Strawberry Fields Prosperity Fellowship

Black III, Week 4

2007-09-25T22:06:00.000+02:00

Last round ended with Face getting his first belly bump after the abduction. Since then we've seen him being dated by several of the local pleasure seekers or romance sims, and fed cheesecake by his mother.

Oh, and it's a cold, snowy spring.

Face isn't going to let a little thing like a pregnancy stop him from working on those 20 lovers he wants. He's currently at about 15, I think. He's remarkably efficient - Sandy Bruty fell in love with him when his LTR was only at 29!

Right. Yeah, that's a very friendly face, isn't it? I think we all know what you're really after... Good thing Sandy is romance, too, or I'd feel bad for her.

He spends a lot of time on the phone, getting relationships up to where his victims will agree to a date, but when nobody new is at that point yet, there's always the matchmaker.

How nice of her to throw the pizzagirl into the wall.

"I couldn't help but notice that you're gonna have a baby."

"So what? I can still show you a great time, babe!"

Apparently he did, because Marie here beats Sandy's record and falls in love with Face when he only has 16 LTR for her. What is it that they see in him?

Personally, I just like to torture him.

Oh, okay, that's not true. I enjoy playing the bugger.

Except when he gives me two girls. Whyyyyyyy?!?! I need boys, frammit!

Here's Enya, who somehow got Face's blue eyes instead of the alien black.

And her sister Grania.

Both names are Irish, like Ronan's own. They're also sort of named for their grandpa Timothy: Timothy is a kind of grass, Enya supposedly means kernel or gorse, and Grania means grain.

Face decorates their nursery in a space theme, even though it clearly pains him to have to look at those posters. I guess he does have his redeeming features.

He invites Natalie Nettles over for a couple dates to bring his needs up. And to meet the babies. He has decided that he doesn't want to raise two little girls alone, so he's going to ask Natalie to move in with him when she graduates. Free babysitter, free dates, free woohoo... He doesn't really see any drawbacks to this arrangement, except that he'll have to be a bit more careful about dating other women.

The Diva called him up, saying a friend of hers had had such a great time with him, would he like to go downtown? Um, no. Too easy to be spotted by one of his other lovers. Instead, he invited her over to his place, where it didn't take him very long to get to the point.

The next day was birthday time! Face invited his family over - mom, dad, brother Jackson and sister-in-law Kayla - as well as Natalie again.

Despite being the younger twin, Grania gets to grow up first.

Pink tux? What is it with my toddlers and tuxes?

Anywya, Grania is a Pisces, 5/3/10/0/10. Extremely active, nice, and serious, plus a bit on the shy side.

She also urgently needed to use the potty, so Face quickly smart milked her and got started on her potty training. Meanwhile, Kayla decided Enya needed to be fed.

Finally Face manages to get his daughter back so he can grow her up.

Enya is a Capricorn, 9/3/2/8/10. Neat, shy, lazy, playful and very nice.

Not very smart, though. Apparently, even though she's just been fed, she can't wait for her dad to fix some smart milk. Nooo, she has to go for what's left of that stinky bottle on the floor.

Yeah, that's what happens when you eat (or in this case drink) spoiled food.

Face is in for a hectic time, now, training his twins and taking care of their other needs. The only downtime he gets is when they're sleeping or busy with their toys. Even though he does like to play with them and snuggle them, it drives him crazy not to be able to do anything besides taking care of them.

So he buys a community lot - his grandfather's old house, actually - and hires a nanny. Then it's off to spend some time being a romance sim!

His "business" holds a couple of hot tubs, a photo booth, and a bedroom. It's never actually open, of course - he just uses it as a place to get some private time with his dates. I'd like to get Contessa Sadie here her IW of 50 dream dates, anyway.

Nothing wrong with using woohoo to get gold stars - right?

"Yeah, all the ladies love the Face man!"

He made it to nineteen lovers before the week was over.

When the time comes for the girls to grow up again, he invites some friends over - the Wrightleys and the Ryans. I was half expecting Paige and Guy to start flirting with each other, but all they did was float lots of hearts around. Constantly. Maybe it's because Paige's kids were there. Or, you know, her husband.

Grania turns out to be a proper little lady. (When she grew up into that dress, I just had to add the hat.) You know, if she rolls pleasure or romance, I'm going to be very frustrated - it wouldn't suit her at all!

Enya is really cute. I can't get past those blue eyes with the alien skin. And she has a kitten on her shirt, which automatically gives her extra points.

I had held up on decorating their new room until they grew up, just in case they made any specific requests via their clothes. Maybe they wouldn't want to be seen as just "alien kids" any longer? But since they both rew up in green(ish) outfits, I decided to go with it.

And so it's study study study all night long! Aren't they adorable?

Points this round: 2, for new sims.

It's never too soon to get started on the sibling rivalry...

Is there anything cuter than a sleeping toddler?

Uni, Week 4, Part 4

2007-09-25T21:25:00.000+02:00

The LFT Sorority held four girls this round. Three of them can be seen above. On the left, Marlee Dante, the fifth Dante kid. She's a fortune Libra (no neat points!) who's engaged to Janson Knight, and can't wait to help run the Knight family toy store. Oh, and she wants to be a doctor, too.

At the head of the table is Nicholette Nettles, intended to marry George McCarthy in the fraternity. She's a Cancer popularity sim - a little too shy to be very effective at making friends, but she tries. Her dream is to be Captain Hero.

To the right we have Keziah Black, another shy popularity sim, this one a Pisces. Her ten nice points help, though. Her LTW is to have 20 best friends. She hasn't yet found the right woman to spend the rest of her life with, so for now the plan is to have her living with her twin sister Keren after graduation.

And here's the fourth, Natalie Nettles, pleasure seeker with a mission to become a famous chef. She changes her hairstyle every now and then, just for fun, and likes bright colors. She also likes Face Black, obviously. Um, Face - that can't be good for the babies...

Like I said, Natalie likes to restyle her hair, so she's a favorite target when the others work on their cosmetics badges. Marlee otherwise spends most of her time at the toy bench, so she'll be a good asset at Knight's Knicks&Knacks.

Nicholette made robots, among other things, and the hydrobot proved very good at keeping the flower beds looking fresh. It only broke down once in the first two years of college.

And the impressive flowers helped the girls get into the garden club.

"Hello? Any friends for me down there?"

With a little help, Keziah got both her LTW and her IW before the end of sophomore year. Yay! Now she's permaplat and I can re-roll her without worrying about getting an annoying LTW!

Nicholette did work on her friendships, too, but spent a good share of her time with her fiancé George. They're cute together - three bolts, always hearting for each other...

Pool slide fun!

Natalie was the only one who didn't roll up wants to do assignments and write term papers in the fall, so I had to indulge her piddly little pleasure seeker wants or have her date Face to get her aspiration up. Girls just wanna have fun!

Ahem. Yeah, as part of her quest to get lots of best friends, Nicholette invited her uncle and step-grandmother over. Napoleon here was experimented on, and it didn't turn out all that well at first...

But he was still willing to entertain them for hours on the piano...

... while his mother fell asleep in her food.

Not much else of interest happened, really. It was all about making friends, earning badges and going on dates. Oh, yeah, Keziah rerolled - and got pleasure. Ugh. A pleasure seeker with two playful points? Thank heavens she's already permaplat!

At this point I sent the teens of Strawberry Fields to college, since there weren't going to be any more of them this round.

That's Napoleon again, still with the "interesting" fashion sense. Beside him we have Arcadia Custer.

The blond guy is Steven Phillips, Arcadia's paper delivering boyfriend. The other guy is Hogan Cooper. The girl in pink is Rhea Cantrell, and last but not least there's Frannie Carr.

And insisting on a pic all to herself, the very outgoing pop sim Sabrina, Frannie's twin. Of course she had to grow up into a cheerleader outfit, so I gave her a hairstyle to match.

Three points for Keziah's impossible want!

Cow unmasked.

Carr, Week 4

2007-09-11T01:10:00.000+02:00

Like several other families recently, the Carrs chose to move to a bigger lot. After all, with Seasons, you want to be able to go swimming, fish, and plant a garden, right?

Unfortunately, Joe came down with the flu right away. Poor sim, having to write novels to gain creativity, when he'd much rather be painting or singing karaoke. But we need that small boost to comfort!

Well, look at that. The Prince himself comes to see his grandma, step-grandpa and aunts.

Frannie and Sabrina are pretty good at bringing home friends for school - but then they are both very outgoing little girls. Frannie seems to be talking to Chandra Custer about Bon Voyage.

While Sabrina and Chandra's cousin Keisha Nottington play dead - I mean cops and robbers.

But they end up all getting into one big water balloon fight, up until it's time for the girls to celebrate their birthday.

As a teen, Sabrina looks almost more like Barbara than Barbara does. Except for the mouth - she does have Joe's mouth.

Sabrina rolled popularity, very fitting for someone who's so outgoing. She's a Leo, 7/10/4/4/3, who wants to be a Hall of Famer. She appreciates black or custom hair, but doesn't like blond.

And Frannie... Frannie rolls romance. (Why do so many of my female Scorpios roll either pleasure or romance?) She wants to be a professional party guest, and likes blond or custom hair but dislikes black hair. Seems almost as if she and Sabrina are trying to make sure they don't go for the same guys, doesn't it?

As I said above, Frannie is a Scorpio, and her personality is 8/8/10/5/3.

Her very first day as a teen, Sabrina brings home Victor from school, and right away makes it very clear to me that she likes him. (Notice the school bus hasn't even left yet?) I, on the other hand, don't. Did you look at him?

But - sigh - I indulge her. I won't be bringing him to uni, but a few dates can't hurt.

The house in the background is their old home. With the girls old enough to take care of themselves, and having just topped her second career, Barbara does what she's wanted to do for some time - she starts a business.

Welcome to Barbara Ryan Originals, more commonly referred to as BRO, where we try to improve the aesthetics of the neighborhood. Take the three townies in this pic, for instance.

Recognize her? It's Ivy Copur. Doesn't this color suit her much better than the blue?

A Bluewater townie, who goes by Lisa in Strawberry Fields.

And rather than two townies in similar red suits, we now have one of them looking quite... different.

Some of the playables got new outfits, too. Here's Bryony Forsythe. It's more her style than mine...

And of course they got a good review. No, Barbara, the townie girl didn't steal Sabrina's outfit - she was wearing if first.

The girls do help out when they can, but mostly it's Joe and Barbara who run the business. Joe's LTW is to earn §100,000, after all...

Instead the twins both reach the top of their teen careers: Frannie in music, Sabrina as a gamer.

While Sabrina is content dating Victor, Frannie is on the prowl. I'm not sure telling this guy that she's learned to talk is the way to impress him, though - he could probably figure that out all by himself.

In the end she goes to the gypsy, who throws her one of the Tricou pleasure seeker teens. He's good enough for a few aspiration points.

Never one to limit herself unnecessarily, Frannie will flirt with girls just as easily as boys. It's good practice for all the romancing she plans to do in college!

At the very end of the week, Joe tops his second career, and it pushes him over the §50,000 line. Now he just needs another §50K and he'll be permaplat...

Points this round: 2, both for careers; General for Babs, Celebrity Chef for Joe.

See, when I hang out with someone, I tend to want to see their face. But that's just me.

"Congrats on dating Dad, Mom!"

Custer, Week 4

2007-09-10T23:22:00.000+02:00

First a technicality: I should've played the Wrightley household here, but out of the four lots that were started last round, I was much more anxious to see what happened in the other three - so the Wrightleys got pushed back a little. I'll get to them later.

For now, let's focus on the Custer home, where little Arcadia seems about to have a heart attack or something.

"I have a sister!"

Yup. Kora gave birth to her and Ravi's third child. This is Chandra, which is Sanskrit for moon, just like Ravi is Sanskrit for sun. And she has her mother's skintone! I think this may be the first child in Strawberry Fields that's born of one parent with skintone four, and another with skintone one or two, that actually gets the darkest skin. There was one (Keziah Black) that got skintone three...

The following day, Kora prepares for the headmaster visit by making turkey... And thinking about woohoo. Believe me, that's just a small taste of what's to come.

Because Ravi brought Brandi home with him from work, and she immediately sets about trying to destroy the innocence of little Arcadia. I'm still mad at her for getting Romulus a bad date and making Jackson cry, so this is Not A Good Move.

I'm warning you, Brandi, I have a cow plant.

Only a few feet away, Ravi is entertaining the headmaster, and he seems to have fallen in with Kora and Brandi's theme for the day.

Seriously, what's wrong with my sims today?

"So, hehe, how would you feel about me marrying your daughter?"

"If you so much as lay a finger on either of them, I'm going to have to break every bone in your hand."

Good for you, Ravi. Don't forget to tell him that you're a cop, too.

Now let's grow Sorin up during the scenario, okay, so this can be a two-for-one deal.

He's a pirate! He grew up into those clothes, so I added the hat - and then he kept shaking his head or covering his eyes at his reflection until I gave him the face mask as well.

Sorin is the second pirate kid in Strawberry Fields. The first was...

Keisha Nottington, who follows the Custers home from school the very next day.

For a brief second, I pictured these little pirates getting married and living a pirate-y life together. Then I remembered that they're first cousins; in fact, their mothers are twins.

They're cute as pirate cousins, too. And see what I mean about the kids getting light skintones even though one of the parents has the darkest one? There's also Keisha's younger siblings, Freddi Cantrell, the Carr twins, Keren Black, Shayelle Cooper, Julius Bonaccord...

Cousin Keisha gets to witness Chandra's toddler tossing, as does Hogan Cooper, who wandered by the lot earlier and was greeted, since he'll be going to uni with Arcadia.

I thought the trend of tux-wearing toddlers had passed? Guess not.

