breath!) Actually, we might go off shopping tomorrow, before it starts getting hot again next weekend – my slacks really are too big for me around the waist, look! (discreetly raises her top about an inch, showing a gaping space between her midriff and the waistband of her slacks… quickly pulls top back down again) and they’re starting to feel as though they’re flapping around on the back of my thighs… Besides, the exercise of trying on pairs of slacks will probably help my weight go down a bit more! 😀

So there you go – call in again tomorrow night and see what’s been going on chez nous! Did we go shopping? Was it for clothes, or was it for the comfy sofa bed for the spare room? I fear that the impetus may be running out a little there… Julian “re-claimed” the Library/Office today, and it looks very different! There’s bench underneath where all those papers were! Unfortunately, our Cleaning Lady didn’t turn up today – nor did she call to say that she wouldn’t be able to make it. She’s a lovely lady, and she’s welcome to come and visit and have a chat any time, but I fear we’re going to have to find ourselves another, more reliable, and much more thorough cleaner, toot sweet, as the French say… I’ll look into the business with the Minions tomorrow, too, so I shall be able to fill you all in on that, as well as how the newly promoted shard of Hailol is progressing. Oh, and if you’re lucky, I’ll tell you how my weigh-in went! 😉 So – same time, same place, tomorrow night, for all the latest! Until then, bee good, and stay safe! ciao, all! 🙂