Fun In The Sun

I have to agree, Static.

Because of my volunteer work outside of Alleria (shhh, don't tell my animal friends but I do have a life outside of Alleria), I missed the Bug-Off. Bad news for me but good news for Static!

I would of totally whomped him and his measly jewel beetle. So it's a good thing I was gone. And besides, I should probably step aside every once in awhile and let somebody else win. Not to sound conceited or anything...
By the time I got back, it was already dark in Alleria. I still had to water though so I scurried around town.

I've been wondering lately when I would finally find one of those!
I was hoping to have some quality time to hunt for the scorpion but I was already tired and didn't feel up to tip-toeing around. So I started to head back home when I ran into Mallary.

No, no you're not.

Does this mean that within this month we will be 100% duck-free?! I can't dream of a better wish! Goodbye Mallary, the sooner you leave the better! So until she is packing her belongings, anytime I see her I will remind her of her promise to move on.

Yesterday was a hot one and luckily I had the chance to spend some time on the beach fishing and shell collecting.
I didn't really catch a whole lot. My most notable were a couple puffer fish (one which went directly to Blathers), a sun fish, and another blue marlin. I'm hoping that my time spent lurking on the beach helped my tan. I'm tired of being so pale!
It seemed like Chrissy wasn't so keen on getting a little sun.
It looked pretty odd to see her walking around with an umbrella in the heat but I understand. That creamy white face of hers would probably burn to a crisp without proper protection!
As I relaxed on the beach, I couldn't help but notice that she seemed to be hovering in one area. Why could that be...ohhhh. Marcel has a beachfront house two doors down from me. Maybe she was trying to catch a glimpse of Marcel sun-bathing?!
When I confronted her about why she seemed to be focused on Marcel's house, it caught her off guard.

Busted

I thought it was funny but Chrissy was embarrassed and trotted away. She should know better by now!
Later in the evening, they did a switcharoo. Chrissy went inside and Marcel was found standing in her yard.
Ugh I just feel like they should profess their love to each other already!

That evening, I spent two hours chasing banded dragonflies around town, tearing up my grass in the process I'm sure. No luck there but I did catch something pretty cool...
I immediately recognized it for what it was because I knew I hadn't dropped anything near my flowers. I crept up to catch it but it took off at a slower pace and after a few mis-timed swings I caught it! These guys are pretty funny for how similar they look to furniture!

Out With The New, In With The Newer

Yup she really left.
Kiki must have been on vacation from her REAL hometown because she just stayed in Alleria for a cup of coffee.
That's fine though! That makes more room for a neighbor who actually wants to stay around.
Who will it be this time?! Please not another duck...

Hurray! A refreshing face!

Bettina, a very sweet little mouse, moved in quickly and politely took the coveted spot next door to me.
The word spread quickly of a new pretty face in town.

I caught Marcel peeking through the window. Couldn't he knock?! Oh Marcel....

Thanks to my wonderful gardens, I'm getting at least one new hybrid a day. And I couldn't do it without the help of my neighbors. They've all pitched in to get some watering done. It seems like it's actually catching on as a great community activity!


Everybody in town seems to be excited for this weekends' Bug-Off.

I hope I have time to enter! I have lots to do this weekend so hopefully I can give Avery and everybody else a run for their money.

Last night I had to hurry and finish my watering before bedtime. As I was heading down a path next to the northern part of the river I saw a shadow as big as a sea bass. I knew it was something special!

That's right, 'It's about time-a'! Finally, I was able to rush it off to the museum before I went to sleep.

A couple days ago, I ran into Mallary and Antonio in a strange conversation:

Mallary flipped out, berating poor Antonio. She didn't know if she was more upset because he would think she would ever marry him or because he was asking if she thought it would be weird. Geez....

The whole mess of a conversation put a sour mood into the warm evening air.

Antonio was pretty shaken up. He thought he was asking a fair question.

Mallary actually took the chance to step back and look at her attitude. If Antonio thinks it would be weird to be married to me....
I could sense the lack of self confidence in Mallary. Yikes.... I took a couple steps back onto the path and ran to a less awkward section of town.

