Summer Rain

Chrissy seems to have made a recovery. Now that she is back on her meds, she has her peppy personality back. Her use of Snakes' catchphrase continues, however.

Tuesday as I was making my watering rounds, I was at the western-most part of town. I heard a whirling sound and caught just a glimpse of Gulliver's UFO for the first time. It exists! Man, that thing is so fast and it was heading west-ward that I had no chance at all to take a picture, let alone catch it.

I was left with a blank look on my face apparently.

The week has been full of rain. Don't get me wrong - I love the rain. It means no watering and more time for fooling around. But it also means I don't get my chance to catch that tarantula because he doesn't show up with the rain. Drat!
In the beginning of the week it was just a small drizzle, just enough to refresh the green in town.

But as the week went on the rain decided to bring it. We're in the middle of a big rain/thunder storm today.

I don't like thunderstorms in real life but I love them in Alleria! The flashes of lightening are a cool touch.
Even though most everybody in Alleria is whining about the rain, Antonio has the right idea:



Yeah. Rhonda, my next door neighbor (or at least the closet neighbor) is the latest Allerian to ponder moving. At least she has the common courtesy to talk it over with me first. Even though she is one of my last remaining original villagers, I decided to encourage her to start afresh. If she decides to pack up, I wish her the best and it will probably be hard to see her off.

With the new inventory coming in at Redd's shop today, I decided to take the bus trip into the city. I've had a string of fake paintings so I've been ready for a new display at our museum.

Finally! I wish there was another way to collect authentics. Buying at Redd's draws the process out. Oh well. The museum is slowly but surely filling up and I'm proud at how great it's looking in just 4 months.

This isn't news or anything, I just thought it was cool. Two diving beetles in the same pond today:


And last but not least, Chrissy offered a tip when we were discussing Pete and his annoyingly one-sided conversations:

Good idea.

Animal Pharm

Things have gotten worse for poor Chrissy. After her small breakdown after Snake left, she had been staying in her house all day. Sunday I went over to check on her.

Oh geez.
Chrissy was down in the dumps. I spent time with her, trying to get her to lay down and sleep it off. All to no avail.

Poor thing. What do you do? I didn't know if there was much I could do to help.

Ohhhhh. "Medicine" must mean she's out of her happy pills. Nook 'n Go doesn't carry antidepressants but maybe he'll special order them for our peppy bunny.


Yikes.
When I got the goods, Chrissy seemed reluctant to take them at first. It's been two days, so hopefully when I check in on her today she'll be feeling a bit better.

When running around in the warm rainy weather yesterday I was surprised to see a house planted right in Snake's old spot. Already?! This has been the fastest turnover I've ever seen. Snake gone in two days and somebody new in two more.

Our new friend Buck is another jock. Sheesh, it seems like those two had this planned out....maybe they switched places with each other. I'm a little disappointed to get another horse. Winnie was enough. But, hey, at least it's not a duck!
I'm already a little suspicious on what exactly Buck has in all those moving boxes. Especially after this comment:

Uh-oh. Secret stuff? Bicep girth? Don't tell me you're dealing with performance-enhancing drugs. Oi, what is Alleria turning into? A pharmacy?!
Anyway other than that, all is well in Alleria. With last weeks' Flag Day DLC displayed in the local Able Sisters' I had already forgotten about it. But one local has gotten a kick out of the design:

The other day I was fishing on the island when I saw what looked like the mayor standing across the river from me. It spooked me! But then I realized it was just Avery's enormous chest. Sheesh.
That's all for now. Here's a picture I took the other night of what appears to be a firefly meeting of some sort.

The Legend of Snake

Tragedy has struck Alleria.

Well, that's pretty dramatic but there are a lot of long faces around here.
After a dull quiet week in town our resident ninja pulled the ninja-iest move and stealthly packed his bags and left in the span of two days. That's right, no warning, no hint, he pulled a quick one on us. Our good friend Snake.

Why Snake, Why?!
Snake actually got a kick out of his prank.
Every single animal has mulled it over, asked for advice, usually giving a weeks notice. But not Snake! Friday night, I was making my rounds visiting neighbors and BAM! There he was. He laughed, talked about how he was packing as quickly as possible and how I needed to take care of Alleria when he was gone. The next morning he was gone.

True to his name, he slithered away.
I wasn't the only one who was devastated. Apparently he had made a mark on everybody in Alleria. The skies opened up and added to the dark mood in town.

Chrissy, being dramatic as she is, took it pretty rough. She had even adopted Snakes' catchphrase in honor of him. Every little thing set her off. Since then, she's been staying indoors.

Looking back, I remembered one incident last week that may have led to some clues. Snake and I met at the Roost for coffee.

Conversation was the usual. Biceps, the best way to make smoothies, and the latest town gossip. But after the last drop of coffee was gone, Snake stayed and talked with Brewster. Maybe Brewster knew something I didn't! So I ran to go interrogate him.

Unfortunately, all he wanted to do was talk about gyroids. Hmmm. I'll be keeping my eye on him.
So in the end, I don't have any idea why Snake left. I suppose ninjas can't stay in one place for too long. In any case we will miss him. I hope our paths cross again.


