An Update, In Pictures.

Four years after our fateful first meeting in Heroic Underbog, I finally married my co-guild leader and main tank.

While our first choice for a wedding venue was the picturesque Nagrand, my mother-in-law's deathly fear of mage portals led us to compromise on Scottsdale, Arizona instead.

Screenshot because it totally DID happen.

My dad escorted me down the aisle, and — much to my relief! — managed to prevent me from tripping on my way to the altar. (The real problem with cloth armor? No agility!)

One of the most fearsome bosses Keaton has ever had to tank: my Dad.

I walked down the aisle to what my parents assumed was a lovely but obscure piece of classical music...

Don't let the "Bradenburg 12" fool you.

... it was actually Zelda's theme, arranged for a trio — courtesy of the amazing Sweetwater Strings.

Drawing on four years of raid leading prowess, Keaton managed to slide my wedding band onto the wrong hand.

It's a wonder he managed to kill Onyxia in Vanilla, much less again in Wrath ... and again in Blackwing Descent ... and again in ...

He was a little embarassed, but honestly? It was my favorite part of the ceremony.

This may have been his:

/kiss

A few of our Canadian guildies caught a wyvern to Arizona for the occasion! Needless to say, we were both touched by their presence and delighted to meet them face-to-face for the first time. It was the continuation of what I hope will be a lifelong friendship.

We took screen shots while waiting for the reception queue to pop. (Resto shaman, feral tank, fury warrior, hunter and shadow priest? Looks like a heroic group to me!)

Heroic Deadmines, gogo!

We entered the reception to "Do You Wanna Date My Avatar?" Under the circumstances, it seemed appropriate.

My actual face. (His too.)

We attempted to dance.

I look like a demented chipmunk.

It's a lot harder in real life, without the slash commands...

/dance

... But I did get brave enough to attempt a little twirl at the end!

We cut the cake after dinner, to the tune of Still Alive from the Portal.

Our cake toppers were moose(s?).

The music was Keaton's choice and oddly prophetic considering the surprise groom's cake I had custom-made for the occasion ...

Not a lie.

He liked it so much that it's currently sitting in pieces in our freezer. He informs me that its been humanely euthanized — again.

After the obligatory wedding events were done, it was time to party!

Cyn likes bubbles.

And drink!

This was either a Canadian drinking song or the impromptu re-enactment of Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog. Both happened.

And sing!

Seriously. There was a lot of singing.

Also, if you ever wondered what a fury warrior looks like seconds after pulling boss aggro and getting smacked in the face with a giant flaming axe...

I'm pretty sure this is it.

Defensive stance! Defensive stance!

It was without a doubt one of the best nights of my life.  It ended far, far too soon.

Arizona -- or Blade's Edge Mountain? -- at sunset.

The next week found us honeymooning in Puerto Vallarta.  As you might expect, Keaton spent a lot of time in aquatic form.

I think a Squee! might actually be appropriate here.

Two months later, our Fiance Visa arrived in the mail and we were actually able to move in together.

And just last week, Keaton's green card application was approved and I felt that I could finally share this without jinxing us.

Consummate geeks that we are, we celebrated by killing hard-mode Alysrazor.

The End.

Hey, remember that warlock pet bug?

I think I was one of the first locks afflicted (before the patch, no less!), because when it happened to me, NO ONE knew what the fel I was talking about. I was hurt. I was confused. I was bewildered.

So, naturally, I opened a ticket.

(Click on the image to embiggen.)

Best. GM. Ever.

Game Master Scogonn — you totally made my year. 

A long over-due and rather jumbled update

"So, Elle.  What have you been up to in the five million years since you posted last?"

By five million years, do you mean three days?

"The last one doesn't count, and you know it."

Fine.  Whatever.

Since you asked so nicely...

"Are you using your sarcastic font?"

Always.

For the record, my sarcastic font is 10 point Verdana unless you're reading this on a reader, in which point it's actually your browser default.

Anyway.  As I was saying.  In the five millions years since I last posted, I have been:

• planning a wedding;
• buying a house;
• preparing to sell a house;
• raiding new content (Icebound Frostbrood Vanquisher = MINE!);
• raiding old content;
• not raiding at all (QQ);
• leveling alts (final count: 5, including a sexy mohakwed beast master hunter);
• collecting pets (I named my seagull Ignus and he is every bit as lame as his namesake, but -- like his namesake -- I heart him anyway); and
• feeding my Netflix addiction by watching back-to-back seasons of Lois & Clark, (Dean Cain is the most adorable Clark Kent ever), Roswell (read: Twilight with aliens), Veronica Mars (HOW DID THIS SHOW GET CANCELED?!) and Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles (interminable cliffhangers FTL). 

