Nerdy Advice in the Dark Timeline

 

Nerdy Advice in the Dark Timeline

We have been knocked down

The future murky 

Fear has gripped our hearts

What will we do now?

Is the question that is cried…

Here is the answer my friends

You will become the Links, the Wonder Women, the Katniss Everdeens

You’ll be Avengers, the Rebel Alliance, The Fellowship of the Ring

You’ll take the lessons you’ve ingested all your lives

And be the real life heroes

The lights in the storm 

Defenders of Freedoms

Who will not allow our hard earned rights go without a fight

So grab your morphers, your pens, and pixelated torches

Get the adventuring party ready

For the BBEG is here

So pick yourselves up

Don your armor

We got work to do

Live Long and Prosper my friends 

Where Have I Been- The Crap That Was 2023

 Hello Friends,

It's been a minute. From your guys perspective I haven't posted since March of last year. In my draft I have a few drafts dating around October last year. So your probably thinking what happened? 2023 happened the effects of which are still affecting me this year. 

Seriously, this was be heading into 2024.

  So beginning of that year I had a slight insomnia spell... upside I think during this time I finished campaign 2 of Critical Role. Then my elder dog Ranger passed. That was anxiety inducing. Then in April Fangirl and me were gonna go see the Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves movie one day, but had to postpone cause my insomnia came back to the point I was up almost four whole days till I just had to go to the hospital. Then Fangirl and I saw the movie and I learned her Dad had died.

The morning of Captain's 39th Birthday the ambulance went up to my grandparents. This had been happening since a few days before Thanksgiving 2022, because my Grandpa started passing out, most likely due to his heart valve issue, but sadly this was not the case, my Grandpa had died in his sleep.

I can't complain he lived to be 88, and compare to the luck I had with my other two Grandads, I got lucky to have him in my life till I was 39. Then my grandpa's brother passed in November of that year, plus a second cousin I never met.  

In October my Dad started sleeping a lot, we thought it was a reaction to the Iron Pills the Doctor gave him, cause he was "anemic", then in November my Dad started having fever and staggering, then the Monday before Thanksgiving he had his second fall, so we called the ambulance come take him to the hospital. A few hours later  we learned he was not anemic, nor had a kidney infection as my Mom's kidney doctor believed, it was a rare type of kidney cancer. My father would lose his battle thirteen days later on December 3rd. 

This was a devastating blow to our already grieving family. We are in the 11th Month since his passing. We're fixing to have our first Thanksgiving without him. The last of our first holidays with out him.

2024 has brought more deaths, my Grandpa's third cousin and sister-in-law, and three friends of the family. 

In September Western North Carolina was visited by the worst visitor Helene, we fared pretty well, but the storm was scary to listen to. I mean we've had tropical storms before, but still scary. Our community had damage I've only seen on TV.

Monday Nov 4th my cat accidentally scratched my face bad and now our lovely election where we've been condemned to the 9 circles of hell..... 2025 may not be so hot either.

So yeah this is why I haven't posted in forever it's been crap for the last couple years!

Hopefully, not promising, gonna try to post more here. Well I'm gonna hone my sword skills to prepare for our dystopian future. Hope all is well everyone, be strong, and have a Magical Whimsical Day!

Your nerd.

*Thrifty Geek*

Thrifty Geek's Library- Courageous Women

 Hey Reading Friends, 

 

So it's time for this year's first Library post. This month we'll be focused on books that feature courageous women. I always love a book that features strong female leads. January was full of books with such characters. 

 

Tiger Burning Brightly by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Andre Norton, Mercedes Lackey- 

The city/state of Merina is fixing to be besieged by Emperor Balthasar who has been taking over the world worse he has powerful dark magic on his side. The ruling family the House of the Tiger composed of the former Queen, the Ruling Queen, and the Designated Daughter are forced to do a tactical retreat to spare the city till they come up with something else. So the three of them under disguises hid in plain site. Soon the city is under the choke hold of the dark wizards in human men. Can these women bring down this dark empire? Or will it be lost to the dark?

