Gardening Mama update

It's been over a month since I last posted something on this blog. I decided to take a break from Animal Crossing so I can do other stuff in my life. I didn't want the game to control my life. For those who play Animal Crossing, you know that you must play at least for a couple of minutes every day.  Just these couple of minutes took up too much of my time. I wanted to concentrate more on reading books and only playing a game that I could pick up every now and then. I thought Gardening Mama would be a good start.  Boy, was I wrong...as most games, I get completely obsessed. I wanted to continue to play to find out what comes next, what will be unlocked, what will I win when I get a bonus. Playing this game was not a good decision because I began to play it on my commute to and from work, in the evening after dinner and then again before going to sleep.

 

Luckily, I am almost finished the game. I have unlocked all the plants available, I have opened all the bonuses, I have decorated my flower garden and now all I have to do is complete the special garden which is filled with giant strawberries, metallic black roses, metallic silver roses, giant sunflowers, butterfly pansies, star potatoes, rainbow tulips, golden apples and giant pumpkins.

 

After I finish this game, I have to find a game that won't make me want to play it every minute of every hour.  So I am thinking...next game, Wedding Dash.

Last day in 90210

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am taking a break from playing Animal Crossing. I played my last wi-fi game on the weekend and I decided to take a couple of photos of Leesh's house. She has stored most of her hybrids as she hibernates for the winter.  See everyone in the summer!!!

Main room - still designed with the Snowman these. There are a few party poppers on the ground that Leesh received from Yuki.

 

Second floor room - This is where most of the hybrids are stored. Leesh thought she could fill the whole room up with all the pots but looks like if she added anymore, the floor was going to give out.

 

Left wing room - A plant pots here...

 

Back room - more pots and some turnips.

Right wing room - just a few more pots.  The rest of the hybrids were left outside. Hopefully there are enough hybrids to breed in the summer.

Last play date in Mitsukyo

Yesterday was my last play date. I set up this time with Yuki and luckily, we were able to make it. Also joining us - Meow and Maggie. I am glad that everyone made it for my goodbye party. There's a lot of photos but there's even more at Mayu's (Yuki) blog.

 On my ;ast play date, a beautiful rainbow

 

 Before heading to Mitsukyo, Leesh watered her garden. Once the wilted flowers come back to life, they will be going in the house.

 

 Yuki greeted Leesh with open arms and lots of love.

 

 Leesh asked Yuki to go to her house. Yuki told Leesh there's a turnip mess.

 

 Yuki's back room had more turnips and these Moai statues. As a going away present, Yuki gave Leesh one of them.

 

 Let's go to the brainwash room. Look at Leesh's eyes - she is being brainwashed to continue on playing AC.

 

 In the left wing, even more turnips!!! Leesh and Yuki took a small nap before bumping heads.

 

 It's Meow!!! So glad you can join us!

 

 This is my favorite picture. I wanted to get one of Leesh with blue roses since she's never been able to breed them but Yuki and Meow were in the background. It makes for a great photo.

 

 Meow, Leesh and Yuki

 

 Since Leesh and Meow had wool, toques, Yuki went to Able's to buy one. Now we all match with the cold, winter weather in Mitsukyo.

 

 Leesh had to visit Vesta one last time. She is so nice. She no longer screams when Leesh walks through the door.

 Leesh and Meow visiting Vesta

 

 Such a pretty pond with floating ice. Too bad Leesh is standing on froggy.

 

 Also coming for a visit is Maggie (with the pink hair). Here are the four of us getting ready to pop the party popper. I didn't know about these poppers because I didn't play on New Year's Eve. They are so much fun!

 

 One last picture...

 

Leesh saying her final goodbye to Yuki.

Who knew that saying good bye for a couple of months would be so hard. I didn't want to leave. What made it worse was Yuki walked Leesh to the gates. It's like walking your friend right up to the security gate at the airport. I almost wanted to cry. I will start to play AC:WW again in the summer time. Meow and Yuki agreed that they will come to 90210 for a weed pullin' party. I am so glad that I have made such good friends.

I will have one last AC:WW posting some time this week or next. I want to show Leesh's house and how she put her hybrids all over the house.

AC:WW - it's over at the end of the month

After much thinking today, I have decided to stop playing Animal Crossing at the end of this month. It's been a year now since I have been playing and although I love the game, I find that I am neglecting my other hobbies such as reading. I love reading and the time that I normally read is when I commute to and from work. For the past year, my commute has been all about playing AC. I had my daily routine of watering my flowers and digging in the morning and then selling items to Nook in the afternoon.

I will continue to also carry my DS with me. I will still play other DS games and blog about them but for now, I need to stop playing AC and get back into reading. In order to be fully committed to AC, I feel like it consumes too much of my time. I will probably start to play again in the summer (my fave season) and will have to deal with the bugs and dead flowers. I hope my bringing all my hybrids in the house will keep them safe until I decide to play again.

