The Circle of Life Items

The signs of summer are all around Kashton:

Fireflies…dragonflies…all sorts of flying creatures!

Oh yes, and let’s not forget:

Gotta love summer.

I guess another sign of summer is that suddenly everybody’s feeling the pressure to get in shape, and my friend Peanut is no exception. She confided in me that she was desperate for a frog, that she really needed it for a new “health treatment.”

Huh. I don’t know about you, but I never heard of any health treatment that called for frogs, and I’m not sure that I would really want anything to do with it even if I knew what it was about. Of course I would help Peanut; I always try to help my townies out when they ask for help. OK, well, at least the ones I like.

Now the pressure was on, though, because Groucho had already asked me to help him find a Barbel Steed. But then Peanut got so insistent, and sounded so desperate:

I’m not sure why she refers to a frog as a fishy, but she does. Anyway, suffice it to say that I did feel compelled to “reprioritize,” and it only took a few minutes.

And at least she was appreciative when I gave her the “fishy.”

In fact, she was so grateful that she gave me, of all things, a Barbel Steed. Just what Groucho wanted; how considerate! I wasted no time in running that baby over to him, too, because I felt a bit guilty about reprioritizing him like I did.

I really couldn’t tell if he was holding a grudge or not. At any rate, it certainly wasn’t the warm and fuzzy response I’d received from helping Peanut out.

But then, Groucho turned around, dug deep into his pocket, and gave me a Spanish Shirt.

I was speechless. A Spanish Shirt? A Spanish Shirt??? Are you kidding me? Isn’t that the same Spanish Shirt you literally BEGGED me for just yesterday? And now not only do you NOT want it, but you want to give it to me as a gift?

I counted to five and reminded myself that Groucho is old and, um, grouchy, and his memory isn’t what it used to be, and that he probably didn’t mean to be so rude. I bit my tongue and let it slide and chalked it all up to a lovely case of “what goes around comes around.”

Gotta love karma.


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Noodle Breath

Kashton was a veritable utopia today, and the closest we came to having an emergency was Francine’s lost key. Alas, even this was resolved swiftly and without incident.

I was fishing in the river and you won’t believe what came nibbling at my hook.

It’s weird how much a key will look exactly like a fish when it’s down there swimming around in the current, I guess.

Needless to say, Francine was pretty happy. She’s quite dramatic, isn’t she?

I hung around after, to make sure she didn’t pass out. She didn’t.

I also made a mental note to later see if I can catch a peek of her dancing the mambo whilst nibbling fried rice. Who wouldn’t want to see that? But since I got the impression that was a guilty pleasure Francine enjoyed indulging in alone, I’ll have to stake her out later. Now where are my binoculars?


I took a trip into the city and got rid of those persistent pink shoes.

I went through a whole long series of outfits and WRONG shoe colors trying to get a color to match my new Cool Shirt from Gracie’s, that I haven’t been able to wear since I got it because my shoes keep on clashing! I eventually gave up and settled with whatever other-colored thing I was wearing.


This Kicks thing is really irritating me, lately, and I’m thinking I should maybe start keeping track of which outfits/hair colors produce which color shoes. I can’t recall ever seeing anybody studying this on any of the websites or any of the FAQ’s I’ve seen. It might be impossible to come up with a truly comprehensive guide because there are so many potential combinations, but perhaps a broad and general overview would be helpful.

When I got back to Kashton, Groucho wanted to play Hide-and-Seek. It’s always risky playing with him because he really hates to lose!

Derwin is a bit of a better sport about the whole thing.

And I didn’t take a picture when I found Peanut because, frankly, she didn’t say anything funny. Suffice it to say, though, I won this round! It’s been a while since I won a game of Hide-and-Seek.

The rest of the day was spent leisurely tending to my flowers, fishing and meandering around town, visiting with my friends. I stopped by Mac’s house to see how he was doing. He appears to have made a full recovery.

I got a little thrill when I discovered I had finally produced my first black rose.

And I couldn’t help but laugh at some of my townies:

Goose looks so funny with that KK shirt on, and Francine acting all coy in the background made me giggle.

Silly Derwin, he’s too cute! Even when he’s mad! Don’t worry, he wasn’t mad at me.

Then I bumped into Biskit, who, for some reason didn’t seem to believe me when I told him that I absolutely had NOT been eating noodles.

Oh, Biskit! I ♥LOVE♥ him so much! I have a huge secret crush on him, but I can tell he’s just not into serious relationships - at least nothing more serious than “best buds.”

*sigh*

Our New Windmill and A Minor Crisis

This is, of course, the biggest news in Kashton.