We already know I love stories with strong women, and this delivers. This world has a good Mythos and an interesting magic system. Men get magic early and if they remain virgins can stay powerful, but women's powers show up in menopause. Despite being written by three different women, dynamites in fantasy, the story was weaved together so well you couldn't tell three people had their hands in it. I was riveted and really interested in the story. I love a story were oppressed people try to take down a dark government. The ending was good, but a little condensed feeling. I'm going back and forth weather to keep this in my permanent library, but I gave this 4 stars on Goodreads.

 

Elvenblood by Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey-

Shana, the prophesied Elvenbane, a half elf believed to be sent to take out the oppressive Elven Lords. Sadly her last battle ended with her and her friends escaping by the skins of their teeth. The group finds a place to build a new home outside of the Elven ruled lands, but there is some discord among the group, on top of all that Shana and a scouting party get captured by a group of people known as the Iron People who may hold the key to defeating the Elven Lords. In the Elven lands oppressed households are becoming more oppressed as the lords are now looking for any half elves in their midst to punish, feeling this strain is Lorryn an Treves who is a half elf disguised as the legitimate son of an Elven Lord. He has to stay one step ahead if he wants his secret to remain so.

This was an okay read. It was interesting enough to keep me reading, but not enough to probably encourage a reread. Norton and Lackey capture the horrors of a society where even family members are oppressed very well. I was concerned for especially Lorryn's sister, Sheyrena, that she was going to be trapped in a marriage, or else altered magically to be an obedient wife. I thought the party at the beginning had a beautiful setting as a magically created forest, sadly the company would have been off putting.

I felt some scene were dragged out, and others too quick. Book was defiantly middle ground with me and for that reason I gave this a three on Goodreads.

 

Afterlife by JK Ishaya and Kenneth Mader-

The first book in the Arcadia Chronicles, this follows the story of Elaine Ways, a martial artist, who loses her husband tragically. She soon begins having vivid dreams of being a hero in another world. At some point strange and seemingly mystical people kidnap her daughter. Elaine soon finds herself in an extraordinary dark world where she learns there maybe more to her dreams than meets the eye.

Now this book was recommended to me by my sister, who works with one of the authors, so I was intrigued to see it, but I didn't get to it a few months, because I had a major anxiety issue that involved death. But finally I felt ready to read it. This was a book with a good mythos. It gave an interesting look at the afterlife. The science in this was well written, I don't know if it had any basis in real science, but it sounded convincing. I also loved it was based in the city of Asheville. I was so nice to read a book and know the places their talking about, and the fact they added the fantastical to it. 

This book was a little of a slow start for me. Another thing that made it a hard read was that it was so dark, there was a little  humor, but I wished it'd been beefed up a little more to balance the dark, but this is my personal preference. Despite the issues I gave this a four on Goodreads.

My reading year so far has had a strong start, and I've managed to fill all prompts so far for the Year in Aledia so still going strong. I hope to start making post about my character and my journey so far. So be on the look out for that.

Well this page is finished. Hope you all I a good day, read lots, and God bless.

*Thrifty Geek* and Vampire VV Kitty

Musical Moment: Taylor Swift- Midnights

 Hello Swifties,

It's that time of the month for another musical moment. Although it's been a few months... Anyway this month we are looking at Taylor Swift's latest release Midnights. I was excited about this release with all the things Swift did leading up to it. I love the idea, I've done things like mood boards and playlists centered around times of day and the like, so this totally fit my mood. I love the vibe of this album, I've even made a sim with this theme in mind.

Cover Art-

We have a square of a picture surrounded by white. We have Taylor staring at the flame of a lit lighter. The simple scripted words are shades of midnight blue.

Inside Back Cover- 

 

We have Taylor in front of a is that a keyboard or small piano, I'm not familiar enough with the instrument to be able to tell.

