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

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.

Gossip Girl

Thanks to my earnings from the latest Flea Market I was able to make a lump sum donation to the Alleria Town Fund. 200,000 bells has bought our town a new bridge!

As mentioned previously, I've been nervous about the bridge placement. I've seen pictures of the options in other peoples towns where the new bridge can only be placed next to existing bridges. What a waste! Fortunately, while my options weren't stellar, they were okay.

I chose the one on top. It might prove to be useful, as I don't currently have a pathway where the new bridge will leave the island. (I call the island Merry Island since she seems to think she's special enough to plop her house there, haha.)

June came and went quickly and now we find ourselves in the beginning of July! Wow! Bugs....everywhere! On Wednesday, I got this message on my board:

Even though the rain means no watering, I'll be glad when the hot weather shows up. I'm ready to have an actual chance to catch the tarantula and scorpion! Speaking of the tarantula, I saw him last night as I was moving flowers around. I had the perfect opportunity to catch the guy as I snuck up, watched his movements but I made one wrong step and he scuttled off not to be found again. It was so weird to be standing perfectly still watching the giant spider circle me! I even pulled my net out at one point but chickened out as he started to turn towards me. Argh. I need the courage to just pull it out and give it a chance!
Tarantula and scorpions aside, there are bugs GALORE. It's actually loud in town...when it's not raining.


I caught most of these guys when it was raining and they weren't making any noise. They all look the same!

Chrissy was more excited than I was.
Thanks to the onslaught of insects, the bug portion of the museum is filling up quickly and Blathers is one part disgusted and one part excited.


Now on to the more interesting stuff....town gossip!
Remember when Chrissy was sick and she was being all dramatic, telling me to say good-bye to Marcel for her? Well, Marcel came down with a cold and gave me a message to send to Chrissy.

Is it just me or do I sense a romance between the two? They're on their 'death beds' of their respective illnesses and they both want the other to know....how sweet. I'll be on the watch for more clues <3.
Merry spotted Blanca in town the other day and had a lot to say about the mysterious face-less kitty.

Oh, Merry. Always the fashionista.
And we already have a new neighbor who has replaced Rhonda! That's right, Kiki moved in and plopped herself down right in Rhonda's old spot next to me. When I walked in to introduce myself, she was staring out the window at my house.

Kind of creepy.
She's a cat...but with a pig-like nose.

Yup creepy.
She seems nice enough but I was really hoping my recruiting efforts would pay off and Chevre would move in. No dice.

Fishing buddies
My dear friend Static got a little jealous when he heard about mine and Antonios' photo shoot. So he went out of his way to find a casual shirt (like me) and we posed for a photo. I love this picture.
Avery continues to surprise me with his giant chest. This time, as I was making my way to the museum, I spotted a giant K.K. face staring towards me. Eeek!

I couldn't get a picture quick enough but imagine not seeing Averys' face, just that giant head of K.K.!
Chrissy, the drama lover, came to me and told me she was moving yesterday.

It didn't take any convincing to stay at all before she already changed her mind.

*sigh* Chrissy: The Alleria Attention Whore
Avery made a strange comment to me yesterday:

Whaaaat?!
This made me think...what if I was living in a village of furries?!
AH! EW!
And last but definitely not least, another one to file under the Marcel Adorable Files:

Ohhhhh Marcel. The plague?! Really?
I love him.

Oh! One more! I like this picture just because of it's awful timing: