Welcome Carlie to the Chick family. Today Carlie was born after a difficult pregnancy. She’s healthy, beautiful and well worth the wait. Her mother, my cousin, is one of the most patient, gentle and loving women I’ve ever known. Little Carlie, if you grow up to be half the woman your mother is, the world will be a much brighter and wonderful place for having you in it. Happy Birthday!

In less personal news, my D&D crew is amused by the journal my character keeps and has suggested that I publish it. I think it’s a marvelous idea, though I know we will always be more amused by our D&D sessions than others will. Now I just have to decide where to publish it. So would you guys be interested in that or would you rather I make it it’s own blog. Use the poll on the right to let me know.

Many thanks to Ban from Musings of an Angry Bansidhe for the banner update. This cool chick played on the same EQ2 server as I did and I’m ashamed to say I never got to know her there. But the interwebz has corrected this oversight and I found her website full of awesome signatures. She’ll probably do one for you if you ask nicely and provide her with all the information she needs. Remember this wonderful woman is willing to give her time and energy to you for nothing more than the enjoyment of making cool signatures and banners. You should respect that gift by giving her all the information she needs to do it the first time. Think of it as an exercise of those great communication skills you need as a leader!

The Guild’s Birthday is in four days. This was already an incredible milestone for us and one I’ve been eagerly awaiting. We have an in-game event scheduled titled “Operation Shock Monkey” (That’s all I’m telling you until I can provide you with screenshots lest I ruin the surprise). We’re making T-shirts for the guild to order from Cafepress if they want. I’ve put a fair amount of energy into both of these things. What I didn’t know is they had a surprise for me.

Last night I was taken out to dinner to celebrate a personal milestone. When we arrived at my favorite restaurant I was escorted to a table with a few people I already knew and a few strangers. I looked closer and realized wait, I’ve seen these people before, on our guild’s real life picture thread. Several of my guildmates from Virginia as well as one from Ohio got together to surprise me. They’d somehow kept this secret from me through a month’s worth of planning.

It was incredible to sit around a table with these people, most of whom had been with the guild since close to day one and just enjoy each other. We talked about game stuff, real life and just got to know each other. In fact we had so much fun that the restaurant closed and we moved the party back to my house, until 2 am.

Highlights of the night

• The surprise of discovering their plot.
• Trying to sort out real life names, and settling for character names instead. (That’s right I answered to Auz in public, which wasn’t as bad as “Fizwidget” or “Gumibear”)
• The Moonkin “Cawing” at the waitress. (Poor dear, but I left her a nice tip)
• A DPS warrior pulling threat on a set of crutches.
• Our offtank discussing his need to generate more threat and then pointing at three of our warlocks and saying because of you bastards!
• Telling our favorite Mikedabutcha stories. (Missed you Mike, but the nieces are cute enough to make up for it.)
• Discussing what would happen if everyone told the REAL reason they caused a wipe.
• The fiasco of getting everyone from the restaurant to my house. (Let’s just say, if you want directions from Auz, ask for them ahead of time. No you take a right, wait a left. I don’t know)
• Hearing their stories of previous guilds and discovering that they really valued what we have going on.
• Explaining to one of our guildmate’s girlfriend that I was his other woman, and I was sorry I took him away for 20 hours a week.
• Hearing from the same girlfriend how Sunday night dates were EXPRESSLY forbidden as that was progression night.

It was an incredibly geeky night and the most fun I’ve had in a while. I cannot believe that these guys put so much time and effort into surprising me. I often take a step back and look at my guild amazed. It’s incredible that what started as a conversation in my living room with two of my best friends turned into this. The people we’ve drawn and the things we’ve done astound me. There are times I look back and think to myself, how did I convince people of this caliber to follow me? Like a parent, I feel like I’ve raised something better and stronger than myself and I couldn’t be more proud. Thanks guys, the effort you’ve made and the way you made me feel last night, reminds me WHY I put so much time into this.

Thanks Cathmor from Eye for an Eye for this BA Shared Topic idea.

Top 10 Unforgettable Warcraft Moments (for a Raiding GM)

• Turning in the charter
• First guild only boss kill
• Killing the last boss of any instance for the first time
• The first time you have no open recruitment positions
• The first time someone asks “What’s a good guild on this server?” in trade chat and someone not associated with your guild mentions your guild.
• Seeing a raider develop under your tutelage
• The first time they “do it without you.” - It takes a strong leader to be irreplaceable, it takes a stronger leader to create a guild that can function without them.
  
• Overcoming adversity - Even you were struggling, but you pulled through and the guild is stronger now.
• The first time there’s nothing left for you to kill so you have to give raiders the night off.
  
• The first time someone tells you “You have a member for life.” and you believe them.

And a Song

I was learning some new audio software and recorded a round. Given the lack of trolls (though I did get a Tauren) and overwhelming positive feedback from the last time I sang for ya, I thought I’d share again.

The file can be downloaded here if the embedding doesn’t work for you.

For the record, I don’t understand boys at all nor do I understand the way I interact with some of them. I think it was simpler when they all had cooties. I’ll be back to regular blogging after I get my cootie shot.