So, I hope Yuki that we can meet this Sunday, the 17th and/or the 24th. I would love to play with you and Meow a couple more times before the end of the month. Julie, let's find a couple days where we can meet again and play. If I can confirm some play dates, then I will have a few more ac:ww posts before I sign off on Animal Crossing.

AC:WW Friend: Mayu/Yuki

I thought I would try something new since I haven't been playing ac:ww much or even taking pictures. I would love to wifi but I just can't find the time. So to fill the void of no posts, I have asked some of my ac:ww friends to answer silly questions. Mayu is my first victim. She kindly agreed to do this.

I met Mayu through her blog. She is one popular person. Everyone knows her. She is like the queen of Animal Crossing: Wild World. I posted a few comments on her blog and next thing I know, we set up a date to play. Through her, I have met many more ac:ww friends.

1) What is your Animal Crossing: Wild World name and town?
I've got four charas, they're Mayu, Yuki, Haru and Miki. I play mainly with Yuki (FC: 2406-1595-1074 ) for my adult friends and Miki (FC: 2922-0581-5572) with my teen friends nowadays, but formerly Mayu (FC: 3866-4327-6650) was my main character. And my town name is Mitsukyo

2) What is the meaning behind the name of your character and the name of your town?
Mayu is just a name I chose, because I think it's cute and it's a female Japanese name what I also have as real name (but another one than Mayu lol). Mitsukyo is a real town in Yokohama and that's my birthplace ;)

3) How long have you been playing AC:WW?
Ummm it must be 3 and a half year now (I started in Sep 2006)

4) Do you have an AC:WW blog?
Yes, it's http://myacwwdiary.wordpress.com/ :)

5) Who is your favorite neighbour?
Vesta!! lol

6) When do you usually wifi?
Usually I like to play in my evenings around 8PM, Yuki on Tuesdays and sometimes also Sundays when I want to meet special friends LOL (hint hint) and the rest of the time with Miki as I've got more teen friends than adult friends ;)

7) What is your favorite season on AC:WW?
Oh I like all seasons in ACWW, but when I have to choose one, I would say summer! It's the most interesting season to catch bugs and fish :)

8) What shapes do you have on your ground and on your grass?
The ground is always same in every town, it's circle and for grass I do have square shape

9) What is your favorite bug? flower? and fish?
Bug: elephant beetle, flower: orange pansy, fish: frog

10) Tom Nook or Blathers?
Tom Nook!!!! I love sexy Nook with his apron (in his first shop) LOL

New Silver Nintendo DS

After last night's fiasco of my DS lid falling off, today, I purchased a new silver DS. I managed to put back the beautiful skin on without the help of my husband.

I tried to connect back to wifi and I managed easily. I thought that I was going to have some problems but it all worked out. Sadly though, I have a new friend code. So please AC:WW friends, add my new code to your friend roster. I hope this doesn't confuse people. Yuki, Meow and Julie - hopefully I will see you again soon.

Leesh | Town: 90210 | 2321-7041-4659

Mayu/Yuki - you may need to add this new code to your website.
Shania - I still look forward to meeting you.

OMFG - Nintendo DS is broken

OMFG!!!

I just finished playing my daily dose of Animal Crossing and proceeded to insert the game cartridge for Cooking Mama 3. I heard a crack, snap and a pop. I looked and the right side of the lid popped out!!!  It's cracked all around the right button. I can't believe this. Mike says it's because I play it too much.

I am devastated that my DS broke. Many of you may think...who cares, it's just a gaming device.  Well, this gaming device means a lot to me since it was given to me by my late brother. It was his. He lent it to me back in January 2007 and since I was so reluctant to give it back to him, he let me keep it and bought himself a new one. Ever since then, he has bought me Cooking Mama 1 & 2, Nintendogs, Cake Mania and many more. He also supplied me with endless games and even traded them in for me when I finished them. To me, I wanted this DS to last me forever because it meant that a piece of my brother was always with me. Technically, it still works, the lid will just be hanging off when I play it.

But something just dawned on me. I am holding on to electronic or materialistic things that belonged to my brother because I feel like if I hang on to them, I will still have a part of my brother with me. I realized this is very superficial of me. No matter what electronics die on me, it doesn't mean that I am growing further away from my brother. Those things don't matter because regardless of them, I will always hold a place in my heart for him. TV may stop working, Macbook may conk out, iPhone may reset, all that doesn't matter. It doesn't mean that I am losing bits of him. I will always have Gino and memories of him in my mind and heart and no gadgets can replace those.

Now with that said, I will look for a new DS (hopefully a cheap one) and retire the one that Gino gave me. I will put it with all of his other things I have kept. Gino - wherever you are, sorry I broke your DS. It has travelled with me everywhere and been with me always. I guess it's time for a new one. If you were still here and I told you about this, I know that in an hour you would be at my place with a new one.

