One day later and we're back with another LOTRO based blog, almost a diary now. Today we're going to be dwelling in a day full of cooking and unimaginable levels of stupidity.

So yesterday we left Joco sleeping confortably sleeping in his new house and dreaming of a picnic table full of food and a keg full of beer. Little did I know it was soon to become a nightmare. I didn't get to play much today since I had an appointment with the doctor, but I've covered more distance today than I did in the last 2 days (physical distance that is). They day started off pretty simple though, I left my home and went off to start crafting my picnic table. I checked the pies I needed and I noticed I needed a tier 4 skill one, so I had to complete my crafting quest. So I get on my pony and travel to Buckland. I chat to a little hobbit and I get my tier 4 skill level, he also gives me another quest to gain access to the superior oven. I accept it but decide to skip it for now since I basically need to run around the shire cooking stuff for people in every single inn. I check my list, see I don't need the superior oven to cook any pies, and run off back to the crafting area in Michel Delving to make my pies. I make the pies, notice I'm missing some mushrooms so I jump on to my farmer alt, grow a few, send the to Joco, and the pies are done. So I run back home, mix the pies with my picnic table and bench and Voila! I have a picnic table full of food in my front lawn. Pity I can't eat any of the food in the table cause it looks tasty.

After a while of admiring my new furniture I set off on my quest to craft my own Keg of Shire Brew. Here is where I prove what a brainless idiot I am. I had thought of postponing this for a few days since after calculating the price of the new recipees I needed both for myself and my farmer alt the price had risen over 200 silver, but after checking my mail and cashing in my sales from yesterday my wallet was now bulging with 800 silver so I decided to give it a go. First step is getting the hops and barely I need from my farmer, so I mail him 200 silver and switch to my alt. My alt runs to the superior farming fields (he's a master in his craft at lvl 7), buys the necessary recipees which cost around 120 silver and start growing crops. The hops one goes fine, first crop gives me a 2 fine bushels which give me more hops than I needed, so I buy ingredients for 1 field of barely and I start planting.... field one is a dud... I run back for ingredients, second field is a dud... I run back for ingredients, third field is a dud.... long story short I had to plant 6 fields for a miserable fine bushel of winter barley. So I run back to the mail, send one letter with the hops, and another with the barely and remaining 70s I had left. I skip back to Joco and dun dun duuuun... I only get the hops one. What the hell? Who the hell did I send the barely and cash to? I check back with the alt incase I sent it to him out of habit but his is empty. Fuck... I really need to start paying attention. I then realize I might have sent it to Joko (don't know who it is but it's how I normally spell it, changed it for RP reasons), so I write an apologetic letter asking for the contents back, even though I know that if that character exists I can kiss the cash goodbye. So after another 7 crops of barely (not 1, not 3, but yes 7, 13 crops in total to get my barely) I remail the barely typing my name letter by letter this time, and relog back to Joco.

Back in my main's shoes I open the mailbox, grab the barley with relief and run to the crafting area. I buy the ingredients to make the treated hops and mashed barely and press the create button. Nothing happens. I push it again. Nothing happens. And suddenly I notice a small red writing that reads "Requires Superior Oven". Damn, where will I find a superior oven? Well esteldin has superior workbenches and expert vendors so they're bound to have one there. So I grab a swift ride to bree and stop to buy some crafted yew which I needed for the keg. I stop by the crafting area (which is the best place to get resources at low prices) and there's only one guy there... wierd. So I ask "can you make crafted yew?" "Yeah" "How much for 2?" "1g" "you're kidding right?" "No" and he walks off... What the... 1 gold for 2 measly yews? I bet the AH has a better priced yew for sure. So I run off to the AH and buy 8 of them for 25 silver. I send a tell back to the guy and tell him "Just got 8 for 25s you should check your prices better." "I was making a joke" .... Some people are fucking hilarious... (not). After recovering from a hard session of not laughing my ass off I trot down to the stables and grab a swift ride to Esteldin for 35s (pricey as hell if you ask me) and go inside the crafting hall I find the oven, open my craft tab and press the button. Nothing happens, and I notice that the red writing is still there, so I sheepishly look up and see the letters hovering above the oven that state clear as day "OVEN". It's just a regular oven.... I just wasted 36 silver to get to a regular ov... *click* my brain suddenly turns and I remember that I haven't done the quest to access superior ovens yet! What the hell is wrong with me ?!?! And who's the wise guy who snuck into my room last night and gave me a full lobotomy while I slept? Cause that's the only rational explanation I can find for my stupidity today....

