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*

The Smoky Mountain Geek Expo 2022 and the Twenty Year Reunion

 Hello Friends, 

Today we continue our look at events past that I really should have posted months ago. In this post we are going to discuss the Smoky Mountain Geek Expo. It was the first year of Waynesville, North Carolina's first convention. To actually have a convention in my neck of the woods is amazing. I was excited that I didn't have to get up so early to get somewhere to find parking.

 

The costumes: 

I was the 11th Doctor... Again. I had plans to unveil my new costume, but complications kept me from getting it done, so I went with my standby.

Fangirl was Willow from The Owl House. It was fun seeing this costume come together over time. There's even a little bottle of Etta's Elixir on her belt.

 

The Convention:

It was a small convention, but not a bad showing with over 1,150 guests according to their Facebook Page.

It was good seeing vendors that I was familiar with from other conventions. I felt like I was getting really familiar with the regional Geek Vendor Community more that I had before, I think it's because I attended multiple Geekish events this year instead of just one. 

We saw our friends from Morgan's Comics. I know I talk about these guys often here, but they are our most local store and the Asheville comic shop we most frequent. So if your in West Asheville check them out!

There was a lot of cool signs at this thing some offering protection in these uncertain times:

Others were a beautiful pen rhyme basically telling "you break it you bought it":

The Nerdy Old Men Podcast were recording there that day. They were kind enough to let me get a picture of them while they were getting things ready, so go check them out!

We saw some good costumes the was a person dressed as Edric Blight from The Owl House. They shared some of their Moo-chi with us:

 

We saw this Hagrid which left me a little sad, due to the fact Robbie Coltrane had passed recently.

It's Marvel's Biggest Fans

 

I think this angel has been following me. I saw him at the WNC Comic Con now here, I think it's the sam vendor. I think in addition to Thursdays he should be the Angel of Conventions, well one of them at least.

We were only there a couple hours, but we had a lot of fun:

Still won't work on wood!!!!

After the con we stopped for some Burger King and went to Fangirl's house where we chowed down while watching Warehouse 13. I also finally got to meet her dog Kiki, named for Kiki's Delivery Service. 

The Barely Domesticated Kiki lounging in her natural habitat.

After a respite it was off to our second event our 20 Year Class Reunion:

It was great seeing old friends it was especially great to see the Captain in person after three years due to Covid. I was so happy to see her.

All Hail the Captain!

It was a fun night I got to see a lot of friends I haven't seen in person for years, my voice was horse for talking over the DJ's music, but it was fun. The night ended with us taking Fangirl to her car she parked a little ways away. I gave her her gifts I've had over the last few years for her, including this Holiday. I also got to properly meet her driving buddy Jack:

Don't you just love my friends? We are fun people what can I say. We said our goodbyes then headed for home. I was pooped afterwards understandably. 

Well I hope the rest of your weekend is good, God bless, and wave to the skeletons in passenger seats, it's only polite.

*Thrifty Geek*

Upstate Renaissance Faire & Medieval Market 2022

Hello my Rennie Friends,

So a few months ago Fangirl and I attended the Upstate Renaissance Faire & Medieval Market in South Carolina. Fangirl had worked the faire before and thought I'd enjoy it. I'd been missing going to a faire since the one in Asheville said adieu in 2005. 

We left at the butt crack of dawn as the Captain's family would say. It was rainy and we hoped the faire being and hour and a half away would be out of it. We stopped for a McD's breakfast. Just a little something to give us a pick me up. 

Due to not getting any sleep the night before I was tired. I'd hoped to nap while going there, but if I did it was like a minute or two. I enjoyed the new places I was seeing, noting the Dollar Generals every few miles on the road till we got to Greer.

