The Wrath of the Lich King beta is now officially over. I’m sad, in a way. It is cool knowing that I had feedback and a teeny tiny influence of a game that will be released in a few days, though. I’ve beta tested before, but nothing this major or cool. So hooray! This is exciting for me.

On the beta forums yesterday, there was a post:

We would like to thank everyone who has participated in the Wrath of the Lich King beta test. We greatly appreciate all of the feedback and you have given us during this critical phase of World of Warcraft’s development. In preparation for the launch of the game next Thursday, November 13, we will be bringing down our beta realms at 12:00 AM PST. Thanks again, and see you soon in Northrend!

Crazy, huh? Just… gone. Adios.

As for the regular game, there were two notes in the patch notes that I really enjoyed:

• Glyph of Mind Flay: Now sets snare to 10% instead of removing it. - This one, I’m more excited about than I’d realized I would be. When I started using the glyph I thought “Eh, I raid all the time, I don’t really NEED the slowing effect” and then lately, I’ve been missing it more and more. Thank goodness they changed it!
• Removed “A Mask for All Occasions” as criteria for the “Hallowed Be thy Name” meta achievement. - Yes, I’m an achievement whore. I actually am quite proud of the achievements I’ve gotten, and there are a few that I’m especially proud of. But I just COULD NOT get masks. I trick or treated religiously every hour for days, and I ended up with four masks. FOUR. So I’m glad they took the feedback that was given to them and “fixed” this.

I really wanted to be lazy today and just stay home and play games. I really did. But instead, I’m going to the gym around 4:30 for a Newbody class. It sounds like a good class for me:

Newbody is an exclusive GoodLife Group EXercise program created by our very own Mo Hagan, 2006 IDEA Fitness Instructor of the Year. Newbody is a multi-level class that improves your energy, strength and endurance, making your day-to-day activities easier. Burn calories in this fun, low-impact and easy-to-follow class by combining cardio conditioning with optional hand weights. Learn how to properly use your abs and back muscles to improve your posture and reduce back pain.

Tonight, I have a raid at 9:00 my time. It was supposed to be Gruul and Magtheridon but we seem to be short on warlocks, so I think we’ll be doing Lurker instead. I think I forgot to post when we killed him last week, whoops! But we did. And I got a nice new shiny Cord of Screaming Terrors, which I love, love love. I was afraid that spending DKP on that would put me out of the running for the Eye of Magtheridon, but I’m still highest caster DPS, so I have to just make sure to keep raiding the 25-man raids until the next time we take him down!

In other World of Warcraft news, the highly anticipated 2.3 patch seems to be coming for us next Tuesday, which is great! I can finally start leveling Thae again, and maybe I won’t feel so burnt out with the addition of new daily quests (yay!), a new dungeon (double yay!) and heroic badges dropped in Karazhan (even more yay!).

In response to my being burnt out lately, I’ve been playing Everquest 2 a lot again. I can’t pull myself away from the computer most of the time, but at least now there’s some variety. I don’t think I’ll continue playing it forever, but I’ll enjoy it while I have it!

Anyway, I’m off to shower before the gym. I did a load of laundry last night, despite feeling icky, so I have some clean clothes to go work out in. I think I need even more pants and some new tank tops, though. We’ll see!

Also… I want to say a huge congratulations to my good friend (and soul mate!) Leesha, who has recently discovered that she’s pregnant after a long time of trying. I won’t say I’m not jealous, because I totally am, but she knows that there’s nobody that I think deserves such happiness more than she does. ♥

OH! As if this post wasn’t long enough already, I have a request. Please post your healthiest recipes and ideas for me - I’m seeming to fall out of the habit of eating healthy and it’s coming around to bite me, despite all the exercise I’m doing! So any help would be so much appreciated!

The new expansion for World of Warcraft has been announced! It’ll be called Wrath of the Lich King.

A few features of this expansion, if you don’t want to click the link, are:

• Master the necromantic powers of the Death Knight - World of Warcraft’s first Hero class.
• Quest to level 80, gaining potent new abilities and talents along the way.
• Learn the craft of spell augmentation with the new Inscription profession.
• Brave the harsh new continent of Northrend, the icy domain of the Lich King.
• Engage in epic siege warfare, deploying mighty siege engines to lay waste to destructible buildings in your path.
• Transform your hero’s look with new character-customization options, including new hairstyles and dances.
• Explore perilous new dungeons filled with some of the deadliest creatures — and greatest treasures — on Azeroth.

My little gallery from the opening day of World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade!

Warning: 49 pictures under the cut!

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