Katya's Twin

Every now and then something odd happens in the salon. Sunday, I was reminded of the first time Katia came in for a cut. See, Katia is Katya's twin, almost. Katia looks like someone took Katya and shrunk her a bit and sucked out some of the color. Confused? Here, check this out.

Ok, over on the left, Katia. Over on the right, Katya. See what I mean? The owners brought her in last summer and ever since then she's normally one of my regulars. Sunday they needed her in and out earlier than my schedule allowed so Andrew took her instead. It's not a tough cut or anything like that. In fact, I had two more Aussis that day and another one about two weeks ago. I'm slowly building up a little niche market for Aussis here in Memphis. I imagine I'll have it cemented right about the time we need to move to Nashville. That's ok though. I can always do the same up there.

Thursday we're in for a little treat. A new customer who has just moved here from Alabama is bringing in HIS Aussi. The treat? It's a MINIATURE Aussi. I've been wanting to see one of those ever since I read about them online. I'm curious to see just how small they are and to see if they've retained all the usual markings and shape. If I can, I'll get pictures.

Warcraft, Part 2

Currently Reading: Twilight Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko

As I mentioned last week, I've been playing World of Warcraft so there's no news there. What IS news is that CC has now started playing as well. She read last week's blog entry about the game and decided she'd try it out for herself. I woke up one morning as she was slipping back into bed grumbling, "stupid graveyard." The graveyard, you see, is where you go when you die. You then have two options. You can walk back (as a ghost) to your corpse and come back to life or you can pay the spirit healer to resurrect you at the graveyard.

That morning, I spent a bit of time teaching CC the basics of the game along with some basic techniques for online and fantasy games in general and she was back at it again. A few days later she had her OWN 10 day trial account so we could play TOGETHER. A few days after that she's signed up for her own FULL account and is now has a higher level character than I have.

She's now playing Warcraft the same way she plays The Sims. Her usual pattern is to play a game until she's reached all the goals or gotten her character to the maximum level. I imagine she'll do the same here. She'll keep at it until she reaches level 70 or nearly so. What she'll do after that is anyone's guess. There's one expansion set for the game out already and another one due to be released this summer. Also, there are 8 races and quite a few different hero types you can pick from. She's a hunter now but who's to say she won't max that out and then start over with a new character as a mage or a rogue? We'll just have to wait and see.

We've been having a lot of fun with this game though. She logs in from her laptop, about 5 feet away, and I log in from my machine and we meet up in the game world and go on a quest, which usually means a killing spree of some sort.

I'd LIKE to tell you that I've got a whole lot of interesting stories from the week but I'd be lying. This past week all we've really done is work and play Warcraft to unwind. CC logs more hours in the game than I do though. I like to read before bed so I play the game for a little while then do some reading and that's that.

Hopefully I'll have some better stories next time :-)

Warcraft

Currently Reading: Dune by Frank Herbert

Just a head's up for those who didn't know. I'm back to working a 5-day work week again. I have Tuesday and Wednesday off now and still getting used to that. When I'm home, I can't goof off quite as much as I used to because I have one less day to get things done. On the plus side though, I don't have to open anymore which means no more 7 am start times or waiting around for two or three hours for people to show up while wondering why on earth I woke up so early.

Unfortunately, I picked this week to start playing the online game called World of WarCraft. I'm sure you've seen it or heard about it or even played it yourself already. It's yet another in a long line of fantasy, online games where you run about cleaving monsters in two and gathering up treasure, that sort of thing. The main difference is that in this game you link up with anyone else who happens to be playing at the same time. This can come in handy as some of the tasks required of you can be a bit tricky.

Starting off though, it's not nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. Maybe it's because I've been playing these types of games for a LONG time but I was under the impression that, especially with the newer characters, you'd need to group together more often. So far I haven't run into any serious problems. I have died twice (which is actually kinda cool). I can't say that I've made TOO much progress though because I can't really decide what I like to do yet while I'm in there. It all depends on my mood.

You see, you have the world broken down into two sides, the Alliance and the Hoard. All your classic good guys are with the Alliance, your dwarves, elves, humans, etc while all your bad guys are with the Hoard, including minotaurs, undead, orcs, etc. When I started out, I did what I usually do with games like this, I picked a warrior type, which is usually the easiest in any game to play. Your mission, run forward. Hit things until they stop moving. Remove treasure. Repeat. You can generally get a good feel of the game that way, how the monsters move, basic strategies, that sort of thing.

