Monday: woke up early enough to add my final gameplay feature (the audio device) to my zone of Moondrop Isle, though I still need to put the actual listening stations into my map. It was a "take calls" day at work, though after lunch the volume dropped enough that I had little breaks throughout the rest of my day. Once my shift ended, I went out to the living room, only to fall asleep in the egg chair before trivia. Julie woke me up at 6:35, and I was so disoriented that I couldn't remember falling asleep, and I thought I was supposed to start another workshift in a few hours. Stogie Joe's was packed, and we had to be seated next to another group of players; this time I was in the middle of the room, so I was usually one of the first people to get new answer sheets for the picture rounds. We continued our usual of Caesar salad and soppressata pizza. I felt like we were doing alright, but we kept averaging 8 questions every round, so we wound up just missing the four-way tie for third place. I struggled to stay awake through the end of the game, so much like last night, I tried to go to bed early after we got back home.
IS THE COUGH STILL HERE? YES, FOR SOME REASON
Saturday: first thing in the morning, we took the kittens to the new vet. ("Kittens." They're now more than two and a half years old, and they're the biggest and heaviest of our cats.) They didn't love it, but I did get a cute picture of Grey Goose lying on top of Orange Juice behind the computer monitor in the office. We hit up Taco Bell for lunch before going to get groceries. We had some time afterwards before we were supposed to go to the neighbor's new-job party, and I kind of wanted to rewatch Arcane, but after Julie started a video I just switched to Zelda instead.
I've let too much time pass to recall exactly what I played through last week, so this is just going to be a general summary of everything I've accomplished since my Monday update:
Like I'd said before, I didn't want to keep pursuing the Zoras' Domain storyline just yet, so I left my buddy hanging at the entrance to a dungeon in favor of filling out more of the map. I found the Lucky Clover Gazette, then I headed over to Tarrey Town and the extended Akkala region, skirting around the path to Death Mountain in favor of hitting more stables for the newspaper. I soon noticed that everybody's first-page story just talks about the blizzard-induced famine hitting Rito Village, so I decided to make that my first actual dungeon. I pushed way into the northwest quadrant, did the Rito stuff and the associated dungeon, and on my way back I ran into the first major flashback storyline. I really want to get into the fifth ring ruin in Kakariko, but there must be some external storyline flag I haven't tripped yet. That's the point at which I left off in Tears of the Kingdom.
The neighborhood party was a celebration of Katie's new job, but mostly it was an excuse to bring a bunch of the local dog park folks together to eat and chat. Julie and I parked ourselves on the wall-side of the table so it was hard to move, but I was on the end, meaning I got to refill her sangria a bunch. (Their mix was a little on the bitter side, but I made heavy use of their lemonade to sweeten it.) I really liked their little caprese salad skewers, and the wings weren't bad, though I'm never gonna be much of a fan of bone-in meat. An older neighbor of British origin brought an excellent cheese selection, and I could have stuffed myself on the little cannoli bites that came out for dessert. We'd brought a huge fruit bowl, but we wound up bringing most of it back home.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
Wednesday: my favorite part of Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been landscaping my island. I wanted a layout that would provide specific geographic features: a museum approach lined with trees and waterfalls, most of my stores and amenities close together, and something that would preserve parts of the original geography even if elements needed to be tweaked. While most of this was achievable without issue, rocks had been vexing me, as I needed to visit six rocks scattered around my island during every day of play. I wanted them to be close, but it didn't seem like they could be moved.
Then I learned about the mannequin trick.
Basically, if you completely cover your island with a grid of furniture tight enough that the rock-spawning rules will prohibit the rock from appearing in every possible location except for one spot you leave uncovered, you can destroy rocks and let them naturally respawn in the location of your choice. Do this over a period of six days, and you can reposition all your rocks as you see fit. Because of the extreme furniture requirements, it's recommended that you use custom-pattern mannequins, as players have the ability to generate a limitless number of these objects in the world, and all it costs you is the time it takes you to position them. It's a high-effort landscaping project, but I found it worthwhile, and so I undertook it.
Today, the last rock spawned in the correct location, meaning my project was at an end.
(Or so I thought. At some point after finishing this, I decided I would rather build a sort of calendrical henge in which the rocks are set up in a circle around a fountain—okay, a hexagon, whatever—which is further surrounded by holiday items and bushes which blossom to indicate the current month. This necessitated the return of the mannequins.)
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
Tuesday: we had dinner at The Mermaid Bar & Grill in Saugatuck. The exterior didn't give us much confidence, but we were very happy with our meal.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
Thursday: since Julie is off to New Orleans for a couple of days, I had to keep the apartment in order during her absence. I started today with the dishes.
Wednesday: finished reading Gravity's Rainbow, finally. That sure is a book with some stuff in it.
Tuesday: my little sister graduated from college today!
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.
No entries have yet been recorded for this date.