Part 43

Thursday, January 1, 2026:  Happy New Year to all! We saw so many fireworks from our apartment last night! I fell asleep after 11PM. :-P Nova (my Festival Sky Tam) changed into a tongaritchi upon waking up this morning! As for Teddy, my Komputer Koala: he turned 40 years old today, and continues in good health. I finally caught a video of him making his little "chuck-chuck" sound for my instagram page. He's absolutely adorable! Last night he got to watch the beginning of "The Poseidon Adventure" (1972)...! This evening we've been playing "Mario Kart World" on the Nintendo Switch 2. I'm hoping to get some errands done tomorrow...!

Saturday, January 3, 2026:  Teddy and Nova accompanied me on trips to the grocery store and Starbucks the last two mornings! I missed *several* discipline calls in the process. There goes my chance of getting a mimitchi I guess! I don't know which character I'll end up with now--maybe a hashizotchi!?! On a seasonal topic, Christmas seemed to suddenly be over with, gone too soon... But seeing Teddy reminds me of the Christmas movies, music, and times sitting by the tree we shared together...and that brings it all back a little.

Sunday, January 4, 2026:  EEEEK! Nova changed into a kusatchi at 10:07AM. The combo of care mistakes and missed discipline calls really added up I guess! I really love the plant guy even though he's considered unhealthy. Sadly his life-span will be *very* short.

Sunday, January 11, 2026:  Nova, my poor kusatchi (Festival Sky Tam) died on Monday, Jan.5th, 12:12PM, at the young age of 8 ::sigh::. I hatched a new egg on the same Tam an hour later at 1:11PM, and named him Perry! As a young tonmarutchi, I left his light on at bedtime, caught all discipline calls, and never let the hearts fall below one empty. On Thursday, Jan.8th Perry changed into the unhealthy teen, a hashitamatchi! I really do enjoy the 'unhealhtier' characters over the average ones. Finally, on Saturday, Jan.10th, Perry changed into his adult form, a hashizotchi, at exactly 1:00pm! He happens to be my second favourite on Gen2 next to mimitchi. I hope he sticks around for a while. I still have several other new Tams that I want to hatch (gen1/2)...!

On the GigaPets front, Teddy, my Komputer Koala, continues in good health! He turned 50 today! I check in on him often to keep his stats up. He has been spending time with Perry, and watching me play "Spyro the Dragon 2: Riptos Rage" on the Switch 2 (online with Shawn). He's also gotten in a good bit of web-browsing and YouTube (mostly true-crime stuff)... I've been following the Idaho4 case--so scary..and so many un-answered questions...! I am *trying* to be mindful of how much true-crime stuff I consume, but I always end up finding a new podcast. :-P We've been watching happy stuff too! I'm currently re-watching Armistead Maupin's "Tales of the City" (1993), a really cute and funny LGBT+ TV series, staring Olympia Dukakis as one of the main characters (love her)! Matthew and I also started watching a brand new seires called "Palm Royale" (2024), staring Kristen Wiig, Carol Burnett, Allison Janney, and Ricky Martin--vroom vroom!. :-) The show is set in the era of the late 1960's. As for music, we've been listening to a lot of stuff by "The Pet Shop Boys"....!

Friday, January 16, 2026:  It has been *quite* a week, but I'm glad to have had Teddy and Perry at my side for most of it. On Thursday, the 15th, at 12pm I took them both along with me for an appointment with my therapist--long overdue! I've told her about my virtual pet collection in past appointments and she has always been very accepting of it. I had a lot of things I needed to talk through with her, non-virtual pet related, which I won't get into here..... I'll be going back again in a months time for another check-in. Mom was nice enough to drive me to and from my appointment as I've been *really* anxious this week....and I had some stressful stuff happen earlier this week, which again, I won't get into. Anyway, later in the afternoon/early evening I bought a new Switch game: "Donkey Kong Tropical Freeze"! It's pretty good so far, and I got it for 33% off on the Nintendo e-Shop! Donkey Kong games are challenging, but I'm giving it my best shot! The vpets also got to watch Amy and I play "Stardew Valley" in co-op mode (online). They've also watched me play "Mario Kart World", "Animal Crossing: New Horizons" (Nintendo Switch 2 Edition), "Spyro the Dragon", and a demo version of "Donkey Kong Bananza"!

This evening at 9:03PM, I hatched Shiney, a Gen1 (P1), in a beautiful orange case with pretty sunset design on it. I still have Perry, my hashizotchi of 12 years to contend with at this point, but what's one more? I don't think I'll be going out much this weekend, so I will likely end up being a hovering parent and coddling Shiney, hehe.

