Monday Madness 3/21/05 - Always cook the turkey fully...

[Greebo]

DNP. Bell choir and when not involved in other things, I've been playing "Children of the Nile" which is a neat little city managemnet game based on Egypt. It's hard, but not too hard - just right. No combat - all management.

But ... about the turkey...

Carol spent yesterday being sick. On Sunday she thawed a turkey - a pretty big turkey - by leaving it on the counter for most of the day (in the biological danger zone), and then only cooked it to 165 or so (180 is the norm for poultry).

I had not eaten any of the turkey - I was at my uber geeky wargame on sunday.

Carol spent most of the day and night on the couch or in bed not eating or drinking, except when she was in the bathroom. Good news - she's better this morning.

The turkey will be disposed of.

[Shiz]

Jumped on for about 7 minutes while Victoria was going down. Then Kris and I watched Donnie Darko. We liked it.

[Sir Rubi]

DNP. Bell choir and when not involved in other things, I've been playing "Children of the Nile" which is a neat little city managemnet game based on Egypt. It's hard, but not too hard - just right. No combat - all management.

But ... about the turkey...

Carol spent yesterday being sick. On Sunday she thawed a turkey - a pretty big turkey - by leaving it on the counter for most of the day (in the biological danger zone), and then only cooked it to 165 or so (180 is the norm for poultry).

I had not eaten any of the turkey - I was at my uber geeky wargame on sunday.

Carol spent most of the day and night on the couch or in bed not eating or drinking, except when she was in the bathroom. Good news - she's better this morning.

The turkey will be disposed of.

Erk, sounds pretty fowl :( Seriously, as someone who all too recently had that condition, I have A LOT of sympathy for Carol.

*HUGS*

[Serani]

Bummer! Glad Carol's feeling better, continue to get better. Food poisoning SUCKS.

Haven't posted the weekend, so I'll try to catch up here. Friday was Geek Night on SciFi. Good episodes, though I'm annoyed that they season's are ending next week. I really am not happy that the ONLY new thing on TV for a few weeks will be BSG. Guess we'll be playing more (maybe).

Saturday, we played. My ex had the two older kids, so we were able to get a good deal of gaming in. I didn't realize, until 12:30 am Sunday, just how MUCH we played. We started out deciding to "explore" Nektulos Forest. We'd been there in beta and, at the time, we were level 15 and everything was BLOOD red to us. Stuff is still mostly high level or heroic but we can get through, so we went over to Commonlands to putz around for a while and ended up doing the first 11 or so sabotage quests. Lots of fun, good experience, though it involves some serious running around.

We also started our evil alts on Saturday, Caliely (going necro) and Dahren (shadowknight). I'm reminded again how much I did NOT like Freeport. Don't get me wrong, it's nice to have greenspam, but... *shudder* the city's awful. Heh, we discovered our RL moods were affected. 5 minutes after we were in the city, we noticed our language had taken a turn for the worst.

Anyway, finally camped out around 12:30 am on Sunday morning. Sometime during the night, we had a power outage and lost internet, which remained out until sometime yesterday. By that time, I'd realized that we were all sick. Flu-like sick. Peanut started it, with a nice nasty cough, then Rubi, then me. I think Jess is the carrier. She almost never actually gets sick, but none of us are in other people's faces enough to catch what they have. :( I can't wait until she starts homeschooling full time. At least we can take that part of it out of the equation. *sigh*

So, last night I DNP. Read, Rubi played something on one of the consoles, I think, and that was about it.

Hoping to play tonight. Got some stuff to check out on the fence/broker and play around a bit with some of the new stuff (mail and whatnot).

[Yuglooc]

Glad to hear that Carol is feeling better this morning. :)

I played EQ2 last night. It was mainly a night for exploration - thanks to Draeken's Enduring Breath spell, three of us (Draeken, Biaxident, and me) made progress on the Hadden's Earring quest. We now need to go into the castle and see Lord E... (don't recall the exact name).

