It's in the Trees! It's Coming!
Independence Day is always such a weird holiday in Logan Square. Because our neighborhood has about 65% Latino residents, the 4th gets folded into Puerto Rican Independence Day and Mexican Independence Day, despite the fact that these other two holidays take place on other dates. The neighborhood residents celebrate those days, too, very much the same way Americans celebrate the 4th - picnics, fireworks, cookouts, family get-togethers. In effect, we get the 4th of July three times.
The neighborhood fireworks start on the 3rd, and end sometime in the wee hours of the 5th. Despite fireworks being illegal in Chicago, some families sink serious cash into the really, really powerful stuff - then proceed to set something (like houses) on fire. The lakefront fireworks are universally difficult to get to and from, so a lot of Chicagoans stay home and celebrate with block parties instead.
We dedicated yesterday to WoW, dinging 58 and approaching 59. We headed to Outlands/Hellfire as soon as we could, and found the XP and loot hugely better. I'm glad we scouted it out with our Alliance chars earlier - even though we don't play them much anymore, using them to look around has really helped with our Horde chars. Just questing in the area netted about seven green drops for the AH for a few gold each. I'm wondering if we should just skip all the old-world dungeons now, since even the *green* drops are better than the epic old-world gear.
I'd still like to do BRD and Scholomance just to see them, and especially since the Burning Crusade stuff requires good groups (sadly lacking in our Guild). We've tried to group up with Guildmates, but we either get folks who a) don't know how to work in a group (I so hate Shadow Priests for that) or b) don't want to work in groups, but suffer your presence because they need you for a specific quest. A lot of it is the "I win" mentality, trying to rush through to lvl 70 because they believe that's how you 'win' WoW. drubear and I are much more relaxed about how we play, and "winning" an MMORPG has more to do with enjoying the game's content, exploring and crafting. I confess that I really do like the story they're telling in quests and lore, but more than that I just like the shared activity with Chris. Yes, we're slow levelers, but I think we're getting our money's worth, but doing it *our* way.
The neighborhood fireworks start on the 3rd, and end sometime in the wee hours of the 5th. Despite fireworks being illegal in Chicago, some families sink serious cash into the really, really powerful stuff - then proceed to set something (like houses) on fire. The lakefront fireworks are universally difficult to get to and from, so a lot of Chicagoans stay home and celebrate with block parties instead.
We dedicated yesterday to WoW, dinging 58 and approaching 59. We headed to Outlands/Hellfire as soon as we could, and found the XP and loot hugely better. I'm glad we scouted it out with our Alliance chars earlier - even though we don't play them much anymore, using them to look around has really helped with our Horde chars. Just questing in the area netted about seven green drops for the AH for a few gold each. I'm wondering if we should just skip all the old-world dungeons now, since even the *green* drops are better than the epic old-world gear.
I'd still like to do BRD and Scholomance just to see them, and especially since the Burning Crusade stuff requires good groups (sadly lacking in our Guild). We've tried to group up with Guildmates, but we either get folks who a) don't know how to work in a group (I so hate Shadow Priests for that) or b) don't want to work in groups, but suffer your presence because they need you for a specific quest. A lot of it is the "I win" mentality, trying to rush through to lvl 70 because they believe that's how you 'win' WoW. drubear and I are much more relaxed about how we play, and "winning" an MMORPG has more to do with enjoying the game's content, exploring and crafting. I confess that I really do like the story they're telling in quests and lore, but more than that I just like the shared activity with Chris. Yes, we're slow levelers, but I think we're getting our money's worth, but doing it *our* way.