You know what is not awkward at all? A conversation with the great Marcel!
...
Okay, sometimes it is awkward...
Maybe a lot of times...
But! It's always adorable!
As I made my way towards home, Marcel stopped me with an urgent story of how he had this super-awesome dream. And I was in it!
As I was zoning out, I missed all the details but apparently Marcel was so moved by this dream that he felt like he needed to give me a new nickname:

I've been known as many things in Alleria but S-bot? Really?
As usual with Marcel, I sighed and agreed. He could call me S-bot.
Marcel trotted off as happily as ever, whistling his favorite tune.

In regards to Chrissy, nothing much has happened. Although, one conversation with Marcel led me to find out why he's so darn happy to receive those gifts from her:

Marcel, mamas' boy

Pals

What with work, volunteering, and life in general I haven't had a great amount of time to spend in Alleria lately. But fear not! Things are fine and I'm always around enough each evening to water the flowers and catch up with neighbors. My apologies to anybody who has been knocking on the gates, we've been a sleepy town lately!
Speaking of watering, with my fabulous new set gardens I have had actual reason to water every single day. Even with the chore that that is, I've had some help recently:

Antonio mostly wants to follow me around and talk about his daily work-out routines but I don't mind. It's nice to have the company!

I haven't been fishing as regularly and haven't caught many new bugs. I did manage to finally find one beetle that has been escaping me (all my fault since I only allow one tree stump in town):

I'm happy to report that Chrissy and I are getting along great. There hasn't been any drama lately and I don't purposely try to avoid eye contact anymore.

Even though she is one our original townies, we've been slow to build a bond. I think that is finally happening, especially since she seems to be so interested in that lovable mutt Marcel.
I hope everything is alright with her though. I eavesdropped on a conversation between her and Blaire and was a little alarmed to hear the C-word brought up:

Cancer Mountains does not seem like it would be a fantastic place.

Speaking of original Allerians a group of us got together for a good old-fashioned game of hide 'n seek.

Three of the best neighbors you could ask for.
Although all of these guys are my close friends I have to say they are terrible hiders.
And of course what mention of Marcel is complete without the adorable quote of the week??

An 'A' for effort, buddy.

One Down, One To Go (The Terrible Two)

First things first.
I DID IT!
I caught a tarantula!

Whoo whoo whoo!
Okay....phew....here's what happened:
Last night, I crept around town for 15 minutes or so. I mean really crept...as in barely moved. It was painful but it paid off as I was following the path back from Static's house. Ever so slowly, I walked north until I stopped dead in my tracks. I spotted a tarantula directly in front of me about 20 paces north.
Okay breathe, I told myself, you can do this.
I stayed perfectly still as I watched him, determining which way he was facing. He started crawling towards me. I took the slightest step towards him and stopped again. He continued going south until he literally stopped right next to me. I slooooowly started to turn as he continued going south. He then moved in front of me. Perfect chance. I knew I had to do it.
He stopped, I took a big breath, pulled out my net and captured him!
It couldn't of happened in a better way. It was luck but I didn't care, I had that darn tarantula! And I never got bit! (Well, only because I was too scared to ever pull my net out)
I raced to the museum and shoved it into Blathers' wings.

Who is documenting these things?

After Blathers was done rambling on I rushed to see my spidey-friend in his spot.

Finally! I can't wait to get his friend, the scorpion, in his rightful place.
After leaving the museum quite festively I thought why not test my luck and see if I can spot the scorpion around town. I haven't even seen one yet, let alone tried to catch one!
A half hours search turned up nothing but another tarantula who took a dive into the river.
That's okay, one down - one to go!

The past few days I've been working on a task that I've been meaning to for quite some time - arranging flowers. It is a long tedious task but things are starting to look so much better.

If you're just starting out, please take my advice; start early!!
My efforts started paying off the day after I arranged the hybrid-growing sections...

My first purple pansy!


Yet another pink cosmo


Pansy Parade, my favorite section

Yesterday our new bridge magically appeared!

I'm actually pretty happy with it's placement. It's not ideal but it gave me a chance to build a new path thru a previously wild section.



Oh! And more on the Chrissy/Marcel romance! Marcel made a revealing comment last night.

