Tiger Plans Escape

Claudia surprised me today by telling me that she’s moving out of town! I didn’t try to stop her.

Claudia: Ideally you'd be sitting down for this, but...I've decided that I'm going to be moving away!

I received several items in the mail that I ordered for my new project, and I spent a good portion of time working on that new area. I experimented with several different layouts until I found something that I liked. But I’m not done with it, and I’m still not ready to show it.

However, I do think I’ll show it tomorrow. I ordered a couple more things, and it should all be presentable after I put those in. It still won’t be a completely finished project for a while, since I still want to add some things I don’t have in my catalog yet. But it’ll be good enough for the time being. 🙂

A balloon present I shot down contained an electric kick scooter. I thought that would be a good addition to my new area, so I kept it. 😉

As the day went on, I started having second thoughts about letting Claudia leave. Even though I’m not a big fan of hers, it just seems so soon, you know? It’s barely been a month since she moved in. And I think I’ve only pitfall’d her once?

I spoke to her repeatedly, but she never gave an option to change her mind. A quick Google search reveals you apparently need to use a second character to change a villager’s mind. And I wasn’t about to create a 2nd character just for that… I didn’t want her back that bad!

Anyway, today’s message bottle had an interesting DIY recipe inside: a leaf! You just need five clumps of weeds to make a leaf.

And in case you’re wondering, the leaf is the accessory you wear in your mouth, not the fake piece of furniture that Tortimer gives you on April Fools Day in ACCF.

One of my new rocks was in a bad location, so I destroyed it. But later on, I accidentally destroyed a different rock…one that was actually in a good location. Ugh.

Today I learned that Hornsby is a computer hacker. 😂 No wonder the villagers know so much about what we do every day!

Hornsby: I hacked into the Forest mainframe and saw that you have a lotta NookPhoneCrannyIsland Miles.

But then he implied that he was joking, saying that he just saw that in a movie recently. Hmmm, I’m not sure what to believe. 😛

There was a meteor shower in town tonight, so I wished on several shooting stars. 🌠

Before I wrapped up my night, Claudia had one last gift for me: She taught me the “amazed” reaction. That also earned me a new achievement, for learning a total of 30 reactions.

I learned the Amazed Reaction! I'm so impressed!

That’s all for now, but I’ll be back with more tomorrow. Hope to see you then!

Animal City

Nook’s Cranny had a rattan wardrobe for sale today, and I bought it. I’ve already come across several pieces of the rattan set, which strongly resembles the cabana furniture from previous games. Not only that, but it seems to be one of the few furniture series that are actually in New Horizons. I think I’ll use it in one of my rooms.

Tommy: Seems like you're interested in a rattan wardrobe.

The shop also had a kettle for sale, and I bought it as well. I would place it outside of Tia’s house as an identification object, if I didn’t already have an elephant slide there. 😂

Some of my orange windflowers have bloomed (not the ones by Tia’s house, but some that I planted elsewhere earlier). I’m not sure why, but I don’t like them as much as I thought I would.

Orange windflowers in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

I’ll wait for the ones by Tia’s house to bloom before deciding if I want to keep them there or not.

When I visited Apple, I saw that Claudia was also there. Apple was talking about her wooden simple bed, and she made references to Fauna Magazine and Ms. Nintendique. Those are two magazines that have been mentioned in previous Animal Crossing games, and I thought that was a nice touch.

Apple: I like to lay on it while I raed Fauna Magazine or Ms. Nintendique. It's SO comfy that sometimes I fall asleep...
And yes, Claudia plopped down on Apple’s floor.

Two years ago (almost to the day), I made a mock-up of a Fauna Magazine cover on my GameCube blog. 😛

After I exited Apple’s house, I was thinking that a nice, white fence would look good on Apple Lane. It turns out there currently aren’t white fences, though. But I kept the fence idea in my mind as I carried on with my day…

K.K. Slider was set up at the plaza, and I decided to stop and enjoy a song. I requested the song Animal City. It’s one of K.K.’s “secret” songs, and it’s actually the city theme from Animal Crossing: City Folk. Midge was the only other villager in attendance at the time.

K.K.: Take a seat and get ready for Animal City...

I enjoyed the nostalgic throwback to perhaps my most-played game of all-time. Afterwards, a balloon present was floating by, over the fountain. I got my slingshot out and shot it down, only for it to disappear between the fountain and some flowers! I thought it would bounce over the flowers onto the plaza, but it didn’t!