Back of Back Cover-

We have Taylor with some midnight twos and a one.

Booklet-

In my mind the photos here are snap shots of her Midnight ponderings and adventures. I like in the case of song titles having colors that the color matches.

CD Art-

The Cd is a record this a clock in it's center. I think it's very thematic.

Songs-

Lavender Haze- Written by Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, Zoe Kravitz, Mark Anothony Spears, Jahann AKil Sweet and Sam Dew. The album's first song starts with telling you "Meet me at midnight..." his beautiful song sounds like your in a haze. I can just picture being in a hazy little club with lavender lighting. And after I wrote  that Taylor provides a video with a lavender hazed party scene.

Maroon- Written by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff. We continue the color theme, which reminds me of her song Red from the album of the same name, a lot color coming into play. She speaks of an old love in memories of red. 

Anti-Hero- Written by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff. This one of my favorite songs on the album. A song about how she feels she's the problem. I read somewhere I think on her Twitter the music video was her dealing with intrusive thoughts, which is currently something I'm dealing with , so probably why I like it so much.

Snow on the Beach- Written by Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, and Lana Del Rey. Is a song of impossible love coming to be.The sound of song I could just imagine snow falling down, it'd been the perfect back drop to a snow scene. She's joined on this song by Lana Del Rey.

You're On Your Own Kid- Written by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff. This to me speaks of the passing of youth a unrequited love and shouldering the wages of life on ones own. I really don't have strong options on this one. It does have a strong guitar riff.

Midnight Rain- Written by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff. We have a mellow tune of thinking on those loves where to people were just two different to last, but you still think on it late at night.

Question...?- Written by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff. A song of questions after apparently a couple either has broken up or had a short fling, and wondering if she's still thought of while their in new relationships. The sound is one I think is common on this album with the music sound muffled, like is playing through a haze, lavender haze maybe?

Vigilante Shit- Written by Taylor Swift. I feel like this bad a** song is about a woman learning her man is a married man, and pretty much outs him to the missus, then they just ruin his life, or maybe their all different men, either way stay out of the way. 

Bejeweled- Written by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff. This song is a woman reclaiming herself after a lackluster man at home. This song has a real 80's vibe. I love the Cinderella retelling the video does.

Labyrinth- Written by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff. This song is one of two things, a girl who's broken up with someone, and despite odds falling in love again, or she's having a hard time letting go of her ex cause she keeps falling in love. There's a nice keyboard in this song through out it.

Karma- Written by Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff, Mark Anothony Spears, Keanu Torrees, and Jahann AKil Sweet. This nice bouncing jam is the warning that Karma is going to get the offender and it's on her side.

Sweet Nothing- Written by Taylor Swift and William Bowery. This gentle, sweet song is about after being out in this crazy world coming how to the simplicity of sweet nothings. Another strong keyboards and some gentle brass.

Mastemind- Written by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff. A song of how she planned their getting together. This is another song with 80's undertones. I feel like this hearkens back to the 1989 album.

That another Musical Moment wrapped. What did you think of Midnights? Leave a comment below to let me know. 

I hope you have a good week, listen to some awesome tunes, and God bless.

*Thrifty Geek*

New Reading Plans: Welcome to Aeldia!

 Hello my Bookish Friends,

It's a new year my friends. Okay so in the last post I mentioned I wanted to reread through my collection of Mercedes Lackey Velgarth this year, but there's been a slight change of plans. See it all started when I put my cart together. For Christmas Fangirl gifted me this lovely rolling cart:

I been wanting one since I saw booktubers use them for TBR carts. I wanted to use the bottom shelf for my TBR, middle shelf for my reference material for my books, and the top for just a place to lay things cause I like a place to store stuff beside me at my desk. 

So Monday I put the shelf together while watching the Rose Parade, and now I have this lovely peacock shelf to brighten up my room:

Excuse my messy bed in the middle of a room rearranging.

