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Grandma Barbara and Aunt Marie left yesterday morning.

Later on, Dad took me out shopping for Christmas gifts for Mom and Marie. We went to Borders first, but the line became way too long, so we drove to a nearby mall. Nothing else noteworthy.

Brian slept pretty much the whole afternoon. Mom became concerned that he might have a fever, so he spent the night sleeping on the futon before we all went to bed. In fact, he's still asleep on the futon, which is only across the room from where I'm typing this.

I finally gave myself a break and continued where I left off in Pokemon LeafGreen. When I first turned on my Game Boy Advance, Brian asked if I would use the headphones. Considering what the headphones supposedly did to the sound on my Game Boy Color, I'd rather not insert them into the GBA, so I instead took the GBA, my player's guides, and my dice onto the futon. While I was unfolding the futon to lay down on it, the lights on the Christmas tree suddenly went off, and then I noticed that the outlet where the power strip was plugged in was cracked. I spoke about it with Mom to make sure it wouldn't be a fire hazard, and later on, she said that she accidentally cracked the outlet herself the day before when I brought it up again.

So far, I managed to battle all the trainers and capture Moltres at Mt. Ember. All that's left now is to explore Cerulean Cave and capture Mewtwo. I also came across a special red Geodude, and even though I already have a Geodude in my Pokemon boxes, I would've captured this one if only it didn't use Explosion before I had half a chance. From what I read in the player's guides for Gold, Silver, and Crystal, these colored Pokemon appear so rarely that you most likely wouldn't find them even if you put hours and hours into such a feat. Also, is it any coincidence that last year, I beat Pokemon Crystal just in time to receive Emerald for Christmas, and this year, I'm about to complete LeafGreen just in time to receive Diamond or Pearl?

Right before I started typing this blog entry, Mom woke up and noticed that the armchair was missing from the living room. At first, she thought someone stole it as a joke, but then she asked Brian, and he told her that he was using it to watch a movie on his computer.

As for everything that needs to be done over my month off, I'm going to give all that a rest for a few days. Tomorrow's Christmas, and I think I deserve to give myself a break. For the record though, I still need the following stuff before I can upload my Mon Colle Knights episode copies onto this computer:

-Video card (most likely S-Video, according to Wikipedia, as it's the only one that's said to be compatible with DVDs.)
-Yasa DVD
-Avi Converter

The long-awaited details of Pokemon LeafGreen

This marks the completion of Pokemon LeafGreen, so I won't have to mark it down in tomorrow morning's entry.

Game: LeafGreen
Player: Ellen

Pidgey: Captured at Route 1. Evolved into Pidgeotto while I was taking on trainers at the Cinnabar Island Gym. Was eventually taught TM 42 (Facade).

Nidoran (male) and Nidoran (female): Both captured at Route 3. Evolved into Nidorino and Nidorina at level 20. I then used a Moon Stone each time to evolve them into Nidoking and Nidoqueen. (Quite by coincidence, I was passing by a Moon Stone during a second trip through Mt. Moon around the time when the male Nidoran became Nidorino.) Nidoqueen was later selected to participate in the Trainer Tower.

Paras: Captured at Mt. Moon. Was eventually taught HM Rock Smash.

Kadabra: Captured as Abra at Route 25. With these Pokemon, there's no time to waste trying to reduce their HP, because they only know Teleport. After some failed attempts on Route 24, I then decided to see if I could capture one without hurting it, and got it with just one Poke Ball.

Meowth: Captured at Route 5. Learned HM Cut after I obtained it from the Captain of the S.S. Anne, and Farfetch'd also learned it at the same time.

Farfetch'd: Traded at Vermillion City for a Spearow. The Spearow I had was right with me, and it never leveled up, so there was no reason to keep it. The Farfetch'd then learned HM Cut after I obtained it from the S.S. Anne's Captain, a move which would eventually be deleted artificially when it learned better moves like Slash and False Swipe. Later on selected to participate in the Trainer Tower.