Chandra is a Cancer, 7/1/5/6/8. With that level of shyness, I hope she isn't going to roll popularity or something of the sort...

Obligatory Cute Toddler Pic.

Ravi makes Captain Hero and completes his LTW. Arcadia enthusiastically congratulates him.

"Dad, Dad, can I have a goldfish for my birthday present?"

Yes indeed, it's Arcadia's birthday, and she grows up into a very pretty teen, who rolls pleasure. She's drawn to fat blond sims, but dislikes her own red hair. Her LTW is to have 50 dream dates.

We may as well start working on them right away.

"Hmmm, yes, not bad at all."

Steven Phillips is the new paperboy replacing Alon Livingston when he went to college. Some careful questioning reveals that he's a Leo - which makes him popularity - who likes redheads, and his behavior suggests that he's very shy.

After their dream date, he heads right inside to pick up Chandra.

I think he's a keeper, folks.

The next day, Arcadia asks him to go rollerblading with her. Who do they run into, if not Brandi?

"Uh, no thanks. I don't play red hands with people who talk to young girls they just met about woohoo."

That's my girl!

"And I get bored listening to Ricky bragging about how he has two best friends."

Then don't. You're supposed to be on a date, remember?

That's more like it!

But I'm studying their faces, and I kinda think it's the same one, just the male and female versions. It would probably be a bit of a letdown for them to have kids together if that's the case.

While Arcadia dates, Sorin keeps bringing a new friend home from school every day. This is Maura Dante.

"I don't really like playing cops and robbers. See, Grandpa Amin is a real Captain Hero..."

"No way - my dad is the Captain Hero!"

"There can be more than one, you know. Anyway, I heard your dad say he gave it up to become a teacher instead."

"Aw, shoot. You know about that? Please don't tell anyone at school, 'cause a dad that's Captain Hero is way cooler than a lame teacher."

"Sorin ,that's silly. It's school. He's a teacher. People are gonna find out."

"Aw, man."

"Anyway, like I said, Grandpa Amin is Captain Hero, and if he ever finds out Grandma Liza is a criminal mastermind, he's gonna have to arrest her, and it's gonna destroy the whole family. Sure, she wants to retire, but when she does she wants my dad to take over, and having him arrested by Grandpa Amin would be just as bad."

"Your dad and grandma talk to you about this?"

"'Course not. I eavesdrop."

Ahem. Sorry about the slight detour - let's get back to the Custers! Chandra grew up, and I swear half her wants revolve around her big sister's boyfriend. She wants to talk to him, play with him, be friends with him...

He's around a lot of the time anyway, for easy dating access - he and Arcadia are so cute together - so they spent some time fishing together and were soon friends. Of course now Chandra wants to be best friends with him.

"Pirates don't do homework."

They do if they want a chance of going to see the big pirate ship when I get Bon Voyage.

"Sold!"

"Pleasure seekers don't do homework."

They do if they want enough scholarship money to be able to buy a bubbleblower in college.

"Groooaaaan."

(Never mind that the sorority already has one, and every other uni household most certainly could afford one.)

And this was how the kids spent most of the weekend - skilling together. Of course, Arcadia got the occasional break to go on dates, and the kids helped weed the garden, but on the whole I think most of the time was spent right here.

Points this round: 2, one for Ravi becoming Captain Hero, one for Chandra.

This should so be the cover of a romance novel.

Whoa. That's one impressive fire. And the rain put that out?

Black II, Week 4

2007-09-05T15:36:00.000+02:00

The Blacks, just like the Coopers, moved to a new house. Their old one was rather cramped, and they could certainly afford something better. Especially since their son, Ronan "Ronnie" Black, had graduated. He heads off to his new job as a hostage negotiator right away.

While his fiancée, Lexie Nottington, makes nice with her future mother-in-law.

Unfortunately, Ronnie got a bad chance card right away and was demoted.

And his mom Katerina came home from work with the flu. Careful with that wall, Katerina.

Lexie had found a job in law enforcement, her dream career, but had the day off, so she went shopping. I couldn't stand to look at that horrible flasher's coat any longer. This suits her much better.

That night, it was time for a wedding. Ronnie and Lexie invited a bunch of friends. I spot Will Ryan, his sister Jennifer, George McCarthy, Renaud Bendett, Tavarez Knight, and Janson Knight. (Of course there were some who insisted on arriving from the other direction, and didn't make it into the shot.)

The knot is tied.

Cake is enjoyed.

Half the guests kept hearting for Lexie throughout the party. I call that tactless. The bride at least has the decency to keep her heart(s) for her brand new husband.

It wouldn't be a wedding without a pillow fight or two...

As the newlyweds head off on their honeymoon, the parents of the groom celebrate their son being happily married.

And when the happy couple returns, they have some celebrating of their own to do.

Let's give them some privacy.

But somewhere in the midst of wedding preparations, one of them had managed to make a call to the social worker, and the next day, little George arrives.

His new parents both had to work, but his new grandpa Jonah was home to welcome him to the family.

Isn't he adorable?

I think I'm in love with this kid.

Lexie got a chance card on her first day of work, but unlike Ronnie, the outcome of hers was good. She was promoted to Captain Hero, and fulfilled her LTW!

Too bad she had to bring Brandi LeTorneau with her, because she proceeded to poke and harrass Jackson Black, who'd stopped by for a visit with his grandfather.

Brandi, I'm taking a real dislike to you. First you give me my first ever bag of burning poo, and now you make one of my favorite sims cry?

"He called me Mom!"

Awww.

Ronnie adores little George, too. He's adopted himself, and it was his idea that he and Lexie choose adoption. They haven't ruled out the possibility of having a biological child one day, but for now, it's all about George.

Lexie goes from law enforcement to law.

I decided to experiment and grow a garden without a greenhouse. (It wasn't because I overdid it on the building and couldn't afford a greenhouse, oh no. I told you, it was an experiment!) But they had a very rainy spring, and soon every single plant was weeping.

I built the greenhouse as soon as I could afford to.

Jonah and Katerina paint a lot. I had intended to give Katerina a business, to help her reach §100,000, but I just didn't get around to it this week. I was feeling pretty business-ed out at this point, and besides, I couldn't think of anything interesting to sell. But she does get to wish for money on that wishing well you can see through the window. It's helped bring her up to §50,000, and she's not quite an elder yet.

Aww, already? No more adorable toddler?

"I'm still adorable!"

Yes, you are.

"And I have a super cool racecar room!"

Glad you like it, George. I spent a lot of time getting the racing track floor just right - and it's all for you!

He soon makes friends with Frannie and Sabrina Carr.

And his mom teaches him to study.

Points this round: 3, one for George, two for Lexie's TOCs, Captain Hero and The Law.

Cooper II, Week 4

2007-09-05T15:04:00.000+02:00

Terrence and Sharlene Cooper left their little starter home for a new place this week. After all, once their daughter Shayelle returns from uni a second master bedroom will be necessary, and then there will be a grandkid or two - Shay is a family sim, after all. This place has room to grow.

Aww, the first thing they do after arriving is exchange a light kiss. They're so cute.

Unfortunately, pretty boring as well. This was the calm round I had expected at the Bonaccord house, except more so - all about working, skilling, and badging. Terrence is in medicine, his second career, and getting close to the top. Sharlene is a Hall of Famer.

Even though Terrence spent every night stargazing - until he got too old to get pregnant in case he had been abducted - nothing happened. Of course it didn't. He's a knowledge sim, and knowledge sims don't get abducted in Strawberry Fields.

Because she hasn't been stuck stargazing every night, Sharlene has a lead on her husband when it comes to skilling. The last skill she maxed was cleaning - and now she's done!

Well, with her skills maxed, she needs something else to do, right? Let's try the makeover chair.

And of course they have a garden.

Bad Terrence!

Much better.

They got into the garden club early on, but the score wasn't all that good. By the weekend, Sharlene felt the garden was good enough to invite them over for a second inspection.

Yay! My first wishing well!

I had added lots of statues and stuff to see if that helped get the score up, but the only things the garden club commented on were garden lights, water plants, and the fountain. They like fountains.

And that's the end of this week for this branch of the Cooper clan.

Points this round: 3, for Sharlene's impossible want.

"Hi-yah! I'll catch up to my wife, you can count on that! I will max those skills!"

La Fiesta Tech, Week 4, Part 3

2007-09-05T14:05:00.000+02:00

Welcome back to LFT! This house only has two sims in it, since I knew one of them was going to demand a lot of time and attention.

There was Pearl Antonius, an Aries fortune sim, daughter of Rylan and Tori Antonius.

And Lily Forsythe, a Scorpio romance sim who wants 20 lovers. I'm hoping to fulfill that before re-rolling her after sophomore year. After handling Julius Bonaccord's 50 first dates and 50 dream dates, I should be able to do it...

Pearl got to work on her badges. Robotics, toy making, flower arranging, gardening, fishing...

Cosmetology.

"I'm so sorry, Monica! Please give me another chance!"

Monica did. After all, it couldn't get any worse, could it?

Forget I said that. One more try?

She did get it right, eventually.

Meanwhile, Lily dated a lot. But there were some awkward situations, like this one, where she almost got caught by one lover when on a date with another. Can't have that, now can we?

So she spent all their money on buying a small business lot, where she proceeded to seduce just about every one she knew. Well, only the males, and only those who weren't married or engaged.

Just living with someone doesn't count, in her book. Ethan, Ethan - cheating on Jessamyn again? Oh well, it's not like she's been faithful to you...

There were dormies, townies, downtownies, NPCs...

The Slob, two vampires... Don't you dare bite her, Count Connor King! (Count King? Snort.)

Even a reporter. Please note that she got the Best of the Best award!

No, of course it wasn't from dating him. She already has it, doesn't she? She was just real friendly when he stopped by - and then asked him on a date the next day.

They did occasionally open the business to sell some candles and chandeliers. (I'm still debating the name of the store, but it's likely to be either Boutique Romantique or By Candlelight.) Pearl is practicing her selling techniques on her sister Paige.

Of course, whenever Lily came home after spending a few days dating continually at the boutique, this would happen soon afterwards.

Selling off all the roses helped replenish their cash supply. Not to mention the date gifts...

By the end of freshman year, Pearl had reached a minimum of bronze in all nine badge areas, and Lily had sixteen lovers. I decided to go for thirty while I was at it.

Of course, this didn't leave much time for schoolwork, but there are ways around that...

"Congratulations on becoming my thirtieth lover, Prof!"

For the record, she never called the matchmaker, didn't use any love potion or social glasses, didn't have a wishing well, and she didn't woohoo with a single one of them. The connection perks she got from her business did come in very handy, though.

And then sophomore year ended, and it was time to re-roll. Come on, Lily, what's it gonna be? Let's see...

Romance again? Oh, crap. Well, let's see if she gets any new interesting turn-ons. Red hair and vampires?

Hmmm, do we know anyone like that?

As usual, there were 4.0 GPAs, Greek House memberships, secret society memberships, Big Sim on Campus status. Both got gold badges in gardening and sales, and at least bronze in all the others. Now get me outta here!

Talk about invading someone's space.

"Guys, some privacy?"

Forsythe, Week 4

2007-08-30T17:49:00.000+02:00

Bryony Forsythe came home from college, bringing her boyfriend Leeland Dante with her. Before they did anything more mundane, there was something that demanded priority.

Leeland really, really needed new clothes.

That's more like it!

Bryony - already permaplat since her teen years - found a job as a journalist, while Leeland wants to get paid to party. They planted a garden, added to the house...

... and tried out the new elevator they'd installed.

I think Leeland prefers the bed. Or the car. Or the hottub.

"I get more woohoo?!?"

Sure. We need to get you plat so you'll get promoted tomorrow. Oops - did I just hit try for baby? Gee, sorry Leeland, my finger slipped. Several times in a row.

Catching up with his friends, Leeland hears that Tamara's husband Javier got abducted and came back pregnant with alien twins. The news does not please him - he's probably remembering how he was abducted as a teenager.

See Bryony. See Bryony run. Run, Bryony, run!

Good job, Leeland! He's a professional party guest, and permaplat!

I sent him into paranormal next, because I really wanted to see him in that outfit. Btw, Bryony switched from journalism to law.

Hello? Where did my sim disappear to? He was there just a second ago!

Does this constitute a Sign From Above?

Pop!

"It's time! Leeland, the baby's coming!"

(Please be a boy. And if you wouldn't mind having red or blond hair, too, that'd be real nice.)

"Yeah, yeah. Get on with it, will ya?"

Watch it. You'll have to go through this yourself, soon, you know. Let's see if you're as bored then!

It's a girl, with Leeland's brown hair. (Sigh.) Her name is Poppy, in keeping with the Forsythe flower name tradition.

"Mmmm, she's sexy when she's having a baby!"

Bryony hands the baby over to Leeland right away, because she has something important to do.

"I haven't been able to do this since I started showing!"

Pleasure seekers.

Both parents immediately rolled up fears of dirty diapers. Oh, the joys of sloppy sims. Since Bryony had work that day, and Leeland was on maternity (paternity?) leave anyway, he got stuck with the job.

As soon as that fear was fulfilled, he rolled up wants to cuddle and play with the baby.

See? He might be a romance sim with no nice points, but he loves his little girl!

How would you feel about a pleasure seeker as The Law in your home town?

The next day, it's Leeland's turn to go into labor. He actually gained aspiration points from having the baby! (Okay, so it was a "meet someone new" want.)

Meet Beatrice Dante. And if you don't know why I named her that, find the nearest encyclopedia.

"Ooooh, he's so sexy when he's having a baby!"

I swear, these two were made for each other.

It's Poppy's birthday, too. Everybody gather around the cake! We're about to see what she really looks like!

Or not.

"She stinks!"

