Home from the doctor: Still have all my toes (plus cooking, books)

[thistlechaser]

Long story short: New infection. Doctor had to make new holes in my toe to help drain things. Hurts like heck, but that's fine so long as I don't have to go back to the hospital. It's still MRSA, but it's the "good" (weaker) form of it. On new antibiotic.

In tastier news, I'm going to make this pot roast tomorrow. Looks easy to make, and in my limited use, I've had good success with envelopes of powder. It's all put together in the fridge now, ready to plug in tomorrow morning. I'm a tad worried what the vinegar might do sitting with the onions for 12 hours (I poured it down the side instead of on the meat), but I forgot to hold it off to the side, so we'll see. Hopefully it won't transmute the onions into some form of toxic sludge or something. Cooking, so challenging. (But seriously, how do people learn about things like that? I doubt many people say hey, let's pour vinegar on various vegetables for 12 hours and see what happens!. How does one learn what's a horrible mistake and what's only minorly bad or what's okay? Vinegar is an acid and onions are strong in something harsh, I'd think mixing the two for long periods of time might be bad. Or maybe I'll get pickled onions! Seriously, cooking, so challenging.)

I hate finishing good books. I've been sad all day, knowing there was no more of the Gone series to read. Luckily he's written a crapton of other books, so I'm going to check some of them out. He and his wife are the authors of all the Animorphs books, as well as some Sweet Valley series (not High, a sidebranch of it) -- those aren't going to be the ones I check out, but just evidence of how prolific the two of them are. Though, hmm, I've never read any of the Animorphs book, so maybe I'll check one out?

Comments

[fbhjr.livejournal.com]

Glad you still have the toe!
I hope the new antibiotic helps!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yes! I like all of my toes and would rather keep them. :P Me too, thanks!

[hamsterwoman]

Good luck with the new antibiotic! And hope you feel better soon.

Oh, I didn't realize the books you were talking about were written by someone who was part of the Animorphs authorship. My brother was reading Animorphs when I was in college, and, NGL, I devoured those books (the first 30 or so, maybe?) probably more eagerly than he did, and when I had a friend come stay over one weekend, she got hooked on them, too. They are not masterpieces of speculative fiction or anything, but very readable and enjoyable, and I'm happy that my ten-year-old is getting into them now that they're being reprinted.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yep! His wife had sole credit, but they worked together on them. Hey, "readable and enjoyable" is nothing to sneeze at! It's all I ask from books.

And thanks!

[tersa.livejournal.com]

how do people learn about things like that? I doubt many people say hey, let's pour vinegar on various vegetables for 12 hours and see what happens!

Actually...they do. They're food scientists. :)

Also: it's basic chemistry. Or biology. Take your pick.

----

Bleh that you have a new infection, but at least it's not a relapse of the old one. Or something. Gosh darn it, Thistle's body, knock this shit off!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ha! Okay, I stand corrected. :)

And yeah, at least it's not as bad as the original one. I've had quite enough of this whole thing though!

[tea-blossom.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry about the new infection and hope you feel better soon <3

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Thank you! <3

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

Excellent news on the toe retention! Yay!

Love, C.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yes! <3

[kelen.livejournal.com]

*hugs all the sick out of you!* :( Glad it's not a run for the hospital, but that's awful. Last thing you needed.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yay the healing power of hugs! *HUGS BACK* And for sure! I'm so glad to be home tonight. Must keep fishing, after all! :D

[kelen.livejournal.com]

Hee! <3

I've been mining lately. At fishing 46 and needed a change. I'll go back to it soon. :)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I like fishing, but not nonstop. I'm 42 now, but all of my other crafts are 20-30, so I do a different thing every night. I need to work on my archer though, it's dragging along at 27.

I like how everything is interconnected. After I mine, I can make ingots to level BS, then use the ingots to level LW or something else. Do BOT, then make the stuff into cloth, use the cloth to make something else. It's really satisfying.