After it was built, I proceeded to move my TBR stacks from the corner near my bookshelves to this cart. I quickly learned I had more in my TBR than I thought, many of which are Mercedes Lackey novels out side her Velgarth. So I thought, maybe I should work on them instead this year.

Luckily about that time Book Roast provided the perfect avenue to use to work through it the Choose Your Own Adventure: Year in Aeldia. Twice a year and with some events in between. Book Roast hosts the Orilium Magical Readathon in August and April. The concept is you create a character who attends the magical school of Orilium. You join a guild and and choose conduit for your magic and your calling. All these will guide your course of study each semester. To pass each semester you read the books required. This give you points in your guild ranks to build on your ranking with in it. I thought it was an awesome idea and was going to participate from the start, but my crappy attention span didn't allow for it. Well this year she has a year long event that requires a book a month except for readathon months. So I decided to give it a shot. So I started by looking through the worksheets she's made, and made a character. I thought it'd be fun if here I chronicled the journey with this adventure. I found the Novice's Path worksheets that people did at the start of the readathon, and while I don't need to read these books, I want to do it for fun, I'll read these along with by monthly book prompts and hopefully I'll have it done by  the April semester of Orilium, and I'm gonna try to do both semesters of that this year. So soon I'll introduce you guys to my character, and then we'll begin her year long story. I'll include what books I read for each prompt, the review you'll of course see in my Library posts later. Sound like a plan?

Yup it's going to be a whole year of bookish delight, and hopefully I'm not too in over my head. If this sounds like something you'd like to get into click the links above to get started, and hopefully we can make this journey together. 

I hope you guys have a good rest of the week, read lots, and God bless!

*Thrifty Geek*

 

Thrifty Geek's Library- New Year's Eve 2022 Book Reviews.

 Happy New Year's Eve Book Friends,

 Well we have arrived at the last day of the year and I thought what better way to end it than to make a Library post for my remaining books. If you look on my Goodreads it says I've read 24 of the 20 book goal, I've actually read 28 books, most of these books are ones I read for my job, and four of them apparently haven't been published yet or made it onto Goodreads. You'll find my job books I only give stars and no written reviews, because that's what I do for my job is write reviews, and I don't want to take away from that, so I just give the stars that correlate to my rating. Upside reading for work is forcing me to get back into reading despite my attention span issues, but it does take up the majority of my reading, and I figured I'm reading them, so they should count toward my Goodreads goal if their on there. 

So these last five books are my personal readings I hadn't wrote about yet this year. I do hope up my personal readings this next year so the majority of my books aren't work related, but we'll see!

Haunted on Bourbon Street (Jade Cahoun #1) by Deanna Chase

This was a fun book. It's always a fun time when I read books in this universe, I've read a couple of the Pyper stories before this. I love a lot of things with this world, the first being the location, New Orleans. I have always been interested in visiting the area, and this book lets me do that. I love the romance scenes  are very satisfying to read. I hate when I've gone for a romances, or novels that include a romance, and the romantic scenes fall short, but this delivers. There's also a variety of supernaturally empowered people. Witches, ghosts, angels, and empaths are some of the beings you will find here.

My only issue with the book is it was too short, and because it was short, things had to move at a faster pace. This led to things like explanations of powers, or beings, feel on occasion like a drive by info dump, before rushing on with the story. I gave this four stars on Goodreads.

So, if you are looking for a quick read fun little magical read to lift your spirits, or wet your romantic appetite, I highly recommend this book.

If On A Winter's Night A Traveler by Italo Calvino
 

This book is the story of readers, writers and books, as best as I can glean from it. You take on the role of the Reader, who seeks out the book: If On A Winter's Night A Traveler, a mess up in printing leaves it unfinished and sends you to find it only to begin a journey that takes you through other unfinished reads. Along the way you intercept another reader who becomes part of your complex story. I first heard of this on I believe Keri Smith's blog and it's been on my library request list a while, and they finally got it. 