Yeah, yeah. Change her diaper while I buy another cake, and we'll try again.

Poppy is another one of those Dante children from hell. Gemini, 1/10/10/8/0. I shudder to think what she and her cousin Cecilia will get up to when they get older.

So, Leeland, I notice you rolled up a want to teach her to talk...?

"I have ten outgoing points, I want to talk to everybody!"

She absolutely refuses to say teddy. She'll happily say bottle, Daddy, high chair, and so on, but not teddy.

"Teddy bears are for sissies!"

And once he's taught her to talk, Leeland wants to teach her to walk and go potty. Romance sim, hah. He's a family sim in disguise!

See what I mean?

...

This kid scares me.

He's a lot less concerned when Nadia Nettles Wrightley stays in the hottub for too long and catches on fire.

"Why do I need to put the fire out, again?"

Because if you don't, there will be no more hottub woohoo.

"Right! Putting out the fire!"

Beatrice had a birthday, too. Her personality is the complete opposite of everybody else in the house. She's a Capricorn, 8/0/0/10/10. Neat where the others are slobs, extremely nice where they're all mean, lazy where the others are at least average active, shy where at least her father and sister are very outgoing... The only thing they all have in common is the playfulness.

Cuteness.

Leeland wanted to teach her to walk and talk, too. I'm telling you, the mean romance sim thing is just a facade - he's really a big old softie.

Points this round: 4, 2 for TOCs, 2 for babies.

Levitating baby. I knew she was possessed.

Bonaccord, Week 4

2007-08-30T16:31:00.000+02:00

The Bonaccords got a new house this week. The old one had a bad layout - there was a glitched spot in the front yard that I'd had to build around - and there wasn't enough room on the lot to add Seasons stuff.

Their new home has plenty of room. A pool, a pond for fishing, a greenhouse (you can just see the roof) and a nice wraparound porch. I has fun playing with the roof, too.

It seemed like this was going to be a pretty quiet week, with just three adults closing in on elderhood, two of them knowledge sims.

Romulus, my shy little Virgo Romance sim, reached the top of his second career first thing, so I figured he deserved a reward. Some of his relationships with his lovers were slipping, so he asked Brandi LeTorneau over for a date.

From this picture, you'd say everything went hunky-dory, right? Well, the picture is misleading. Almost the first thing she did was reject him when he tried to goose her. That caused them to fall out of love with each other, and the date meter went doooown. His next flirt was more successful and she fell back in love with him - two seconds after the date had ended at horrible.

My first burning bag of poo ever. I was both a little traumatized, and at the same time eager to see it. Romulus was very unhappy, though.

Remus had to work late that night, so Romulus had to fill in for him at the telescope. It was pretty much a routine move for me, since I always have an adult or teen male watching all night long, if one is available.

I was stunned when I heard a familiar sound. Julius was abducted from that telescope just last round! But I couldn't see a light beam, until I zoomed out a bit and looked around. Now that's a glitch I haven't seen before.

It un-glitched itself eventually, and pulled Romulus up into the unknown.

Why is it that I never get family or knowledge sims abducted? The aspirations that would get something out of it? (Oh, I've had sims of those aspirations abducted, but never in Strawberry Fields.)

And that's when Remus returns home from work. Sorry, dude, that should've been you up there! But, you know, congrats on the promotion.

Ow, ow, ow.

Remus frets. Is he worried about how his brother is going to react to this? Is he wondering if he and Laura will be stuck raising an alien child that his twin won't want anything to do with? Is he wondering why the aliens don't want him, when they've taken both his son and his brother?

Or is he just afraid the spaceship is about to squash him?

To comfort the abductee, he gets another date with Brandi the next day, to fix their relationship. You know, maybe moving the bed where I wanted it with moveobjects on wasn't such a hot idea.

Don't tell me you didn't see this coming.

"Jessamyn."

"Romulus. I see you've been gaining some weight."

"I thought you might want to know that our kid is going to have a sibling."

Oh, Romulus. The "kid" is a teenager who's ready to leave for college. You've never even talked to her. You can't seem to remember her name. So just stop pretending you asked Jess here for anything but a date, okay?

Uh-oh. This relationship must be cursed or something.

Eeek. I think you should watch your back from now on, Romulus.

I haven't completely forgotten Remus and Laura, it's just that all the interesting stuff happens to Romulus. The knowledge sims are quietly skilling to reach their impossible want, and Laura is learning to make robots. Remus became Chief of Staff, and because I hate that chance card, he switched to politics.

Babies!!! It's a boy and a girl.

Let's see... A family with a tradition of Roman names. Boy/girl alien twins. What do you think I named them? Three guesses, and the first two don't count.

Here's Mars...

... and Venus.

It seems like just yesterday they were born... Oh wait, it was yesterday!

Venus is cute. She has that eye bag thing that all Bonaccord toddlers seem to get, but that should work itself out as she gets older. She has the alien hollow cheeks, too, but it doesn't look too bad on her.

She's also a Scorpio, 10/5/10/8/2. Neat, active, playful and grouchy.

Mars, on the other hand, has very weird-looking features. His cheeks look like a mountain range.

He's a Sagittarius, 0/3/10/10/10. Sloppy, shy, active, playful and nice. His personality reminds me of Laura Dante.

And the very next day, it's time for Romulus and Remus to get old. Ramsey and Julius are invited over for a small family party, and to meet their new cousins.

Oh dear. Remus lost his hair, and Romulus lost his taste.

Since the twins woke up at the same time, why is it that the nice one is screaming his head off, and the grouchy one stands quietly waiting for someone to come pick her up?

Points this round: 3. One of Romulus's TOC (Hall of Famer), and two for Mars and Venus.

"I'm furious about something, but I have no idea what it is!"

Ye gods. Saddest. Face. Ever.

Antonius, Week 4

2007-08-28T23:58:00.000+02:00

Rylan and Tori's older girls have all flown the coop, leaving only little Peace here still at home. Well, almost. One of Rylan's twins, romance sim Penelope, decided to move back home after college.

She's ready to collect some notches on her bedpost!

Actually, she has a few already, and I'm not planning to go for 30 with her, so it may not be that many more. We'll see if I can be bothered to find the time for it. For now, she gets a job as a musician while waiting for her dream job as a chef to show in the daily listings.

Rylan and Penelope both find getting promoted easy, but Tori the family sim hasn't been doing as well. She's close to the top of her first career, but really needs an aspiration boost to get that last promotion. Making best friends with Frannie Carr here put her in platinum just as the carpool showed up.

Uh-oh, I've got a bad feeling about this. Two hours I needed the nanny for, two lousy hours, and this is the first thing she does?

Frannie very much endears herself to me when she walks into the kitchen just as the nanny sets herself on fire, climbs onto a chair, and calmly sits and watches.

Fortunately the firefighter shows up in time to save the nanny's life. It would've sucked to lose toddler Peace over a stupid thing like that.

As soon as the fire's out, Frannie slides off her chair and says goodbye. Show's over, folks, nothing more to see!

Oh, sure, this time you pulled it off! Like that's something to brag about!

Despite a bad chance card that cost him two charisma points (ouch, not good for a knowledge sim) Rylan brings home another promotion. Penelope finds a job as a chef, and when Tori makes it home later that night, she's been elected Mayor!

Meanwhile, Peace becomes a child.

There's really not much to say about Peace. She doesn't have a very strong personality so far, just a generic kid.

Unless you count her ambition. Already thinking about graduating college? You just started school!

Or the fact that she gets to trim the trees all by herself at her age - although I suspect that says more about her parents, really.

Penelope does her thing...

... and the aspiration boost helps her reach her goal of being a celebrity chef.

Oh, and Rylan was named Chief of Staff after getting two promotions in one day. Way to go.

The very next day he got another bad chance card which cost him those same charisma points all over again - and §50,000! After an experience like that, he immediately went back to science, his first love.

Another one bites the dust... Penelope just had to know what woohoo is like with a heavily pregnant guy. Face wasn't about to turn her down.

From there, I guess it's a short step to traumatizing your little sister for life.

I'm not sure exactly why Marlee Dante was visiting - catching up with Pen? - but her timing is either lousy or perfect, take your pick.

She's not a member of the family, BJ, I promise!

No comment...

No, I'm not insinuating anything by showing Pen's bed in the background. You may have noticed that Peace is currently sleeping in it!

Still, that handshake looks kinda bad under the circumstances.

Shortly after the headmaster leaves, it's time for Rylan to grow old!

...

Rylan, I love you.

Points this round: 3, for TOCs. Rylan became Chief of Staff, Tori the Mayor, and Penelope a celebrity chef.

"I feel pretty, oh so pretty..."

I really need to update the furniture in this house. It's just not Penelope's style.

Nettles, Week 4

2007-08-28T22:43:00.000+02:00

Did I really say last round that Nolen Nettles was a well-mannered ghost?

Yeah, right.

Contessa Sadie and little Napoleon were feeling a bit lost after the triplets went off to college, so almost the first thing they did this week was invite Natalie and Nicholette over for a visit. They had a good time together, and everything was going well...

... until Nolen decided to join the party. Apparently his idea of partying, now that he's dead and all, is to scare people.

And once they've been scared into peeing on the floor, guests tend to want to leave.

As if that wasn't bad enough, there's an angry burglar coming around regularly to kick over trashcans. She's furious at Sadie because she caught her on a date with Face last round.

But nothing keeps Napoleon down for long - he's almost always got a smile on his face, and I still adore him. How could you not love a kid whose outerwear matches the schoolbus?

Not to mention pink swimming trunks.

The Contessa was slightly less cheerful. She managed to set herself on fire when cooking - and you'll note that the stove is not on fire, just Sadie.

And then just as she's getting out of the shower to grab something to eat, Nolen shows up and scares her.

"Ohhh, he's so sexy when he scares me half to death!"

If you say so, Sadie.

He seems very satisfied with the course of events. Well-behaved, sure.

It's a good thing Napoleon is about to turn teen, otherwise I'd be worried about Sadie getting herself killed and the kid being taken away by the social worker. So go on, blow out those candles!

Not bad at all! Although that's going to get a bit warm when summer rolls around.

Napoleon is a family sim, Taurus, 7/6/3/10/7. He likes black-haired sims with glasses, but without cologne. His biggest dream in life is to have a long and happy marriage.

Yeah, that seems more his style.

Sadie reaches the top of her second career, culinary.

And celebrates by going on a few dates with her downtownie lover.

It just occurred to me - do you think Napoleon picked up his fashion sense from this guy?

Next on Sadie's to-do list is getting into the garden club. In keeping with the way things have been going for her this week, it starts to hail just as they're inspecting her garden.

"Ow! That hurts!"

Well, she did get in, although she didn't earn a wishing well. At the end of the week, she got a gold gardening badge, so hopefully she should be able to get that next round.

Points this week: 1, for Contessa Sadie's TOC in culinary.

"So, Robi, if I tip you, would you consider marrying one of my granddaughters?"

Ghosts in outerwear always make me snicker. Seeing Nolen change into his outerwear when going into the house, and his normal clothes when going outside, really had me laughing...

2007-08-26T20:03:00.000+02:00

La Fiesta Tech, Week 4, Part 2

It's time to check in on the LFT fraternity, this round inhabited by three young men.

The blond one is George McCarthy, a former store clerk with an interest in making money, who's slated to marry Nicholette Nettles. He's a Capricorn, very shy and serious, and wants to be a doctor.

The redhead is Alon Livingston, former paperboy. He dated Keren Black as a teenager, but since coming to uni he's fallen for Shayelle Cooper, and she for him. His aspiration is knowledge, his sign Pisces, and he has not a single neat point to his name. That relationship should be interesting - she's obsessively neat. Shay also wants to be a cop, while Alon's LTW is to be a criminal mastermind...

And last but certainly not least, there's Julius Bonaccord, son of Remus and his wife Laura. Julius is a plesure seeker who wants 50 first dates, and managed six or so as a teenager. I wasn't even going to try that one, planning to reroll him in uni instead, but... Well, he's somehow become a favorite of mine, and I figured why not?

And so Alon and George got to take a backseat, while this woman moved to the forefront.

He wasn't going to pay anything above the minimum fee, so Julius got a lot of dates like this. Nannies, professors, elderly downtownies, knowledge sims, family sims...

But occasionally he manages to pull off a date good enough to get him a love letter.

The vampire liked him enough to actually develop a crush on him.

"Haha, that's a good one, Julius! I haven't seen the sun in centuries!"

He needed to keep his aspiration up somehow, so he did fall in love with one fellow student - a romance sim - and racked up a number of dream dates with her. Until she caught him on a blind date with someone else when she was coming by to drop off roses.

So he hooked up with Penelope Antonius instead.

Oh yeah, George bought a business. He hasn't quite decided what he's going to sell there, yet, so Julius uses it for privacy when he's dating.

The cow mascot wouldn't agree to a date, so Julius simply invited her over. She asked to bring a friend, and he agreed, hoping to meet someone else he could date. Instead, she brought Face Black.

When Face told her about being abducted by aliens, she tried to strangle him. I suspect there may be a long-standing feud between cows and aliens...

Yes! I did it! 50 first dates - accomplished!

Now he wants 50 dream dates...

Oh well, Lily Forsythe wants 20 lovers anyway, why not make Julius one of them? Between her and Penelope, 50 dream dates were easily accomplished - and as a bonus brought the business up to level 2, when it's never even been open.

Because Julius took up so much of my time, George and Alon pretty much had to settle for schoolwork, skilling, and earning badges. Both of them came with several skills maxed already.

Originally I only had the toy and robot benches in this house, but later on added flower arranging and the makeover chair as well. No discrimination around here!

All three maintained 4.0s, and joined the secret society. (Obviously they were already Greek House members.) Julius also pulled off his IW, before rerolling to popularity.

