Weekend Intelligence: Company

So maintaining the clean streak in the house from last weekend paid off this weekend. We had company Friday night, and the house was more or less acceptable not to have to do much with it this weekend. So, in what I hope will become typical weekend intelligence fashion again, here are the highlights!

House and Home:

Friday night was good fun. One of D's coworkers had his kiddo for the night as his wife went out with friends to watch the new love-smitten chick-flick sighfest, Twilight. So we invited him over for dinner and some adult time while the kids play. We hadn't had people over to our house for barbecue and beer in a long time. Apparently, we live on the other side of the world from them. And he is admittedly more directionally challenged than D. That thought is kinda scary, and hard to believe... Anyway, I had to call him to clarify that we did live nearby a different mall than he thought: we're at the one close to Sea World on the Northwest side of town, the one he thought was on the east side. At least it gave me some lead time to properly barbecue the chicken with some sauce I mixed up, instead of quickly just blackening it. Comes out so much better when I can cook it slowly. We ate and drank and talked about all manner of topics until the kids started winding down for the night. We've got to do that again someday soon. I don't mind hosting or driving (whichever is easier on them), but that was fun.

Since we'd kept the house more or less presentable through the week, all that was needed on Saturday and Sunday was some light pickup and maintenance. We went to church on Saturday night. I enjoy going on Saturday night because it leaves my Sunday mornings open to sleep in and enjoy the day without worrying how I'm gonna pack 6 hours of activities into a 3-hour period. We did our normal WalMart run on Sunday. I finally broke down and got D and I new chairs for the office. There was one screw holding my seat together on my old chair, and it was poking me through the cushion in a rather uncomfortable way.

So many bad jokes...

In Game:

Keri and I set up our BST and hit Crawlers' Nest to burn off a ring charge. We had just finished off the charge when Byble, a member in DeathByHairball, asked if anyone was available to help him get Limit Break 1 items - needed to progress past level 50. One of the three items drops off of monsters in Crawlers' Nest, monsters we could easily defeat at our level. That request came across about the same time that two parties decided to descend on our very clearly occupied camp and kill everything that moved. I hate people. After helping Byble, I committed to searching all areas for a new, less frequented camp.

I came up with Toraimarai Canal. This gem of a dungeon is accessible right from our hometown of Windurst - no travelling needed! It has two clear tiers of monster levels, which makes for easy pet/prey distinction. And the lower level tier has slimes, which are quite possibly the best pets in the game (despite being notoriously hard to charm), as they have incredibly strong attacks, special moves and are impervious to physical damage. The drawback is that the pet slimes spawn quite some distance from the prey, requiring us to drag them across the entire zone to camp. Keri died in the process of getting a pet, but once we had them, we didn't have much issue getting back to the zoneline. Once we got back, we Familiared the slimes and tore everything that moved apart. They went through the fish, bats and skeleton targets like they were paper. And since they were so many monsters, we easily kept up chain 4 for experience bonus. We made nearly an entire level, but with the death, I am 1k ahead of her. I'll have to log on as her one of these days and do some campaign ops to make up the difference.

In Soulfire news... We took down Bahamut on Saturday. 18 minutes of preparation for a fight that lasted no longer than 30 seconds. LOL The gear drops weren't fantastic, but he did drop just about every crafting item that would fetch a handsome price on the AH. If everything sells for the going AH price, divided up, we each stand to make about 310k. I can't wait for the next one - I need the money.

We also a did Dynamis - Beaucedine run. Nothing fabulous. We got some nice 100 coins drop, and a bunch of MNK relic that no one wanted. It is to be Shadokaryuudo's last sponsored run. He might still lead the event and teach others how to lead the event, but he's officially done paying back the coins he borrowed to get his relic katana a few months back, and thereby done paying the entry fee for all of us to get into Dynamis.

I'm seriously considering changing my main to BST. I love the job, want to lot on gear for the job, and want to maximize my chances should Monster Gloves ever decide to drop in Xarcabard. That's the last item I need to complete the set. Don't get me wrong. I love MNK and WHM, but I don't really need any more gear for them. I like BLM, and it could probably use some love, but all the linkshell drama involved in the simple act of leveling my BLM to 75, not to mention all the pre-existing competition in our shell for BLM gear has left a nasty taste. I'll need to get a few levels first, though, if I want to be BST main.

Short week coming up. I'm out in New Braunfels Monday and Tuesday, and I have only a half day at work on Wednesday. Noni's closing early on Wednesday, so I need to get Clara, pack the Vue and have everyone be ready to hit the road for a Thanksgiving in El Paso.