Friday, July 24, 2009

Gardenia: Days 35 - 37

Gardenia finished out Friday by harvesting one of her Money Trees (and turning in 3 money bags for $575),

and doing some leisurely fishing for fertilizer in her home pond.

Saturday morning brought the happy news that she had completed another challenge.

Unfortunately, none of the Outstanding plants that Gardenia harvested that morning had yielded Perfect produce, so she still hadn't achieved her Lifetime Wish. "I'm so close, though--I can just feel it!"

A quick check revealed that her Lifetime Happiness points were up to 4,884.

Just after midnight Gardenia went to catch Angelfish. Her goal was to catch 10 Angelfish so that she could stock her pond with them.

She fished till she used up her Alley Catfish bait, having caught 7 Angelfish and several other fish,

then--in a moment of insanity, since she completely forgot about her plan to amass 10 Angelfish for the purpose of stocking her pond--she went to the graveyard and tried to use the Angelfish to catch Deathfish. Fortunately, she was too tired to do so.

She went home Sunday at dawn and slept.

She was awakened shortly after 8:00 a.m. by a phone call.

"Sure thing," she said sleepily into the phone, then went back to bed.

She got up around noon, tended her garden, which still hadn't yielded any Perfect produce of a new type. "It's just a matter of time," she told herself. She bided her time catching up on reading her stack of purchased recipes.

Late Sunday afternoon there was a harvest from one of her Money Trees,

in the amount of $1,263.

Her family funds now equaled $5,167.

Noting that she still needed 3 more Angelfish in order to stock her pond,

Gardenia used her last piece of cheese to catch another Alley Catfish for bait. It took her a couple of hours to catch 1 fish in her home pond.

She took a nap, then went back to Summer Hill Springs, where she caught the 3 additional Angelfish she needed.

On her way home, she stopped by the grocery to sell her extra fish and produce (being careful not to sell any of the Angelfish!),

for a total of $1,222. Her family funds now equaled $6,389.

She hurried home to stock her pond,

and was relieved to see that the introduction of Angelfish did not cause her other fish to disappear.

Monday morning, Gardenia briefly considered sleeping until she was fully rested,

but as she rolled over, she saw out of the corner of her eye that there was produce to harvest. Gardenia thought she needed a Perfect item from just one more variety of plant to achieve her Lifetime Wish of "The Perfect Garden".

"I just know this is the day!"

She was happy to harvest 4 more money bags and sell them for $693,

bringing her family funds total to $7,082.

But she was crestfallen to discover that, although her Outstanding onion plant had produced a Perfect onion, that didn't result in satisfying her Lifetime Wish.

Gardenia realized that she may have misunderstood the GAC Challenge Rules. "Maybe I have to plant this Perfect onion? And maybe when it comes up, I'll have my Lifetime Wish?"

Still somewhat confused, she consoled herself by going downtown and collecting her partnership profits from the grocery,

the bookstore,

and the bistro.

"Well, at least I'm financially comfortable..."

Her family funds equaled $11,051, so she was well on her way to being able to invest in the theater.

"Still, I better save some money to buy that Ambrosia recipe, which I think costs $12,000. Gee, I hope there'll be a sale at the bookstore."

2 comments:

  1. I've become kind of disenchanted with the home lot ponds simply because it takes so long to catch much of anything from them since they don't have a "hot spot" for fish. I always have far better luck in terms of number of fish caught when I fish out in the wild. And yes, for the LTW it has to be Perfect plants, not just perfect produce harvested.

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  2. Gardenia agrees with you, Nyadeni--she's giving up on her pond-stocking project. My current thinking is that a home pond is helpful for a family, so that kids can build fishing skill (whether or not they catch anything).

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