Comic Con!

Saturday Shelby and I headed back to Kenner to go to something I've been looking forward to for a while: Nola Comic Con! It's not that I'm a huge comic fan, which I'm not, or that I have an urge to dress like a super hero, because I don't, but I was interested in finally meeting Dustin's friend from work, Jon. We'd never met face-to-face, but we play Xbox Live together all the time. It was nice to finally meet him and put a face to the excellent zombie killing skills. This cool cat doesn't just practice paramedicine and behead the digital walking dead, he also runs Mass Casualty Comics, along with a fellow medic, Sean, and is in charge of the Barely Rotten Girls, a pin-up-esque zombified modeling group. They'd just put out their first calender and were promoting it with a booth at comic con. I met two of the girls (very nice) and got to have a look at the calender (very cool). Shelby and I walked around for a while, me pretending I knew anything about the characters or books I was perusing. We talked to the people who run Bloodletting, an online vampire RPG that sounds pretty cool. They gave Shelby some "freaky" teeth, and said with them in she looked like on of the characters, The Little Girl. They asked to take her picture, which I obliged, and plan on photoshopping it for use on the site. She's quite excited about it. Jon is also thinking about doing a shoot, for the BRG coffee table book that will be out next year, involving her, but not as a bloody zombie, just as a precious little girl smiling at one. Once we left, she had to call everyone we know and tell them how she was going to be a "little girl zombie vampire on a book and a website!" and that she was going to be the first Barely Rotten Little Girl, all of which took some clarifying once I got the phone away from her.

After the convention, we went to Golden Corral there in Kenner, which was nothing short of disappointing. I miss the magnificent, Vegas-style Golden Corral we had in Beaumont. We also went by Aquatic Specialties. Again. I had to return the bedeviling little sea urchin we bought. He was cute, but he kept going around and knocking everything over and/or irritating it. They were cool though and gave me store credit, so we bought a little yellow watchman goby for Dustin.

Because Sunday was pretty much a repeat of the day before, I'm adding the summary here as well. Kenner, Comic Con, Barely Rotten Girl booth. Actually, we went to Burger King before we left town, because I love me some BK fries and a Jr. Whopper. Mmmm. Once we arrived at the Ponchartrain Center, Jon got us in all official-like, and we hung out with him at the booth. Shelby and some little boys whose parents had booths set up a make-shift playdate behind us and played Power Rangers. It was adorable. When one's dad walk off to talk to someone, he stood up and yelled "But who's gonna watch me!" I told him I would and gave him a piece of candy, which in retrospect, sounds really stranger danger-ish. When the comvntion started winding down, we really didn't have anything to do, so Jon handed Shelby a few calenders and told her he'd give her a $5 for every one she sold. She got off to a slow start, being so shy, she was just walking up to people, tugging on their shirt and thrusting a calendar at them. But she eventually got the pitch down and sold one to an illustrator who couldn't resist such a cute salesperson. Jan handed over the dough and took her to a booth that sold children's comics. She chose a Scooby Doo one, and was told it was $7. She said "Well, I only have five," and once again, such a darling face couldn't be turned down. Uncle Jon was very impressed with her hustling (oh, and by the way, he morphed into 'Uncle Jon' before the end of the weekend due to the kind attention he paid Shelby, as well as the five bucks and his bag of candy). Shelby got the sales bug and was ready to make another Lincoln, but there were no takers amongst the few straggling patrons, so she settled for handing out flyers for the calendar release party two weeks from now. When it was time to shut down, it was time for us to split, so we Uncle Jon headed out front where he caught her a few of the million dragonflies that were out that day.

Once back in the Crescent City, we ran by Rouses store to pick up a few things and headed home. Hanging out at a comic booth surrounded by awesome people is tiring.

Exploring Kenner

Friday, Dustin was off work, so we made a trip to Kenner to Aquatic Specialties, a cool fish store specializing in salt water creatures where we spend entirely too much money. We were absolutely starving, though, so before buying some live fish, we went to eat some raw fish.

