Remember Xmas?

Here's a bunch of quick pictures from our Xmas visit to Virginia. That was a while ago, but maybe it will help bring back some memories of the season.

Spontaneous snack idea, couldn't decide between cookies or ice cream. How about a scoop of ice cream on a cookie? This technically counts as a vacation for us, so treat yourself.

One afternoon my friend wandered into the swampy forest behind the house, just because he felt like it. He did that all the time when he was a kid.

Super-green mossy tree with a hole in it. I don't think this camera captures how intensely green this moss is. Could this be Minty's summer home? Then I could say I live in a "green" home?

Looks like that tree was hugging that other tree! Awwwwww!

I don't know if this was because of recent rain, or like, global warming or something, but the swampy water was a lot closer than my friend remembers. There used to be a river down there and now it's more like a lake. He was not dressed properly to explore down there.

This snapped tree looked fresh like it just happened. Oh, snap.

This plant has an almost perfect star-shaped five branches growing straight horizontally out of the same spot. How is that natural?

The trails from his childhood has been almost completely overgrown, so we got a little lost on the way back. Wound up in the neighbor's yard and saw this drainage pipe which he doesn't remember at all. It was right next door. 

What is this stuff growing all around this piece of wood? I feel like I should know this. Is it bad that I don't know?

My friend got his car an oil change while down here. Couldn't quite find the time to do it before he left for the trip. This muffler guy was in the parking lot greeting customers. They accidentally gave us both receipts and had to call us later to ask us to bring one back in. Ooops for them! Thanks for the effort, next one is half-price! Except now we have to drive back to Virginia for that half-priced oil change.

Went to our favorite comic shop Trilogy to check out all of the collectibles. Here's a massive She-Ra statue, the classic version, not the newer Netfix version. THIS is what everyone thinks of when you say "She-Ra". To be fair, the Netflix She-Ra show is okay, too.

Awesome anime version of G.I.Joe Counter Intelligence Agent Scarlett. I made sure to get the file card in the picture so you can read all about her. Why don't modern action figures have this kind of thing on them anymore? Do kids just use the Internet for that sort of character info?

From the popular game Fate: Grand Order, where wizards summon magical servants based on historic figures. Emperor Nero was so beloved by the Roman people that Nero manifested as a cute girl. Seriously try to Google "Nero" and I guarantee you'll get pictures of this character before the actual Roman Emperor's statues.

Does anybody remember the name of the girl Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle? I won't make you look it up, it's Venus. I don't remember her background story, so we'll both have to look that up.

The Antique Mall with all of the retro toys, Does this Bajoran Phaser count as an antique? It's from the future, right? I'm so confused. Looks cool though.

Saw this kangaroo in the clearance section at a Walmart and all I could think about was "You'll have to talk to my friend Kuato. He'll be here soon." From Total Recall? You remember Kuato?

Finally got a good opportunity to stop into the Virginia Beach Jollibee for a quick dinner. I think the tradition is to hug this statue on your way in. How could you NOT want to hug this happy bee!

 I asked if they had the kid's meal toy with the Jollibee figure, they checked and did not. It's okay. Would have made a cool souvenir. 

 We had the Chicken Sandwich, it had some kind of garlic sauce on it. Super yummy! I know it's silly to get excited about a fast food place but Jollibee has a sort of exciting story behind it to begin with.

While looking around for post-Xmas sales we saw this new Transformers figure from the old 80's movie. The Quintesson was like a judge robot from the junk planet and they would judge everybody "INN-O-CENT!" and kill them anyway. It was pretty messed up, in a funny sort of way.

 Oh yeah, McDonald's STILL had McRibs in Virginia. CHOMP! We almost forgot to get one.

My friend's nephew, who is also Minty's friend (it's just odd referring to everybody as "my friend" since that's not very descriptive...) anyway... he made some fun Xmas cookies including a stripper pole and the "banana taped to a wall" artwork that sold for $100,000. Do you think "cookie of banana taped to wall" is worth at least half that? Or twice, since it's an extra step?

They got an Atari flashback console thing that plays old Atari 2600 games. My friend played all the way through Decathlon. If you are not familiar with that game, most of it requires shaking the joystick back-and-forth as fast as you can. The last event, 1500m run, makes you do it for like five minutes straight. It's about as exhausting as any video game experience you'll ever have. And all of your friends watching are laughing the whole time as you look ridiculous struggling to shake the controller.

 His nephew tried his best but could not beat the score. There's ten events, and while most of them are determined by the speed you can shake the controller, a lot of them require careful button pressing as well. 1983! If you were wondering, yes this game is famous for breaking controllers.

 There was a gift which was a light up narwhal of some kind. It was so silly I just had to get a picture of it. The cat looks unimpressed.

Ate a whole awesome meal at Texas Roadhouse and afterwards thought, hey I didn't get a single picture in there this time! Should I still get one before we drive away? Sure. Maybe I won't be excited enough to post it, but I guess I did.

Rainy blah drive back home. Did snap one picture of this awkward sign for a Soft Touch car wash. It just looked wrong in a "Tell the therapist where on the sign the finger touched" way. I just noticed you can see the reflection of our new droid pal R6-T1 in the window, who drove back in the passenger seat.