I've also become a regular over at TheKnot.com — ostensibly a wedding planning site, but actually the eighth layer of hell.  Seriously.  It's a train wreck over there.  I love it. 

I don't know if I'm actually back yet.  I want to be back.  I miss blogging.  But I'm in the middle of a move, and I'm getting married in just 68 days (according to the rapidly moving ticker on my TheKnot.com signature).  There's still a lot to do, and that's on top of the 10 and 12 hour weeks I've been working.

Oh, and there's the small matter of Cataclysm dropping in the middle of it all, and my desperate need to keep up with the rest of my rapidly leveling guild so I don't fall behind and miss out on the first days of raiding.  :3 

So, I may not be back just yet.  Or I may be.  I'm a Libra; I /waffle.  It's what I do.

You know it’s time to end the blogging hiatus …

... when you find yourself tempted to ask for guild leadership advice from your wedding planning forum.

So.

You know how I said it could go either way?  We could scramble to pull together a full raid, fail, and scatter like frightened field mice — each of us scurrying for parts and raids unknown?  Or ...

Or we could kill the Lich King.

Finally!

To quote my most favoritest rogue ever:

Fucking finally.

The hamster has Tuesdays off, you see.

Festergut despawned, Rotface was nowhere to be seen, the Blood Princes refused to come out and play (<insert "It was a sunny day in Forks..." joke here>) and even Alextrasza's children weren't behaving.

I don't know why we even bother to raid on patch days.

This is not a UI post.

A certain shaman-turned-hunter of my acquaintance recently posted in defense of about his eye-bleedingly horrible UI.  I'd love to respond by sharing my custom UI, but can't...  because the aforemention shaman-turned-hunter might realize I wasn't lying when I said I didn't display pet frames on Grid.

Take that, Charles!

To Do List

• Kill Algalon (10).  We are so close to this one!  If I were able to bully people back into Ulduar more than once every other month or so (which inevitably forces us to spend the first 20 minutes of our hour relearning the fight >.<), we'd have Called enough Stars by now to start our own pocket universe. 
• Kill Anub'arak in Trial of the Grand Crusader (25).  If I have to extend this week's ID indefinitely (or until our 50 attempts are exhausted), then I will.  We didn't let Lady Vashj or Kael'thas Sunstrider get the better of us in TBC, and we certainly won't let Anub'arak do it now.
• Make a decision about Shadowmourne.  /waffle
• Get Stumpy his Rusted Proto-drake.  He's been One Light short of 310% birdspeed for so long that I'm ashamed of myself. 
• l2holy.  ... okay, so Larissyn wasn't my first or even second choice for an arena character.  But after watching Rosaly's PvP video — or, rather, listening to Rosaly's PvP video — I have to admit, I'm kind of excited.  (Whatever you do, don't tell Keaton.)
• Buy a sexy new dress for Saturday's holiday party.  See also: manicure, pedicure and practice run with the curling iron and/or straightener. 
• Delete Paladin Schmaladin from my feedreader.  Lying liar is STILL LYING — and the paladin community is somehow okay with it!  If this isn't proof enough that you full-time pallies are SEVERELY JUDGMENT IMPAIRED, then I don't know what is.  Ugh. 
• Christmas shopping!  Think Geek and NorthernSun, how I love three.
• Gem shopping!  Now that I can finally retire my two-piece T8, I should probably dust off those T9 robes and shoulders I've been holding on to and see if I can't dress them up with some sparkly accessories.
• Finish leveling Elleiras's alchemy so I can make my own flasks.
• Clean my house.  No, really.  I mean it this time.  I HAVE to clean because I'm going out of town for Christmas and New Year's and my house isn't fit to be seen. 
• Renew my passport.  Or at least get the pictures taken when I'm out and about so I can submit the paperwork.  No passport + Canadian fiance = sad warlock. 
• Write a real post.  None of this silly filler fluff that no one cares about (not even me).
• Do Heroic Pit of Saron and Halls of Reflection.  For real this time.