Butterflies indoors?

The maid is incapable of walking past a diagonal wall.

"Goooo makeover!"

"She's gonna land on me!"

2007-08-26T18:43:00.000+02:00

Black, Week 4

Last week Renee and Timothy were all alone in this house, and as a result pretty much bored me to death. Now, with the return of their younger son Jackson and his bride-to-be, Kayla Dante, thing should get more interesting.

The first thing that happens is that the older son, Ronan, aka Face, wanders by autonomously. He's greeted and invited in, of course, so he can catch up with the rest of the family.

Renee bonds with her sons over cheesecake.

Jackson, knowledge sim that he is, wants to know all about his brother's unexpected pregnancy.

No, Jackson, I don't think that's how it happened...

The following day is a good one for the Black household, career-wise. Kayla here becomes Chief of Staff, Timothy is named Captain Hero...

... and Jackson fulfills his LTW by becoming a mad scientist.

He celebrates by maxing his body skill, running the obstacle course in the snow. It's a pretty cold spring, apparently.

Kayla gets to pet the penguin.

Renee was close to the top of her career, too, but managed to get a bad chance card which lost her two charisma points, and therefore cost her the promotion she was due. She had to wait another day to reach permaplatness - but she did eventually get it.

Kayla fulfills her LTW and IW by maxing all her skills.

Timothy throws a party, and everybody spends it fishing, which seems to be a hit.

He's surrounded by fortune sims - what did you expect the topic to be?

The next morning, Jackson and Kayla celebrate a small, private dawn wedding. She's pretty sure she's expecting their first child.

And as the sun rises, they kiss for the first time as husband and wife.

Timothy and Renee have taken up gardening, and become the first members of the garden club in Strawberry Fields.

The Blacks continue to have bad luck with chance cards, as Jackson's new career in music first costs him two charisma points, and the next day §18,000. But it doesn't keep him from becoming a rock god in the end.

Please welcome little Marina to the family! She has Kayla's brown hair, and Jackson's dark blue eyes.

Not to mention an unnerving habit of turning her head to stare right at me. Why isn't she looking at her mother, like babies are supposed to?

Points this week: 9. One for Marina, three for Kayla's IW, and five for TOCs - Timothy in law enforcement, Renee in slacker, Kayla in medical, and Jackson in science and music.

"Dude, I'm about to get lucky. Take a hike, would you?"

"I thought I was supposed to be the romance sim around here? Those two can't keep their hands off each other!"

Stop doing that!

2007-08-26T17:45:00.000+02:00

Knight, Week 4

Joe and Marisa Knight seem quite happy to have his son Janson move back home after graduating college. I think they were getting a bit lonely with just the two of them in that big house.

Since he's a family sim whose fiancée is still at uni, Janson needs something to occupy his time; he temporarily goes into paranormal, but switches to education as soon as he gets the chance.

I had plans to have the Knights buy a business, and had already picked the right one for them - but then Marisa went and lost §20,000 on a bad chance card. It took a few promotions before they once again had enough cash for...

Tyke's Tower Toys. Come on, it's got two big knights outside - of course they had to buy it! Joe renamed it Knight's Knicks & Knacks, and they sell basically anything that raises fun, from purely decorative items to to computers, and of course crafted toys.

All three of them take turns at the toy bench, but Joe is the first to get a silver badge...

... while Marisa gets them a good review.

They spent a fairly long time at the business, thanks to energizers, and before they left Marisa had earned §100,000, and Joe §50,000. Marisa had a gold sales badge, while Joe had focused on the registry and restocking, because he seemed to learn selling much more slowly. I eventually figured out it was because he didn't have nearly as many charisma skill points - once he got those, it was much easier.

Buy! Buy! Buy!

Marisa still floats hearts all over the place for any other man who takes her fancy. She's never even met Malcolm before, and the first thing she does is give him a friendly hug. You know, if a complete stranger came up to me wanting to hug me... Nah.

Back home, Janson invited his fiancée Marlee Dante over for a visit so she could get to know his father and stepmother a little better. They're so cute together.

Both being fortune-minded Libras, Joe and Marlee hit it off right away, and both seem fine with the idea that as soon as she graduates...

... she's going to officially join the family.

(And I'm just going to ignore the fact that they have two bolts for each other.)

Their conversation also makes it clear to me that Joe is not thrilled with Seasons. They kept talking about the weather, and every time there was a sun in the picture, Joe smiled, but if it was snow or rain, he was a lot less happy.

See what I mean?

As the week ends, the business is a whopping level 9, and Joe has silver badges in both restocking and registry. Not too shabby. Marisa has a silver in registry and bronze in stocking.

Joe took the weekend off to do some gardening and fishing. Catching boots is no fun, though. While he was doing this, Marisa wrote another bestseller.

The penguin stopped by for a visit right after the season changed to summer.

And Joe grew old. He needs new clothes, but I think the salt-and-pepper look quite suits him.

Points this week: 5, three for Marisa's impossible want, and two for careers. Joe is a mad scientist and Janson was appointed Education Minister.

A dazzle gone terribly wrong...

2007-08-22T00:05:00.000+02:00

Vega, Week 4

Javier Vega no longer has to live alone.

Not only did his fiancée Tamara Black (above) move in with him, but his favorite little sister, Dolores, came back home after graduation.

Dolores doesn't have any immediate plans to get married, although she does date Ronan "Face" Black - Tamara's nephew, strictly speaking, although they barely know each other.

Anyway, Javier and Tamara were eager to start their life together. Tamara has only just moved in and found herself a job (in paranormal, until she finds the one she wants) and already she's talking about adding to the family.

Four unsuccessful tries for baby later, they're looking a little less enthusiastic. Not to mention that they missed the car pool - and we all know how well fortune sims take to that. So they jumped into the car to get to work, determined to keep trying later.

That night, not only does Tamara find a job in her dream career - crime - but they also succeed in getting pregnant. That's where the luck runs out; she has a very difficult pregnancy, and I do mean very difficult. Just look at that plumbob.

The house is expanded - both a second story, and a greenhouse off the kitchen. You don't even need to go outside to pick yourself some fresh vegetables for your salad.

The couple that weeds together... uh... breeds together?

Javier reaches the top of his second career, thereby fulfilling a second LTW. Hello, Mr Chief of Staff!

And that very night...

"I can't look! They're taking him away from me!"

Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy, anyone? That doesn't look very safe.

Screeeaaaam!

Yes, Javi, they're right behind you.

He runs right inside and into Tamara's arms. Only she can make this bearable.

Awww.

The answer to that question is "Yes."

The following night Javier and Dolores invite their sister Mercedes and her fiancé Ramsey Bonaccord over for a visit. Tamara decides this is a good time to go into labor, right there in the front yard.

And here's Paloma Vega. Tamara's adopted father's name is Jonah, which is Hebrew for dove. Paloma means the same thing in Spanish. She has black hair and her dad's amber eyes.

She's the first G3 born in the neighborhood.

Aunt Mercedes takes it upon herself to feed the baby, even though she was just fed a couple hours ago.

Javier...

"What? Don't look at me, Mercedes left her there. And I'm pregnant, I need to eat."

Live-in spinster sisters do have their uses. Dolores dotes on her niece.

To set the record straight, Javier loves his little girl very much, too. It's just the pregnancy that keeps him from being the perfect parent.

Tamara, did you...? Do you know what that's going to do?

"He's going to have twins now."

And you want this?

"I don't want to go through another pregnancy. The first one nearly killed me. Three kids should be enough, right? If he has twins, it's like a 75% chance at least one of them will be a boy."

Huh. Not in my game.

Poor Tams got fired from her job. That smuggler chance card is the pits.

Silver lining, though - she found the same job on the computer again. Yay!

The Ryan family stops by for a visit, along with Nadia Nettles Wrightley. Of course they have to talk about aliens.

You know what this means... It's birthday time!

Paloma turns out to be a Capricorn, 9/3/2/10/10. Very neat, nice and playful, but shy and lazy. She's going to have The Slouch. I hate The Slouch. Remind me to have Javier encourage it out of her.

He beat the odds. I knew he was going to do that. Two girls.

Celestina here is the older...

... and Luz the younger.

Tamara, for someone who just fulfilled a LTW, you sure don't look happy.

"Two girls! I can't believe he had two girls! He's going to want me to get pregnant again now so he can have a boy."

I really don't think Javier is that kind of macho. But if I'm wrong, I'll just introduce him to the electro dance sphere, and he can get pregnant again. Now go inside and help take care of those three adorable little girls.

"There's a green thing in my room! Get it out of here!"

Paloma wasn't very happy, either, to wake up to find that her room was no longer her own. Going from an only child to one of three during a nap was just no fun at all.

Honey, when they get big enough to play with, it'll be a lot better. You'll see.

Points this round: 6, 3 for careers, 3 for new sims. Tamara reached the top of the criminal career, Javier of the medical, and Dolores of education. Paloma, Celestina and Luz were born.

Javier! Your sister? That's just creepy.

2007-08-21T18:25:00.000+02:00

Cooper, Week 4

Welcome back to the Cooper home!

Little Hogan, son of the late Fred Cooper and his second wife Andrea, is the prospective heir to this lot. Living here with him are his mom, his half-brother Joel, and Joel's fiancée Carmen Vega, who just moved in after graduating college.

Last round, Hogan's birthday was pretty much ruined by the death of his sister-in-law Isabella. (Yes, she was his sister-in-law even though she died of old age the day he became a child; Joel is old enough to be Hogan's father, and Isabella was old enough to be Joel's mother...) This birthday went much better.

He really does look just like his mother.

Hogan rolled knowledge, with the LTW to be a mad scientist. He's put off by fat sims, but likes fitness and... facial hair? Gah! Hogan, haven't you been paying attention? I have far too many girls and not enough boys, so there's no way you're getting out of marrying a girl! You're not allowed to be gay, you hear me?

Carmen couldn't find an opening in culinary, which is her dream job, so she went into journalism to begin with. It didn't take her long at all to become a real media magnate.

"I've graduated, we both have good jobs, and you're not getting any younger, Joel. Maybe it's time for us to start a family?"

Apparently the woohoo was so remarkable that Carmen immediately has to call up one of her many best friends to talk about it.

She makes the best faces. Although if I were Joel, I'd be a little be worried that she's making them when talking about their woohoo...

Meanwhile, Andrea the fortune sim has started a home business. She hired some builders she knew from her days as a criminal to come in while everyone else was at work or school to dig out a basement under the house. Down there she runs a speak-easy of sorts, with poker, bubbles...

"What, you thought I'd stick to the straight and narrow just because I'm no longer active in the world of crime? Hah, that's funny!"

Yeah, I see that counterfeiting machine in the corner, Andrea. Lucky for you Joel the ex-cop never goes upstairs.

"Why are there bubbles coming through the floor?"

I don't think you're going to find any fingerprints on them, Hogan.

With two popularity sims getting married, of course we must have a party. With a fortune sim in the house, the business is left open so all the guests have to pay to get in.

"What just happened?"

Your bride popped while under the arch, Joel. Just try again.

Carmen catches up with her sister Dolores and their college roommate, Penelope Antonius. The subject of conversation doesn't even surprise me anymore.

Carmen isn't going to let a little thing like being pregnant keep her from her honeymoon. But I think she and Joel are taking the whole "becoming one" thing a bit too literally.

...

I can't find any words.

When they return from their honeymoon, they're greeted by two of Carmen's siblings - Javier and Mercedes - complaining that the plates from the wedding dinner haven't been cleaned up fast enough. Right. Because everybody knows that's the bride and groom's job.

The next morning, Carmen pays a visit to the urn of the first Mrs Joel Cooper, and promises to take good care of their husband.

The husband in question remains as clueless as ever. Hey, Joel? You notice anything happening right behind you, like, I don't know, lightning just struck?

Andrea earns §50,000. Halfway there...

The next day she becomes a business tycoon. I'm debating whether to leave her there, or start in on a third career for her. Business is a good one, after all.

And lightning strikes yet again.

That night we get the first ghost sighting this round. Isabella wanders around and scares a few guests - like Jan the vampire matchmaker here - but never goes near anyone in the family.

Doesn't she just look so proud of herself?

Joel and Carmen spend some private time together...

... just before she goes into labor.

It's a girl! Meet Isabel Cooper, named - obviously - for her dad's first wife. She has her father's skintone, her mother's eyes, and the red hair that both of them carry as a recessive. Red hair and violet eyes, what a fascinating combination.

(Apparently Joel's heart was racing so much that he had to go sit down for a minute.)

Obligatory cute family shot.

And the first thing little Isabel does is throw up on her mom.

Uh, Joel? Maybe you shouldn't do that with a baby in your arms...

The business suffered a slight temporary setback when Carmen's sister Dolores spontaneously combusted after getting overheated in the hot tub. Joel and Andrea both came rushing to help, but Andrea only succeeded in catching herself on fire, too. Hogan had to save her while Joel took care of Dolores.

Carmen gets a gold gardening badge...

And immediately starts telling the trees not to produce fruit. I never knew reverse psychology worked on trees.

For the record, that's an orange tree. It was never going to produce apples.

As a toddler, Isabel turns out to have very light red hair. Oh, and she looks very much like Joel. What is it with kids in this family only looking like one of their parents?

She's a Pisces, 5/1/8/3/10. Very active, shy and nice, kinda serious, average neat. And that makes her the first kid since installing OFB/Seasons who doesn't have the same sign as at least one of her parents. Well, unless one of the alien twins in the Dante house was first, but I don't know their signs yet...

I'm telling you, they're two peas in a pod.

And to end the week on a good note, Carmen reaches the top of the culinray career and becomes permaplat.

Points this week: 5. 4 for careers - Andrea topped business, Joel military, Carmen journalism and culinary - and the last for Isabel's birth.