[Asharad]

Hope Carol is feeling better.

Shiz, check out the donnie darjo offical website. Its the best web tie in to a movie I've ever seen (I liked it too).

PLayed for a bit, advanced the Evil Eye Bag (chomper was up, then dead by my hands) (well, I had help) and then advanced the Serrated bone dirk quest.

Then went to my parents house for dinner and watched 24.

[Aananla]

Picked up the Incredibles and we watched some of that. The Bonus clip, Jack Jack Attack was hysterical.

[Aananla]

Glad you're feeling better Caylor. I have a phobia against rare or undercooked foods, so I don't often get sick from it, but I have, after eating Long John Silvers, thought I was going to die. It's not fun.

Whatever I cook, eggs, toast, chicken, fish, always has a nice black crust. ;)

[Raveneye]

Played briefly since my wife went to bed early last night. Basically just got on intending to do some inventory and bank management. Got that done and decided to try and raise harvesting skills to Tier 3 levels (Mining was already there, but Gathering, Trapping and Foresting needed work). While doing this I knocked off 10 timber wolves to finally finish Dane's boot quest (the last "newb" quest that had been hanging on in my log for the past 15 levels) and put the reward in my shared slots to give to my son's character.

After a little over an hour of harvesting I am about 5 skill points away from Tier 3 in Forestry, Harvesting and Trapping. Should be able to complete that this week sometime. I also found two Glowing Flower rares, which apparently are used to make stuff you can imbue crafted items with to grant magical abilities. Need to research this more and find an alchemist that can assist.

Will not be on tonight, it's QT night with the wife and I need to go to bed early as well since my daughter has been up half the night teething the last few nights.

[Sir Rubi]

Glad you're feeling better Caylor. I have a phobia against rare or undercooked foods, so I don't often get sick from it, but I have, after eating Long John Silvers, thought I was going to die. It's not fun.

Whatever I cook, eggs, toast, chicken, fish, always has a nice black crust. ;)

I remember a certain breakfast from a certain cleric... I didn't remember it being THAT burned :P ;)

I hear you though--if it clucks, moo's or squeaks, SEND IT BACK!

[EricStratton]

Ugh, that's rough, Carol. Get well! Maybe that's why I was sick yesterday - sympathy illness.

Looks like I had a 24 hour flu. I feel amazing today. If I hadn't gone thru it myself I wouldn't have believed I was as sick as I was yesterday. And I obviously DNP. I did watch a bunch of ST:TNG that TiVo got for me and Hellboy. And started watching Man on Fire but fell asleep about 30 mins into it.

[attriel]

Ran around some in Nek with Cregan. Killed a bunch of stuff then decided what we were trying to fight was outclassing us (we evac'd twice from the guardian grinnins b/c he was almost dead)

Then I played in CL some working on safe fall. Jumped off the first griffin ramp a bit before realizing that it must be too low for an increase, so started the run to the second ramp where I got some. Cregan suggested the big rock in front of nek, which i tried for a bit. Managed to go from 51 to 75, sojust another 60 points left :o


Oy. :)

Picked up a palladium cluster, so I'll need to get around to turning that into a torque for the quest :o

--attriel

[Crim]

Didn't do much in game last night. Mostly some tradeskilling and harvesting of T5 materials. It was interesting that the latest patch completely changed the mobs in the zones I was in last night (EL and Rivervale). There seems to be a much higher percentage of solo mobs and non-agro mobs. Made the harvesting in Rivervale alot easier as I didn't have to constantly have to run for the zone. :lowsmile:

Early in the evening my daugher was playing and she discovered the Pet Vendor. Now she want's me to give her a plat so that she can buy one of each. :|

[Drax]

Glad you're feeling more ... settled today, Caylor. :lowsmile:

