Atlantis

My sisters and I just finished listening to a series of books on CD, the last of which involved an ancient city disappearing into the ocean...

(the 6th and final book in the series)

... so I guess the timing of Pepsi's journey to Atlantis couldn't have been better timed.

I'd always wondered what that grid-like thing was on the HI2 map. Now I know: Atlantis! Of course, the big drawback to an underwater city is that you can't ride horses through it. Off Pepsi went in underwater slow-mo.

Finding the chests of bounty without getting lost was easy thanks to the map. The chests all looked alike and did not change in appearance when Pepsi collected the bounty. What was this "bounty," I wonder? Poseidon never got specific.

More entertaining than the golden chests, columns, and slabs of stone were the random statues. 

Oh dear. This is awkward. XD
I kept my eye out for the top halves of these. Nope.

It it just me, or does it look like she's awfully close to a wardrobe malfunction?

Wow. That's a big foot.

Once Pepsi had collected all 12 chests, she returned to Poseidon. Second task complete!

Ah, the dreaded third and final task. Since I didn't have $100k on hand and hadn't read the Esroh Lore lately, I decided to click the X and be on my way. I'm happy to let one of my sisters tackle this one later. ;^)

Bethany Meets Skyscraper

On Tuesday, Uno and I met up with Skyscraper, a fellow HI2 player and blogger, to go wild hunting. We were both pressed for time, so there was not a minute to lose. She arrived at the ranch, and from there we agreed to travel to Stem Isle.

Uno getting up close and personal. XD

Posing for a screenshot. ;)

We cantered down to the far east end of Stem to begin our search. It was a good sign to find this buried treasure - it meant that most likely nobody had ridden here in a while. Skyscraper let me dig it up. It was 11k!

Just seconds after finding the treasure, we found a wild British Spotted Pony! Skyscraper caught her, a 14 hand brown leopard mare, if my memory's correct. She is the largest BSP wild I've ever seen!

Unfortunately, Skyscraper had run out of time and logged out shortly afterwards. I had just enough time to search the rest of the isle before I had to log out myself. Guess what I found just a minute or two later? Another brown leopard BSP! I could hardly believe it!

Deja Vu

I guessed that mine would be tiny, and I was right. Only 8.2 hands! 

A little farther on, I found one more wild pony, a dark bay Fell stallion with quite the winning personality (not). He was cute, though. 

I sure had fun, as brief as our adventure was. Hopefully we'll see more of Skyscraper in the future! =)

Judo and Poseidon



Well, at least we lasted until August 1 to take on horse #52. We have as many as a full deck of cards now. I was online when our club leader caught this guy on Grass Isle on the 31st. She didn't want him, but I couldn't resist. My worries that he would have trouble being accepted into the herd because of his difficult personality turned out to be unfounded. He and my dapple gray Westphalian mare, Flora, took an immediate shine to each other. He is an inch shorter than Flora, but that doesn't seem to bother either horse in the slightest.

 

I have named him Judo in honor of my Mom's dad. His birthday was on the 30th, and he achieved a black belt in judo. ;^)

 

 

Judo's avatar looks pretty much how I expected it to. I love those rusty dapples!

 

 

This week was also a big one because we started Poseidon's Quest. It is an especially long, expensive, and difficult one, so we have been putting it off for quite some time. One of our buddies was starting it, which finally gave us the push we needed to start it as well. Hopefully we'll be able to do parts of it together.

 

In order to satisfy Poseidon's guardian, one must show him a full set of 4* tack. A full set of 4* tack costs 10.5 million dollars, and if that's not bad enough, the guardian then takes one of the tack pieces. I chose the Expedition Set. It seemed the most versatile because it boosts all stat categories equally. And it looks pretty cool, I must say.

 

I had Fortunado model the set because he looks so spiffy in green. The tack is even more impressive when you can see it sparkling on HI2.

 

Now that we had the tack, we had to make the long journey to see Poseidon. I decided to ride Onyx, since he loves being part of important quests. The first step was to get to the Decay Isle graveyard.  

 

Clicking on the shovel dumped me into the Haunted Tunnel. A better name for it might be Spider Tunnel. It's crawling with them!

 

Haunted Tunnel lets out in the Lost Isle Haunted House. Luckily, we have carefully mapped out the maze of rooms to get us out onto Lost Isle without getting lost.

 

Finally, we emerged on Lost Isle and presented our 4* tack to the guardian. I thought for sure he would take the saddle, the most expensive piece. Luck was with me for once in my life. He took the cheapest piece, the saddle pad! Hooray!!!

 

The guardian allowed Pepsi into Lost Reef. It took ages to slow-mo walk all the way through it to Poseidon's Abode (the dark circle on the mini map).

 

Finally, Pepsi reached the magnificent Poseidon.

We began Poseidon's Environmental Challenge, the first of 3 difficult challenges. We have to search all of the reefs on HI2 for 10 inkwells hidden near shipwreck fragments. Felicity took over and searched all of the enormous Lost Reef for the first inkwell. She also searched all of the comparatively small Harbor Reef for the second. Only 8 more inkwells to go! I see lots of nori and pearl necklaces in our future...