Sadly the rain was here as well, but we were going to enjoy it anyway. Even if the lawn had ton of  puddles. Fangirl purchased us some umbrellas at the previously mentioned Dollar Generals:

I was so happy to get to wear my dress I hadn't wore since the year of the Captains wedding where I got it, and the same year I wore it to be a dragon tamer. The hat I'm wearing I got at the 2004 Mountain Renaissance Adventure Faire.

 

 

Fangirl couldn't traverse some parts of the puddled lawn due to her balance issues she still has from her medical problems last year, so she'd find a seat and let me wander the faire so I could see it all.

It was fun going around the faire even if my feet got drenched in the puddles, they washed the pink off my skull beads on my shoes. I saw some great booths, so many things I wished I could have bought. I marveled at the blacksmith's tent a bit. I'm always fascinated at people crafting with fire. There was also performers there. I didn't get to see a lot cause we were getting drenched, but enough to have felt good about going.

So after the faire we headed back to North Carolina with a pit stop in Asheville since it was still early, we hadn't hung around the fair long since it was raining, so we stopped at Morgan's Comics to show off our garb and shop. By this time our McD's meal had warn off so we went to the Cracker Barrel, where I changed cause I needed to let the girls breath. While I was changing my dress Fangirl bought me a friend this cute reversible octopus! I hadn't been doing well because my night owlness at this time meant I got no sleep before I went out, and lack of sleep worked on my anxiety.

I brought the little guy to lunch with me. He apparently was craving french toast too.

We then went to Jo-Ann's for some costume supply shopping, and after a while wandered our tired way back home. 

I highly recommend if your near the Upstate area of South Carolina It's free to get in, on flat land if you have issues with hills, and it's in a beautiful location. I definitely want to add this to my yearly events.

Well that's all for this post. Next time we'll talk the Smoky Mountain Geek Expo and 20th class reunions. Have a good week, God bless, and Huzzah!

It's My First Post in Months, Opps : Sprites, Thor, and my Book!

So I've been MIA, sorry been out of it for months mainly dealing with my massive anxiety issues and working on my book when I'm able to get myself to focus it.

Artsy Fartsy Time:

So June was Fangirl's Birthday, and I finally finished the project I was suppose to give her for Christmas. I saw this great project idea by Epbot for Soot Sprites. I wasn't able to do it exactly like they did but it was still cute:

Thor: Love and Thunder Review:

Fangirl and I saw the latest Thor movie, I thought it was a good movie. I know some people had issues with the humor, but given the more serious topic of Jane's Cancer, I felt it was the only thing that kept me from disliking it, I don't like uber serious movies with serious topics, I prefer light hearted things. I found the goats hilarious, especially when they crashed into the planet and yelled out. Which sounds pretty dark, but it really wasn't. I really enjoyed it and would recommend it to Marvel fans or Thor Fans.

I'm in a book!

Recently one of my submissions, Year's Transition, was selected for the North Carolina Bards Poetry Anthology 2022. You can preorder it by clicking the link. This book showcases a bunch of poets all across my home state.  So consider ordering it when you get the chance.

Well that's been my last few months. Not a lot going on, besides fighting the mental health hydra. So I hope you have a good weekend, love everybody, and God bless.

*Thrifty Geek*

Monthly Randoms May 2022- 90's Nostalgia, Unlikely Heroes, and Work

 Hey friends,

It's that time of the month were I give you the random things from the month that for what ever reason doesn't require a full post, plus some of my favorite things from off my socials. So let's get started with a look at May.

Lovely view from my porch

Favorites on my Socials:

So I pulled some of my favs from the social world to share with you fine folks, whoever reads this. First up is from Instgram by banana_bruiser with her lovely bruised banana art. Yes the woman makes banana art, by strategically bruising them so that she can eat the fruit afterwards and not waste food. Very clever. I loved her ode to my favorite Ronald Dahl book: Matilda.  

The next two favs are from Tumblr, yes I still have one, both from imstuckin1999, the first is a beautiful message from The World of Lisa Frank. We should always remember this bit of advice. The next is a reminder of ye old Scholastic Book Fairs.

