Yep. I finished my second playthrough yesterday morning at about 3:30am. Plans worked out well. I made Alistair king and married him. Convinced Zev to stick around, but we're just friends. I played mostly with Alistair, Leliana, and my dog (who was named Brom this time around), which was different from last time. But getting Zevran so late meant Leliana's lockpicking skills were superior, and since I was not a rogue myself, I needed someone to break into locked chests.
I'm going to play as a man next time, but I'm not certain which story I'll do. I'm leaning toward being a mage and romancing Morrigan, but I'm not sure which fate I'll leave Alistair to. Maybe I'll let him leave and let Loghain join the Grey Wardens. I may marry Anora myself. I don't think I'll let her kill Alistair this time. I'll save that one for a later time. Maybe.
Also, Bridgitte only ended the game at level 21. What's up with that? I did more side quests and even played through Return to Ostagar (a downloadable quest). Oh well. I did gain some more achievements, which I'm looking at on social bioware right now. LOL I love this one: Easily Sidetracked - completed 75% of all side-quests. :) I also gained Traveler - set foot in every area of the game. Anyway, good times. Don't know when I'll start my third play through, but I will tell you I just pre-ordered DAII :D yay!
Since I told you in the last post I would write about what Matt and I did over Valentine's weekend, I suppose I should to that :) I just put the pictures on the computer this morning, which reminded me I should do that, too. So here you go.
Since the 12th was to be (relatively) warm and sunny, I told Matt I wanted to go to the zoo. We often go to the aviary, but we have memberships both places and haven't used our zoo membership enough yet to pay for itself. It was also the Worldwide Leadership Training, but I didn't go.... Instead, Matt got up early to take his car in for service and safety and emissions, I mosied out of bed much later and got ready at a leisurely pace, then went to pick him up from the dealership. :) He made me come inside because a friend of ours from school worked at the dealership and wanted to say hi, so we chatted for a bit. Then we stopped at McDonald's for breakfast before heading up to the zoo :)
I thought being the first truly warm weekend that there would be more people there, but it wasn't too crowded. We went around the duck pond first and fed the silly buggers. Part of the pond was frozen and a Giant Canada Goose, a Trumpeter Swan, and one duck dared brave the ice to get closer to people throwing food. The little duck made Matt laugh because he'd go running across the ice to get the pellet, which was entertaining to watch.
Check out how big those webbed feet are!
Did I mention in the ZooLights! post about the poor goose who was honking up a storm begging to be fed? And we couldn't feed him because they had the bridge blocked off where the pellet dispensers are? We met him and his little friend on the other side of the pond and went back to get pellets for them to make up for it. He would take them right out of our hands :)
Also at ZooLights!, we discovered the Colubus Monkeys had a baby. Well he (or she) is growing up and is quite rambunctious :) The babe would climb all over everyone and jump up and down. Quite cute :)
Here are some more pictures of our zoo adventure :)
Bored Ring-tailed Lemur
European Glass Lizard - yes, lizard. Not snake.
Burrowing Owl contemplating lunch
Western Spotted Skunk snoozing - upside-down :)
Rose-ringed Parakeets
Lunch time!
I thought the cats would be more active since we have cooler temperatures, but they were all snoozing. Matt liked this one cuz he was sleeping on his head...
This giraffe came over, and I stuck out my hand, and he touched me :)
Helmeted Guinea Fowl - they make me laugh
After the zoo, we went to PetSmart, Petco, and Animal Ark to see if any of them carried Harrison's bird food for Turk (they don't). It was adoption day at PetSmart, so there were lots of puppies all around the store for people to adopt. Most of them looked like rescues. Petco is having their adoption day tomorrow, the 19th, if anyone is interested.
Then we headed back to the dealership so Matt could pick up his car. After that, we met at Red Robin in the Provo mall for an early dinner, which was perfect because I was starved. (Thanks Larry and Carrie for the gift card!) We'd only had a little bit of breakfast at McDonald's around 10:30am, and had dinner around 5pm. We had a good time and enjoyed our food. Matt got this tasty drink, which was not only tasty, but pretty to look at, both full and empty.
So there you have it. We called this Valentine's and called it good. It was a fun day hanging out with my honey :)
Today is Valentine's Day. I don't really want to get into V-day and everything, but my dear friend posted this awesome post on her blog about love. And I loved it. And I love her. And I think you should all feel the love and go read her post. :) Matt and I celebrated on Saturday, more on that later. But for now, go read her post!
So, while I'm playing catch-up, here are some other things that have happened recently that don't really warrant their own post :)
Saturday, Jan. 29, Matt and the band competed at the Dave Barclay Memorial Indoor Competition (seriously, why do all things pipe band have such long names?). I was going to go up and hang out and watch, but I went to bed late. And, I decided I would be super bored because it is just piping and drumming - no vendors to peruse during off moments. So instead, I sent Matt off early with the camera and instructions to make someone video him soloing. When I eventually woke up, I played Dragon Age for an epic amount of time and finished my first playthrough :) While Matt signed up for two solos, he only actually competed in one. He took second (of two, but that doesn't matter, right? ;) )
The band did well, taking first in both competitions. They also took first in drumming in both competitions. Matt was pretty happy about that :)
Bandito
Bethesda
Cinco inspecting the cage for durability
We're bad. We only managed to keep the birds quarantined from each other for like a week. Turk is only interested in them because they get to eat more seeds than he does. He'll fly to their cage and try to get in to eat the yumminess that he is denied :)
The Sunday session, we actually arrived on time (15 minutes early). There were still some soft seats near the front, but we sat a row behind and over from Matt's family. Again, such an awesome conference. I think conference has helped me with reading my scriptures at night (aside from the fact I should do that anyway...and this year's primary theme is I Know the Scriptures are True...). I just love the gospel :) Also, didn't play Dragon Age Sunday (go me! - they talked about bad distractions in conference too). Not that I can't play (because I have the last couple of nights), but I really need to keep that in check with my family's needs.
