Rain, Rain, Go Away

It was raining yet again today, and I’m really sick of the rain at this point. Louie summed it up well, and I 100% agree with him on this.

Louie: Training in the mud's good for endurance, but sometimes I just want the sun to come out.

Apple was also discussing the weather. She said she should throw a rainy-day party, where we could all dress as our favorite clouds. I think I’ll be Lakitu’s… uh… vehicle?

Apple: I should throw a rainy-day party sometime. We could all come dressed as our favorite clouds.

Hornsby wasn’t in good shape today. He had a big itchy tongue after eating fish? It sounds like he’s allergic to fish, although he was apparently just reacting to a flea being on him.

Hornsby: So itchy! This is how my tongue felt after I ate that puffy fish! I'm just a big, itchy fish tongue, yowiezowie.

C.J. was in town, and he had a challenge for me. He asked me to catch three “big-time” fish in a row, about the size of a zebra turkeyfish.

C.J.: Alright, today I want you to catch 3 big-time fish in a row, all about the size of a zebra turkeyfish.

My first fish actually was a zebra turkeyfish, and then I also caught two sea bass. I completed the challenge, but C.J. doesn’t really have a proper reward for me. However, he does offer to buy my fish at a good price. I sold him all that I had, and then I returned to him a few minutes later after I caught a great white shark. He paid 22,500 bells for it!

C.J.: I'll pay...22,500 bells for your great white shark. Sound good?

Lily-of-the-Valley

Yesterday, I finished fixing up the Frogger-style road part of my frog race. Now, no matter which spot you start from, you’ll need to squeeze through at least three tight spots between “cars.” That will keep everyone from breezing right through this section.

The newly-fixed Frogger section of my frog race course.

Up on the cliff, I spotted my first lily-of-the-valley (previously known as Jacob’s ladder)! That’s the sign of a perfect (5-star) island, so it’s nice to finally see one! 🙂

My first lily-of-the-valley in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Lopez asked me for a new catchphrase, and I was trying to think of something new that I haven’t used before. So I (eventually) told him to say “so I lied.”

Lopez: So I lied... I don't like that. I LOVE IT!

Today, Rizzo was sick with a cold. I got some medicine out of my storage for him, because I want him to get well soon. And I’m not kidding, either. I want him to be healthy and outside so I can pitfall him again! 😉 He gave me a security uniform in return. That would be fun to wear the next time I put him in jail. 😛

Saharah was in town again (why can’t Gulliver or Redd show up this often?). I bought the mysterious wallpaper and carpet from her, and they turned out to be a ramshackle wall and lobby flooring. Installing the wallpaper resulted in a notice that any items overlapping the windows were sent to storage. I wish it would have warned me ahead of time and not just done it automatically. 😕

Any items overlapping with the window were sent to storage.

Tia wanted to trade for my gar, but she refused to tell me what she would give me in return until I agreed to the trade! I like Tia a lot, so I went along with her offer…but it did not work out in my favor.

Tia: My formal paper for... Your gar?

I spent some time grinding for Nook Miles, even though I don’t need Nook Miles. I just wanted to reach the 300k milestone. And I did. 😛

300,010 Nook Miles

A few other quick notes about today:

  • I found a new gold rose budding (my 2nd one overall, but 1st since I got my gold watering can).
  • Tia wanted to move out, but I stopped her.
  • I caught my first piranha and donated it to the museum.

Here is my latest New Horizons episode, covering events up through Friday.

Since I’ve now achieved five-star status and my video series is (essentially) caught up after being nearly a month behind, I think it’s time to get serious about a town tour video.

But I do want to make at least one more significant addition before recording the tour…something that I won’t show in the blog (just so that even the blog readers will have something new to see in the tour video). The only problem is that I don’t know what that addition will be! 😂 I do have one possibility in mind, but I’m not sure if I’ll go with that or something else. I’m going to think about it.

FYI, I am planning on having Friday Night Forest this week. We can all swim together!

Day 100: Bug-Off

Shortly after starting up the game today, I attended the completion ceremony for my 5th incline. It’s now much easier to climb up Eagle Mountain.

Everyone fires off some party poppers at the completion ceremony for Forest's 5th incline.

I then spoke with Flick at the plaza to begin the first Bug-Off! The Bug-Off seems to work much like the fishing tournament; we have three minutes to catch as many insects as we can.

Flick, at the Bug-Off: Ready your nets...

On two separate occasions in my first game, I caught bugs that Louie was trying to get. 😂 Sorry, big guy. 😛

I caught a total of 9 bugs in my first attempt, which earned me 11 points. I sold my bugs to Flick, and I played four more rounds. My subsequent scores were 14, 12, 11, and 8. I seemed to be doing worse each round, so I stopped there.

I redeemed my points for the following items at 10 points each: a ladybug rug, butterflies wall, spider doorplate, toy centipede (ughhh), and a bug aloha shirt. The spider doorplate was my favorite of the bunch. It has a spider on a web, and it says “Welcome.” It would be great for Halloween, but I went ahead and put it on my door now.

The spider doorplate on Jeff's house in Animal Crossing: New Horizons for Nintendo Switch.

Overall, I enjoyed my first Bug-Off. The time limit thing seems to work better with bugs than it did for fishing. With fishing, there’s so much randomness because it can take a fish 20+ seconds to take the bait and it’s very annoying. Bugs can be caught quickly and easily, assuming you can find them.

Note: My net broke after my 1st and 4th rounds. I know some people think the fact that tools break in New Horizons is realistic, but I disagree. Occasionally, sure, but two bug nets breaking in the first 12 minutes of a bug-catching tournament? No, that’s not realistic. And these were regular nets, not flimsy nets. 🤷

At Able Sisters, I bought a space suit and a bunny hood. I am now Astro Bunny!

Jeff tries on a space suit and bunny hood in Able Sisters in ACNH.

When Astro Bunny I shook a tree, a surveillance camera fell out! I wonder who put that up there! I know Agent S is a spy (oops, was that a secret?), but I didn’t think she’d be spying on the residents of Forest!

Jeff spies a surveillance camera that fell out of a tree.

Louie’s lights were on tonight, indicating he was home. But I was unable to enter his house. This is a glitch I’ve encountered at least two times before. I hope this gets fixed in next week’s update.

The black roses in front of my house have been spreading like wildfire, and I’ve been growing so many that I didn’t know what to do with them all. So I finally decided that I will line more of the paths near my house (leading up to town hall, for example) with black roses, replacing the red hyacinths I previously had there. There are still plenty of red hyacinths elsewhere in town, after all.

Since I achieved perfect (5-star) island status yesterday, I was expecting to see some lily of the valleys (aka Jacob’s ladders) in town today…but I did not. Unless they appear as buds first and I just didn’t realize what they were. Actually that seems plausible (if not likely), due to the way flowers work in this game. If any of them bloom tomorrow, I’ll be sure to mention it in the next entry.

I hope you all had a successful Bug-Off (or at least those of you in the northern hemisphere), and an enjoyable Day 100 (or whichever day you may be on). See you next time! 🙂