Gardenia: Days 38 - 40

Gardenia spent the rest of Monday evening fishing,

working on her wish to catch 150 Red Herring.

By the time she packed up her gear, she was up to 111.

"It's going to take me a while to satisfy this wish!"

On her way home she sold her extra produce and fish,

for a total of $891.

On Tuesday, after she harvested her garden,

she spun a couple of easily satisfied wishes:

She fished in her convenient home pond just until she got the 150 Lifetime Happiness points, then sat down in her comfortable armchair and started reading the recipe she had bought for Fruit Parfait.

Unfortunately, Gardenia was so obsessed with her "Perfect Garden" Lifetime Wish that she found herself getting distracted, and looking up from her reading every few minutes to check whether she yet had one more Perfect plant that would achieve her wish.

"This is ridiculous," she told herself. "It's just a matter of time, and sitting here staring at my plants isn't going to speed it up." She decided to go to the library to read.

At the library Gardenia sat down to read Cooking Volume 2, and was surprised how quickly she got through the book.

She got 750 Lifetime Happiness points for satisfying her wish to improve her Cooking skill.

She decided to continue her study.

Gardenia was right to suspect that reading at the library was more efficient than reading at home.

Gardenia was so absorbed in her reading that she lost track of time, and of her needs.

Gardenia went home, but slept for only a couple of hours. As soon as the sun came up Wednesday morning she jumped out of bed and checked on her plants. She still did not have the final Perfect plant she needed. "Come on, guys!" she pleaded with her plants.

So, she harvested her garden, sold 4 money bags for $1,336,

and went back to bed to sleep till she was fully rested.

Gardenia woke up just after 9:00 p.m. and went back to the library. "After all," she told herself, settling into a comfortable chair with the Fruit Parfait recipe she had brought from home, "the GAC Challenge isn't just about the Perfect Garden. I've still got to master Cooking."

Gardenia learned that recipe, and another for Cobbler.

It was just after 11 p.m. and, since Gardenia had finally caught up on her sleep, she decided to stay at the library and read all night. She resumed reading Cooking Volume 3.

In about 2 and a half hours, she had reached Cooking Level 7. "That's great, but I sure wish I could read faster than this," she lamented.

At 5:15 Thursday morning, Gardenia finally achieved her Lifetime Wish of the Perfect Garden, together with 32,500 Lifetime Happiness points.

Her Potato plant and her Onion plant had both reached Perfect status.

Her achievement seemed slightly anticlimactic, though, since she was still so absorbed in her reading. She did take time out to celebrate by purchasing the Super Green Thumb Lifetime Reward that was required for the GAC Challenge,

and, since she still had so many points, she decided to purchase the Fast Learner reward as well.

"That should help me with my reading," she observed.

By 10:18 a.m., she had reached Cooking Level 8.

At 2:17 Thursday afternoon, she finally gave up reading, since certain of her needs were getting very low.

Although Gardenia always brought fruit with her to the library so that she wouldn't go hungry, and though she could use the library's bathrooms to keep her bladder and hygiene needs up, she had no way of avoiding getting tired.

On her way home, she stopped at the market to sell her extra produce,

for $1,042.

Arriving back at her lot, she sold 3 more money bags for $803,

and went to sleep for the rest of the day.

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."