Magikarp: Fished up at Vermillion City after I got the Old Rod. When I arrived at Celadon City, I bought TM 13 (Ice Beam) at the Casino just for that Pokemon. Only thing was, it couldn't learn any TMs until it evolved into Gyarados (which in this game, was during the Silph Company siege). This eliminated any reason for it to bother learning Twister, because Dragon-type moves are only super-effective against Dragons, while Ice-moves kick ass against Grass-, Earth-, Flying-, and Dragon-type Pokemon.

Drowzee: Captured at Route 11. This was the Pokemon I taught HM Flash to.

Vulpix: Captured at Route 8. I then decided to teach it TM 45 (Attract). Even though it was on sale at Celadon City (just a stone's throw away), I decided to save my money by picking up the one at Route 25 instead.

Dratini: Fished up at Celadon City, and was later taught HM Surf. Normally, teaching Pokemon TMs or HMs complicates things when it comes to deciding what moves they should learn later on, but this one actually made things simpler. This Pokemon started out with Leer, Thunder Wave, Twister, and Dragon Rage, and there's no reason to keep Twister, since it only deals out exactly 40 damage. Without any physical attacks, there's no reason to keep Leer, so Slam (a normal move) is skipped and Agility takes its place. Safeguard then replaces Agility at level 36. Dratini would've also learned Outrage if he was raised to level 50, at which point he would've automatically evolved into Dragonair and then Dragonite. (Hyper Beam is not worth learning, since it's a Normal move and prevents the user from taking the next turn if it hits the opponent Pokemon.) (Update on 6/15/10: A while ago, when I was taking on the Trainer Tower, I let this Pokemon evolve into Dragonair while leveling up the lower-leveled Pokemon selected for it.)

This Pokemon, being one of the most widely used, was also the one whose happiness I maxed out in order to get Togepi's egg (which never hatched). I revisited Kanto to do rematches with previous trainers in order to accomplish this (something I rarely do).

Venomoth: Captured at the Safari Zone. This is the one and only Pokemon I captured in its evolved state.

Aerodactyl: This was the first Pokemon I ever saw quadruple-up (which happened during a battle in the Pattern Bush, and after killing its first Pokemon while starting out at Level 5). I've had Pokemon level-up, double-up, and triple-up, but I never had one quadruple-up before.

Marill: Captured at Ruin Valley. After spending a considerable amount of time at the Day Care Center, it evolved into Azumarill while I fought trainers at the Bond Bridge. It also laid a male egg, which unfortunately, hatched another Marill instead of an Azurill. (I guess the newborn would've been an Azurill if I helped Celio complete his machine before hatching the egg.)

Remoraid: Fished up at Quest Island, and later on was taught HM Waterfall.

Mewtwo: Like Regirock, Registeel, and Rayquaza in Sapphire, this legendary Pokemon was caught with just one Ultra Ball during the successful attempt. It took two tries to capture this Pokemon, the first during which it fainted, but that's a lot less time than I ever spent before trying to capture a legendary Pokemon with Ultra Balls.

Tomorrow is Christmas, which means I'll be able to move on with Diamond or Pearl (depending on which one I get).

[Updated on 2/23/09]

Poliwag: After finding out that Smoochum and Jynx are completely unavailable in Pokemon Platinum, I checked the level of my Poliwags in both FireRed and LeafGreen. My FireRed Poliwag is level 20, but my LeafGreen one was at level 26. The only way to get Jynx in FRLG is to trade it from someone in Cerulean City for a Poliwhirl. Therefore, (long) after capturing Mewtwo, I took Poliwag out to battle several trainers on Route 6, and traded it after it evolved into Poliwhirl. (Unfortunately, I don't remember where I captured it, but that's two more Pokedex entries in my LeafGreen Dex, a slightly better chance at obtaining an out-of-game Pokemon when I migrate some LeafGreen Pokemon onto Platinum's PAL Park, and even one more possible ID number with which to win the Pokemon Lottery in Jubilife City.)