Soon enough i find myself running around every tavern in the shire and grabbing all the requests those lazy stupid hobbitses can't cook for themselves. Just before hitting the last pub I get a request for a kinsman who needs help with a couple of lowbie group quests and I figure out that it will do me good to give a helping hand to release that pent up rage that's bubbling and waiting to be released. So after a while and a bunch of orcs and bandits dead later I sit down calmly and start to carefully plan all the stuff I need to cook to avoid further mistakes. All quests considered this is the list I produced:

3 Pork Sausages
2 Vegetable Medleys
2 Salted beef delights
2 Shire rations
4 Marinated chicken cutlets
3 Spiced potatoes
1 Mushroom pie
3 Stuffed Cabbages
1 Spiced Apple pie
3 Complete hobbit breakfasts
2 Blueberry Muffins

Oh god... this is gonna take a while... *sigh* I make a cross reference list with all the ingredients I'll need (won't post it so I won't scare you) but I needed a total of 81 ingredients which included quite a bit of farming. Suddenly I look at the hour and notice it's 9:30. Oh crap the servers go down in half an hour for the Mines of Moria update! Fuck! I stumble for my port to Michel Delving button, run to a mailbox, send him 50s and I jump to my alt. On Jungo (my alt) I grab the cash and run as fast as his little legs will carry him to the fields and starts planting as fast and carefully as I can, double checking the ingredients list as I go, and manage to get all the ingredients I need in just under 20 mins (18 to be exact). I run back to the mail box, post all the ingredients to Joco (double checking I spell it with a C instead of a K every time). And jump back to my main. My heart is pounding like crazy and I have a feeling I'm not gonna make it. I grab everything and start running to the crafting area. As I go up the hill I notice something unnerving with the corner of my eyer. I look above the oven and with big huge letters I read "SUPERIOR OVEN". What?? You gotta be kidding me... I've been cooking for the past hours in a superior oven?? Idiot! Idiot! Id.. NO! No time for feeling stupid! I must bake as fast as the wind! Kung Fu style! I start baking and suddenly my button stops working again... "Requires Camp Fire" ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHH!!!! I finish the stuff I can bake there and start running towards the camp fire in Waymeet. Cook you brainless git! Cook! I check the time... 5 mins left. No time! No time! Last piece of cooking is done, 2 mins left. I start hoping my watch is running slow, I get on my mount and head for the first tavern. My heart is beating like crazy, I know it's stupid and sad but I love it when I get into things like that. Hit the tavern, throw the food at the hobbits face, quest complete, What? No exp? You ungrateful son of a... no time, No time! I run for the second pub and I have 1 min left. Suddenly the watch hits 10 pm... nothing happens... Maybe my watch is running slow WHAM! Big Orange letters appear "We are sorry but we will have to shut down the servers in approximatley 60 mins at 10:00 pm GMT. Servers will be available at 8:00 am GMT". I stop in my tracks in shock. Either I had a heart attack or my heart server just rebooted.... YOU BLARING IDIOT!! It was fucking GMT! You live in GMT+1!! Remember? No... of course you don't. A retarded mule with forks stuck in it's eyes would have a larger reasoning capacity than you. God I felt like a retard...

I resume my pace more calmly after accepting my postion as an ebayer and now recently discovered complete and utter retard, and deliver all my cooked goodies to slefish hobbits who don't deserve them... And after that I go back to the hobbit that started it all in Buckland. I get 1200exp for all my troubles.... pffff stingy little midget. Oh well at least I can use the superior oven now... Yeah the superior oven I thought was in esteldin but actually turned out to be the one I'd been using for the past 2 hours... Idiot... I go back sulking and make the finish touches to my Keg. I make a second one for my neighbour as a thank you gift for the Tundra Bear trophy she gave me yesterday (yes! I confirmed it's a she!) and who coincidentaly celebrated her 10 year wedding anniversary (and she's married to another officer in the guild who I spent all last night calling a she... irony?). So I head to my house with the idea in my head that if it turns out to be a just a stupid barrel in the middle of my room like the icon shows I'm actually going to blow my fucking brains out. In the end we have a happy ending. It's a proper Keg and all, sideways and with a pedestal, and to make things better I can get drunk with it! Yey! So it cheer myself up a bit, I get drunk with it a bit first (I've only managed to reach light headed state so far... I'll have to be more persistant tomorrow) and head off to the furniture shop to get myself a Tree, a dresser, a bookshelf, a sound track for my house, paint for the walls, and a haystack and wheelbarrow for the front lawn. Well the house looks a tad more decent now, I might have to pick up fishing just to hang something on the walls.

The orange letters boom throughout the server announcing we just have 30 mins left, so I port to Bree cause apparently there's a server shutdown party goin on in the statue, and yeah the place was packed! Here's a couple of screenies. First pretty non floaty names:
<p style="text-align: left;"><img src="http://api.ning.com/files/zpgulH5xg453bKoZLTLBtaaPt-t5OKVhJi1nE7BekWPz9DLLVVefo*VH2VwX0AuKKVjIZAIDwxBO1BxMrK9mZV5v9IfDN0Vr/ScreenShot00002.jpg" alt="" width="1152" height="864"/></p>

And second with floaty names, so you can understand the magnitude better:
<p style="text-align: left;"><img src="http://api.ning.com/files/zpgulH5xg44p9USlFSiKZd16*rlM0VdUB8qkgPbZOUyip96qSf9rp293YHhokjXLEkU3VaQgmg1Ml6CcXr*7SOC7MY3Qc4zD/ScreenShot00003.jpg" alt="" width="1152" height="864"/></p>

And tomorrow Mines of Moria hits Europe! I have the impression that Game isn't going to deliver (literally) and I'll have to spend the day sending angry emails. I wonder if I'll even get my preorder codes... *sigh*

But all in all... wierd day today, it could have been good if my idiocy hadn't interfered with it. But I got my keg! Bring on the party!