Anyway, I put the Animal City aircheck in my music player and took a close look at the cover. It shows the city from ACCF, of course, along with the fountain, Kicks, K.K. himself, and several villagers. Of course, K.K. played at the Roost in City Folk, not in the city. But I appreciated the references. 🙂

The Animal City album cover in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

After that, I took 450 stones out of storage and built five stone arches. I used them to replace the Bunny Day arches that lead to my sumo ring. I know the Bunny Day arches are more colorful and appealing, but I don’t want to keep Easter-themed items out all year. If there are some other arches in the game, perhaps I’ll change them again in the future.

My new stone arches in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Up on the cliff, I was shaking trees to look for furniture items. One had a wasp, and I caught it…but then my net broke. I continued shaking trees and I got stung twice…and then I passed out and reawakened outside my house. That was disappointing, but at least I earned an achievement (and Nook Miles) for it. 😛

After taking some medicine, I went back to shaking trees. I actually found two furniture items in trees, a table lamp and a throwback gothic mirror.

After studying my map, I decided to add a short, diagonal path between my two ramps (the one that leads up to the cliff and the one that leads down to Sudden Valley).

But I also decided to do something with a big, empty area just north of Apple Lane. I circled it here on my map:

The map of Forest, with a large empty area circled.

While I’m not going to reveal my plans just yet, I will say that it’s not a unique idea. But I will put my own spin on it. I ordered several items for the new area, and I also moved a few other items from my house, storage, or elsewhere in town.

I used some fencing near Apple Lane after all, the separate the back yards of the residents there from the new area. I’ll have to experiment with possible layouts of the new area tomorrow, when my ordered items arrive.

See you next time! 🙂

Small Improvements

Yesterday, Hornsby wrote me a letter, saying letters remind him of his grandma. At least, before she…. stopped writing letters. And at the end, he said his grandma smelled good (past tense). Is this his way of saying his grandma died? 🙁

Cupcake, the Letter Writer, I like writing letters because it makes me think about how my grandma wrote letters before people quit writing letters. Write a letter, cupcake! Be like my grandma! She smelled good! -Hornsby

Speaking of death, Rizzo referred to his own body as a carcass! He was itching from fleas, and he made a big deal out of it right in front of Leif. Well, I guess he knows Leif isn’t going to tell anyone. I helped the rat carcass out by catching his flea; Leif applauded me like he was relieved to not be standing next to an infested rat any more. 😛

Rizzo: My whole carcass itches! What in tarnation is goin' on? Nnargh! I can't stand it, itch itch!

While I was at the plaza, I bought some more pink-azalea starts from Leif. I used them to replace the generic shrubs I had been using in my park (which I’m now calling Peach Park). It will take a few days for them to grow, but it certainly is a satisfying feeling to keep improving my island. Even if most of the daily improvements are small, it’s all a step in the right direction. 🙂

Later, I used the island designer app to widen my new waterfall (the one that empties near the sumo ring). I think it looks a lot better now.

My new widened waterfall near the sumo ring.

Just a few other quick notes about yesterday:

  • I re-routed part of the new creek, so that my two fake bridges look better.
  • I received my tailors ticket from Label in the mail.
  • I noticed several pink cosmos on the cliffs, so I planted them near Hornsby’s house.
  • Two new black roses sprouted up in my flower garden.

Saharah was in town today, and I bought some cloud flooring and a dig-site wall from her. I like them both, but the cloud flooring was particularly cool because it’s animated! It’s like you’re walking through a cloud! While this would be great for a cloud/sky/heaven themed room, it would also work well as fog for a Halloween room!

The cloud flooring and dig-site wall from Saharah in Animal Crossing: New Horizons for Nintendo Switch.

Apple was sick with a cold, so I fetched some medicine for her. She’s now on the road to no nose gunk, and she gave me a career jacket as thanks.

Apple: Thanks to you, Jeff, I'm on the road to no nose gunk.

I started up the island designer app and put in a new path in the western part of my town. I’ve been reluctant to make this path, because this area is a tight squeeze (thanks to my obstacle course). But I made a path connecting my northwest bridge (near the campsite) down past Tia’s house, and to my southwest bridge. I bought a bunch of orange windflower seeds and lined the path with them.

Forest's new western path that goes past Tia's house.

As an experiment, I took the rock-head statue I got from Keaton, and put it on an island in the river. An odd choice, sure. And I probably won’t keep it this way, but here’s a look anyway. 😂

A rock-head statue on an island in the river in Animal Crossing: New Horizons (ACNH).

That’s all for now, but I’ll be back again tomorrow with another entry. See you then! 🙂