The old oven is gone. The city came and picked it up this morning. netgoth had told me they were going to pick it up today, but I promptly forgot when I got home last night. Fortunately I remembered this morning and got it out to the curb on time. UNfortunately I am not as “strong” first thing in the morning, and it took everything in me to get it out to the curb by myself. I got soaked in the process (there was water inside), my arms feel all scratched up, and I may very well have pulled something.

Me big strong man. Me lift oven.

Bah.

No word yesterday on the second mortgage, but I have a very strong suspicion that the office took the day off. I tried to call them yesterday afternoon, but the voice mail system picked up after 8 rings only to tell me that it was full.

I’m trying to fight off the cold that K. has had (since Christmas now!), but I fear I may be losing. This morning I am particularly sniffly. I’ve got my Zicam and my Cold-Eeze and my Vicks inhaler (ahhh, legal cocaine…), but this cold may just be too mighty for all of that. I really hope not, though. I really, REALLY don’t want to go through what K. has in the last week and a half.

K. is planning on doing a big post comparing a lot of the MMORPG’s that she has played. I don’t want to steal her thunder on that one, but I do have a few thoughts of my own that I wanted to throw out there.

First of all, the graphics in WoW are absolutely stunning. At first I wasn’t really impressed, to be honest. Our first characters, Night Elves, weren’t like any other elves I had ever seen before (I briefly played Warcraft II, but don’t recall seeing any elves). I like Elves. Quite a bit, actually. They seemed to be very clunky, ungraceful, and not at all pretty when compared to, say, the elves in Everquest (the original EQ after the graphics upgrades). The scenery itself was absolutely stunning, but I really didn’t like the look of my character (and the customization is, admittedly, pretty basic). Then I created an Undead. Now we were getting somewhere. The undead looked totally badass. Not only that, but their dancing was much cooler.

Then we created our Taurens.

The Taurens are beautiful. Seriously. Not in the “ooo, I wanna do them” way. The detail that went into them just blows me away. As does the entire feel of the game as a Tauren. Every day I continue to be amazed. Trade skilling is fun. It’s very easy to share loot (and there is a way you can automatically set it up to randomly give uncommon drops to a party member). PVP is neat (nothing like a bunch of Tauren and one seriously kick ass Orc chasing down a Night Elf with guns).

Things I don’t like?

Well, for starters, getting back to the grind. CoH is pretty simple in that regard. You don’t have to sweat an inventory or learning new skills. Don’t get me wrong – Those things are fun and add to the flavor of the game, but they can get seriously tedious.

You can’t add people from the opposing “side” to your friends list. In other words, I can’t talk to etcet and company if I’m playing my Tauren. That’s really lame. I mean, I understand the role-playing aspect of it and all…But private messages aren’t generally the place where role-playing things happen.

There is no way for characters with huge level differences to group together. CoH really spoiled me on that. Once you hit level 10 you can play with anyone. Sure, you might not get experience if you are grouping with a lower leveled player…but you CAN group with them without hurting THEIR experience.

Warriors don’t start the game knowing how to use a sword. At least, Tauren warriors don’t. That. Is. So. Lame.

Flying between cities, while in theory beautiful, totally lags out my computer.

Things I like?

They spent a huge amount of time working on the back story and making the game quest oriented, and it shows. Hell, we got a quest just from finding a cloak on a named wolf the other day (and as a result I got a TOTALLY swanky gun).

The humor that was prevalent in the World of Warcraft games is all over the place. And yes, the Orcs do say “Zug Zug.”

Being a member of an “evil” race is not crippling or restrictive at all. In EQ once you were ready to leave your newbie zone you were pretty well fucked if you were one of the bad guys. Not so in this game.

They got Minotaurs (Taurens) right. Powerful and noble humanoids with a firm sense of honor. That kick much ass.

The dance emotes are hilarious. Undead women do the shiny quarter dance. Undead guys headbang. Tauren women Riverdance. Tauren men do the Peanut Butter Jelly Time Dance. Night Elf women dance all sexy. Night Elf men…ok, this one was scary.

They dance like Michael Jackson. Seriously.

The combat graphics are very smooth and realistic, especially when you run and attack.

All in all? Great game. I’m keeping it. AND City of Heroes. Don’t worry, guys. The newness of this will wear off soon and we won’t be spending as much time on Azeroth. In the mean time you all can catch your mains up to us so we can to Terra Volta!

&lt/geek&gt

Whoo…update…the finance company has ordered title insurance. That has to be a good sign. Waiting to talk to my actual loan officer for final confirmation.

Busy day again, so I’m cutting this here. Later guys.