I guess even popularity sims get sick of hearing the phone ringing off the hook day and night.

Dance, Hogan, dance!

2007-08-19T22:40:00.000+02:00

La Fiesta Tech, Week 4, Part 1

It's time to go back to school. College, to be specific. In this house, we have three sims.

Keren Black, daughter of old Jonah Black, a fortune Scorpio who wants to be a doctor. She hasn't been paired up with anyone yet, aside from briefly dating newspaper boy Alon as a teen, so I'll introduce her to a few people and see what happens.

Naomie Nettles, one of the Nettles triplets, a fortune Aries who wants to get into the Hall of Fame. Not paired up yet either, but I have some thoughts about that... If they pan out.

And Shayelle Cooper, daughter of Terrence Cooper, a family Scorpio who wants to be a cop. She's spoken for, because she has three bolts with...

... Alon Livingston, Keren's old high school sweetheart. Fortunately, Keren doesn't mind at all. Even if she does occasionally roll up a want to fall in love with Alon.

But the focus during their first two years of college wasn't on romance - it was on exploring my two new EPs, OFB and Seasons. Since college often feels so sloooow, why not use that time productively? I planted a couple of fruit trees outside - there wasn't really room for more - and bought one of each of the four work stations.

Shayelle started with the flower bench, and with the added fall bonus, it didn't take her very long to earn a gold badge. The first snapdragon was plunked down right there in the badge room, of course, so she could produce more of them!

Naomie chose to focus on robotics - even if all of them did a little of everything - and after what seemed like an eternity compared to the flower bench, finally got her gold badge. Then she spent another eternity making a servo... which, of course, she can't activate until she moves back to Strawberry Fields.

Keren took to the makeover chair, and had a lot of fun with it. (If only it didn't take so long to load each makeover...) Sometimes the new looks were perfectly suited for her customers.

And sometimes they were complete failures, like this clown here.

Although it does kinda suit him...

HEY! I don't care how wrong your makeover went, you do NOT raise your hand to my sim!

Just for that, I'm going to "fix" you. Get back in that chair, mister!

And he... likes it? Huh, go figure.

Oh dear... Naomie has three bolts for Paul Ryan. At least when she's in formalwear or underwear to match his turn-ons...

To distract herself from her feelings for a married man, she bought a business - Just Flowers And More. Here they sell all the extra things they produce on their crafting benches, and gain business-related badges while they're at it.

Uh-oh. During a summer thunder storm, lightning struck the hot tub with this guy in it. I know you can't see him very well, but for anyone who's played LFT, he's the Kennedy Cox clone with a ponytail. Although he'd been given a makeover - that's why he was around - so he no longer has the ponytail.

I told Naomie to come put the fire out, but... Um. It looks like our little fortune sim is more interested in saving the hot tub than the dormie. (Let's pretend that it wasn't because my targetting was off, okay?)

Hey, girls? Someone just died on your lot.

"Yeah, that's sad. Who wants to play chess?"

Oookay. Well, bye-bye, Kennedy clone.

This picture is from the next thunder storm. I just missed the actual lightning bolt - this is one second later - but it hit the headstone dead on, if you'll pardon the pun.

Kennedy-clone immediately popped out, and he was not happy. Don't ask me why he's bald on top. An effect of the lightning? Don't ask me why he's pretending to be family, either, because I know for a fact he was romance when he was alive...

But he goes after the girls with a vengeance, scaring them repeatedly and floating around the house cracking his knuckles all night long. I haven't seen him since, though, so the headstone gets to stay, for now. I can always put my knowledge sims here, they enjoy seeing ghosts...

By the end of their sophomore year, all three held 4.0s, were Greek House members, secret society members, and big sims on campus.

"The place is clean, see you tomorrow."

What? Wait! What do you mean the place is clean - don't maids pick up books on the floor anymore? Sigh. You just can't get decent help these days, can you?

Someone send the streaker to see a dentist!

Imagine waking up from a nightmare of Sasha Dante to find a llama in your bedroom, chanting "Vo Gerbits."

2007-08-19T21:38:00.000+02:00

Cantrell, Week 4

Next on the list is the Cantrell home. And just look who's walked past on the very first day and headed straight for the toddler girl. Malcolm, are you planning to make a habit of this? It borders on creepy, you know.

Anyway, today's a double birthday! Rhea here is going to become a teenager, and little Fredrica is ready to start school.

Rhea, I really hope your face is one of those that straightens itself out when you hit your teens. It worked on your cousin Julius... I've got my fingers crossed.

But first, let's start a garden. Just fertilizing this plot and planting about half of it was enough to get Rhea her bronze badge. Good girl.

Ethan gets to the top of his second career, and is now a business tycoon.

Okay, Daddy's home. Let the birthday celebration begin!

Freddi goes first, because Rhea is still working in the garden.

"Why is there an hourglass on my head?"

Never mind that, turn around so I can get a better look at you!

"Don't wanna. I'm gonna go lounge on the couch instead."

"OMG!"

What is it? Did something happen?

"Look at Rhea!"

Yeah, kid, I know she grew up, there's no need to sound so surpr...

Whoa. She's pretty! I mean, really pretty. Talk about an ugly duckling turning into a swan.

She's also a fortune sim, who likes formalwear and underwear but dislikes cologne, and wants to be a criminal mastermind.

These two should dislike each other. Rhea is a Virgo, Freddi a Taurus, which is one of the worst combinations you can get. Their personalities are almost complete opposites. But... Just look at them. They love each other. Rhea was the one to teach her kid sister to study, because Ethan and Jessamyn were on yet another dream date. They play together, dance together, Rhea gives her lessons on the candy machine...

Rhea also made sure they got into private school. The adults weren't much help.

Ethan was busy playing in puddles...

... and Jessamyn was dreaming about how hot she is.

She did finally manage to get to the top of her chef career. It only took her most of her adult lifespan. Okay, Jess, let's see what else we can find for you so you can get a second career point for me. Slacker is open - let's go for that.

She got a chance card on her second day at work, and earned §75,000, just like Ethan did a long time ago.

Fredrica meets Prince Ryan, and they seem to be getting along fine. Let's hope they roll compatible aspirations, because I think this is a match that could work really well.

Meanwhile, Jessamyn watches as Rhea flirts with Tosha Go...

So the next time she goes on a date, Rhea decides community lots are a better option.

Matchmaker? You are so fired.

And we end the week as we started it, with a double birthday. This time, it's Ethan and Jessamyn who are getting older.

Well, she needs new clothes, but her face didn't explode or anything.

And Ethan looks as handsome as ever.

So long, Cantrells! See you next round!

Points this round: 3, two for TOCs, one for money earned. Ethan topped business and Jessamyn culinary.

So what's wrong with this picture?

A) Ethan is dreaming about the hotness of a woman who isn't Jessamyn.
B) He's dreaming about his brother's wife.
C) He's dreaming about a dead woman.
D) All of the above.

2007-06-14T14:35:00.000+02:00

Ryan, Week 4

Welcome back to the home of Paul, Paige, Peg, and Unborn Baby - aka the Ryan family. Pictured here, as you can see, are Paige and her daughter. Paul is busy trying to earn the last skill point he needs for the promotion that will fulfill his LTW. (He did earn it, but took so long to do it that he was late for work. No promotion that day.)

Sheesh - Paige, that's not your husband! Stop hearting over Malcolm Landgraab!

You may remember that at the Wrightley house I discovered that Paige has three bolts for her best friend's husband, Guy Wrightley. Apparently she has no qualms about appreciating other men.

"Hey, I'm just looking!"

Malcolm was the first walkby on Monday, and Paige greeted him. He headed straight for the nursery and spent the rest of his visit getting to know little Peg. They seemed to really hit it off. I'll have to remember that when she grows up...

Early the next morning, Paige went into labor, with Paul being about as helpful as a sim father can be.

It's a boy! Meet Prince Ryan. (Yes, I named him Prince.) Like his sister, he has Paul's hair and eyes. Yay for recessive haircolors!

And that very day, Paul returned from work with a promotion to Chief of Staff, and permaplat status. I'm not a big fan of the medical career - lousy chance cards, among other things - so he soon found a new job.

Anyone who's watched ATWT in the past year or so will know why I chose paranormal...

But first, Peg had a birthday! She really does look just like her daddy. Right now, those features are a little too big for her face, but I have reason to hope that she'll grow into them.

From the moment I entered the lot, Paul had a want to buy a makeover station, and it just wouldn't go away. I finally gave in and did it. He has a real knack for it, and hardly ever gets a bad result.

Unfortunately, I can't say the same for Paige. Poor Jessamyn Cantrell was horrified! But the second attempt went better.

Between the two of them, a whole bunch of townies are walking around with new and improved looks. Well, most of them are improved. Some are just funny.

Paige... Wouldn't it be wiser for you to keep some distance to Guy and those three bolts? Why expose yourself to that kind of temptation unnecessarily?

"We're just friends! But doesn't he look gorgeous with this hairstyle?"

Uh, right. Gorgeous is not a word I'd associate with Mr Chimpface, but I guess to each their own. And Paige, don't forget that Paul is your "own," not Guy.

Prince is a toddler! Just like his big sister he looks a lot like Paul, although I'm pretty sure he has Paige's nose. He's an Aries, like both his parents, 5/8/6/5/3.

What are you reading, Paige? Mind if I take a look?

Oh, my. Isn't that Remington? You're reading romance novels starring your maid? Sheesh. I can't quite make out the title, but it looks like it says "Mail Maid & Visit" or something of the sort...

Speaking of maids, do I want to know why Lexie Nottington's fingerprints are on the Maidmobile?

Little Peg doesn't have an easy time learning cleaning skill, and her mother's attitude isn't helping. Really, Paige, it's not her fault she only has two neat points!

Seriously. Not good parenting, there. I'm feeling really sorry for Peg. And it isn't just her mom, either. While Paul spends most of his time jumping from one career to another - he's a lawyer now - he always seems to find time for Prince, but not so much for his daughter.

Case in point: Headmaster visit. Paul is a fortune sim, so he should've rolled up a want for Peg to get into private school, right? Nope. But the second Prince grew into a child, there it was - a want to get him into private school. Favoritism much?

Oh, you wanted to see what Prince looks like as a child? Well, here he is, and he's cute. He's going to have his pick of girls when he gets older... mainly because there are so many more girls than boys around here.

He immediately rolled up a want to buy a lemonade stand, and of course the son and heir must be indulged. Napoleon Nettles was one of his first customers.

Meanwhile Peg is scarfing down food to comfort herself over being unloved...

Or maybe she's just a very sloppy eater.

Points this week: 2, 1 for TOC (Paul became Chief of Staff) and 1 for a new sim, Prince.

"Why is this Guy always hanging around?"

2007-06-10T18:27:00.000+02:00

Dante, Week 4

Last week at the Dante house, Liza suffered a brief bout of empty nest syndrome after four of her five kids had gone off to uni; Amin stargazed in hope of a child of his own; Liza became a criminal mastermind, and Amin Captain Hero; Marlee became a teenager and left for college.

This week we see the return of Aston Dante, with his fiancée Rosario Vega in tow. They exchanged vows in a small, private ceremony at home, and became husband and wife.

Before that there had been one disappointment for me already. When I first entered the lot, I sent Rosario to the computer to look for a job. There was an opening in the criminal field - Aston's career of choice - but by the time I got him over there, the job offer was gone. What happened to job listings changing at midnight? It was 7am!

Oh well. He'll have to keep looking. In the mean time, he's working as a musician, and Rosario as a gamer.

Liza has the want to earn §100,000 locked in her panel, and I wanted to play with the business aspect of the game, OFB being new to me and all. So while the Dantes were building a second story to make room for the newlyweds, they also added to their backyard, locked their doors, and opened a home venue. The customers have access to a pool, a hot tub, a chess set, and some instruments.

The upstairs consists of four bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a big hallway. Rosario is a family sim who wants to graduate three kids from college, so two bedrooms for kids seemed like a good idea.

Wheeee! Pool slide fun!

Rosario has water in her ears after a midnight dip.

The next day, there was a brief flurry of snow. Nothing that stayed on the ground, but Aston was still very excited about it. He's such a big kid at times.

He and Rosario are so in sync it's almost scary. And I love that outfit for a musician.

Rosario got a chance card that earned her 17,000, and that same night she was promoted to game designer. Since that money is added to the home venue profits, it may well have been what pushed Liza up to the 100,000 limit.

Aston, on the other hand, got a chance card which ended up with him being demoted two levels. Apparently the audience didn't appreciate his crescendo.

Spring is in the air!

Liza and Amin both wanted to woohoo in bed, so I told them both to go relax on their bed, then detoured to check on the business. When I came back to their room, this was what I saw. Autonomous woohoo! (And no, I don't have any woohoo-related hacks.) I had to try it again, and this time I kept the camera on them. Yep - after relaxing next to each other for a little bit, they suddenly reached for each other and dove under the covers. Neat.

Aston and Rosario enjoyed spring too, of course, newlyweds and all. Soon enough Rosario was rolling up constant wants for pancakes and thinking about pacifiers. She switched to a career as an artist, and brought home a camera with which to take pictures of her future kids.

Aston went into natural science, since music wasn't working out for him and crime still wasn't available. He almost immediately reached the top, and then I had to decide whether to send him back to work right away, or keep him at home stargazing with Amin. I figured he has the rest of his adult life to stargaze, so why not go earn another 10,000.

Even as Aston was leaving for work, Liza discovered old age had snuck up on her. I really need to take her shopping.

While I was checking on the business, and on the needs of pregnant Rosario, there was a familiar sound, and suddenly I was pulled off into a cutscene. What?

Finally! He's been stargazing every night since he moved in, he's seen his step-son Leeland abducted right in front of him, but tonight it was Amin's turn! Yay!