Marcel into fashion? Why could that be....ohhhh. Chrissy likes fashion so what could Marcel do to get closer to her? Riiiight.
It wasn't more than five minutes later when I visited with Chrissy that she had a special delivery.

So I raced down the path back to Marcel.


These two are either in looooove or are participating in a rather sweet clothing exchange.

BeetleMania

It rained almost all weekend.
My dedicated scorpion/tarantula hunting time gone.
This really bummed me out because I had the three day weekend to myself and I was fully prepared to hunker down and take as long as it took it try and nab those two.
But Mother Nature said no.
Boooo.
But all the rain did do some good. It brought out an influx of bugs, particularly beetles.

In addition to all the previously caught cicadas, I caught enough beetles to fill the trees in the museum. The atlas, cyclommatus, dynastid, elephant, giant, golden stag, goliath, jewel, miyama stag, saw stag, and scarab beetles all found a comfy home this weekend. Whew. The elephant and golden stag I've seen before but somehow would miss each time I tried to catch them. I think because of the weird angles down at the beach I wouldn't always line myself up right. Anyway, as soon as I started creeping around last night I caught a pocket full of elephant beetles which I promptly took down to the basement for back up in case I don't have enough fish for the next Flea Market.

With all the bugs on trees distracting me, I've only caught one new fish.

I wasn't looking for it but I sure was surprised when he came soaring out of the water. You see, I just happened to be walking by when I saw a shadow that at first glance looked like a sea bass but as I cast my line, I realized was slightly larger than a sea bass. And bam! There was the blue marlin! That was just pure luck.
Thanks to the rain, there were no Fourth of July festivities in Alleria. The closest sign of any holiday occuring was the giant hotdog I wore on my head. Although I don't eat meat and especially detest the hotdog, I was just glad for some new DLC. Personally, it makes me think of 'Hotdog on a Stick' in local mall food courts. Gross!
Avery invited me over to his house for the first time on Saturday.

Avery is a good guy but not such a great host. There were no refreshments or appetizers, nor did he offer to sell me anything. I was also creeped out a bit by his choice of clothing. Pink does not suit him.

Can you feel the uncomfortable silence?
I mentioned having to run an errand for Marcel and hightailed it out of there.
It's not like I lied to him. I really did have an errand from Marcel!

oOoOoOoohh. Chrissy and Maaarcelll, sittin' in a tree....
That's right! The crush/friendship/courtship between Marcel and Chrissy continues! Personally, I think it is absolutely adorable! I hope that Chrissy, being the drama queen that she is, doesn't break sweet little Marcels heart....I mean, come on! He's sending her a gift but doesn't have the courage to deliever it himself! I'm more than happy to be the courier. That means I get to see both sides of the reaction.

Chrissy seemed shocked to be getting a present.

It turned out to be a fluffy shirt which looks absolutely adorable on Chrissy. Oh Marcel, you have such good taste! And Chrissy obviously loved it, too.
Feeling so fufilled for being the cupid I am, I hurried down to Marcels' house to give him the good news.

Awww!
He was ecstatic. The budding relationship is the best thing going on in Alleria right now.

Kiki, our newest resident, apparently isn't sticking around much longer.

Seriously, she just finished settling in and she's already thinking about leaving?!?! Fiiine. Be that way...I don't like your creepy pig nose anyway. Luckily, Cupcake in Lollipop has decided to try to woo her over to her town. Since Kiki started talking about moving, Cupcake has come over to talk with Kiki, send her gifts and try and see if she can get Kiki to take the empty spot in Lollipop. Even though there hasn't been many successful transfers from town to town on purpose, it's worth the try. Cupcake is experimenting with wooing the animal before the boxes are all packed up. So we'll see what happens. Most likely there is already an animal set to take the next spot in her town but it's possible Rhonda or even Kiki may show up down the line. Cupcake promises to keep me posted.
It does seem weird that Kiki is already moving. Her and Merry had really hit it off.

But that's okay. One kitty in town is plenty!
In other 'What were they thinking?!' news, Buck was all excited over this idea he had...

Yeah, Buck. It's called the Fishing Tourney.
That's all from rainy Alleria.