Ok I've done that. I had my dwarf out there bashing the hell out of things (which is a great little stress reliever let me tell you). Then I figured I'd try out some of the cooler classes like the druid (which can shape shift) and the warlock (which can summon imps and demons). Granted blowing things up from afar isn't quite as fun as running in there and bashing away but it's still good. Besides, you actually have to come up with a strategy before you start fighting things otherwise the critters will overwhelm you.

So where are we now? I've got 5 characters all of which at about the same stage of their career, all different races. I just bounce back and forth between them depending on what I'm in the mood for.

One thing's for sure, I'm glad I waited until now to start playing this game. You see, they've already come out with one expansion set for it and they're due to come out with another one soon which means there aren't very many people playing the basic game like I am. Also, I can see where playing this game can REALLY make the day just disappear down a hole of lost time. There are so many little quests you can do and skills to raise. You really can get caught up in it.

None of this is all that interesting to CC. She told me earlier that she prefers the "doll house" type of games, like The Sims. I told her that it's sort of like The Sims. Just imagine The Sims, but with killing :-)

Kung Fu Panda!

Currently Reading: Dune by Frank Herbert
Oh yeah, you know we're seeing THIS one!

"Kung Fu Panda" features Jack Black as Po the Panda, a lowly waiter in a noodle restaurant, who is a kung fu fanatic but whose shape doesn't exactly lend itself to kung fu fighting. In fact, Po's defining characteristic appears to be that he is the laziest of all the animals in ancient China. That's a problem because powerful enemies are at the gates, and all hopes have been pinned on a prophesy naming Po as the "Chosen One" to save the day. A group of martial arts masters are going to need a black belt in patience if they are going to turn this slacker panda into a kung fu fighter before it's too late."

The Weekly Roundup

Currently Reading: Between Books At The Moment

And it's time once again for another exciting installment of my blog. Ok, not really all that exciting this week but I thought I'd make up for that by throwing in some enthusiasm. Did it work? No, probably not, so let's just get on with it :-)

Last week was CC's birthday. She's all of THIRTY-FOUR now. Yes, I know, shocking isn't it? She sure doesn't look it, that's for sure. If you happened to miss her birthday, don't worry, she'll have another one next year. Save your guilt for something more important and just wish her a happy BELATED birthday. It's all good :-)

What did we do for her birthday? Well, we had dinner out with my folks. We went to the P.F. Chang's not far from here. We'd never gotten around to eating there. There's a Pei Wei up the road near the mall and we've eaten THERE but Friday was the first time at Chang's. They have great food. We'll be going more often to be sure.

As for special birthday presents, CC asked for map updates for the GPS. I know, I know, not exciting but I got it for her anyway because it's really very useful to have the maps reflect the current state of the roads. They're not 100% accurate of course. Cities build roads much faster than the map company can keep up with them so there are always little side streets that don't appear or sometimes whole subdivisions that show up as farmland. Kinda bad when you think about it. A whole subdivision went up SO fast it's not even on the map. Makes you wonder just how sturdy those houses are eh?

Saturday I had one of those "I feel old" moments. You see, Sunday was the birthday of one of our grooming assistants and since she didn't work on Sunday, I told her happy birthday on Saturday before I left. I then made the mistake of asking how old she's going to be. She chimed in, full of energetic perkiness, "I'll be NINETEEN!" Yeah, I knew she was young but I wasn't expecting such a perky response. I groaned a little (it had been a long day) and I said that she was almost exactly half my age and that I couldn't even REMEMBER 19. Then she said, without even missing a beat (and making the age thing REALLY sink in) "You're not OLD. My mom's 38 too!" Oh yeah, like THAT was a big help. I'm over it now of course, and it's actually pretty damn funny which is why I've added it to the weekly review. Guess I'll have to get used to that sort of thing because it'll happen a LOT more often.

Been having a problem with my right ear. Not a serious problem, just an annoying one. I've got some bad wax build-up going on in there so if you see me, speak to the left side please. I can't hear much of ANYTHING on the right side. I've been using the ear wax drops but those things take a few days to work. I can feel it loosening up a little but it's still a bit clogged up.

Oh yes, we had some weather roll through here. You've probably seen pictures and video by now I'm sure. Let me post a little clip I found on YouTube. This took place maybe 20 minutes from the apartment so we weren't in any real danger but it had CC pretty spooked when it was going on. You can read all about that in HER blog though.