Jeff's ACCF Blog

On Tuesday, I was surprised to find Nana packed up in boxes. She’s leaving, without any advance warning.

I’ll miss her. It’s too bad it wasn’t my other monkey (Monty) moving out instead.

I went over a whole week without playing, after generally playing 3+ days a week during most of the summer. So when I got around to this part of town, I was a bit surprised to find that my five purple roses were all gone. Here are the before-and-after photos:

Hybrids seem more likely to not survive if you go more than a week without playing. If you want to keep any hybrids during a break from the game, you’ll need to put them in your house (or in storage).

Antonio told me that his memory is getting bad, so he keeps his essential items in his gym bag. That includes his sunglasses, his lifting gloves, and…a ribbon on a stick?

Yesterday, I received Nana’s goodbye letter in the mail. She just peeled out of town and split.

I found Rosie holding her watering can, standing up against the wall of Nook ‘n’ Go. She said she’s really focused on her watering routine, and she may even have a watering addiction.

I don’t know why she’s telling me all this. I guess she’s just pouring her heart out.

Monty has come down with a cold, so I gave him some medicine yesterday and again today. Get well soon, Monty! (So you can leave next.) 😛

I listened in a conversation between Biskit and Felicity, and it was the one where Felicity wanted to charge a rental fee to Biskit for borrowing a DVD. But Felicity’s catchphrase (“528 bells”) just added to the confusion when Biskit wanted to know the cost. 😆

Pascal was in town today, but I couldn’t find a scallop to give him (even after saving/quitting and restarting a few times). So I just had a chat with him anyway, and he told me that the final shape of an object is what decides its known form? I’ve seen this line before, but I still have no idea what it means. 😆

I’ll be back next week with another entry, so I hope you’ll return to see who replaces Nana. Who do you think I’ll get? I hope it’s someone good!

Last night, I ended August with a 90-minute bug hunt during the fireworks. It may sound like a long time, but it went by so quickly! I was even a bit surprised when the clock struck midnight, and everything abruptly ended.

The fireworks stopped, the festive music switched back to the normal sleepy tunes, and the bugs turned into pumpkins. Well, not pumpkins, but they basically turned into worthless crickets. 😆 That wrapped up my favorite time of year in Animal Crossing, and it’s kinda sad when it all ends in the blink of an eye.

Outside of town hall, Tortimer was still standing there, but now without a purpose. He said he’s too excited to sleep after fireworks shows.

I made about 310k in my final bug hunt of the year, and that brings me to the main topic of the day…

My Summer Goal

Just to recap, I made a summer bell goal at the end of June. At the time, I had 67,650,000 bells in the bank. My goal was to earn 2.35 million more bells over the summer, so that my total balance would reach 70 million bells by September 1st.

Throughout July, I averaged about three bug hunts a week, generally playing at least an hour and often more. I reached my goal of 70 million bells saved…

…on July 27th. I still had over a month to go though, so I set a new goal for myself (even though I didn’t post it publicly): 72 million bells. That’s roughly double my original goal. By August 13th, I had met that goal as well. 🎯

I didn’t make any additional goals, and my bug hunt time slowed down (slightly) for the 2nd half of August. But I still kept playing at least twice a week. When I started up the game today, my balance sat at 73,630,000 bells.

So I made nearly six million bells in that two month span, which I’m pretty sure is my personal best. That’s more than 2.5 times my original target. My long-term goal of 100 million bells (to earn the green feather) is actually starting to look achievable in the next few years if I keep this up.

Of course, there’s no guarantee that I’ll be able to do this every summer. If we get a new Animal Crossing game soon, I probably won’t be playing City Folk as much, for example. But that green feather no longer seems decades away. 🪶

Labor Day

In other news, today is Labor Day in the U.S., so Tortimer was standing outside of town hall once again.

He gave me a picnic basket for the occasion. When I spoke to him several more times, he eventually gave me a surprisingly encouraging pep talk.

Up by Nookington’s, Felicity was talking about Tom Nook’s popularity. She said even the people in the city have heard of him, and she wondered if it was true that he had a shop in the city a long time ago.

Some of this stuff goes back to Wild World, but it’s nice to see it referenced in City Folk as well.

I’ve had two recent bug requests: Nana has been looking for a darner dragonfly, and Biskit has been seeking a longhorn beetle. Unfortunately, both of them are only out in the daytime, and I’ve been mostly playing at night lately. I did play in the day today, but it was raining, which kept away the dragonflies. And the longhorn beetle seems to be pretty rare, and only appears on stumps. I didn’t find either bug, so Nana and Biskit are both going to be disappointed in me.

I ran into Felicity again by the museum, and she was grossed out by the rain. She even compared herself to a swamp with legs. 😆

Did you all have a good summer? Did you do lots of bug hunting and make lots of bells? Let me know in the comments!

I’ll see you next time. Never Stop Crossing!

I attended the fireworks festival last Sunday night, and I used a Roman candle to light a fire under Tortimer’s…shell.

This always used to be a tradition of mine, going back to the days of playing online with Kimmy/Megan. I think I may have missed a year or two since, but I did it this year at least. 😆

I also accomplished something else I set out to do: I saved Biskit from moving. He agreed to stick around for a while longer. 🙂

I gave Rosie some more medicine Sunday night. By Thursday, she was all better.

She rewarded me with an azalea bonsai, and she was excited to go skateboarding again. (Again?)

Felicity was telling me about the town she came from. She said they used to come up parties to help them cool off in summer, like a “mini fireworks fiesta.” She said the kids got fireworks, and the grown-ups…ate fish. 😆

Today, I saw Big Top and Nana having an argument from across the river. By the time I got around there, the fight was over…but Nana was still mad, and going bananas. 😆

I was looking through the fish and bug information, and I was slightly horrified when I read that goliath beetles can fly like birds. Yikes! The thought of huge beetles flapping around everywhere almost turns me into Blathers. 😛

I later went over to the Roost for K.K. Slider’s show. I asked for a random song, as usual. He performed “K.K. Aria” for me. It’s a slow, sad song, but it’s not bad.

And of course now that Rosie is healthy and outside again, she drops another bomb on me: She’s moving! Again!

She’s starting to feel very high maintenance lately. I asked her to stay, and she initially said she was still moving. But then she said if I keep asking her nicely, maybe she’ll change her mind. However, I’ve seen this dialogue before and I *think* it actually means that she’s staying.

I wonder if that line and the other line (from when she first told me she was safe last time) got switched, and assigned to the wrong outcomes. I don’t know, but after battling to save Rosie twice, then Biskit, and now Rosie again, I’m kinda drained by this constant back-and-forth stuff.

Tomorrow is not only the final fireworks festival of the year, but also the final night of peak bug season! I plan on participating in both, and I’ll tell Rosie to stick around if she asks again. But regardless, I’ll be back early in the week with my summer wrap-up, discussing how my summer bug-hunting goals ended up. Hope to see you then!