Sunday, January 18, 2026:  I'm happy to write that Perry, my hashizotchi of 14 years is *still* here! I wonder if it's because he was hatched from the egg left behind by my previous Tam, Nova, with a good ending?? I'm going to look into this more in the future. Nonetheless, I made a post about this on the Tamagotchi Collectors Facebook group to see if anyone else has an opinion. I've also fed Perry quite a few snacks today, and still he lives on. These remake Tams will always have a sense of mystery to them.... :-)

Last night Teddy and Perry got to watch the 1993 made-for-TV movie "Stalking Laura" aka "Why Don't you Love Me?", staring Brooke Shields, and based on a true story, which I've yet to actually look into. My newly hatched Tam, Shiney slept through most of the movie as he's only a young marutchi. Tonight they've been listening to more podcasts from Julez w/ True Crime and Casper West.

Monday, January 19, 2026:  This morning at 9AM Shiney changed into a tamatchi! Sadly, Perry, my hashizotchi of 15 years passed away this afternoon at 3:40PM. I am shocked he lived that long--not that I'm complaning. I've always had much love for Hashi.... :-) Teddy and the Tams spent a lot of time in my 3DS case today, getting carted around the mall, grocery store, Dr.'s offices, and then finally home again. It was a good day! I spent some time with my Mom too. Tomorrow we may go for a walk.

Thursday, January 22, 2026:  Tonight Shiney changed into his adult form: he became a .::drum roll::. masukutchi! Yay! I'm unsure if I'll get the secret character or not. My good friend Amy has a masukutchi on her Tam as well at the moment.

Saturday, January 24, 2026:  I've missed several discipline calls with Shiney, due to the fact that I've been out driving *a lot* in the snow the last two days (so much fun)! My chances of getting the secret character are slim to none, but we'll see! I'm happy with him just as he is. Shiney and Teddy got to watch (most of) the first episode of the docu-series "Handsome Devil: Charming Killer". EEEK!!! There is nothing handsome about him! After this episode I'm going to watch funny re-runs and get ready for bed.

Sunday, January 25, 2026:  Today marks one month after Christmas...and time to put away the last of the mini lights. I am glad Teddy and Shiney were with me, as the task is always bittersweet... At least I still have my mushroom and Mario Bros. lights. :-)

Teddy will be 65 tomorrow! Wow! As for Shiney, I *definitely* missed more discipline calls while out driving in the woods this afternoon. :-P I know with certainty that he won't be changing into the secret character. This evening they got to watch Shawn and I play "Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!" together online...very enjoyable day.

Monday, January 26, 2026:  My RakuRaku Dinokun, Spike was born at 6:51PM NST this evening! It has been a while since I raised one of these. I'm feeding him a noodles *only* diet! I don't believe I've ever successfully raised the triceratops before. He played a little tune and went to sleep at 8:00. It's fun to be raising the Dinkie Dino (as it's referred to over here in the America's) again. Teddy and Shiney have been watching A LOT of American news. Perhaps tomorrow we'll try and take a break from it.....! We are expecting messy winter weather tomorrow! SO the vpets will definitely get out for a ride in the Jeep!

Thursday, January 29, 2026:  Spike, my RakuRaku Dinokun of 3 years grew a little tail and a horn this morning. He's really cute! As I mentioned before, I'm feeding him a noodles only diet so that he'll become the Triceratops. Teddy and Shiney are doing just fine. They are the perfect little trio of virtual pets! I took them all with me to my cousin Laura's for a visit last night. They also got to come 4WD'n in the woods twice this week--so much fun! The best part of having virtual pets is bringing them places and experiencing the world with them. Only a true virtual pet collector knows this feeling.

Friday, January 30, 2026:  I don't think I've been a very good caretaker to Shiney: today I let his hunger/happiness hearts fall to empty three times, beeping at me for attention...and I've gotten to the point of only feeding him snacks since he has gotten rather demanding at his 15 years...

Saturday, January 31, 2026:  Well, at least Shiney was full and happy for the remainder of his time here. ::sigh:: This afternoon, shortly after 1PM he left me at the age of 16. I hope he enjoyed his time here.... I think I could have spent *more* time on him. Bye-bye, Shiney, I'll miss you!

At least Teddy and Spike are still with me! I also felt like having *another* virtual pet around, so my Bobo Panda Byte was born last night at 9:51PM. We watched an episode of "Palm Royale" this evening. Bobo watched her *own* little TV until she fell asleep!