03.38 pm

Here we go again – same graphics, different Template… it’s actually the same Template I was using a few weeks ago, which I’ve decided to go back to, as Word Press don’t seem to be putting up any new ones… which strikes me as being a little strange! As well as all the Foodie e-zines and emails that I subscribe to, I also subscribe to quite a few graphic, font, and elements newsletters (elements are bits and pieces that you use in your graphics – they can be anything from cute little water-colour flower prints to big decorative labels) Anyway, one or two of these sites also feature Word Press Templates, which I’d love to look at and possibly use – but I can’t, because this Word Press doesn’t allow the use of “Third Party” Anythings! This is Word Press.com – The Word Press that these “Third Party” templates are for is Word Press.org! They’re exactly the same – identical, even! This Word Press, however, actually Hosts the blog(s) and does all the hard work and organisation for you, from supplying the Templates, to backups, maintenance, and publishing. All you have to do is choose your Template, and start writing – you don’t even have to do any graphics, if you can’t, or don’t want to. If you use Word Press.org though, you can get your Template from just about anywhere you like (as long as it’s Word Press compatible!) but you have to find and organise a Host for it, you’re the one responsible for blog maintenance, backups, any programming changes that need to be made, and publishing, so it’s a really big ask for someone who’s not terribly computer literate, or who doesn’t have the time, or who can’t afford a really good Host. Julian and I have discussed this many times – we know that our Web Hosting Provider, who host our personal web sites, also provide blog hosting, and I’ve lost count of the times we’ve thought that perhaps we should go our own way – but we simply balk at the amount of hard work that we’d then be lumbered with (yes, we’re lazy!) plus the fact that neither of us knows very much about CSS. Julian could certainly learn it – he seems to soak things like that up like a dry sponge – and I can, at a very small and weak pinch, work my way through fairly basic HTML – but as I said – we’re both reluctant to take the plunge… there are just so many other things we’d rather be playing – I mean doing…. However, the main point that I was very slowly meandering my way towards, was the fact that there are an awful lot of “Third Party” Word Press Templates available – some of which look really good – but there aren’t very many new ones appearing on Word Press.com, and I just find it a trifle strange…

This morning, as usual, I played WoW, and Silverhands, my Mage, is now level 25 and questing away in Ashenvale, having bypassed about 85% of the Darkshore content! I’m leveling up very quickly, thanks to my Heirloom gear, and this has both good, and bad points! In a way it’s good that I can bypass so much of the content, because I’ve done all of these areas and their quests so many times that I often find myself running off to the next quest giver before I’ve been told to! I’m just so familiar with it all – being able to bypass large chunks does relieve the boredom quite a lot, I can tell you! The bad part about leveling up so fast is if you’re using Heirloom gear, but have never played the game, or been through those areas before, you’re going to miss out on a lot of very important back-story and Lore, which in effect turns the game into just another First Person Shoot-em-Up game, with no rhyme nor reason, and no real “raison d’être”, which I think is a real shame and a great pity, because in fact it’s not just a “good game”, it’s a damn good story as well! I was running (galloping, now that I can ride! 😉 ) through Darkshore and parts of Ashenvale this morning, thinking things like “Should I stop and do that quest?” as I sped past heaps of Quest Giver’s yellow exclamation points – and then I’d think something along the lines of “Nah… that’s the Twilight’s Hammer one – I can’t be bothered doing that – it’s too easy!” and keep on going! I did die once this morning though – at one point I was given a cape of invisibility, and told to sneak past a whole lot of Horde Bullies to get a Holy Hammer and a Prayer Book. As a Frost Mage, I have a Water Elemental as a sort of “Pet” – he (or she) stands with me and hurls balls of freezing water at whatever I’m attacking, and I wasn’t sure if this cape would shield both of us, or whether the Horde Bullies would see the two of us together. I rather thought they would see us, but I thought I’d give it a go, anyway. Well, they did see us, and it was “stacks on the mill” as they say in Footy broadcasts, and I was killed. Luckily I managed to run into the Tower that I had to get into for the Prayer Book, so that when I did make the run back from the Graveyard for my body, I was able to get half way up the spiral ramp before re-claiming my body and re-using the invisibility cape – this time without my Elemental “Pet”, and I was able to complete the quest! Anyway, I think I’m doing quite well at the moment, though it looks like I’ve already finished with Ashenvale, even though I’ve just got there, because it seems I’ve been ordered off to the Stonetalon Mountains tomorrow (or this evening – whichever comes first! 😉 )

After lunch today I re-worked the Blog’s header, and stuffed around with other graphics for a bit, then started this early, as you can see from the time stamp above, and that’s about all I’ve been doing today – so now I shall move on to the “good” bits!

