If You Haven't...{again?}...Have You Even Quarantined?

Truly, I'm just as surprised as you to find myself returning to a recurring blog topic, but here we are.  We'll head straight to the question, "If you haven't played a ton of Animal Crossing, have you even Quarantined?"  I answer with a resounding, "Yes!"  I have played so much Animal Crossing.  

I even tried to come up to lyrics to the K.K. Slider hit, "Steep Hill," but worry not, I had no success.  It is my favorite song of his.  What?  Like I'm the only one to attempt to pen lyrics to a song by a video game cartoon dog?  Next you're going to find something wrong with me for admitting to having teared up a bit on a Saturday night as he sang it.     

Animal Crossing New Horizons is a great game for Quarantimes.  It is gentle, it follows along with the hours of the day and seasons of the year.  It is not a game of winning or losing.  You can play for hours on end, fishing, swimming netting bugs, designing, decorating, building, shopping, and interacting with a range of animal characters.  Your island is a wonderful home you can transform in countless ways.  

You can connect with others near and far.  Many people in the family played, some of us much more than others (ahem, me, Mom).  We occasionally traveled to each others' islands.  We sent in-game gifts and notes.  It gave us something to talk about when nothing else was happening.  

Besides playing with family, I played with strangers (and one time talked on the phone with a niece and brought her along on a memorable journey to randos' islands).  I traveled via Dodocode to see the amazing way people designed, to experience the seasons on the opposite hemisphere, and to buy and sell turnips.  

While I'm playing far less than I used to, I don't know that I'll ever stop, and it will probably forever hold a special place in my heart and memories.  

How about you?  Have you played Animal Crossing for fun and for coping with a global pandemic?  What's your favorite K.K. Slider song?        

 

 

Let the Sun Shine (ready or not for all the hot)

Spring has sprung, and that means many things.  The weather is warming, the sun is often shining, and there is so much more green.  I've been doing a little yard work, and have added some lily of the valley plants to the flower box.  With the return of leaves on trees and flowers blooming comes pollen, and with that, nobody's favorite guessing game, "Is it Allergies or is it COVID-19?"  We're still staying home, for the most part.  It's just what makes the most sense for us.  The weather has been changing quickly; the chill of our winters jumped to the warmth of early summer, skipping over much of the milder spring weather.  Of course, I start typing this post, and weeks go by, so we are now seasonably warm.  I'm just saying, we jumped thirty degrees in a week last month and it has mostly stayed there.  Anyway, before it becomes too hot all the time, we are spending some time outside with family.   

Here at home, life continues much as it has, but now with a little more knitting.  No, not the Hue Shift Afghan.  I haven't much felt like working on it, but knitting little things has appealed to me.  It started with things to put in some Easter eggs.  At first, I thought about knitting a different pattern for each of the kiddos' eggs, but knew that was not a good idea.  Instead, I chose Tina the Tiny T-Rex (still waiting patiently for Tori the Tiny Triceratops to make it over to Mochimochiland instead of just being available on Knitrino).   For a bit, it looked like we would have rain for Easter and we would not be able to attend, and I thought about knitting a dinosaur for everyone in the family.  I quickly recovered from the ill-conceived idea, and just knit at my own pace and let Bruce pick which ones he thought were best to put in eggs.  We were so very fortunate to have nice enough weather to celebrate Easter and Mother's Day outside with the family. 

Being out of practice checking up on knitblogs (yes, some are still active out there, and I think there should be more) I missed when a post on twitter by Anna Hrachovec showing a sunflower gif then yielded a pattern for us all.  Anyway, I caught up, donated and got to knitting.  These sunflowers are brightening things (we are in need of cheering, for sure) and the pattern is presented for free with a requested donation to groups helping Ukrainians--double yay!!  Since I'm not yet satisfied with my petals, (I kept ripping out and re-working, and that's not the answer) I believe I will be knitting more sunflowers.  

I hope that some good light is making its way to you and yours.