I going to be honest I'm not sure how to review this. It's an amazing concept, you are a character, and I found myself wanting to know where this story went. It's also a frustrating read.  You're having to stop reading pieces of other stories many which didn't retain my interest for long. I mean I'm pretty sure that was the idea was for you to feel how your story character is feeling, but I'm not feeling frustrated cause I can't finish the snippets of books, I'm frustrated cause I'm having to read them. There was also times parts of it seemed to ramble, just ramble, and I was internally screaming just get to the point! I almost DNF'ed it cause it just agitated me. The last couple chapters in the main story line your in started to make no sense, your wondering how'd we get to where we were to here, then bam the last tiny chapter is just thrown at you. I will say I liked how the end ties all the books you've endured together, but I'll be honest I breathed a inner sigh of relief I was finished. I had a hard time deciding if I liked or disliked it, also it's hard to say if it did or didn't live up to what I hoped. I'm also torn as to whether to attempt to add a copy it to my permanent collection or not. I mean it's unique and would be a nice addition, but the fact I had to force myself to read it most the time, makes me worry I would never pick it up again. It's just a book I don't know what to do with.

I'm not sure how to rate this on Goodreads, I'd say maybe 3 and 3/4 stars, but they don't do halves, cause it is worth more that middle ground three, but not a solid four. I definitely recommend you read this once. If they gave test to readers to test their reading ability, this book would be the final exam. 

50 Ways To Hex Your Lover by Linda Wisdom
 

This romance involves the witch Jasmine (Jazz) and Nikolai a vampire, who have been lovers and adversaries throughout their long lives. Fate has brought them once again together as they try to figure out who's been taking vampires and possibly killing them. The path leads them back to an old foe with a score to settle. Will they survive? Read to find out.
This was a fun read I came across at the thrift store and bought on a whim. I enjoyed the characters in this book, populated with interesting people and creatures. I love the fantastical places within the normal world. I found Irma the ghost that haunts Jazz's car particularly annoying, she really grated on my nerves, which might have been done on purpose by the writer. The romance scenes where unique, but didn't do nothing for me. I find this to be a frequent problem lately when I read romance books, so it may not be the work's fault just my pickiness. So disregard that last bit of review. 
This is a fun little read that I recommend if you like your romances with a fantastical elements, strange creatures, and some sass.

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor                                                                                                          

This was a YA that came up a lot with booktubers in the past few years so this year I finally checked it out from my library and read it. It's the story of Lazlo Strange an orphan who has a life long fascination with a city everybody calls Weep. He remembers the day the original name was erased from everyone's mind. He eventually become a librarian at a large library, where he's been writing books of research about the city. One day a group from Weep arrives looking for people to help them with an issue the city has. Lazlo sees this as his opportunity to achieve his dream.

I enjoyed this, it was a fun read. Janine over at This Story Ain't Over listed this on her Cozy Read Guide and I'm opt to agree with her on that. It was a cozy little read. You just felt no need to hurry just follow where the story took you. It was a book were there was no clear villains, except maybe the girl looking woman with the ability to control spirits, yeah she started out punishing those who hurt her family, but she's kind of towing that edge, and she really gives me the creeps. This was beautifully written, and the mystery of Weep kept you intrigued wanting to figure it out. The ending was a little heart breaking, but it made me want to continue the series.

This was actually a five star read for me, because it was so well written. If you love a fun romp into the world of dreams and dreamers then this is a book for you.

Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde

This is the geeky YA about three friends attending SupaCon, one of the world's biggest conventions. Charlie a vlogger who's found fame in the movies is excited to be a VIP, but is dealing with the break up with her costar, but will a fellow vlogger help her heal from that hurt. Then there's Taylor who's trying to step out of her comfort zone for the sake of her fandom, and wondering where she stands with her friend and crush Jamie. Can thesy over come their obstacles, find love, and have an epic con? Read and see...