Tortimer was there to officiate and celebrate. And naturally, to add his two cents’ worth of wisdom:

Frankly, I don’t know what he’s complaining about, because it’s not as if the bells for the windmill came out of HIS pocket. I mean, seriously. He’s not the one who’s been furiously playing the stalk market, trying to earn the “princely sum” of one million bells.

Anyway, I shrugged it off and told myself that that’s just Tortimer taking his mayoral responsibilities a bit too seriously. After all, he is a politician. But then just as I was settling down, he busted out with this gem:

Now what is THAT supposed to mean? Does Tortimer think that Kashton is stale? Do I have to remind him that he is an elected official? And as the mayor, isn’t it also a part of his duties to promote tourism and to court new residents?

Ah, who am I kidding? We all know Tortimer’s not much more than a ribbon-cutter, anyway, but shouldn’t even a ribbon-cutter be a little more upbeat?

Am I being too defensive?

It’s only because I have poured my heart and my soul into making Kashton a great town, and I think I’ve done a pretty good job! Considering that throughout this process I’ve never called on him once, and that 99% of Tortimer’s time is spent snoozing behind his desk, you’d think he could at least fake a little celebratory spirit?

Why does he have to be such a buzz-kill?

OK, rant over.

To tell you the truth I had more pressing matters occupying my thoughts in Kashton. The biggest emergency happened when the Wii accidentally got turned off with the game running. It’s never fun when that happens.

But that wasn’t the worst of it. The worst came the next day, for I didn’t even realize anything had happened until the next day. So Resetti was my first clue that something was amiss in Kashton. After we finished having out little “chat” and I started walking around, it became clear that there were more serious consequences to be dealt with:

Never have I seen so many wilted flowers! And this in a town, where not a day goes by without a thorough watering! It is rare that we have even a single wilted flower in Kashton. No, this was tragic. But at least I caught it in time and it wasn’t a total catastrophe.

It did get very hectic, though.

No sooner did I commence running around like a watering maniac, then who should I bump into but Sahara!

So naturally, I had to incorporate a visit with each and every townie into my frantic watering emergency.

Now I was running around like a lunatic trying to keep track of where I’ve been and who I’ve visited, trying to water, looking for old floors, and it’s getting late. (My town is set four hours behind my real time.)

Then, when I got to Mac’s house I discovered that he was really sick and needed my help. Since I don’t usually carry medicine around in my pockets, I immediately suspended all watering and old floor quests until I could get to Nook’s and bring some relief to poor Mac.

Even after taking his medicine, Mac’s symptoms were only somewhat alleviated.

But I had done all I that I could do for him for the day, and quickly remembered I still had important work to attend to. My flowers were brown and Sahara was waiting.

My newest townie, Whitney is a pretty white wolf, and she’s been in Kashton about ten days or so. While this is plenty of time to get to know a resident, Whitney’s so snooty that I’d pretty much been ignoring her. I also was harboring a silent grudge because her house plunked right down in the middle of my beautiful, until-then-uninhabited island. But I was in a hurry and I didn’t have time to mess around; I needed an old floor and I needed it now!

You know how it goes, you get the usual excuses: “Oh, I just got rid of my old floor this morning,” or, “I don’t have old stuff; my stuff is vintage. Anyway, nothing is old enough to throw away.” In general, though, the townies are sympathetic to the plight of wanting to appease Sahara. So I get to Miss Whitney’s house and I’m not overly hopeful, but still, you never know, right?

Silly me, what was I thinking? Whitney? Old floors???

Consider me informed. Whitney is not the type to take other people’s cast-off’s. What?

I wasn’t freaking asking her to TAKE a freaking cast-off!!! I was asking her to GIVE me one!!! Jeez, talk about getting bent out of shape.

I shot out of there in such a huff I nearly took out one of my precious wilted hybrids.

In the end I only managed to scrounge up two measly old floors, for which Sahara gave me a Fancy Carpet – hardly worth the effort! And eventually I finished watering every square acre of our town. I am happy to report that there wasn’t even a single casualty

*

A Visit From Wendell

I had the strangest feeling when I woke up today and sure enough, it proved to be true: Wendell came to town! I’d been waiting for him ever since I got my new flag. Today I gave him a coconut and he really seemed to like it!

He returned the favor by giving me the “Coloring House” pattern, which I promptly put on display as my flag.

I got Lucky up, just so that he could see Wendell, too. We got a cool “Coloring K.K.” pattern when Lucky fed him a pear. I’m so glad, too, because I have been very, very tired of seeing my townies walking around in path patterns! They always like to change when a new pattern goes on display at Abel’s, and now they have three new ones to choose from. Enjoy your new clothes, guys!