Using my handy dandy MyTouch, I found a few listings for sushi on Williams Boulevard, and decided whichever one we came to first would be the winner of our patronage. Sake Sushi claimed the prize. The place was empty As in, other than us, the only people sitting at a table were the waitstaff because they had nothing to do. That worried us. Dustin said it was like the beginning of Kitchen Nightmares when Gordon Ramsey makes his first visit to the abandoned dining room of the ailing restaurant. Luckily, this place wasn't a candidate for the show (at least not by judging the food). Dustin had two glasses of the house chardonnay (I didn't care for it whatsoever, but it was only a few dollars). I ordered the miso soup and the Sake roll; Dustin a snow crab roll, spicy tuna and Philadelphia roll; and we ordered Shelby a terriyaki chicken bento box. Dustin's looked good, my Sake roll was huge and incredibly filling, as well as insanely delicious- tempura shrimp and a Japanese mayonnaise sauce (not too much) rolled in nori and rice, topped with snow crab, topped with raw tuna, topped with avocado. Holy crap that thing was good. Dustin and Shelby each had a piece and I was still stuffed when I was done. Shelby really did us proud with her bento. I was thinking it would be a small-ish box, but it was about the size of a standard school tray. There was a whole chicken breast, one broccoli floret, one baby carrot, one baby corn, two dumplings, a peeled and creatively sliced orange, a whole California roll and fried rice. Did I mention it came with miso soup and a salad, too? For $7.95. And Shelby finished it! It took about an hour, but she did it, minus the dumpling Dustin and I stole and the broccoli. She also didn't finish the rice, but seriously, she had just eaten an entire sushi roll. I let it slide. The total came to $50-something. Which I don't think was bad given that the service was extremely friendly (almost creepy friendly) and quick and the food was good.

Having filled our bellies with aquatic goodies, we headed to the fish store. While Dustin talked shop with one of the staff, Shelby and I browsed the fish, crabs, urchins, starfish and the lone beige, bright blue spotted ray. He is so funny. If you get near the glass, he faces off with you and bumps the glass with his.... lip? Whatever the front-most part of his pancake-like body is. Doing this makes his "face" crinkle and his eyes look as though the brows have come down, causing him to look as though he's quite angry with you, as well as very much like a cartoon character. I'll see if the computer will allow me to upload the picture I took of him. Dustin settled on a reddish, skinny hand shaped tree thing, an emerald crab (which is not bright green, I was sad to find) and a koko worm- a long, twisty purple tube about the width of a finger that has a red and white stripped feather duster thing that comes out of the end. The feather duster is the animal, I'm not really sure what the tube is. I wanted a bit more color, so I got a cute little electric lime green soft coral. I ca't remember what it's called, but it sure is cute. It's a "baby," meaning it was a new cutting not quite ready to be in a tank with other things, but he let me buy it anyway. It's the brightest green I've ever seen, and it glows under the black light like a neon sign. I like it.

After going fishing, we went to Academy (where Dustin bought some golf stuff) and the Dollar Tree (where I bought some stuff). When I was in the Dollar Tree, Dustin and Shelby went into PetCo. Imagine my surprise to walk out of my respective store to see them coming out if theirs, Shelby with a mouse in her hands. A mouse. That her daddy bought her. I said it then and I'm saying it now, the care of this animal will not be added to the list of my household duties! She is kinda cute, though. Shelby named her Tinkerbell, and she's a light honey color.

Upon leaving Kenner, we met Frank for pizza and brews, though I just had a beer, still being full from lunch. Shelby regaled everyone in the place with her tale of finding the perfect mouse and talking her daddy into buying it. We stayed and chatted with Frank and Tim for a couple hours before finally heading home, where we aquainted the new corals to their new home and readied the cage for Tinkerbell.

Again I say: Mouse-keeping, not my job. Even if it is a cute little thing.