Also, once you get into the 20s, the items you make while skilling actually sell for a profit! I hit 50K tonight (though logged out at 40K, finally upgraded some of my fishing gear -- a 42 wearing 20 stuff was just silly).

Our economy is really sad though. Few fish are worth selling, and even red coral is 50 gil per single (I heard that's really worth a lot elsewhere).

[kelen.livejournal.com]

That's how I'm feeling about it. I fish when there's something to watch, or I'm doing something else that doesn't require in depth attention from either.

And yeah, I love the interconnection too, and how you can level it all. :) You almost have to, to use materia at all. That part is kind of frustrating, for you have to have the crafting class of what made the item to certain levels to meld materia into things. Looks like I'll be leveling a lot. 9.9

The economy where I am is awful too. 300 gil an item is the best I've gotten for anything. Except maps. Those range from 1-5k each, but I don't get many of those. (You can fish up maps after level 40, from level 40+ areas.)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I'm aiming for a map a day. You can get one every 18 hours, so I try to fish up at least one. The level 45 ones sell for about 5K on my server and the level 50 10K, so that's a darned nice chunk of change.

Know what's really odd? I got one at fishing 20 (fishing in a 20 level area). I have no idea how that happened.

Agreed about the melding part. I haven't done too much with that yet though -- there's so much to do I can't keep up with it all.

Do you do the "dailies" for your grand company? There's an XP+ scroll you can get from them that's really handy. Basically it gives you rested XP up to 200K bonus XP (I think 200K). I used one last night while gathering.

How nice is it that we can dye things? I love not having to wear a mess of colors!

[kelen.livejournal.com]

Oooh. I didn't know about the dailies. I'll have to poke at them. <3

I haven't tried much dying. When I couldn't dye the two pieces I wanted to, I gave up. :P Even have dye sitting in my bank from that quest in Vesper Bay.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

The dyes from the quest are kind of sucky. In each starter city (in the main market area) there is a dye vendor with a ton of different choices. Most cost about 40 gil, so it's easy to try a couple to find what you like. The vendor is never well named, you'd think they'd call him Dye Vendor or something, but it's like Random Trinket in one city and Independent SomethingNotDye in another.

The dailies are really useful. They help you rank up with the GC (so you can buy more things), plus you get XP for crafting twice over (get XP by crafting an item to give to them, get XP for handing it over). Unless you just buy it on the AH, which is sometimes the better option.

[kelen.livejournal.com]

I can't get the dailies until level 30, so that could be a bit. Been avoiding leveling as I hate random dungeons. Should lump it and go. I'm already level 29. It wouldn't take long.

Been doing leves for mining and enjoy those, but really don't enjoy the combat leves. Mostly because I'm on Conjurer and that's slow to kill anything. So what should be easy takes forever and a day.

Wish there was an option to do things with crafting classes like the storyline. I'd be happier not leveling a combat class. ;)

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Maybe fishing levels count? My archer was 22 or 24 when I started taking them on. I do only the crafting ones though -- like you, I really dislike the combat leves. They're just no fun for me.

If you can, watch the AH for HQ ores (or save the ones you get). When you turn HQ things in for a leve, you get a big bonus of XP as well as (usually) the items back.

Wish there was an option to do things with crafting classes like the storyline. I'd be happier not leveling a combat class. ;)

So very agreed. I find Fates to be the least painful way to level, but then I need to catch up on the storyline quests.

[kelen.livejournal.com]

I knew about HQ stuff. It doubles your xp gain, which is awesome. :) Unfortunately the mining leves I've done don't allow for hq options. Fishing sure does though. Tis awesome.

The grand company dailies say it must be a level 30 combat class, so fishing doesn't work. Very sad. Not sure why you could get them and I can't.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

That's very strange... You're trying to pick them up from the starter city GC HQ? The only 30+ thing I have is fishing. Archery and leather are both my next highest at 27-ish.