Isabelle's Stuff

American Girl has released quite a bit off stuff to go along with Isabelle, their 2014 Girl of the Year doll. We've put off posting about it for quite a long time because we have not been very impressed, but we were motivated to finally get it done today. Here it all is, along with our comments.

accessories - $30

I'm not a fan of the asymmetric zipper on the jacket, but at least it's not more pink. I think fingerless gloves are pretty much pointless to begin with, so I'm not a fan of them either. The other accessories are nice, and I really like that hair decoration.

pajamas - $24

I like the purple top, though I wish the straps were slightly wider so that they covered all of the cloth of our shoulders. I cannot stand the bottoms, however. Either make it pants or make it a skirt. The flaps of sort-of skirt make me cringe. So does the clashing headband.

 

metallic dress - $34

I am not a fan of the weird asymmetric dress over the t-shirt look. I'd describe this outfit as hodgepodge and sloppy.

 

performance set - $38

AKA the semi-goth ballerina outfit. I do not like the combination of ultra-girly with black athletic gear. Two thumbs down from me.

 

dance barre - $65

For all the ballet loving dolls out there, I'm sure this would be fun. It seems pretty pricey for what you actually get, but hopefully it's good quality.
 

dance case - $44

The stuff that comes in this would be fun to try out on our hair. No way would I pay $44 for it and its fancy case, though.

studio - $275

This studio would make a great backdrop while playing if you are into fashion design. Way too pricy for me to ever consider it, but the detail is impressive.

 

Tutu the kitten - $22

 Of course Isabelle's pet would be a fluffy white kitten. XD No surprise here. At least she's cute.

 

Next up: a bunch of mix and match pieces sold separately

coral sweater - $14

The material and color are nice, but I don't like the huge neck hole or the asymmetric hem of this sweater at all.

 

wrap sweater - $14

Sorry, but I can't stand little crop shirts like this layered over other stuff. They just plain look goofy to me. Either wear a normal-length sweater or don't bother.

 

purple leotard - $12

Not my favorite design for a leotard, but the color scheme is fine.

 

rosette leotard - $10

Eh. This is kind of mature in cut for something a young girl would wear (suggesting curves where there aren't really any yet...) I guess this is the norm for dance wear? At least AG's.

 

practice top - $8

*Gags* You wouldn't catch me wearing this in a million years.

 

dance skirt - $12

Yay, something I actually like! Such pretty sequins, and the bow is the perfect finishing touch. If I was a ballerina, I'd love to wear this over my leotard.

 

funky leggings - $12

They're funky alright. The left leg I don't mind, but that bow... Not only does it look weird, but can you imagine how annoying it would get? I'd no doubt get it caught on something within the first few minutes of wearing them.

 

sparkly skort - $12

Are those cupcakes? I would have chosen a different, more dance-appropriate design (maybe stars or sparkles?), but otherwise I don't really mind it.

 

scrunch pants - $12

I like the color of these, and what a pretty waistband! It looks odd to only have one pant leg scrunched, though. If I was going to wear them, I'd scrunch up the other leg too.

tutu - $14

It's a shimmery tutu. I've never had any desire to wear one, but for the ballerinas out there that like them, this one is fine as far as tutus go.

legwarmers - $12

If you want to keep your legs warm, these will do the job. I think leg warmers in general are kind of silly. I'd much rather either deal with cold legs or wear pants, but for ballerinas who must wear leotards, I suppose they make sense.

In summary, if you are into ballet, the colors purple and pink, and asymmetric styles, then Isabelle's wardrobe is for you. If not, you can heave a heavy sigh, shake your head, and wait for next year. That's what we've been doing. ;)

Landslide

We're back! 

Mom and the rest of the humans were gone on vacation from the 13th through the 20th. Even the family dog was at the kennel, so we dolls literally had the place to ourselves. My sisters and I took a vacation of our own while they were away and went camping in the backyard with our dogs and horses. I guess it wasn't technically camping, since we slept in the shed. But at any rate, we spent our days outside and took a hiatus from TV, ipods, and our laptops.

The night before our vacation began, Horse #51 joined our herd. Forgive me, sisters. I can explain.

In one of the first horsey computer games I ever played, Horse Illustrated: Championship season, there was a stable with 5 stalls in it. You start out with a handsome old pinto named Barney. As much as I liked him, was I ever excited to unlock the second stall! It contained a light gray Welsh Cob mare named My Lovely Thistle. She was lovely... and a bit roly-poly. Ever since, I've been fond of Welsh Cobs. 

Back when we first started playing HI2, one of the first wild horses we caught was this Welsh Cob mare:

I thought she was adorable, but she had to go. We didn't have any slots to spare back then, and her stats were lousy. Since then, I've kept an eye out for Welsh Cobs the same way Felicity did for Nez Perce Horses. Like her, I have had no luck.

Our club leader seems to acquire high stat 6/6 horses quite often. After having them a short while, she then sells them and looks for new ones. I'm not sure how she manages not to get attached, but she somehow does!

Felicity bought Kaleidoscope, a 6/6 APH mare, from her at a ridiculously cheap price at end of June. I guess it was inevitable that our club leader would eventually be selling another irresistible horse. As I'm sure you've determined by now, horse #51 is a Welsh Cob. Our club leader wasn't getting any offers on him. When I arrived to take him off her hands, prepared to dish out big bucks, she just gave him to me. Absolutely free! I could hardly believe it. I hope I didn't annoy her with all my thank you's and the running commentary as I rode him for the first time and brainstormed names. XD

Here he is:

Isn't the dramatic sheen to his coat cool? It is way more distinct on brown than was on red dun. Landslide, one of the potential L names waiting on my list, seemed to fit his color and personality perfectly. He will be Slide for short. ;)

Slide's avatar is a winner too. I love his chocolate legs and muzzle.