Grace Haven: Days 23 - 24

I forgot to mention that I became an Adult yesterday, Sunday. It slipped my mind because it was so anticlimatic--no cake, no noisemakers, no fireworks, nothing.

Jon did call, though, during the intermission of a concert he was playing with Mercy Hellhole, just to wish me well. He teased that he was happy I was getting older so that--when we finally do get married--people won't laugh at such an old guy being with such a young girl. He's always emphasizing his age! He doesn't look that old to me.

Anyway, I had accumulated quite a few Angelfish, so decided early Monday morning to go after some Deathfish,

and in a few hours' time had caught 5 of them.

I promptly went to the grocery and sold them,

which earned me enough money for the Baked Angel Food Cake recipe (but not yet enough for the Ambrosia recipe which--even with my big discount--still cost $9,000).

The best way to make money that I can think of is to sell Deathfish, but to catch them you need Angelfish, to catch those you need Alley Catfish, and to catch those you need cheese--and I had none of that and no way to get any. (Gardenia had told me to expect a call from the bistro or the diner once I had reached Gardening Level 8, and that I would be invited to complete a challenge that would allow me to grow cheese and egg plants, but that call hadn't come--I don't know why, and neither does Gardenia.)

So, I pretty much just caught Angelfish by accident--I'd go somewhere where they were prevalent, and also other fish for which I do have the preferred bait, and I would always end up catching a few Angelfish that I could then use to catch Deathfish.

The other difficulty with relying on Deathfish to make money is that you can fish for them only between midnight and 5:00 a.m., and sometimes that doesn't fit into my schedule.

So, I resolved to concentrate on catching Vampire Fish for a while--they sell for good prices, too, at the grocery, and you can catch them any time of the day. I needed more garlic to use as bait for them, so I headed south to the Carpenter-Rhodes garden to "borrow" some.

I spun a wish to bathe,

so I quickly ducked in to the Riverview Swim Club and used their shower on my way.

I actually ended up harvesting the entire Carpenter-Rhodes garden (the family seems to be away, so I figured the produce would just go to waste),

which took quite a bit of time. By 2:30 p.m. when I was done, I was exhausted,

so went home for a mid-afternoon nap to refresh myself.

I got up after a few hours just to sell my extra produce,

which brought my Household Funds up to $4,176 (so, I still have a ways to go to afford the Ambrosia recipe). I returned to bed at 10:00 p.m. to sleep for the rest of the night.

I got up shortly after 4:00 on Tuesday morning and tended my garden,

and upgraded both my garlic and bell pepper plants to Outstanding.

Hopefully, I'll have Perfect produce from each of them soon, but some of my plants--such as that watermelon plant--are such laggards. Don't they know I'm trying to get married and have kids before I die??? Maybe if I were a natural green thumb I could explain this to them....

I chatted briefly with Jon to raise my Social need,

then headed off to catch Vampire Fish to sell.

I do really love fishing, and in addition to making money it gets me a lot of Lifetime Happiness points.

In just a short time, I'd caught quite a few fish.

I had a slew of wishes to do little chores at home, so went back to my lot and knocked them off.

This got me up to 13,433 Lifetime Happiness points, though I'm not yet sure what reward I'll pick next. Maybe the Fast Learner reward? The last couple levels of the Gardening skill are taking me a long time to reach.

I went to the library and learned the Baked Angel Food Cake recipe,

then resumed fishing.

I sold my catch at the grocery on the way home, and got my Household Funds up to $6,100.

I went to bed early evening, determined to arise before dawn and catch enough pricey fish to be able to afford the Ambrosia recipe.

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NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: Join us next time, when Grace completes two more Goals! But the Perfect Garden still eludes her....