This was a book I found at Goodwill, and when I saw the word geek I honed in on it. Being a geek and attempting to be a writer of geeky stories myself I was very interested in reading this book. I have to say the writer you can tell is a fellow geek, because they capture the fandom life so well the good and the bad, I'm just reading this like yep they know what their talking about. I love we have a love interest who is full bodied. I actually can see myself in a book. I have often bemoaned the lack of larger people in romance novels and they gave us one. She also has anxiety issues which I have as well. I wish this book had come out when I was a young adult, it may have been nice to see someone like me in a book. I devoured this book and it was another five star reading on Goodreads.

If your a geek like me who wants to see a geek laced YA Romance this story is for you.

Best Books of the Year

The Story Ain't Over recently did their Top 10 Favorite Books of 2022. This got me thinking about my own top list. I don't have ten since most of mine have been work books, which  I don't discuss here, and I really haven't read enough books for pleasure that I can craft a top ten, but I do have three that stood out: The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling, Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor, and Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde. These three managed to get five stars of of me on Goodreads and are the over achievers for 2022.

Goals For Next Year

I'm wanting to take time to read through my collection of Mercedes Lackey's Velgarth universe. I have almost if not 30 books in this world, and I've been inspired to read through it and make Thrifty Geek's Library posts about the read through. I also have seen the latest book in the Ex Hex series is out which I had forgot about coming out, so I totally have to squeeze that in. I'm hoping that my library will get the other books in the Once Upon A Con series by Ashley Poston, which she's also released a Rom-Com called The Dead Romantics, that I want to check out. As I mentioned I wanna beef up my personal reads, and I feel like I'm going to be getting off to a good start.

I hope 2022 has been good for you guys, and may 2023 be even better. Please be smart tonight in your celebrating, don't drink and drive, and God bless you in the new year.

*Thrifty Geek*

*Update*

I finished my latest book before midnight so it's 29 books for this year!

Of Ramen Bowls and Detours

 Welcome My Friends,

Well we've come to the last post of the year, possibly, actually may finish with a Thrifty Geek Library New Years Eve Wrap-Up post, but don't hold me to it! We had a good holiday this year, except a minor issue of our truck battery dying and making us all late, but it was still good. I hope everyone's holiday was well.

I'm going to back up to five days before Christmas, due to  my therapy appointment, Amber and I decided to go and hang out in Asheville that day afterwards. This was my first official in person visit since the start of the pandemic. It was okay, not bad, not stellar, and the usual getting a little annoyed with my therapist.  After my session we headed out in search of lunch and ways to wash off therapy.

Itto Ramen Bar and Tapas

Fangirl has been wanting to go to this Ramen Bar on Haywood Street for a while, well Tuesday was the day we finally went. It was a lovely restaurant, the waiter was good about coming to check on us, and I like there was a window where you could see the food being prepared. I guess it's because of the book I've been writing about a restaurant, but I've been finding being able to see into the kitchen a cool thing. The menu was on the place mats, and filled with a nice selection of ramen and tapas. We started with appetizers of Takoyaki balls, which we were happy to see offered. 

 

For the uninitiated we also call them octopus balls. They are these deep fried balls that have chopped octopus in it, and these also contain seaweed powder and brown rice flour, their capped off with bonito flakes. These came out nice and hot. These large balls had some great flavors to savor, I  savored them so much I was eating the left over bonito flakes because it was so good. I will say those flakes are hard to pick up with chopsticks, to think I use to pick up M&M's with ease with chopsticks.

For our main course we each got a ramen bowl Fangirl went tithe the Itto Seafood Ramen:

This dish contains their original broth, fresh ramen, grilled shrimp, fish cakes, crab stick, scallions, and a seasoned boiled egg. 