Things To Watch: 

Fangirl has once again turned me on to something. Deerstalker Pictures most notably their All For 1 series. It's a fun romp into the world of Dungeons and Dragons with these often times not so heroic heroes. 

Music I'm Jamming To:

Midnight Shinigami's version of Carry On (Sailor Moon) from their Kioku//memories album. I love this version, I've been hankering for the Sailor Moon Soundtrack ever since I watched the one DVD I from the original series. I found this beautifully done cover in my search for the music of the soundtrack.

Books To Read:

Most of my reading right now has been work related. Actually this past month that's the only reading I did, apart from fan fiction. I do put a star rating on my Goodreads for my work books, cause I figure I'm dedicating the time to read them so why not count them toward my yearly count, but I won't write a full review there or here of them cause that's what I do for my job, and not sure how they'd feel me doing additional write ups for the books on my own stuff. 

Well that's another Random from me. I hope you guys have a good day. May the rest of the week be a good one, nostalgia on, and God Bless.

*Thrifty Geek*

WNC Comic Con 2022

 Hello Friends,

 

This past Saturday Fangirl and I went to WNC Comic Con in Fletcher, NC. This is our first year at this particular con. The Asheville Anime Regional Convention has yet to start up again, and I didn't want to go a third year without a con, so I suggested this one. There was a bit of a line to get in, but it was worth the wait cause this cute little R2 unit was roaming the floors making happy little chirping sounds:

 

There was also a Punisher themed van there:

 

Vendors

 

There were lots of great vendors with so many things I wanted to buy! One such stop was the Pop Up Wand Shop that had these gorgeous homemade wands, some had roses on the handle end. They were beautiful. Sadly I did not get a card or website information to be able to find them should I ever have extra cash to buy one of those rose wands. If I often find myself unable to purchase from vendors I take a card should I ever be able to purchase from them later on.

 

 Roxy Taylor from Auntie M's Novelties has beautiful homemade , sealed, shimmery bottles that are fandom themed. I was looking at this Ghostbuster one she had with Slimer green liquid inside. I wanted it so bad, oh if money were no object. 

I fear what would happen if we put these guys in a room together.

 

The Wishing Well had Legend of Zelda Ocarinas for sale. I've been wanting one since I saw them advertised in a Nintendo Power magazine. 

One of my favorite jewelry shops was Elder Nerd Designs she does chain mail jewelry and some look like dragon scales. She had some with the Supernatural anti-possession symbol. I also loved her Mermaid Lantern items.

Morgan's Comics Table. Sorry it's slightly blurry.

My peeps from Morgan's Comic were representing that day. They had a video game demo set up too on one end.

Artists and Authors

As with many conventions there were some great artists and authors. Dan Jaworsky had a style I liked with his imaginings of nerdy things, I also noticed the artist Adam Casey from Winston-Salem among the artists. I found Rick Lonon's I wanna say stempling art amazing, though I got the term wrong when I did complement him. Sorry! 

I talked writing and bookmarks with New York Times Best Selling Author F.T. Lukens. Her works seem interesting, I may have to look into them. She's also from right here in North Carolina.

Costumes

What's a con without costumes. Captain America and the Scarlet Witch lent their talents to the judging table:

The esteemed judges, again sorry for the blur.

 

I once more became the 11th Doctor.  I ened up kicking back with my fellow aliens:

I also kicked back with myself, hope we don't cause a paradox.

Lovely Geeky Items That Are Mine Now

So you've heard me lament about what I couldn't afford to get, bet your wondering what did you get? Well I had like twelve dollars so I had to spend wise and everything I bought fit in this tiny bag:

 

But good things come in small packages:

Save for gift items and a donation I made to the Klingon Assault Group this is my haul. Back left to right: a Castiel sticker, a Cyan Among Us sticker because that's the color I usually play in the game, a Link sticker, a Supernatural pin because I'm making up for lack of SPN stuff in my life.  I also always buy a pin from every con I've been to.  Front row is a glow in the dark cat and some dice I purchased from The Deck Box. I know what your thinking a lot of little stuff, what can I say it's the little things that make you happy. 

