5/17 What I Accomplished Today

1. Today is my grandmother's birthday. She is 87 today. I meant to buy her a card, but that didn't happen last weekend. I called her on her birthday the first year she was in the Center three years, but it was very hard work, and Mom said she didn't remember it afterwards, so I'm a very bad granddaughter and I spared myself the pain. When I spoke to Mom for Mother's Day on Sunday, I told her to wish Grandma a good day for me, and I did mean to call Mom today on the off chance Grandma might be there, but that didn't happen. It's okay, though.

Grandma's twin sister is dead; she had Alzheimer's. Her husband and brother-in-law are dead. Her older brother and his wife are dead. She doesn't have Alzheimer's, but she does forget or mis-remember things. It's very frustrating for my mother and uncle.

I am seven years younger than my Co-Vivant, and she smokes; I expect I will outlive her by quite a few years. Just at a basic, pragmatic level, I don't expect my nieces will be that involved in my life when I am old, at least not on a day-to-day caregiver's level. I am 42; at this point, I am probably not having children of my own. (That was a hard sentence to type.) Some days, courage is looking unblinkingly into the void and saying, "I will die alone," and having that be okay.

2. Level 25 Night Elf Priest. Tried Culling the Threat, but she's not up for it yet. She wasn't up for tower of Altharaxx or whatever last night. When a character appears to be stuck, I go to another area of the same rough level and do some quests there, so I went to Wetlands and took Apprentice's Duties and re-took Absent Minded Prospector; I also got Uncovering the Past and Fall of Dun Modr, which I turned in right away and took out Fall of Dun Modr. I dinged 26 and spent my talent point on Searing Light, level 2. I picked up Grim Task and Dark Iron War.

Then I returned to Ashenvale and ran to Forest Song, turning in Helping Hands and Kayneth Stillwind. I picked up Forsaken Diseases, Lost Chalice, Shameful Waste, Report from the Northern Front, and Agents of Destruction; there were two others, but I didn't take them. I also ran and picked up the flight path in Azshara. I turned in Report from the Northern Front and logged off for the evening.

3. We watched forgettable comedians this evening. One of the local channels had a Mad About You marathon today, so we watched a few episodes of that.

4. Worked on Pogo Badges. (I did this last night, too, but forgot to mention it.)

5. I appear to have caught my magazines up to the beginning of May; I read a Harper's, a Nation, and a New Yorker.

I also finished The Bill from my Father, the book for this month's Literary Society next Wednesday. (I think it's next Wednesday; my PDA may be dead, and I'm trying to decide if I have to do anything about that.) Good book. His tone and subject matter are similar to Augusten Burroughs and David Sedaris, but he's less overtly funny.

6. Back to WOW. Silverwind Retreat. Picked up and turned in Elemental Bracers. Bought the Expert Cookbook. Went to Darnassus Auction House and bought the Expert First Aid and Heavy Silk and Mageweave books there. (Two of them were for less than the buyer had to have paid retail; I'm not sure how that works, but I was perfectly willing to buy the books at a discount.)

Finished Aggressive Defense. Not sure what I'm doing now; I seem to be stuck. Maybe I'll go grind something until I get to 27. I'll see if I can think of a good grindy place for this one. (Both the good and bad thing about doing the Priest first is that things that are hard for the Priest will not be hard for most of the other guys.)

7. My Co-Vivant caught up on this blog this evening; I told her she didn't have to do that, and I'm sure she skimmed parts, but she plowed through the whole thing, bless 'er.

While she was reading, I saw that Google Ads were added at the top of the page. The choices of ads were interesting, I thought; on a day when I mentioned diabetes, the ad was for diabetic supplies, and several of the World of Warcraft days had ads for WOW gold. (By the way, I do not endorse that at all. My WOW work ethic is very strict; whenever somebody starts whining for money, I say, probably not very nicely, "You're supposed to be a proud and noble defender of the realm. Make something, kill something, sell something, even steal something, but do not beg." However, if people happen to click that click and I make a fraction of a penny, I'm going to accept that fraction of a penny.

Quite a few days, it just had sort of a generic "Start your own blog!" ad. I must not have said anything that the computer parser could turn into an ad those days.

8. I meant to fill out the Fictitious Business Name form today and work a little on my summer courses, but that didn't happen.