Perhaps you noticed that I got my hair done today? Yes, I took a trip into the city specifically to do just that.

It’s always nice to get a new outfit when you get your hair done, right? Since I was feeling so good about myself for making the environmentally responsible choice with respect to that whole lighthouse/windmill debate, I decided I deserved to splurge on myself with a new Gracie original. Besides, the “cool shirt” totally matched my new hair!

Of course, when you’ve got new hair and a new outfit, the ONLY thing to do is to get a shoe shine. I’ll tell you what, though, that Kicks guy totally messed me up! I always choose to match my shoes by color, and usually even if I don’t get the exact color I was hoping for, I can see where he was coming from. But once in a while he’ll just throw me a zinger, and today was one of those days. Observe: here I am in my new hair and cool shirt, nice and coordinated – until you look at my feet and see what color shoes he thought would complete the ensemble!

Pink!!! He gave me pink shoes when I have on all sorts of rusty orange, red, and brown tones on! Sheesh. This picture really does not convey the loudness of my shoes clashing with my outfit.

Sigh.

Anyway, while I was in the city, I popped in on Katrina, and she was as cryptic as ever.

Overall, though, she gave me quite a good reading, telling me that she saw an increase in my wealth and fortune.





……Or not.

That Katrina is ever so noncommittal.

As usual, she left me with the parting reminder that “bad times are just times that are bad,” which I find are truly words to live by these days. More and more, I am discovering that I am a ‘glass is half full’ kind of person. But then again, Kashton really allows me to live the absolutely perfect life, so why shouldn’t I be happy?

After my visit with Katrina, I couldn’t take it any more, so I changed, right there in the middle of the city, into my trusty “splendid shirt,” which I thought clashed less with my shoes – and then hightailed it home.

All in all it was a pretty chill day in Kashton. Having gotten all my watering done in the morning, when I got back from the city I took some time to stop and smell the roses – or tulips as it was.

I love my hybrids!!!

Welcome to Kashton

Hi, I'm Kashi!

I live in and run the Animal Crossing City Folk town, Kashton. That’s right, the town is named after me. And why not? I mean, Kashton is my town. After all, I created it.

As of this writing, Kashton is about 3 ½ months old, so it’s really progressed since its inception. While the Kashton blog was launched some time ago, it didn’t get off the ground until now. Unfortunately as well, I didn’t get an SD card until the town was already an entire month old, and there are no records of the early days of Kashton, which is really a shame because by AC standards, Kashton is already a mature town.

Nevertheless, despite the lack of history depicting how Kashton got to where it is now, the Today in Kashton blog will begin in the present.

Today in Kashton the big news is that voting is on for either a lighthouse or a windmill in our town. I gave this a lot of thought and postponed my voting for several days while I deliberated.

My online research turned up a number of interesting facts. Namely, that I wasn’t the first person to have this consuming internal debate. Apparently in City Folk, the only purpose both the lighthouse and the windmill serve, aside from decoration, is to increase a town’s “luck.” The lighthouse attracts rare fish to your waters and the windmill increases your town’s status, thereby increasing the chances of your town reaching Perfect Town Status. Since Kashton has been in PTS for quite some time now, this wasn’t much of a deciding factor.

Despite my excitement at the prospect of attracting rare fish to Kashton, I was really drawn to the eco-sensibility of a windmill and was strongly leaning that way. I know that in the Game Cube version of Animal Crossing, the lighthouse had a task associated with it: occasionally Tortimer would ask you to turn it on when he was away out of town. The windmill never had any task associated with it, and although I found one posting on a board that said the same lighthouse task occurred in City Folk, I could find no confirmation of this anywhere.

In the end, I cast my vote for the windmill, preferring to put my money where my mouth is about harnessing the power of the wind. Once the decision was made, I used my charms to persuade a couple of the other, less active residents of Kashton:

Surprisingly (or not), Lucky also cast his vote for the windmill.

I even had to wake ♥Poot♥ up for the occasion, although she wasn’t too happy about it.

Guess which way she voted?

While he was out of his house, Lucky took the opportunity to go to the city, where he finally joined the HRA:

- and learn his first emotion, delight:

He’s adorable!

Later, I was anxious to see what was going on behind the scenes, so I checked in with Pelly.

As you can see, Pelly wouldn’t betray even a hint at which way the voting was going. She has way too much integrity to ever compromise an election... er ...the voting process!

Well, at least it's reassuring to know that they’re working around the clock on the matter.