I guess once the local aliens figured things out with Face, they decided it was time to get things moving around here.

Awww, don't cry, Amin. You're going to have a baby of your own now!

Yes, that's right. A baby. Or two.

When I sent Liza into town to buy some new clothes, she ran into her two older daughters, and was quick to let them know what had happened to their step-father.

It's not nice to laugh at him, Sasha.

Oh wait. You're not nice.

The home business is open 24/7, and pretty much runs itself. Occasionally I send one of the family members out to socialize with the others - especially Amin, since he's a popularity sim - but mostly the customers just hang around having fun on their own.

Thank you for giving your sister's family a gold star, Dolores.

We did have this one unfortunate incident where lightning managed to strike the hot tub, even though it's covered by the second floor of the house. Stars were being lost left and right when a customer caught fire.

It was none other than Goopy. Rosario and Amin saved the day, and Goopy's life.

With Rosario and Amin both heavily pregnant - and bonding over it - I had a decision to make. I love alien babies, and would like to have two of them. But that would only leave room in the house for two other kids, which would mean Rosario's want for three kids would have to be put off for quite some time. Hmmm. What to do?

When I figured it out - with a little help from the others at the prosperity yahoo group - I had Rosario make a phone call...

... before she and Amin shared some cheesecake that Aston had made for them. He's the only one in the house who knows how to cook.

Almost immediately afterwards, it was time for her to give birth. And who does she hand the first baby to? Amin, of course.

Both are girls, with Rosario's green eyes. Cecilia has red hair, and Laura brown.

When Aston came home from work - he's a journalist now - he was shocked to discover himself the father of twins. Rosario just smiled.

The next morning, it was Amin's turn. Liza is holding her step-daughter Danica (Slavic for "morning star") while Amin feeds his son Sterling ("little star").

Wait, what? Amin, you just gave birth, and you're heading off to work?

"A sim's gotta do what a sim's gotta do. I hope the criminals in Strawberry Fields haven't taken over completely while I've been out of commission!"

Considering one of the local masterminds is currently taking care of your babies for you, I suspect not.

And just after Amin leaves, there is another new arrival. Yes, it was the social worker that Rosario called yesterday. She and Aston are adopting this little girl, Maura - who is apparently upset that the car is blocking her from seeing her new home.

Ah, there's a better pic of her. Maura is a Capricorn, with the usual Maxis default personality for them: neat, lazy, and playful.

She immediately rolls up a want to be best friends with Rosario - and her new mother wants the same thing. Awww.

A closer look at little Danica reveals that she seems to have no alien facial features at all, as far as you can tell with a baby. I guess that means she's going to have Amin's ski-slope nose...

Sterling, on the other hand, is noseless and bugeyed. He's also the only boy among four young girls...

Sunday night, the first set of twins grew into toddlers. This is Cecilia, and let me tell you, she's a Dante alright. A Sagittarius like her father, she has full outgoing, active and playful points, with one nice and one neat.

Laura here is like her sister in some ways, but not in others. She too is a Sagittarius, with full active and playful points with only one neat point - but she's considerably less outgoing, and much nicer. She has 8 nice points! That's more than her father, twin sister, Uncle Leeland, Aunt Sasha, Grandma Liza and Grandpa Amin put together!

The game actually gave me a good twin and an evil twin. Heh.

Points this week: 10. Five for new sims, two for TOCs (Nat Sci for Aston, Gamer for Rosario) and three for Liza's impossible want.

Possessed man maid? Doesn't everyone have one of those?

2007-06-08T19:07:00.000+02:00

Nottington, Week 4

The time has come for my sims to get their very first taste of Seasons. And Open for Business, as well, but that's not quite as obvious in everyday life. As a note, my sim year is set to spring, summer, fall and finally winter.

When we left last week, Kiana was heavily pregnant with their first child. She still is, of course. Unfortunately Adam had to go to work - he's an artist - but Kiana spent the few hours remaining until the baby was due planting a few tomatoes in the front yard. Then she took a nap.

She woke up with labor pains. It's time!

And little Keisha Nottington arrives. She's named for Adam's parents, Kevin and Alisha, who died when he was just a teenager.

She has Kiana's brown hair and custom blue eyes, as expected, and skin that is only a shade darker than Adam's.

I wanted to try out some of the OFB work stations, so Adam will be making toys for the kids, and Kiana working on flower arrangements. When she's not gardening or taking care of the kids. She's an Ecological Guru, with only one day of work each week, so her maternity leave means she pretty much never has to work again in her life, unless she wants to.

Adam arrives home with a promotion to Visionary. Quite a day for him! He rushes in to hold and cuddle his new daughter, of course.

Soon afterwards he decides he wants to try one of the new career opportunities now available, so he goes into law. What a weird idea - a career reward that pays you to gain charisma? Well, no objections from me...

Between Adam's promotions and Kiana's fabulous maternity pay, they decided to expand the house again, this time by adding a second story. I love the new building tools in OFB, by the way.

It looks kinda fairytale-ish. I think it's the roof, and maybe the windows as well.

Of course, since they're both family sims, and Kiana wants to see at least three kids graduate from college, it's not long before she's pregnant again. And eating cheesecake.

Time for Keisha to grow into a toddler. Wonder what Kiana's so angry about? Ddi she want to be the one bringing her daughter to the cake? Or is it pregnancy hormones?

Oh dear. That's quite a chin. And what happened to her eyes? Hopefully this is one of those things that kids grow out of when they get older.

Keisha is an Aquarius like Adam, 2/4/7/7/8.

I was amazed by how flat her profile is - looks almost like she ran straight into a wall or something.

Then I took a look at her dad. Hmmmm. Well, it doesn't look so bad on him, so maybe she'll turn out okay.

This kid has ambitions! Just a toddler, and she's already planning to be Big Sim On Campus when she grows up.

Kiana can walk on air!

She reached a silver badge in gardening this week, and a bronze in flower arranging. Adam has a bronze badge in toy crafting.

This time Adam is at home when his wife goes into labor. Doesn't he look eager to welcome the new babies?

We have a boy and a girl, this time. Shaniqua was born first, with Jaquan close behind. They both have Adam's skin tone, Kiana's hair and eyes, and recessive blond hair rather than red. That puzzled me at first, and it wasn't until I checked Adam's DNA that I discovered he has one gene for red and one for blond hair. How did I never notice that before?

With a toddler and two babies in the house, Kiana worn out from her pregnancy, and Adam having to rush off to work, they hired a nanny. She was pretty good with the babies...

... but insisted on bringing Keisha a zillion bottles. As soon as Kiana woke up, she sent the nanny packing.

Just a few hours later, Keisha had a birthday. She grew up into a pirate who likes to catch fireflies...

... teach her pet brick to do tricks...

...read stories about toilets...

... and go fishing in the rain.

I dug a small pond in the corner of the lot just for Keisha. Come on, she's a pirate, and the first thing she did when she woke up the next day was roll up a want to fish! How could I deny her?

(Of course, I soon discovered that sims always want to fish in the summer, but lets not be nitpicky. I like my little pirate.)

Don't drop the baby!

Then it was time for the twins' birthday. Isn't it heartwarming to see how sexy Adam still finds his wife, after three kids?

Here's Jaquan in the tux, and Shaniqua in the too-warm outerwear. It's summer!

Both are Capricorns like Kiana. Shaniqua's personality is 10/6/2/7/9, while Jaquan's is 10/4/3/8/10. Almost identical, with just minor differences, like Shaniqua being a little more outgoing.

Shaniqua is a little Daddy's girl.

Aww, sisterly love!

Keisha and Jaquan get along just fine, too.

And that's where we leave them for now, this happy little family.

Points this round: 4 - 3 for new babies, 1 for TOC (Adam reached the top of the Artist career).

2007-06-04T20:39:00.000+02:00

Scores and Stats, End of Week 3

Scores:

Sims: 80 living, 3 dead - 83 pts
Plat graves: 3 - 3 pts
Death at full influence: 3 - 3 pts
Top Of Careers: 37 - 37 pts
Impossible Wants: 1 - 3 pts
Net Worth: §2,500,958 - 26 pts
Big Sim On Campus: 34 - 34 pts
Summa Cum Laude: 34 - 34 pts

Total: 213 pts, up 97 since last round.

Stats:

Of my 80 living sims, 33 are male and 47 female.

1 elder, 57 adults, 12 YAs, 6 children, 4 toddlers.

12 are former townies or NPCs, 1 a former uni playable. 49 are CAS sims, while the remaining 18 have been born or adopted since the start of the challenge.

Richest household status still belongs to the Coopers at §254,818, but the Bonaccords are getting close at §237,602. Third place goes to the Knights at §174,311.

Poorest, except for the new lots where I've stuck this week's batch of graduates, is the Carr family at §50,460 - not too shabby, considering they started the week at just 20,000 plus furniture.

The Forsythes had an amazing §55,416 even before the two new graduates moved in with their graduation money - for a house which has never had an adult income, that's very impressive! All due to teen jobs, money trees, school chance cards, and, last but certainly not least, lots of date gifts.

The uni lots are all well-off, but that money is not included here. I spent most of it on adding to the houses, anyway.

This was the point where I added OFB and Seasons to my game, so a lot of things are about to change in round 4...

2007-06-04T19:44:00.000+02:00

Black III, Week 3

Ronan "Face" Black got himself a little house all his own after graduating. It seems just the right size for him. But he's in desperate need of new clothes - one Goopy in the 'hood is more than enough!

Yeah, that suits him much better.

My original plan had been to keep him faithful to Dolores (Vega) and wait for her to graduate so they could live together. Somehow things just didn't work out that way... Especially not after he fulfilled his LTW of becoming a Pro Party Guest, and rolled up the new LTW of having 20 lovers.

First there was Jessamyn Cantrell. Come on, she's a pleasure seeker, I need to work on those 50 dream dates!

Then another pleasure seeker, brand new YA Natalie Nettles.

Natalie's step-grandmother, Contessa Sadie Nettles.

That's a whole lotta aspiration points for one little kiss! ;)

Hey college chick, I see where you're looking! Eyes up, please!

He didn't hesitate to use the matchmaker, either, which had some interesting results.

"OMG, you're a burglar!"

"What if I am? You gonna call the cops?"

I think that would be a no.

"He's cheating on me with the telescope! I'm taking my roses and leaving!"

Or maybe it was the date with the Contessa she was upset about. Anyway, Face is still in love with her, and that's all that counts.

Moving on to the hired help... Now he'll have to be careful every third morning.

Melissa looks hypnotized. Those eyes... Scary.

My eyes! My eyes!

Yes, that's a public woohoo doodad over her head. Don't act so surprised.

No! She's married to your grandfather, so hands off!

At least wait until he's dead.

He looks less than thrilled with this one. What, are you afraid she's going to order you to drop and give her twenty, Face?

Of course, all these women keep dropping off flowers for him. And presents.

Lots of presents.

Saturday night, and all the air is getting bright... Yay, my aliens finally figured out the whole "adult male" thing!

And I managed to get that shot, the one that shows exactly which part of the sim the aliens are most interested in.

Face knows how to put two and two together.

He tried to distract himself with more romancing, but it didn't work, so he called up somebody else.

"Dad, I'm so glad you came! Something awful happened last night. The aliens! They came, and the took me up to their ship, and they..."

"Dad? Dad, where are you going!"

Yeah, Timothy, how can you just walk away when your son is depending on you for support?

"Can't deal... I can't listen to this. First my wife, now my son?"

Oh, right, I'd forgotten they took Renee last week. I'm sorry, I know this can't be easy, but Face needs you. Pull yourself together, for your son's sake.

Awwww.

And so this is how round three ends, with the first belly bump of the first alien pregnancy in Strawberry Fields.

Points this round: 2, for TOCs - Pro Party Guest and Celebrity Chef.

2007-06-04T18:18:00.000+02:00

Carr, Week 3

As mentioned here, Joe and Barbara Carr moved out of the Ryan house with their twin daughters to make room for Paul and Paige to start a family. This is their new home, a pretty little two-bedroom starter house.

The first thing they did was call a nanny so they could head off to work. Well, they're fortune sims after all, and they were both up for promotions. The money would come in handy.

That night the twins had a birthday. This is Frannie Carr, a Scorpio just like Daddy, 8/8/10/5/3.

The arm-through-hand thing looks painful.

And here's Sabrina, who is a Leo like Mommy, 7/10/4/4/3.

Typically enough, they have the same everyday dress, and the same jammies. It seems all my twins do, at least all the ones that look alike. With these two having the same skin and hair color, I had to take a good look at their faces to tell who was who.

Frannie has the bottle. She has Joe's nose and Barbara's mouth. Sabrina, on the potty, has Barbara's nose and Joe's mouth.

Barbara found it to be quite a strain to raise twins on a limited budget, especially two very outgoing little girls, constantly wanting her attention.

Not that Joe didn't do his share of the work - he most definitely did. Sabrina's first word was "Daddy."

And of course, they could invite people over to play with the kids, while Joe and Barbara worked on their skills for more promotions. Sabrina discusses family matters with her sister-in-law Paige.

Between skilling, working and raising the girls, nobody had time to look after the garden, so they hired a gardener.

They got two.

And then there were four.

The gardeners just kept coming. I stopped counting at seven or eight. Barbara had to run out to dismiss them (or end services?) and then tell them to leave. After that, I made sure to save before trying to hire someone again, but this time it worked fine.

We don' wan' no stinkin' gardener's convention at this house!

It's growing-up time again!

Here's Frannie, who, well, who hasn't quite grown into her face yet. I think she could become quite a striking young woman eventually, though - I had a daughter out of Joe in another neighborhood who looked just like him, and she was gorgeous later on in life.

