Variety is the Spice of Life, eh?

Ok, so it’s been a while since I was blogging. What follows is the variety-pack version of what’s been up with Rose:

Farmtown Addiction: I’m still severely addicted to Farmtown. And I got the Sibs addicted and they took their spouses’ Facebook accounts and created extra farms… which I think is cheating, by the way, but… And mom suggested that Farmtown might be something fun to entertain Dad, so we got him a Facebook account and a farm set up. And we all enjoyed chatting while harvesting each others’ crops. Now that Dad’s gone, we are continuing to farm his property and once we get him to level 28, where you can buy river bits, we are going to turn it into Fuzzbutt’s Memorial Garden. It’ll have rambling hills and a river, and trees and flowers and park benches and bunnies and cats wandering around. Dad would be proud.

Vampire Wars: Haley now has me and Holly addicted to another FB application – Vampire Wars. Not as involved as Farmtown, but still fun. But I logged on this morning and find out that someone put me on the hitlist! Why? I can only assume it was because I have a nasty habit of attacking more than twice. Haley says it’s ok to attack twice… and she has a habit of naming people to the hitlist, so I’d think she’d know. But yeah! Humpf.. I thought about tracking the person who put me on the hitlist down and killing her (figuratively speaking) but I decided to let it go. The best part of Vampire Wars is the minions:

Minions and Tiaras: Ok, my regular readers who commit my ramblings to memory will recall, no doubt, that for Christmas I humbly asked Santa for minions and a tiara among other things. Well my birthday was last week (#41 – only one year away from #42!!), and my boss’s wife (Shannon) and kids trotted into the office with a balloon flying and kazoos trumpeting and what to my wondering eyes should appear in the gift bag? A tiara!! and matching earrings. (Ok, they were the cheap-o kind you buy for kids, but I was thrilled!) I put the tiara on and wore it the rest of the day!

I broke one of the clip-on earrings trying to get it out of the package, but I quickly covered up my faux pas with the faux jewels so the kids wouldn’t notice. Shannon told me that she was sorry but she didn’t know where to get me minions, so I told her that that was ok because thanks to Vampire Wars I have plenty of minions! In fact, I’d gotten my first college fraternity just that morning! That earned me an odd look. :) My goal now is to get me a lawfirm – mwahahaha!! Steve (Boss#1) asked what their specialty was and if they were hiring. I don’t think he gets it.

My peeps at work took good care of me for my birthday. I honestly didn’t expect much, as they’d put on all but a 4-course meal for my 40th birthday last year. But I got to my desk and there were cookies, and donuts, and banana bread, and chips and salsa. It was, needless to say, not a Weight Watchers sponsored event. But it was my party so I ate what I wanted! Then mom came into to town that evening and we went to Logan’s for my birthday meal - the first of many upcoming events without Dad. And we cried a few tears, but for the most part we just had a good time talking.

The Friday after my b-day, my fiend, Jennifer, (whose birthday is the day before mine) and I took off work and spent the day together for a mutual celebration. We went to Absolute Beauty and I got a pedicure (see picture) and she got a massage (no picture available). Then we hit Yen Ching and dined on Crab Rangoon and Garlic Chicken. Now for years, our absolute favorite Chinese restaurant was the Panda, but it closed and we don’t know where the chef went…(I think we’d have followed him/her anywhere. But we’ve found a strong contender in Yen Ching. Although they don’t put enough spice/heat to it, so we have to order extra spicy. Which means we have to order LARGE glasses of ice water to drink!

After our delicious dinner, we went to go see the new Gerard Butler movie, The Ugly Truth. Now, I think I’ve mentioned in these pages before that I would pay to watch Gerard Butler read the dictionary for two hours… especially if he’s using his Scottish accent…(let’s say it together: “if it’s not Scottish, it’s CRAP!”). So with that in mind it was an enjoyable movie. The language was a bit blue at times, so it earned it’s R rating. Personally, I was hoping to see a little skin (his, not Katherine Heigl’s) for the R, but… It was predictable and your basic romantic comedy, so without GB, I’d have probably suggested we go see Harry Potter again, but with GB, the DVD will find its way to the Gerard Butler wing of my DVD collection. Heck if I still have the Tales of the Mummy movie where his character literally is killed in the first 3 minutes, I’ll get this one!

Is There a 12-Step Program for Farm Town?

I have come to the conclusion that I have a highly addictive personality. It isn’t drugs or alcohol that I’m addicted to, though, or even chocolate! It’s Farm Town. And I bet at least some of you know what I’m talking about.

It’s an application on Facebook and it started out innocently enough… someone sent me the gift of a chicken. I like chickens so I accepted it, rather than ignore it, and was automatically set up with my own farm. Still, all was well. But then I figured out that I could plant crops and harvest them for money and then plant more. Before I knew it I had a whole bunch of grapes planted. But then there was the heartbreak of going back to my farm the next day and discovering that all of my grapes had rotted.

So I learned and became better, stronger, richer.

Oh, I made the mistake of wasting my initial profits on material things, like fences, and pathways, only to realize that the ground underneath them was far more valuable to my farm’s future. I sold those things and tilled up the land to plant more crops.

One of my “neighbors” told me about how to hire myself out to earn money harvesting other farmers’ crops. While my crops grew, I prostituted myself at the Marketplace begging other farmers to hire me.

Then I noticed that I was planning my day around my crops and when they would need to be harvested. I actually woke up at 4:50 AM one morning because I had grapes that needed to be harvested. Going to my sister’s in Indy for the weekend? I had to harvest my crops and plant longer growing crops for the weekend, in case I wasn’t able to get back to my farm.

I come home from work at night and before even checking to see if I have any mail, I’m turning on the computer to warm up so I can get to the farm that much quicker. Last night, I didn’t have dinner until after 8:30 pm because I was more concerned with the status of my farm!

Finally, I got to a high enough level that I can buy more property to make my farm larger. So now all of extra profits get saved for buying more land!

Like all other things, this too shall pass, but until then, if you need me, odds are you can find me either on my farm or in the market place. I’m saving for a farmhouse. (I suppose that up until now, my little avatar has been sleeping with the chickens.)