Kicks and Ticks

Greetings from Alleria.

When I'm not posing in my 1700's get-up, complete with powdered wig, things do actually happen around town!
Rhonda made her final decision and packed up and left.

Even though I was okay with her leaving, her farewell note stuffed into my mailbox left me feeling a little regretful.

Why must these letters always make me feel guilty?
"A friend who means so much to me"?
Argh!
But Rhondas demolition of her home brought a little happiness on my part.

That blue pansy was hiding behind her house and I had no idea it was there! Good thing she moved! But then again, it makes me wonder if I lost any flowers back there....hmm.

There were a couple days that got a little dull in town because of all the rain.
I was invited to the first game of hide-and-seek in a relatively long time.

That's a rag tag group of residents, don'tcha think?
I won, of course, but Merry was nice enough to send me my prize the next day because my pockets were too full of goodies already.

Not likely, Merry.
Things were so bad, nobody had open gates and nobody came to visit, that I ended up wasting time harassing Tom Nook and "sticking it to the Raccoon".

Yes, that's me, kicking the merchandise.
Nook didn't take too kindly to me causing shit in his store. As usual, he followed me around as I ran around. It didn't take long before he had enough and kicked me out when I tried kicking him.

Is it just me or does Nook look a little pudgier?
Thankfully, Static was kind enough to let me lay low in his pad until things quieted down and all was forgotten.

Literally laying low.

The best thing to happen since the last update was the Flea Market! Yes, the one time a month I make a decent amount of money.

Welcome to Sarahs' House 'o Deals!
Thanks to my two dorados, two or three gars, hammerhead and regular sharks, and ocean sunfish, I managed my best Market yet: just about 300,000 bells. Static, Avery and Antonio - my three Original Villagers - were very generous, paying at or 200 bells away from 3 times the Nook selling price. I also made a personal record selling price for one fish: 44,800 bells! Merry helped out as well but seeing Buck come in as my last customer was a bit of disappointment. Being the newest villager, our relationship just isn't as strong as the others so his buying prices were dramatically lower than others. Strategically, all my high-price fish were already sold so all that were left were rare bugs. He also only made two purchases.
But that 300,000 bells was a godsend. I was able to deposit 200,000 of it in full for the Alleria Town Fund. The rest went into the bank account, saving up for the next donation. That's right, now that my house is payed off I can start my Town Fund donations! Woohoo! We're finally moving up in the world!
Oh and because I forgot to mention this in my last update, Buck leaked some top secret information to me. Apparently, all is not peaceful in the land.


That's right Krategan. Watch yo' backs. Buck is coming for you.

That's all for now. Until next time....

Practicing my dance moves for City Folk: The Musical.

Quick Alleria Tour

This is just a test. I know it looks like crap but I just wanted to experiment.

Quick tour of Alleria, courtesy my shaky hand holding my crappy digital camera.

Better late than never

Uggh. I haven't had time to post so I need to catch up.
Obviously, the first Bug-Off of the summer was on Saturday.

I was up early (shock!) and got out the front door just in time for the beginning of it. I'd never met Nat before and he turned out to be quite the character.

And (no shock here), he was hungry.


Who lets these creeps in? Posing as "tourney" officials, all they want to do is eat your catches. We need better security, I think.
The day started with Marcel in the lead with his tiger butterflies. Yes, I say butterfliES because he toppled my record TWICE with his stupid tiger butterflies. Even though there seemed to be an influx of flying creatures in town, for some reason I couldn't get past the 'lil bugger. (Yeeessss, pun intended)

Of course there aren't any bugs with all these nets around.
As is usual in Alleria, the competition heated up as the day wore on. We traded records back and forth and tempers started to flare.

Personally, I keep a cool head. I knew I would end up winning so I decided to help out others. I took the time to teach Avery how to properly catch a bug.

Even with my helpful ways, I just couldn't help the eternally helpless.

What I really like about these tournaments is that it gives me an excuse to play for an extended amount of time. That means I can hunt for those few elusive bugs and fish I haven't yet caught.

Because I dislike having stumps in town (Save the trees!), I sacrificed one tree (which I plan on re-planting now that I have the beetle) so I could catch that violin beetle. It took forever but I finally found the little guy hanging out on the top of the stump. I also caught quite a few birdwing and agrias butterflies. I swore I had donated them already but they became new additions to the museum and I saved a birdwing for the upcoming Flea Market.
Pretty much the only thing I have left for this month is the tarantula and the goliath beetle. I can't find those two for the life of me! I have plenty of palm trees, I don't know what is keeping them from attracting the beetles. I've seen only one and I scared him away before I realized he was there. Darn!

After a long day of bug-hunting and grass-trampling, I pulled out the win.

Luckily I didn't have to use birdwings. Not worth it when I can sell them!

In other news, I finally (FINALLY) paid off my mortgage.

I am ridiculously slow when it comes to making money so this has been a long process for me. Up next I'll start on the Alleria Town Fund. I hear a lot of rumbles for a new bridge...I wonder what ridiculous spot we will place it in?
Tom Nook didn't seem all that upset that he wouldn't be regularly getting large chunks of money from me. After all, he knows I'll stop by Nook 'n Go everyday!

What a weird thing to laugh about, Tom Nook.
Psh, I'm so cheap I don't even buy paper to write letters from him. I always nab it from the lost and found or use the annoying Redd Invitation he so graciously hands out. Unfortunately, Static was too smart and realized I used the Redd paper:

Good to know.

Yesterday, that worthless lump of camel stopped by.

Go away.
My neighbors were very gracious in their carpet-giving this time around. I think I ended up with 7 carpets or so.

EXTREEEEEME!!!
Needless to say, I ended up with ZERO Saharah-exclusives.


Bam. Random cool photo.

The only other thing of note that happened is Antonio and I shot our album cover for our future C.D. No, we aren't in a band or anything but if we ever are, we have the perfect pictures to use. Check it out.


summer rain
a red umbrella opens
between them

I found that haiku randomly on Google. Awesome.

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.