That afternoon (yes, superbowl sunday) we had our Priesthood Preview, for which I made adorable invitations, of course. I heart them :)
I drew the tie and created the stripes (which say "PriesthoodPreview" over and over)
So there you have it, the things that have happened in our lives lately.
So for the one or two who may care about my DAO (Dragon Age Origins) progress, I finished playing on January 29th. I hooked up with Zev, and after much turmoil, had decided since I was a Dalish elf and he was also, I should stick with him. However, in actuality, I married Alistair to Anora and stayed as his consort, but I kept Zev around too. I'm horrible, I know.
I promptly began my second playthrough :) It's an addiction, but I'm working on that. I didn't play at all this last Sunday, and I didn't play yesterday morning. Or this morning, for that matter. This time I'm playing as a human noble, so I can actually marry Alistair :)
It has been fun playing it again. This time, I didn't kill Connor or Isolde. Go me! This caused me to get Zevran later, but it's okay because I turned him down to be with Alistair :) You'll also notice that it has helped my leveling. I ended my first playthrough at level 20. I've only done 2 of the main quests this time, and I'm already at 14. Other fun/new things, I talked to the other recruits at the beginning of the game more - Daveth made me laugh :) I also got Sten in my party, which I failed to do the first time around. I still haven't played with him in my party, but I could if I wanted to.
However, some parts have been boring/redundant. Mostly I was bored with Lothering. I also was displeased because I didn't get Coercion (which allows you to persuade/intimidate people to get different results), which I had at the beginning of the game last time. I missed some of the ways I could handle things the first time, which I failed to do this time. Oh well, I do have Coercion now, so it's not too bad.
Anyway, I do intend to play through it at least two more times after this as well. Partly because it's so intricate that you can have many different stories, and partly to get more achievements. :) Next time I think I'm going to be a male dwarf - romance Morrigan and (*gasp!*) let Anora execute Alistair. Tragic. Hopefully I can hold to that. That character is pretty much going to be polar opposite of me, so in that mindset, hopefully I can do all the "naughty" stuff (siding with the Templars and the werewolves, for instance). I also intend to play as a female City elf and be strictly with Zev. And then I'll let Alistair sacrifice himself. (Still sad, but less upsetting than how angry he gets when you make Anora queen and she executes him...) There will be a couple other playthroughs as well to get the "play through every origin story" achievement. Maybe one of these days I'll get around to playing Mass Effect 2.... :)
The 22nd was full of birthday happiness. After we played at the Aviary for Andy's birthday, we headed back to Provo for Matt's uncle Shawn's birthday celebration. He hit the big 4-0 on the 29th, and his wife, Roxanne, threw a surprise party a week early. It's always such fun to gather with family!
Once the house was all decorated and the food ready, we got to sit around chatting while we waited for Shawn to finally get home. Grandma and Grandpa were in on the festivities, and Grandpa had Shawn come up to help him with a project to get him out of the house :)
Shawn was surprised, and we made a mess with poppers as he walked in the door :) Sorry the video's lame - I was trying to record and pop my popper at the same time. Fail.
After dinner while we were eating cake and ice cream, we all went around and shared a memory or something we love about Shawn. It was so sweet! Definitely a good idea to do again, I think. :)
On January 22nd, Matt and I headed up to the Aviary to celebrate Andy's, the Andean Condor's, 52nd birthday. That's right, 52nd.
The day started with the keepers talking about Andean Condors in the Chase Mill. They talked about how they live, where they live, their massive 10'6" wing span, and the Species Survival Plan (SSP) for Andean Condors and what part Andy and the aviary play.
After that, they had a special vulture bird show...in the hail. It was okay though, and kind of fun. There we learned that vultures were called buzzards by explorers because they reminded them of actual buzzards (which are hawks - who knew?) Vultures are not birds of prey, but are carion eaters, and quite clean ones, too. They have featherless heads so they don't get bacteria and junk on them, which helps keep them clean. Also, if you've ever seen a vulture sunning with its wings out, odds are it recently ate. The UV rays disinfect their feathers.
Then we headed over to Andy's cage to watch him rip open his birthday piñata, which one of his keepers made for him. The piñata had one of Andy's favorite treats in it, beef heart.
For some trivia - Andy weighs about 30 pounds. He still has hollow bones to fly :)
Condors will also stand on their food to help them rip off meat - which you can see Andy doing in these videos :)
Another fun fact that I have to share is about the chalky stuff you see on vultures' legs. Since they don't sweat, they have to stay cool in warm weather somehow. You see, vultures will urinate on their legs, and as it evaporates, it cools them down. The chalky stuff is what's left over :)
After we got cake back at the mill, we wandered around the rest of the aviary. The day was nice once it stopped storming because it had been warmer, so more birds were out and about. Even one of the kookaburras laughed for us :)
We spent quite a bit of time in the South American Pavilion again (because it's warm there), and were pleasantly surprised with another small bird show, showcasing a red billed toucan and an African red crested turaco.
