Journeys in the Shadowlands
Come to the shadowlands: They have ice cream, tacos, pizza, and pennyloafers!
This weekend was low-key but eventful nonetheless: We didn't realize it until after the fact; but, we spent Saturday visiting increasingly-darker places...
Bob's Not Your Uncle
After a quick breakfast at Athennia's apartment, we kicked off the day by popping into Bob's Discount Furniture: We had a $75 gift card that we scored a week or two back (after they rescheduled the delivery of Athennia's dresser thrice without explanation, and we finally asked what was in it for us if we foolishly decided to believe them yet again instead of taking our business elsewhere).
The Mid-Easterner who fielded the call answered that question in the most remarkably natural way...
I can offer you one compensation of $75, and you may use this at the moment of your choosing.
But... thanks, I guess?
We extend two gratitudes at the moment of right now; and also, you go ahead and have yourself a blessed morrow.
We decided we'd put our one compensation toward one nightstand so I could retire one old filing cabinet I've been using in lieu of zero nightstands for the last one and a half decades...
But, long story short, the cheapest nightstand in the store was $300... and I didn't want one badly enough to pay $200+ out-of-pocket.
We were about to turn right around and head out, but I decided we may as well walk through the living-room section on the off chance that there was a tiny end table or something that caught my eye instead.
Sure enough, we found a lovely little side table with a glass top and a few built-in power outlets and USB ports, all for just $200.
Sold.
Riley thought I was kidding when I told her we were getting some free ice cream before we left, until I took her back to the cafe.
I asked if I could snap a picture of her with Bob, but she just leaned over and matter-of-factly whispered...
To be honest, Bob kinda gives me the creeps.
<shrug> Can't say I blame her.
Oxford, Valley of Death
Riley was begging us to take her to Hot Topic; and, since the visit to Bob's that we promised her would be "five minutes tops" ended up being about an hour, we decided that fair was fair.
So, we went to the Oxford Valley Mall... or at least what used to be the Oxford Valley Mall but has since become a black hole that time itself seems to have forgotten...
I challenged Riley to a game of chess, but she said only old people play chess.
But, was I really old when I started playing at 10?
She got us back for the Bob's visit by spending more than half an hour looking at T-shirts in Hot Topic. Then we grabbed some Chinese food for lunch at the food court.
We got a kick out of this janitor who seems to have blatantly five-finger-discounted a storage bin from the postal service.
Not 100% sure whether that's a felony... but, that's probably a felony.
Then again, if you were to pop into the post office and tell Simba that some guy down at the Oxford Valley elephant graveyard stole his bin... would he even care enough to venture over here and check it out?
Doubtful.
Dark Hollow
Of course we had to get our Dark Hollow fix.
We're not addicted or anything; but, it had been more than two hours since our last visit, and we were finding it difficult to think about much of anything else.
So...
Despite the name Dark Hollow—and the fact that you're literally in the bottom of a shadowy canyon by the time you get into the heart of the woods—the park might've actually been lighter than Oxford Valley was...
I took these cool shots of the power lines under an eerie sky...
...and Athennia snapped a few artsy shots...
They say a picture is worth a thousand words; so, I thought Athennia and I should battle: Photo versus text!
Ready? Go!
Thomas Kinkade Level 50
Flesch-Kinkaid Level 15
In a dying wood, a cluster of leaves chameleonize themselves into hydras with tongues of jagged red flame licking at the cool autumn air in a vain last stand against the impending frost. Burgundy and tangerine, sanguine and salamandrine, they glow like embers amidst the muted greens and drab browns of the forest—a vibrant sunset igniting the sky with its dying breaths before it fades to black.
We also came upon... something, which was either a hawk, a falcon, an eagle, a griffin, or a pterodactyl. Or none of those.
I don't know.
I was content to let it rest in peace and decided not to photograph it, but then Athennia came along behind me and was like "Wow! Look at the detail on those talons!"
So, yeah. Here are pictures of a dead pterodactyl.
I tried to snap this picture on the drive home: We always joke that, from the top of this hill, the plethora of water towers looks like a scene from War of the Worlds.
The Tripods are invading!
Tacos
On the way home from the park, we found out that Kelly and Steve were having dinner at my parents' house.
Are you guys up for tacos?
Damn right, we were.
Gotta love that moment when kitten and the molerat spot my camera ;)
...Then you have Liv, who just doesn't care!
...And Hannah, who has no idea what's going on yet :)
Steve got haunted by a wild Penny until Liv chased her away.
...And I got another round of surreptitious photos for good measure...
After-Hours Playground
Riley begged us to take her back to the playground at Northampton Park; so, even though parks in the Land of the Free arbitrarily close at sunset and you're free not to use them despite having paid for them, we decided to check it out and risk getting eaten by dragons or falling into a bottomless pit...
Somehow, we all survived the harrowing experience! And Riley had a lot of fun :)
Sunday
We mostly took it easy on Sunday, but we made a killer pizza for dinner.
Sure! So, this recipe goes all the way back to 1647 when my great-great-great-great-great-great—yeah, no; let's just make the damn pizza...
Then we took a cue from Penny the rest of the day and relaxed :)