Food stuffs. Last night for dinner we had a very, very nice, small roast beef! It had been in some sort of marinade (but Julian had thrown out the packaging and couldn’t remember what sort if had been!) and was really tasty! With the beef we had roast potatoes, roast pumpkin, half a tomato, and steamed Brussels sprouts! So scrumptious! The meat was so tender you hardly had to cut it, and the potatoes and pumpkin were “just right”! Of course there was a lot left over, and in fact Julian had made extra roast potatoes and roast pumpkin, so that we could have it for lunch today (and probably tomorrow as well!) For dessert I had one of my Corella pears, and an Apple Le Rice. Today for lunch I had a sandwich, made from that nice whole-meal bread that we both like so much – the one that has all the sesame seeds in the crust – with cold roast potato and cold roast pumpkin mished up a bit to act as butter, and sliced cold roast beef, and plenty of salt and pepper! It was really yummy, and I hope there’s still enough left over for lunch tomorrow! Tonight we’re having pan-fried lamb backstrap for dinner, probably with chips, steamed green beans (or peas) and our usual half a tomato, and for dessert I’ll have another of the “bald-kiwi-fruit” brown skinned Nashi pears, and one of the very yummy Vaalia Lemon Creme yoghurts.

Weigh-in this morning. Was terrible! How can one, very nicely cooked, and with no added fattening material in it, roast dinner, put on so much weight overnight! Mind you, the fluid is still “pooling” in my feet again… and while they do rather resemble medium-sized “toed” balloons, at least they’re acting like the water bombs that they currently are (hence my excess weight!) and not gas filled balloons, otherwise Julian would have to tie a string to my wrist so that he could rescue me from the ceiling!  So despite two anti-fluid pills per day, and my walking for the full 30 minutes every morning, the fluid doesn’t seem to want to shift. If it doesn’t start moving soon, maybe I could cut a little hole in my ankle, so that it could drain out faster… I went from yesterday’s fabulous 64.4 kg to…. 65.1 kg! To say that I’m bitterly disappointed would be the understatement of the millennium! 😦

And once again, this about brings me around to tomorrow! I have no idea what’s happening tomorrow – no doubt I’ll be playing with my young Mage, Silverhands, and with a little bit of luck, I might even get her up to level 30, which would be très cool! Flipper is well, but seems to be getting even more vague – if that’s even possible – but as long as she can enjoy her Daddy pats, and sleeping on the bed at night (even if she does try to steal all my doona!) she seems quite happy, which is the main thing! Auric and Dapple are their usually cute little selves – in the mornings, when I go in to pull up the blind and turn on their Tank light, little Dapple swims around as though he really needs his cup of coffee, yawning! I kid you not! I know fish can’t close their eyes, coz they don’t have eyelids, and I don’t really think that he actually yawns, but it sure looks like it! He’ll swim very slowly towards me with his eyes looking as though they’re half shut, then all of a sudden, he’ll open his little mouth really, really wide, just as though he’s yawning, and then close it again! It makes me laugh out loud, every time! 🙂 I wonder if fish ever try to imitate people? Maybe he looks at me every morning, with my eyes half shut, and yawning widely at him, and he’s just trying to copy me? (no, I know fish don’t try to imitate people! I wuz just sayin‘…”what if?”) Anyway, that’s about “it” from me for tonight, but do drop in again tomorrow night, and find out if I’ve located the plug that’s been keeping my excess fluid from escaping, and how Silverhands is getting along in the Stonetalon Mountains – as well as anything else that’s been going down around these ‘ere parts! Until then however, please try to bee good, don’t forget that any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain but it takes character and self control to be understanding and forgiving, and remember to always drive carefully, to look after yourselves, and to keep warm and dry, because tonight the weather’s supposed to turn wet and cold again – but most importantly, please remember to stay safe! 🙂 ciao, all! 🙂