Had a full evening, with working kinda late, then allergy shot, Discover card payment at Sears (always rough, that :lowlol:), then picking up a milkshake, which ended up being a bad decision. The shake was so thick, I ended up straining the left underside of my tongue, which proceeded to hurt for the rest of the day. Was the first time that had ever happened to me, but some friends said they had that happen to them before. *shrug* (Feeling better today.)
Then checked email and played a little Literati before bedtime. I like having internet connection again, as I was apparently sufferring withdrawal from Literati. :lowlol: For the night, I won 3 games and lost one, but was fun games all around. Highlight was beating a 1900+ pt person (who had logged some 5000+ games) by more than 150pts. :D

[DirkDarkBlade]

Glad Carol is feeling better. I've had food poisoning before and it is not fun. Though I do like my steak rare (my deffinition is I want a good vet to have a fighting chance of bringing it back, but I digress). Poultry and pig though needs to be well done.

As for playing. Murgos hit Antonica and found the guild quiet except for a higher level group heading somewhere I didn't know where was. So I decided to work on the Bark like a Gnoll quest (and finally finished it, darn stingy pups). I also got the gnoll heretige (?) quest where you need to collect parts. I got at least two of everything except gnoll spirit. Couldn't find a gnoll spirit on any of the critters.

I plan to play tonight, see y'all there!

[Aananla]

I remember a certain breakfast from a certain cleric... I didn't remember it being THAT burned :P ;)

I hear you though--if it clucks, moo's or squeaks, SEND IT BACK!

Nah, Jen doesn't like charcoal either, so hers and yours were slightly less brittle than mine. :tongue1:

[Greebo]

I don't worry about beef being rare (unless its ground beef).

And I don't worry about pork being medium. Today's pork is much less likely to require being cooked to the point of overdry to be safe. (Used to be pork often was fed on... pork...so the pork got infected by bad food before slaughter. Today's pork is much better fed.)

But poultry? Especially bigger poultry like chicken and turkey? No thank you - 180F internal or nothing for me. :)

[Asharad]

a milkshake, which ended up being a bad decision. The shake was so thick, I ended up straining the left underside of my tongue, which proceeded to hurt for the rest of the day.

You pulled your tongue? Drinking a milkshake?

Poor Becky.

[Sir Rubi]

I don't worry about beef being rare (unless its ground beef).

And I don't worry about pork being medium. Today's pork is much less likely to require being cooked to the point of overdry to be safe. (Used to be pork often was fed on... pork...so the pork got infected by bad food before slaughter. Today's pork is much better fed.)

But poultry? Especially bigger poultry like chicken and turkey? No thank you - 180F internal or nothing for me. :)

I remember hearing somewhere that beef from the cow can be rare, as long as the outside is cooked/seared to remove germs, because germs/etc. can't penetrate the meat--is that accurate?

[Greebo]

Well that depends on how old the meat is, but generally speaking yes - the larger cuts of FRESH meat are going to only be at risk of surface contamination.

Ground beef, otoh, can be contaminated throughout because it's got no solid surface area.

[Winduforce]

Monday

I joined Zyzzyva and Biaxident in the commonlands to work on the earring quests. I had to go back to Nek in the river to find the item and then head over to the Commonlands in the ocean to find the item in the whale skeleton. After this we had to go back to TS to the sunk wreck near the Siren Shrine to recover the object but now we have to go to Nek Castle to find a Lord there. This will need to be done another time so we can get a stronger group together to go into the castle.

After this we went over to CoB and we worked on some loose quests that needed to be finished. We were able to finish my AQ4. I had to finish some Shrillers, Restless corpses and some Scarbs. We also finished off some warlocks and the essences. Thanks to Z and Biax in helping me with the AQ4.

I also was able to finally get my Gathering over 90 so now I can Gather in TS. The only thing that needs to get over 90 is my fishing.

Since the patch allow additional character I have 2 new ones. These will be for Freeport adventuring.