Sabrina, extremely outgoing that she is, loves bright colors. I'm not sure I would pick that particular combination, but hey, she's the one wearing them.

After their first day of school, both girls bring home friends. The house got quite crowded with four young kids.

Sabrina and Napoleon Nettles made best friends over the weekend. Maybe it's because they're the only ones who don't point and laugh at the other's choice of pants?

Frannie gets along fine with Arcadia Custer, a fellow Scorpio. She's also close with...

Chandler Platz.

Hey, look, Barbara was promoted to Hall of Famer and became permaplat! Yay Barbara! Okay, now go find another job so you can get that second TOC point for me.

Wait, what's this? Why is there a headless body on the front porch?

Oh, it's just Sabrina greeting the headmaster. Through the wall.

He was invited over for a small dinner party, it seems. Guy Wrightley and Chandler are the other guests. I wonder if Headmaster Vince realizes that the kid he's talking to is not the one he's deciding whether to accept into his school?

And Joe, couldn't you have put some clothes on?

Points this round: 2, for TOCs - Mayor for Joe, Hall of Famer for Barbara.

2007-05-28T20:48:00.000+02:00

Custer

It's another new household with a new last name.

This one was founded by Kora Knight, daughter of Joe, sister of Kiana, Tavarez, Janson and Jade...

And her beloved barista, Ravi Custer. He's an Aquarius family sim, 7/4/2/10/2. In other words extremely playful, very lazy and grouchy, kind of neat and and shy. I had half convinced myself he was going to want to marry off six kids or something, so it came as a relief to discover that his LTW is to be Captain Hero. That should be easy enough.

They're a three-bolt couple, so things like this go on all the time around their little starter home.

Pretty much the only time Ravi showed his grouchiness was when I made him go to work in the business career for a day, because there was no opening in law enforcement, and they were short on cash.

I was very glad to find the job he wanted the very next day. Imagine having to look at that face all the time!

Of course, being family sims, they wasted no time tying the knot. In their living room, with Kora still in her work clothes (she too worked in business for a day) and Ravi in his gym clothes, because he hadn't bought a new outfit yet.

None of that mattered one bit to them. All they cared about was being together.

Well, that, and what came after the wedding...

I did buy him new clothes, as soon as they could spare the money. Which was as soon as...

Kora went into Natural Science, and got promoted to Ecological Guru. Cha-ching! 30,000 for one day's work, and the prospect of 10,000 a day maternity pay, for a family sim who wants three kids.

The first of which was already on the way.

Owwww. Be careful, Kora - that can't be good for the baby!

He seems to have survived unharmed, though! Welcome baby boy Sorin Custer!

Ravi is the name of the Hindu sun god. Sorin comes from the Romanian word for sun.

Ravi doesn't seem to know what to do with himself when he's introduced to his new son. "I'm a father! I have a baby! When can we have more?"

His "more" arrives the very next morning, accompanied by a social worker. This cute little girl is named Arcadia. It seems very appropriate that she has red hair like her new dad, and dark skin like her new mom.

"Welcome to the family, sweetie!"

She adjusts very quickly, and is soon running out to hug Ravi when he comes home from work.

Now that they're a family of four, the Custers decide to expand their home, and add a second story.

Arcadia is thrilled to have a room all her own. She especially loves sitting in the cuddly bear chair by the window, reading a book. She didn't have much of a chance for peace and quiet at the orphanage, much less her own room.

That night it was time for Sorin's birthday, but just as Kora was about to take him to the cake, something else made itself known.

Yes indeed. Child number three is on the way.

Ravi stepped in to blow out the candles and toss his son into the air.

Aww, he's cute.

Sorin Custer is a Pisces, 7/4/7/2/8. Not much in common with his parents, aside from the neat-and-sorta-shy part. Oh, and Kora's niceness. He's more active than both of them put together.

I just adore it when toddlers pat their potty. It's so cute.

But his niceness doesn't stop him from being very loud when he wants out of his crib. Just look at that mouth!

He and Arcadia get along well. I can't say that music and TV would be the topics I'd choose when talking to a toddler, but whatever works for them...

Points this round: 4. One for TOC (Kora's natural science) and three for new sims (Ravi, Arcadia and Sorin).

"Zzzz... Felicia is so sexy..."

Well, thanks, Kora, but I don't... Oh. You were talking about Secret Society Felicia. Nevermind, forget I said anything.

2007-05-28T18:17:00.000+02:00

Wrightley

The time has come to add a new lot, and a new surname, to the neighborhood. The one responsible for this is Nadia Nettles, the oldest of the Nettles girls and one of the new graduates from last round. Here she's watering the flowers outside her new home, a starter lot downloaded from somewhere.

She needed a make-over. Her sweater clashed against her pants, and while that spiky hair worked for her in college, it's not exactly what you expect from a Captain Hero, is it?

So, time to go get her two-bolt fiancé.

Since Guy Wrightley is a uni playable, I had to pop into his Greek House and fast forward him to graduation. Hey, look, he grew up into a decent outfit!

Because he wants to be a general, and was already wearing a dark green shirt, I decided to go with it. He loved the military look.

Guy is a Taurus popularity sim, 2/5/7/2/9. He likes brown hair and formalwear, but dislikes swimclothes.

They both found jobs in the careers of their choice, but since Guy had next to no skill points, it's going to be a long climb for him. Nadia, on the other hand, fulfilled her dream in next to no time!

But they had other matters on their minds as well - like a wedding. Since both are popularity sims, a wedding party was a must, and since Guy barely knows anybody in Strawberry Fields, it was up to Nadia to invite the guests.

Some of them very rudely headed straight for the kitchen to gorge themselves on chips...

While others made each other uncomfortable with inappropriate conversation.

Remus, you're married to Laura, and Rose is engaged to Tavarez. Stop telling poor Frances J how attractive you find her - can't you see he's wishing he was anywhere but there right now?

But the time has come for the main event itself - the wedding.

And it's at this point, literally just as Guy and Nadia finish their vows, that I discover it. He has three bolts for another woman. One he's just met. One who is a guest at the wedding, and a close friend of his bride.

I'll give you a hint. It's the married woman, heavily pregnant with her second child, who's refusing to actually watch the ceremony. Yep - Paige Antonius Ryan.

Oy vey. No good can come of this.

But the wedding party proceeds happily, with pillow fights, dirty jokes, and the groom hearting over his bride, not that other woman. Nadia shares a moment with her step-grandmother Contessa Sadie.

And Paige's mother Tori Antonius steps in to distract her good friend Remus so he'll stop telling everybody about his attraction to Rose Forsythe.

Time for a short but hopefully sweet honeymoon.

And as they return home, they consummate their marriage. Well, maybe they did that on their honeymoon, but if so, nobody told me about it.

Guy now has a want to have a baby, but I ignored that. I had already decided these two weren't going to have any kids; for one thing, the neighborhood is already getting crowded, and for another... well, have you looked at him? Most sims who get married roll up that want, but it goes away soon enough, unless they're family sims.

But just to spite me, I'm sure, Guy's doesn't. It stays in his want panel for the rest of the week. I don't think I've ever had a non-family sim be so persistent about it. Maybe he's hiding behind the idea of a baby in an attempt to deny his feelings for Paige?

Nadia jumps into something new, exploring the paranormal, while Guy works hard at gaining skill points so he can earn promotions in his military career.

He does manage to spend some time making friends and just hanging out with them. The hot tub is great for that. But did you know that when you cancel the "soak in hot tub" icon just as your sim is splashing someone, this can happen?

And it sticks around for quite some time.

Ooookay. Seriously, you two, did you ever hear of personal space? And Guy, get your hand out of her bladder, because it's making that glitched spray of water go from funny to icky.

It's still around when night falls outside.

Yep, still there... And so is the "have a baby" want. Man, that Guy is one stubborn sim.

Oh yeah, the other glitch. Nadia got promoted to Cult Leader. Then the next night she went to work, and came home with the message that someone (I don't remember who, but I think it was someone who isn't even in that career) had pulled some strings for her at work, and she had been promoted to Cult Leader.

Please explain to me how you can be promoted to what you already are?

The next time she went to work, she was once again told she'd been promoted to Cult Leader... This was all getting a little too paranormal for me, so she started looking for a new job.

And that's where we leave them for now. Will their marriage last, despite Guy's strong attraction to his wife's best friend? Will Guy ever reach the top of his career, or be free of the spraying water? Will Nadia be able to leave the paranormal career track, or is she doomed to be promoted to Cult Leader every night she goes to work for the rest of her life?

You're going to have to wait a whole round to find out... And by then, you'll probably have forgotten all about it.

Points this round: 3. One for the new sim (Guy) and two for TOCs (Law enforcement and paranormal for Nadia).

Lily Forsythe is a trash can kicker!

2007-05-21T19:27:00.000+02:00

At this point I knew there'd be no more teens this round, so I decided to send the ones I had to college and put them in a dorm, so the current YAs could befriend and pledge them. But in order to get Lily Forsythe out of her housesitting duties, I had to graduate her big sister Bryony and move her home - and from there it was a small step to graduating the rest, as well, since it was mostly a matter of getting the grade meter up, then setting the clock forward. Not much in the way of pictures, then, but one or two things did happen...

For one thing, Janson Knight really hit it off with Marlee Dante, just as I had predicted he would. They're now an item, and she plans to move in with him once she graduates.

Um, yeah. Cow mascots are always creepy and annoying. I wouldn't want someone staring at me while I'm sleeping.

I didn't relish the idea of playing Sasha Dante as a romance sim any more than I had as a popularity sim, given her complete lack of outgoing and nice points, so she, um, had a little accident with the ReNuYu orb. Grilled cheese, baby!

Unfortunately, I had forgotten something.

What Sasha does have is maxed neat points! Eating one sandwich takes her forever - not to mention what happens if there are others seated at the same table - so just imagine how long it takes her to eat a whole platter of them...

I took her down to a community lot, because she was unhappy that nobody would talk to her about grilled cheese.

Just look how ecstatic she is to find somebody that will! And they have two bolts, to boot, which I don't think she's ever had with anybody before. A few dates, and they were in love, and he was dropping off expensive presents on the sorority porch.

A cafeteria worker and a grilled cheese sim = perfect match.

Moving over to the fraternity across the street, Jonah Black was invited to attend his son Ronnie's graduation. Weirdly enough, this fulfilled his LTW of graduating three kids from college, even though Ronnie is the first of his kids to do that! I've heard of a glitch that fulfills that LTW after two kids, but one? Weird. Unless the game counted his grandsons Face and Jackson as his children, somehow...

25 out of my 26 YAs graduated summa cum laude. The exception was Carmen Vega, which was entirely due to her grade meter bug earlier on, so I didn't hesitate to set her GPA to 4.0 using the college adjuster. (I haven't decided yet whether to score it, though.)

And now, it's time for the traditional parade of Badly Dressed Graduates.

Sasha has really let herself go since her aspiration change. And I'm not just talking about the extra weight, either.

Lexie Nottington apparently wants to be a flasher. That would be a no, Lex.

Janson Knight... made me laugh, I'll give him that much. Yeah, I'm scratching my head, too.

While Dolores Vega has apparently misunderstood the talk about Seasons, and thinks it means Christmas is around the corner.

Points: 25 or 26 for SCL graduates, 26 for BSOCs.

I can't believe this doesn't count as public woohoo...

2007-05-21T18:50:00.000+02:00

Jonah and Katerina Black's two oldest children, Ronnie and Tamara - the adoptees - may be off at uni, but they still have the twins at home.

Keziah.

And Keren.

Jonah is a very proud papa in his old age, always talking about how well the children are doing.

"Oh, enough about the kids already, old man. Let's woohoo!"

Ahem. Yeah, Katerina isn't quite as focused on the children. She does love them, just in a slightly distracted kind of way.

"Hey! I work hard to put food on the table and clothes on their backs, don't I?"

She does indeed, and fulfills her LTW of being a business tycoon while she's at it.

Soon enough, it's time for the girls to grow up.

Keziah rolls popularity (sigh) with a LTW of having 20 best friends. She likes cologne and black hair, but dislikes beards. She's Pisces, 8/5/10/2/10, so at least she's not that shy, and those nice points should help with making friends. Maybe I can even get her her LTW in college, and then re-roll when she's already permaplat!

She also has a fashion sense very different from mine. What can I say, she liked it.

Keren is a fortune sim like her mother, and wants to be a doctor when she grows up. She's attracted to hats and fullface make-up, but not to brown hair. She's a Scorpio, 7/4/10/7/5. She immediately started rolling up wants for scholarships, and wanted to get a job, so here she is in her security guard uniform.

She also dated and went steady with the paperboy, Alon Livingston. They only have one bolt, but I'm sending him to uni anyway - I have plans for him...

Keziah prefers girls. Here she is with a shop clerk named Chris something, who has a weird ability.

She can be in two places at once!

"Must... get... scholarship..."

Keren and Keziah are ready for college, and just like their neighbors the Coopers, Jonah and Katerina will be moving to a bigger house. After all, they'll be joined by Ronnie and his fiancée by next round, and will need more room.

And so I leave you with a random pic from downtown of Marisa Knight beating up on some downtownie.

Points this round: 1, for Katerina's TOC/LTW.

2007-05-21T17:33:00.000+02:00

Last week at the spin-off Cooper household, Sharlene was complaining that she and Terrence never spent any quality time together. If you know what I mean. Well, she was right, as I discovered to my shame when I did find them a couple hours. Terrence didn't even have the option to woohoo with his wife, that's how far I'd let their relationship slide! I'm a bad simmer.

But a little bit if this, and a little bit of that, and soon things were back on track.

Did I mention that Sharlene is a career criminal? Yep, she's yet another one of the many sims in Strawberry Fields who want to be evil Masterminds. Terrence has no moral objections, but he does worry.