I went with the Itto Deluxe Ramen, because I'm so deluxe. *laughs*

This delectable bowl has the same broth, noodles, scallions and egg like the previous dish, but this one contains black garlic oil in the broth, chashu pork, and bamboo shoots. This was so delicious, best ramen I've had. You have to keep in mind the only ramen I've had before this was the little packets you find in grocery stores, which is good, but this was epic. This was also my first time having bamboo shoost, they were so good, they really absorb those glorious flavors.

Now they do offer forks for the chopstick challenged, but I wanted to give eating noodles a go despite being given a fork. I managed to splatter my shirt, which had the upside of me smelling like my awesome lunch, downside I was hungry all day. Luckily this broth makes two servings, and we had some take out for later, this still tasted great reheated for my supper, I just got to remember next time to leave some pork and some more bamboo shoots so I can have a fuller experience with my second meal.

Retail Therapy and Detours

Down the road from Itto's was Morgan's Comics, which you know we love them here. So I made a few purchases here. One was the Wonder Woman: Come Back to Me Comic. 

I've yet to read it since I was caught up in the holiday and all. My second find is one I've been trying to find for a few months since I noticed they had a stack of Magic the Gathering single cards for sale. 

Now I don't know much about what are good cards or rare, except maybe Black Lotus, is that even right, but the reason I searched months through this stack wasn't for the rarity, it was the artist. This card was done by Pete Venters, who is the husband of the Lady of the Manners of the Gothic Charm School. I love this blog and follow her on Tumblr and Instagram.  I'm not Goth, but I have Gothy Tendencies. I don't know if there's a title for what I am in the Goth community, but some of my interests align with Goth interests. I've been looking through these cards a little at the time searching for it and I have been victorious!

So from there we decided to hit up Comic Envy, though the journey wasn't so smooth getting there. Fangirl missed the exit and then thought she was on the right street to get to Merrimon Avenue, this lead us to a lot of side streets and neighborhoods in and around Downtown Asheville. Upside I saw some sides of Asheville I don't often see, like one person's yard that had an archway filled with wind chimes, I also discovered the location of Chicken Alley.

It's a haunted alley with amazing murals including this chicken one by artist Molly Musk. I'd always been drawn to it's art that I'd see online, but on the local news one Halloween they had a segment about the ghost, which you can read about in the above link. This made it even more interesting.

We eventually made it to Comic Envy and perused the store. I didn't find any comic offerings to tempt me, but I did internally squee over the Grogu figures and this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Gift Box with apron and cookbook inside.

We then invaded the Asheville Mall where we ogled the the fandom things at Hot Topic and Box Lunch while their scanners went wonky. Fangirl had a blow to her wallet. She's been really getting into One Piece an she saw a large Luffy plushie at Hot Topic that she bought, then a grab bag themed around the show. Upon opening the bag she found a smaller plushie that was practically like the bigger one, if she'd only known. 

After that we hit up one of the local Asian Markets, so Fangirl could stock up on her snack food. I think I need to save a little money to get me some snacks, I love Pocky and Red Bean Moochi, it'd be nice to have in addition to my regular snacks. We then went to the big Goodwill in Asheville. I made a couple holiday purchases there.

I heard from some customers there was the possibilty of snow that night, I had planned on getting the rest of my Christmas when I was going out shopping with my Granny the next day, but if it snowed, a bunch of Christmas wouldn't happen. So I had Fangirl take me to Dollar Tree and I finished my holiday shopping. 

After a slight traffic issue, I enjoyed looking at what Holiday lights I could since we didn't get to go looking this year, I even had her drive through one of my favorite areas. 

All in all it was a fun preChristmas outing. Sadly it was the first domino that killed my sleep which made the next few days rough mental health wise, but I got through the crazy moments.  

Well there's another venture posted. I hope this final week of 2022 treats you well, it's been a rough year for me, but it's had it's good moments. I hopefully will see you all back here New Years Eve! Have fun, eat much, God bless.

*Thrifty Geek*