Krego-Mage
Torago-Fighter

[Raveneye]

You pulled your tongue? Drinking a milkshake?

Poor Becky.

PEPIS! :lowlol: :mrgreen:

[Barrack]

Well, lets see, first day back to work from my Vacation. Revitalized and energized (untill the afternoon, which room temps got a bit on the warm side and I was going into nap mode).

In CoH I have gotten Gig into 36th level (the baddies are getting much tougher, no longer can I single shot a minion with a straight Zap) and my tactics are starting to need changeing.

House wise, the 6' privacy fence is almost done, much to the irritation of one set of neighbors. The drunken mother asked if I did not like them, heck I hardly know them, but with a responce like that makes me glad my dad desided to erect it (my birthday gift from the parents). The kitchen wall is almost done, my brother is stuck with trying to figure a way to Drywall around a venting pipe. But now the one wall looks like something out of Star Trek. I am tempted at haveing it painted a light metalic grey.

On a personal front, got another new hobbie (or maybe getting into my umpteenth childhood) Moldel building with LEGO! Of course I went overboard and am now in the Red on my bank account (which will fix its self come a week after Thursday), Luckly I have enough cash for gas, and a Target card for food and such, so I will survive. As for my first goal with the new lego sets, I plan on attempting to build a model of Voltron (Lion Force) Scale to the lego Mini figs.

[Raveneye]

I also got the gnoll heretige (?) quest where you need to collect parts. I got at least two of everything except gnoll spirit. Couldn't find a gnoll spirit on any of the critters.

I think it may be broken. I have had that quest forever, the only item left on it is the Gnoll Spirit, and it's been that way through the slaughter of (I'm not kidding here) at least 150+ gnolls. Consider that I had only the spirit left to collect BEFORE I started AQ1 (which consists of mass gnoll slaughter) and TS writs (again mass gnoll slaughter) and several nights spent in groups that simply hunted gnolls for the xp and loot. I was also able to finish Skeleton Mastery in about one tenth the time (and kills) that I've had gnoll mastery hanging on.

It's either broken, or they need to make the gnoll spirit a much less rare "psudeo-loot" drop.

[attriel]

I got the entire thing done pretty fast. Dunno :/

[Kiir]

Went to class yesterday and got home in the evening, we decided we didn't feel like cooking so went out to dinner, when I got home I was semi brain dead so didn't feel like playing EQ2, surfed the web a bit and played a bit of sims2 instead until heading to bed. Not sure if I'll be on tonight have my dad coming into town and going out to dinner with him before class and have an assignment due tomorrow for english, so we'll see.

[Asharad]

Load the quest up as your primary quest (in the window thingy). Kill a gnoll. If you get a "you didn't find any quest objects" message in one of your text windows (not in the middle of the screen) it's still working.

They are just really rare. I killed 300 sirens probably before I got the inital siren part. I've gotten in the habit of not looking at any of the other, droppable, pieces until I get the first three, as it makes me feel better to occassionally delete the quest and re-read the book. but thats just me

[Caranthir]

DNP. Except for a break to watch the Jack Bauer Power Hour, spent the afternoon and evening studying for Wednesday's Biochem test.

Found out this morning that I can pretty much kiss any chance of getting into George Washington University's (and maybe the others as well) grad school program because my original alma mater, the University of North Dakota, didn't bother to send them the transcript I requested they send. Never mind the fact that I sent them the <censored> form THREE WEEKS before the due date. They pulled this crap with me before when I went to work at Lockheed Martin as well. Fortunately that time I had the copy of the official transcript that came with my degree to give to the company.

I am so pissed off right now it isn't even funny.

[Drax]

That really sucks, Car. :~

[Asharad]

That completely sucks car. Do you have any recourse against UND?

[Greebo]

Update: Carol now believes it was a flu/virus vs. the turkey, because it didn't develop very quickly and she had a fever, something inconsistent with food poisoning (she says -don't ask me).