Too bad about the mining leves! I hadn't tried one yet (but want to), I've only done the leather ones and one combat one to see what that would be like.

[kelen.livejournal.com]

I didn't join a GC in my starter city, so no, didn't try there. Didn't expect a non joined company to give me quests, so didn't look. :)

Mining leves are super easy, but you mine the quest item during the time limit, and there are no HQs. You can't premine stuff and turn it in. :( WHich you can do with fishing.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ah ha! That explains it then. Whichever of the three you join will have daily turn-in crafting quests for you, all picked up from the city of the GC you join*. I actually enjoy them, since it's something that gives you XP in that craft (no turning in a level 1 item if you're level 30 that I've seen), and it's one item from every craft, so that keeps it interesting.

(*You can do another city's and get credit for your own, but you get a bonus if you do them for your own.)

I'll see if I can try a mining one tonight! :)

[kelen.livejournal.com]

Well, I've been trying to get quests from the GC I joined and it's level 30 combat class only.

[voidmagus.livejournal.com]

The GCs have reps in other cities than the main ones, too. I've turned in crafting dailies in Drybone, and a few other camps.

Getting the dungeons done isn't hard, though if you get a stupid group it can be frustrating. If you're on Balmung I'd be glad to help - 50BRD, and working on GLA/PLD (currently 18) alongside my wife's LNC. Usually you can survive 1 person being a moron, sometimes 2...but with a group that actually knows the mechanics of the boss fights, it goes by very fast. I just ran Wanderer's Palace (lv 50) for the first time, with randoms, and the whole thing took under 20 minutes.

That said, some of the storyline fights are a pain, especially if you're a damage class. I'm stuck on one right now - Westwind. 8man fight, and no one does it outside storyline (most other dungeons, people run them for xp/rewards) so i've sat in the duty finder for hours hoping for a group. Fortunately my FC/LS said they'll help - sunday is their "help people with whatever" day.

I'm still loving the game, though I'm frustrated at a lack of merit point system. 50 BRD, tons of story to do, dungeons to run with lots of trash to fight through...and Xp that serves no purpose. I know I'm aeons behind most people playing - most I know were 50 in multiple jobs before the Realm Reborn thing, which is when I just started.

[kelen.livejournal.com]

Ah! I could simply be looking in the wrong place then. :) I'll go poking around.

Yeah, the dungeons aren't hard per se, but I suffer with anxiety. Even when I read up on places I do things wrong that first time, and often get screamed at horribly for it all by other players. Then I agonize for days afterward and it's amazingly stressful for me. So for me dungeons are a place of stress and anxiety I just do not need. And sadly it's all in my head, and there's nothing I can do about it.

It's not the game really, it's me and other players who are jerks about me not magically knowing how to do things 'properly'.

Do have a free company. Should ask them. I angst over asking for help too. :P

[irreparable.livejournal.com]

Here's hoping the infection clears up soon. *hugs*

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yes! Thanks! *hugs back*

[changeling72.livejournal.com]

Blimey. Your feet have certainly been through the mill of late!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

They have! Hopefully this will be the last round and they'll heal up.

[postingwhore.livejournal.com]

Well, I learnt how to cook from my parents and from recipes online (when necessary), but I also don't use all these new-fangled cooking contraptions :P

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

The contraptions are often more trouble than they're worth!

[ani-mama.livejournal.com]

Feel better soon!

I never cooked until I got married. Then we moved out to the boonies, where there are no fast food options. Cooking is a survival skill in these parts! It is not rocket science though. I did have a patient Hubby and a large dog that would dispose of any failed experiments without complaining too much, so that helped...

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Ha! That's handy. I usually either have to choke down or throw out my failures. Ellie New Cat is just no help at all!

[spike7451.livejournal.com]

Hope the antibiotic beats the infection!!

The pot roast sounds good, let us know how it turns out.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I do too!

Review of the pot roast posted. :)