I just got back from a week’s visit with my parents and older brother, where Brother and I did a whole bunch of business together, Mom and I caught up on the family happenings, and I helped Dad set some playing goals for the time he gets to spend on World of Warcraft (which is mostly on rainy days).

Dad’s got a level 52 Blood Elf Hunter, and because he doesn’t type quickly, he doesn’t socialize much on the game and therefore he’s one of those wandering bumblers who you might think didn’t actually level his character all the way from level 1. But he did, and he’s having fun with it.

He’s started a second character, a Blood Elf Mage, and I found out she was at level 16, which is right where my little Shaman and Pally are sitting at. Cool!

We took some time to look at his Hunter after he asked me to get some advice on it, and after a bit of chatting he visited the Auction House to upgrade some of his gear, not having realized he could use Mail instead of just Leather. Then, he did some fishing in Tarren Mills to get some Raw Sagefish to level his cooking, and headed over to Hammerfall to complete the 225 First Aid quest that then unlocked his First Aid max to 300.

The First Aid quest took him a few tries, and I would imagine with the inherent lag of a 56k connection it was even harder than for the rest of us doing it the first time, but I left him with it and he patiently kept plugging away at it until he was successful.

We had a chat about some skills he could work on improving, specifically the skill of freeze trapping, since he’d never really used his traps very much. I told him some of the tips I’d learned personally while levelling up my Hunter, and shared some that others had shared with me, too.

Then, I turned to his computer, and confirmed that Ventrilo was set up (it was, from a previous visit), and then I got a mic and some earphones and tested it out, and got Mom’s confirmation that it would be okay for Dad to talk to his computer sometimes (she’s normally watching TV), and showed Dad how to use it. I also got a Fonts addon that makes the default fonts much easier to read, even for my 35 year old eyes.

Dad told me on my way to my car as I was leaving to travel the 6hr journey home that he was going to be online “with the thingy going” that night.

We didn’t end up playing together that night, but he was on Vent when I got home, and we got to chat a little bit - him talking on vent and me typing my responses in the game. He left for dinner and had intended to come back, but I was tired from the drive and went to bed early, before he returned.

But in the mean time, I did get my Shammy to where his Mage is sitting. It’ll be fun to play with him when we DO get a chance.

Tags: Addons I Use, cooking, first aid 300, first aid quest, first aid training, fishing, gaming with family, hammerfall, hunter, hunter skills, low level mage, low level shaman, professions, raw sagefish, secondary professions, setting up ventrilo, tarren mills, ventrilo, warcraft on 56k