I'm still not eating the turkey.

[Biaxin]

Update: Carol now believes it was a flu/virus vs. the turkey, because it didn't develop very quickly and she had a fever, something inconsistent with food poisoning (she says -don't ask me).

I'm still not eating the turkey.

Hey,

She's right, about the fever, with something as nasty as food poisoning (or the bacteria which causes it) the body recognizes the threat and the efficient approach to removing it - vacate the system immediately. Milder gastric bacteria, the flu bugs, develop in the system and spread a bit before really being noticed by the immune system, which, then, deals with it as it would any other systemic bug - causing fever, milder nausea and diarrhea, the like.

[Aananla]

There you go Greebo. It's safe to eat the turkey.

[Caylor]

Thanks for all the well wishes! I am tending to believe it was not the turkey...it was cooked through and I removed it from the bone and found no areas that were not cooked. My symptoms were fever, headache, and nausea...no vommitting (thank the god's as I hate having to hold my hair back on my own! - You lucked out Dear), and no diarrhea. I still feel some nausea today when ever I try to eat, but have been able to rehydrate my system. But just to be safe, the turkey will go into a boiling cauldron filled with stock and veggies to kill anything that possibly could have been the culprit.

:lowsmile:

[Raveneye]

Wow, who could possibly want to eat anything after reading all that? :smile:

[Caranthir]

That completely sucks car. Do you have any recourse against UND?

Probably not. They're claiming they sent it and it must've been the Postal Service that's responsible (and they could be right, apparently this is the only one of the five not to get to its destination, thank God), but I consider it more likely that one of the work-study dumbasses they have doing this stuff was just too lazy to stuff the envelope (a stamped envelope already addressed to the school, no less) and stick it in a mailbox.

I guess I can take some small comfort in the knowledge that the one they screwed up is the one that I'm least likely to be able to attend due to costs. Funny how I never have these problems with the private schools I went to, though. Well, you know what they say: if you really want to <censored> something up, get the government involved.

[DinbinFanfoom]

After work, hit the treadmill for 30 minutes/2 miles of walking/jogging. Did more reading when I got home and zonked out.

For those of you made queasy by men "sharing", stop reading here...

Still very uncomfortable with how I'm feeling emotionally... Uncomfortable in that I'm angry at myself for still having feelings for my estranged wife. We have nothing in common anymore, our lives are headed in completely different directions, she's with someone else, and I'm... totally still attached somehow. I find myself thinking about her wayyy too much. I mean, I know that's somewhat normal (we've only been apart 3 months) but man, this is convoluted. My head tells me we could never ever work, but my heart is telling me that if she ever came back it'd do it's best to veto my brain. I miss my step-daughter too, but at the same time know that if I ever saw her or her mother at this point, I'd be a bawling, pathetic mess.

I mean, I'm working hard at the office, fixing stuff left-right-center then I get a call from her and she says she's coming by during the day to pick up the rest of Magz stuff and I hang up the phone with my hands shaking and a sick feeling in my stomach and find myself driving home a bit too fast after work... like some part of me really wants to see her on the off chance she's still there while the rest of me knows it'd be a pointless anyway.

I check my Blackberry before I turn out the lights and as soon as I get up... you never know... there might be a message there? Why am I doing this to myself? I've been told it can take a year to get yourself back on track... am I gonna be able to hold it together for another 8 months or so?

What the heck is going on inside me? How come I can't let go of someone who completely crushed me?

[Sagar]

What the heck is going on inside me? How come I can't let go of someone who completely crushed me?

{{{hugs}}} Din.

Hang in there if you can. Vent here if you need to. Howl at the moon. Moon the moon if it makes you feel better :smile:

You are a pretty amazing guy. I just know that, when the time is right, you'll meet someone (besides us) that recognizes and appreciates that.

Our thoughts and prayers are with you!!!