Playing Now: Cooking Mama 3: Shop & Chop

Cooking Mama is one of my favorite games. I have 1 & 2 and I even have it for Wii. I brought the game with my to my trip to Punta Cana and played it every night before dinner. I have unlocked all the recipes and am now just trying to get a gold medal for each recipe. This game is so much fun. If you are looking to try out a new game, pick this one up even if you haven't played the first two.

 There are new backgrounds and new outfits for Mama

 

 New recipes...

 

 New look of picking your bonus items

 

 Working on getting all gold medals

 

New - "Let's match" - you match up items, prepare and cook a new recipe

What the heck???

Today I woke up to water my flowers in the garden and this is what I found:

I know for a fact that I watered all the wilted flowers yesterday, there was only a couple of them so why it is that half of my hybrids have disappeared? This seriously wants me to stop playing when sh*t like this happens.  Sorry for my cursing but that is how mad I am. Can someone explain to me why this happens???

Here is what the garden looked like before the mass exodus of my flowers:

Guess what I got for my birthday???

For my birthday, my husband got me a cool skin for my DS. My old skin was looking a bit brown and dirty so I removed it with hopes to get a new one (if and when I found the right one). But my husband made me a custom skin with my favorite picture from our last vacation in Cuba.  One of the gardeners at the resort we were staying at picked a very pretty red flower. We placed it on the beach and took a picture of it. I love the contrast of the bright red and the aqua colour of the ocean.

 

 

Finally, there's snow in 90210

I started this game back in January and there was snow on the ground but that was ages ago and I don't remember what it looked like. I waited patiently as it snowed here and there but today, when I started my game...there was snow everywhere, just like Julie from Wildwood said..."snow will arrive on December 11".

 Snow in 90210 - so pretty!!!

 What's this? A snowball? What is Leesh to do with it?

After rolling the ball around in the snow...it keeps on getting bigger...what to do with it now? Can someone help Leesh? I am thinking maybe a snowman???

All paid off

Tom Nook can go suck an egg because Leesh has finally paid off her home loan. That big house of hers that she shares with Ross and Brody can now be called her own!

 

 

 

 

 

A short visit to Wildwood

Julie from Wildwood has been commenting on my blog for weeks now and we follow each other on Twitter. It's cool because she will tweet on Twitter when she's going to open her gates. Unforunately, it's never during a time when I can play wifi.  Finally today, she opened the gates of Wildwood so we can meet each other.

Within seconds of me entering Wildwood, Claire and Bonnie arrived. A full house.  I have to admit that I feel kinda old playing with teenagers but I was once a teen, although DS and wifi connections were not around. Tweeting with Julie is quite refreshing. She reminds me of my carefree days as a teen - just hanging out, shopping, going to movies, playing DS...oh wait, I still do all of that. Anyway, my point is, I felt awkward and thought it was wrong that I was playing with teens, but then I relaxed and began to understand that it's not bad at all.  No offense Julie and Claire.

So, back to my visit to Wildwood...here are some photos that I took:

In front of Julie's house - L to R: Leesh, Julie and Claire

 

Left room in Julie's house. It's quite interseting...a Super Mario theme? I didn't even know it existed.

 

 Julie is a hardcore Beatles fan. Her garden is a shrine to The Beatles. It's so cool. I have never seen anything like it. The tile of the photos are so life-like.

 

 I caught Bonnie and Claire sleeping in front of Julie's house.  I have to admit because I am meeting these three girls for the first time and being thrown into a full house wifi visit, I couldn't tell the girls apart. It took me a good couple of minutes to figure out who was who.

 

 Julie and I hanging out on her couch.  Classic theme in your main room...I have the classic theme in my right room.

 

Julie was digging through her dresser. She said she had a present for me and to meet her at the town hall.  She gave me a snowy shirt and two Jacob's ladder.  It's so thoughtful of her to give me these flowers after I told her that my town is no longer "perfect".

 

 Here is the backroom...Look at that cake and chocolate sitting on the desk...

 

 Upstairs room.  Pretty cool. It's almost like my beach-inspired theme.

 

 A birthday cake for me...how sweet of you!!!  My birthday is actually on the 8th, thanks for the early birthday cake and chocolate bar.

 

 After eating some cake, we noticed that Bonnie was still sleeping so Claire decided to hit Bonnie with her golden axe. I thought it was mean but it was actually quite funny.

 

 We took one last picture before I had to go.  See my new snowy shirt that Julie gave to me - isn't it pretty? It's so fitting because it's snowing in 90210.

 

One my way out of Wildwood but I had to take this last picture in front of the gates because look at all the pretty flowers.

Thanks again Julie for opening Wildwood's gates this evening. I am glad you did because I don't know when the timing would be right for us to be able to play.  It was certainly a pleasure to meet you and Claire. I hope to play again soon!