Other than that, things are okay in Alleria. I've been rushing around trying to catch all the new bugs and fish this month. The oak silk moth and latern fly did excellent jobs of scaring the shit out of me when they flapped away. I actually screamed once it spooked me so bad. So far, I 've caught a handful of the new vermins. I've caught two dorados, an eel, gar, hammerhead shark, shark, ocean sunfish, birdwing, darner dragonfly, emperor butterfly, firefly, mosquito, oak silk moth, laternfly, and the rainbow stag.

Blathers seemed to be okay with the rainbow stag. That was pretty surprising.
My quest for the tarantula continues.

After spotting this one I followed it around until it disappeared. I didn't have the guts to pull out my net. Since then, I've spent a ridiculous amount of time searching for another one. Friday night, I stayed up until 2 AM looking for one. I heard that 2 was the peak time. Psh. Not in Alleria. Last night I stayed up late searching town, going in and out of buildings and sloooowly creeping around. No luck. They seem to pop up when I'm not looking. Figures.
I spent a similar amount of time looking for the orchid mantis and now I see them frequently and have even caught quite a few. I'm hoping that I'll have better luck in July and August. Fingers crossed!

My hybrid garden is looking a lot better. I caught Rhonda sneaking around it. Her house is close to the black roses, I'm thinking she is a little jealous and is looking to start her own. As long as she doesn't take mine!

I'm a little concerned about Chrissy. I hope she gets out of this depression soon.

Is she hopped up on meds or what?!
Chrissy may be insane but don't worry - Marcel is still sweet as ever.

All together now ..... Awwwwww!

Pete has been wandering town a lot lately, still pining over Phyllis. Speaking of Phyllis, apparently she doesn't pay much attention to what's current in town.

I guess she hasn't noticed the local NOOK 'N GO!

That's all from Alleria. Enjoy the warm summer nights!

I Heart Fireflys

Saturday night, Static and I met at the Roost. The approaching summer season has us both excited. What's in store for Alleria?


I tried to get him to join me in watching K.K.'s stirring performance of Imperial K.K. but he's as stubborn as always. He seems to prefer to stare at the wall.

On Sunday I decided to at least do something worthwhile and I moved my Jacob's Ladders to a better spot. They looked great in front of my house for awhile but slowly the numbers outgrew the space I had. It started to look really messy.

Couldn't even capture all of them.
I decided the best place for them was to line them down the path from the gate. I think it looks a lot better.


Blaire spent the weekend being sick. I dutifully brought her medicine until she was feeling better. She was so happy, she literally jumped for joy.

Flying squirrel?

Also on Sunday, as I was doing my routine watering, I found something moving on a flower:

It's hard to see but it's the orchid mantis.

I was lucky to see it since I've only been able to catch one. So I decided to keep it for the storage room. I'll look it up and see if it has a good selling price. If it does, I'll keep it for the Flea Market.

I was super excited to find out that Nook's spotlight item was the lucky gold cat. It was the only one missing from my collection.

One day, they will be in a much better looking room!

As per usual, I've been listening in on neighbors' conversations. Rhonda's long time dislike of Marcel seems to be continuing as he gets on her nerves more and more.

Rhonda stomped off angrily. I thought it was pretty cute that Marcel was complimenting Rhonda on smelling good but I think he went about it the wrong way. When I thought about it later, it did seem odd. Rhonda doesn't have any visible hair.

Marcel took it pretty hard. He thinks it has to do with his own hygiene.

Monday brought about the start of a new month. Yay! I always look forward to the arrival of new bugs and fish. But it also brought the arrival of a new resident, Merry.

Sheesh.
Not only is this human-looking cat snobby but she made a big no-no right from the get-go.
She moved onto our pristine, once un-inhabited island. Luckily, her house didn't get in the way of paths or destroy much but it is an eye sore. Why couldn't she have moved into Deena's old spot? We would have been better off with good old boring Deena.

The insect catching has been slow. I caught a darner dragonfly pretty quickly. Later as I was fishing, I saw a tiny little bug floating around. Not thinking much of it, I continued luring fishies. But the damn thing interrupted and stung me!

Argh! Taking revenge on its kind, I caught one yesterday and donated it into life long slavery at the Alleria museum. Ha, take that mosquito! Enjoy your sterile boring life in a museum!
I also saw this guy scuttling around.

EEEEEEK!
As soon as I gained my composure, I went searching for it again, prepared to sneak up and whip out my net. It was all to no avail, though, as I wasn't able to locate him again. I will definitely step up my efforts to catch a tarantula. I'm fully prepared to be attacked.
I also saw a giant moth that flew off a tree. It actually made me jump when it flapped away.

And my ultimate favorite bug of the century has to be the firefly. The first time I saw it, I gasped at how cool it looked.

It is pretty amazing how much they light up the area. As soon as I put him in my pocket, the path went back to being dark. These things are cool and I spent a good half hour walking around town taking in their eerie glow.


So pretty.

Cool! Two! These guys are everywhere!

Three? Really?

He's so bright, I need sunglasses to look at him at night.
Oh fireflys, how I love thee. I could make an entire scrapbook with pictures of you.