After Party

Not really that much of a party we just went to Cracker Barrel for a later lunch. I spent way too much time enjoying the moving lit glitter globes.  I partook of my usual meal grilled chicken tenders and two sides of mac and cheese, I'm picky with some restaurant sides. I only like them prepared a certain way, and most places make them the way I don't, Mac and Cheese is one of the few sides that people don't screw up much. 

 

It was a fun con, I loved meeting everybody. Fangirl is actually thinking of adding that to our yearly cons. So that's going to be fun and I was so excited to learn my county is getting it's own con! Sadly it's same day this year as the Pumpkin Festival, and if it keeps falling on the Pumpkin Festival we may switch to this geeky event. We'll see. 

 

I hope you guys have a good week, geek on, and God Bless.

*Thrifty Geek*

The Free Comic Book Day Haul Review

 Hey comic book friends, 

 

The 7th was Free Comic Book Day. I have already breezed through my selections. So today I'm going to review them. 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Official Prelude To The Armageddon Game

In this comic we are introduced to a new leg of the comics with a throwback to the original TMNT comic that premiered the month before I was born. The comic artist decided to do the intro just like the first issue, they even include the original. This was a nice little comic, and learned a really great bit of Turtles history. Of course bit darker than say TV turtles, but I already knew that was the case with the comics turtles, which nothing wrong with that, but just a good heads up for those who aren't familiar with the comic turtles.

Doctor Who Comic 2022

In this comic we see the further adventures of the Fugitive Doctor in an early encounter with Earth. it is this encounter that changes her mind of how she views Earth. Which leads into the First Doctor touching down on Earth for what he believes is the first time. Uh it's all wibbly wobbly time wimey right? This was another great Doctor Who comic, I always enjoy them the free and the ones I buy.

Hollow 

This turned out to be my favorite comic out of the whole bunch. This is about Izzy Crane who moves to Sleepy Hollow and finds herself among the descendants of the legend's characters . She even gets the hots for Victoria Van Tassel, which upon learning Izzy's last name tries to avoid her, I mean it's bad enough she's a Van Tassel. There's also a really mysterious guys walking around other than the horseman that may be set to cause misfortune in the town. I'm going to be honest when this comic drops this September I may have to check it out. I love The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and this series looks like it'll be a great read.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The 25th Anniversary

This comic starts as a yearbook style thing. Characters from the comics are lined up yearbook style with superlatives and special sections that's suppose to be the throwback to 25 years I guess. We then get a preview to a new comic series coming out. I'm going to be honest little disappointed. I was looking for more of a look back than what we got. I'm not even sure which comics they pulled from for their pics, was it actually different comic series, or just one of them. I'm thinking it was from the different series with the characters, but I don't know. It just left me like "that was our look back"? It just felt underwhelming. 

Extra Helpings:

Wonder Woman: Tempest Tossed Wonder Woman Day Special Edition 

Now this wasn't part of FCBD offerings. This was a left over from another free comic event that Morgan's Comics had so they brought them out to offer for folks that may have missed the event. I being a Wonder Woman fan couldn't say no to a freebie. This gives us a look at a chapter from the graphic novel of the same name. It's a Wonder Woman origin story looks like. Always love a good origin story. Looks like a interesting graphic novel where Diana is accidentally swept away from her island. So I don't know if the novel itself is any good, let me know in the comments. 

That's all she reviewed. Yeah I usually don't go ham on getting comics on FCBD just from fandoms or ones that sound interesting and initially only four caught me interest, which is usually good since stores usually have a limit on what you get. I hope you enjoyed, much love this week. and God bless.

*Thrifty Geek*