"What if you get caught? What will Shayelle and I do without you?"

"I'm not going to get caught, silly. I'm too good for that. The Captain Heroes in this town are useless. Your brother Joel was the smartest of the bunch - which is saying something - and he gave it up when his wife died."

"And besides, even if they did manage to catch me, they'd never convict me."

Sharlene was right - nothing stood in her way to the top, and she reached that coveted permaplatness, even if she did have to work herself almost into the ground to get there.

Terrence keeps working on his own LTW of maxing all his skills. He's on his second career, medicine, and the career reward really helps. He'd probably be a lot closer if I didn't keep him stargazing every night, but hey, I have my priorities. He can still skill when he's too old to get impregnated by aliens.

But just like he made time for his wife, he manages to spend some time with his daughter.

And he's the parent who's there for her birthday.

Hey, she's cute. Not bad at all.

Shayelle rolled family, and her LTW is to be a Captain Hero. Let's hope Sharlene has left her life of crime before that happens, okay? Imagine having to arrest your own mother. Anyway, she's a Scorpio, 9/8/8/3/3, who likes blond or custom hair, but is turned off by fullface makeup.

Go away, Orlando.

"But there's a teenage family girl in this house! I always date the teenage family girls!"

Well, you don't get to date this one. You've had more than your share of girlfriends. Now go away!

Instead it's Alvin Futa who gets the honor of being Shay's first kiss. I wonder if she knows about his little fling with Lily Forsythe? Oh well, it's not like he's likely to come to college with them.

Shay gets along really well with Headmaster Vince. So well it's almost creepy. Future spouse? We'll see... There's something icky about the concept of a headmaster marrying a former student who he met when she was a teen, but I'm not ruling anything out at this point. If nothing else, she can introduce him to her friends, and maybe he'll hit it off with one of them.

Soon she has all her skill scholarships, as well as the one for her grades and one for reaching the top of the teen military career. It's college time! Meanwhile, Terrence and Sharlene will be looking for a new, bigger home, since this one is a bit on the cramped side, and Shay will be wanting babies once she graduates, family sim that she is.

Points this round: 1 or 2, career-related. Sharlene became a criminal mastermind, and Terrence a mad scientist (unless that was last week).

2007-05-09T20:13:00.000+02:00

Another dorm...

This one holds one popularity sim, one pleasure seeker, and two romance sims. What on earth was I thinking?!?

Oh yeah, I was thinking they'd get along well. They did. But the constant dates, parties, and phone calls drove me nuts!

"We grew up well, didn't we, sis?"

Three of the Vega quads - the girls - are here, and Penelope Antonius. Let's run through them one by one.

Carmen dated Joel Cooper regularly. I just love their faces when exchanging this air kiss... Anyway, they're a two bolt couple, and she will probably be marrying him once she graduates.

She developed the stuck grade meter glitch - you know, the one where it looks like she doesn't have the skill points necessary, even though she does. Normally they'll get their A+ anyway, as long as they do their homework, but for at least one semeester Carmen didn't, and of course I didn't notice until after saving. Now her GPA is beyond recovery. Grrrr.

Otherwise she spent all her time on the phone, making friends. I should've just bought her a cell phone, but I never use the things, so it didn't occur to me. Instead the had to wait for her turn while the other girls spent hours chatting on the phone.

Dolores gets to represent the fact that all four girls got into the secret society. She's a pleasure sim who wants 50 dream dates, so she spent a lot of time at community lots with...

Ronan "Face" Black. Let's just pretend he isn't wearing Goopy's clothes, okay? He'll be buying new ones the second I get to his lot...

And why is Ethan so mortified by watching them make out in public? He's a romance sim! He's done the same with (more than) his fair share of women!

Speaking of faces... Yeah.

Mercedes dates a lot, too. She and Ramsey Bonaccord are a three-bolt couple, and I have sentenced them to staying faithful to each other. Most of the time, they don't seem to mind much.

It's only when I make them do stuff like get engaged... Well, neither had a fear of it at the time, so it really was just the red rings. A nice backrub - and what followed after that - made them forget all about it.

Penelope, the other romance sim, sees no reason to limit herself to one sim, though. First she moves in on the fifth person in the dorm, Travis here. He gets to be her first woohoo.

But there are plenty of others to follow.

Eventually, I got frustrated with my own stupidity at having gone for the dormie first. It made it that much harder for Pen to have other "friends" over. Combine that with Carmen's grade meter glitch, and my general dislike of dorms, and you get...

This little house, which I built for the four of them. It's basically just four small bedrooms, a kitchen, and a main living area, but it's all theirs!

And so all 26 of my college students have reached the halfway point. All of them have also become greek house members, secret society memebers, and big sims on campus - which means that from now on, I can just get their grades up and then fast-forward! Yay!

2007-04-16T22:53:00.000+02:00

Lily Forsythe. One teenage romance girl, living all alone. What could she possibly get up to? She already has one boyfriend, a downtownie whose name I can never remember, but her LTW is to have 20 lovers. Hardly something she can accomplish as a teenager, but... some practice couldn't hurt, could it?

She puts her sexy sashay to work!

The goth downtownie Ricky isn't hard to win over.

Randy London falls for her charms, too.

Yet another downtownie. (This is why they exist, after all - as aspiration fodder for pleasure and romance teens. Isn't it?)

Alvin Futa? But... he's knowledge! Why does a knowledge sim have one bolt for a romance sim?

Oh, right, he's a Virgo. Very close personality-wise to a Scorpio like Lily.

Uh-oh - busted! Her very first boyfriend catches her with the goth kid. (I think they may be brothers, too - aren't they both Tricous?)

Trash can kicking ensues, of course.

"Baby, let me make it up to you..."

He does, eventually. Six loves (counting Julius Bonaccord).

In between pursuing new boys, Lily does find time for some other things to do. Like playing pool, a favorite hobby of hers.

It was bad enough when Julius gossiped about David Forsythe's death, but when Lily herself does it? "Hey, did you hear - my dad died! Teehee!" Sheesh.

And she reaches the top of her teen military career. Not to mention that her skills are close to maxed. I love the stuck smart milk glitch!

Points this round: None.

Alvin strikes a Da Vinci pose. Well, he is a knowledge sim after all...

2007-04-16T18:20:00.000+02:00

Bon accord, it's time to head over to the Bonaccord home. The first half of the week was pretty ordinary, but the pace picked up towards the weekend...

Chinless wonder Julius heads off for his first day of school.

Remus fulfills his LTW and reaches his first TOC by becoming a mad scientist. He does get to work as one for a couple nights - I think the job suits him - but then I switch him over to law enforcement so he can get another TOC point for me.

Shy romance sims are a pain. Romulus is a Virgo... I'm not even going to try for thirty lovers with him, he's pretty much going to stick with the five or so he has. They include the slob, the diva, Jessamyn Cantrell, and here's the most recent one, widowed former vampire, Contessa Sadie Nettles.

Romulus's illegitimate daughter Rhea comes home with her cousin Julius one day. It just happens to be just as her mother Jessamyn stops by to kick over the trash can because of her fight with Remus.

Despite the kicked over trash can, Romulus decides to greet her with a kiss. He's so busy with Jessamyn, he never even says hello to his daughter...

... who spends the visit making friends with Julius over a game of chess. Completely ignored by her father. They're still not even on each other's acquaintance lists.

Laura follows her husband's example and becomes a mad scientist, fulfilling her LTW. Unlike him, though, she gets to stay that way.

And soon afterwards he is named Captain Hero. Now they just need to max all their skills, and they're good. I love knowledge sims.

Julius is a teen, and yay, the chinless look is gone! He rolled pleasure, with a LTW of having 50 first dates. You're kidding me, right? He's so re-rolling in college, I swear! There's no doubt about his preferences, either, as he has undies and make-up for turn-ons, and facial hair as a turn-off. About as straight as they come, our Julius.

Although he is still a pleasure sim at the moment, so I feel the need to indulge him a little. What teenage boy wouldn't want to have girls lining up to bring him flowers? Here we have Natalie Nettles and Lily Forsythe.

While on a date with Pearl Antonius (who may be his future wife if he re-rolls into something compatible with fortune) he keeps gossiping about the death of some sim I vaguely recognize. Then it hits me - that's David Forsythe! The father of the orphaned Forsythe girls. Not only did the man die before Julius was born, in fact before his parents had even met, but he died in a different neighborhood! Hmph. I guess Julius heard the story from his other girlfriend Lily, David's daughter. And getting hit by a satellite... Well, it could be considered juicy gossip, I guess. Still. Tacky.

Then it happens. Some might call it karma catching up with him...

If you look closely, you may see Remus at the back of the pic, behind the car, talking to... nobody? He was in the middle of a conversation with his co-worker Kennedy Cox, but Kennedy ran off to watch the abduction, and Remus was stuck talking to himself. Hey there, Remus! Your son is being abducted by aliens!

Just one moon, folks, just one moon.

Eventually everybody does come running to watch Julius being sucked up by a tractor beam. Of course, his knowledge parents are happy about the whole thing, and cheerfully head back into the house chatting while Kennedy, of all people, stands by the telescope wringing his hands.

"I wonder what's happening to my boy on board that ship..."

Do you really want to know, Remus?

The aliens around Strawberry Fields seem to have a thing for teenagers. Out of four abductions so far, three have been teenagers, and the fourth an adult female. When are they going to figure out that they can't pollinate anyone but an adult male?

The spaceship returns to drop off Julius, and I decided to play a little with cameraman mode to see if I could get any good close-ups.

Anybody home?

Cute little symbol on the side. Not very scary.

Those look like toy rockets. Don't tell me they're strong enough to power the whole ship? And there's the symbol again.

What is that being reflected in the glass? It certainly isn't the Bonaccord house.

A doorway opens. Let's head into the light and see if there's anything there to see!

Nope, couldn't see anything besides blinding light and complete darkness. But when I turned around, there was a cool look at the house from inside the spaceship.

And look, something is being tossed out! Is that Julius?

Nice swan dive, kid.

"Mwahaha, bow down before us, puny human!"

Or something like that. It does look suspiciously like he's worshiping at their, um, metaphorical feet.

Afterwards, he cries a bit. Maybe he suspects that his future is now staked out - giving birth to chinless alien babies. Probably not what a pleasure seeker dreams of.

Maybe he'll get lucky and re-roll as family.

I knew it wouldn't keep him down for long. Here he is trying to impress his latest date with stories about the aliens...

Oh, crap. He's got three bolts for this one! No way, I'm not bringing her to college with you! You're going to have to marry one of the playable girls, and that's final! Besides, the three bolts would probably go away when you re-roll, anyway.

Points this round: Three, for three TOCs - science and law enforcement for Remus, science for Laura. Unless... did Romulus get his TOC this round, or was that last round? My memory's going...

Ahem. Laura, I thought you were studying mechanical? What on earth are you... Never mind. I don't want to know.

2007-04-16T18:16:00.000+02:00

More uni... In this house we have siblings Leeland and Kayla Dante, with their respective significant others, Bryony Forsythe and Jackson Black. At least having two three-bolt couples to deal with meant there was no need for matchmaking, and they were fairly easy to keep happy...

Leeland and Bryony just adore each other. They actually fell in love with each other again autonomously while Kayla and Jackson were still getting out of the cab that took them to La Fiesta and life as young adults. And Leeland very rarely rolls up any romance wants - he's too focused on his girlfriend. Although he does fear getting married or engaged, but that's fine: Bryony needs to carry on the family name, anyway!

Personally I think wearing matching clothes is taking the whole couple thing a bit far... But it does look kinda cute on them, and at least they reversed the top/bottom colors. As knowledge sims, Kayla and Jackson enjoyed college very much, and always wanted to write term papers and do assignements. As I said, this house was easy to play.

The four of them rented a small house, and pooled their scholarship money to expand it. Two bedrooms, a real kitchen, main room, and a porch. What more did they need?

They got into the secret society, of course - with four uni houses already played, almost everyone these four know from back home was already in, so I didn't even need to work at it.

Jackson and Kayla do look a little taken aback by Leeland's extreme sloppiness, but they put up with him. He's family, after all.

I repeat, two three-bolt couples. Everywhere I looked, as soon as I gave them a second of free time, something like this was going on. Um, leaving these two alone now...

Remington! For crying out loud, let Leeland shower in peace!

2007-04-10T19:40:00.000+02:00

At the Antonius place, Rylan and Tori only have little Pearl left at home. Twins Penelope and Priscilla are at uni, and Paige is married with a child of her own and another on the way. That's two out of the six grandkids Tori wants...

But just so Pearly won't be stuck producing the remaining four whether she wants to or not, Rylan and Tori end up trying for one last child. Who knows, maybe they'll even have a boy this time!

Yes, I'm getting just a little obsessed with having boys. It's absurd how many more girls I have in this neighborhood, and the difference just keeps getting bigger.

"Honey, I think I'm pregnant."

This is Pearl as a teenager. She's an Aries, 5/8/6/3/8, and a fortune sim who wants to be a Hall of Famer. Suitably enough, she also dislikes fat sims. Her turn-ons are vampirism and glasses.

She's kinda cute, isn't she?

Of course, she simply must get into private school. Despite getting cranky old BJ here, it wasn't difficult.

Rylan fulfills his LTW by becoming a Mad Scientist. Even though he loves the job - and the outfit - I soon shift him to medicine, so he can complete a second career before getting too old.

Tori isn't quite as far along in her career - pregnancy is getting in the way.

But that too will come to an end!

It's another girl. Meet Peace Antonius.

Some family sim you are, Tori! Pick that baby up off the cold hard floor right now, do you hear me? Who do you think you are, the nanny?

Pearl is delighted to have a little sister. She's not the baby of the family any more!

And soon Peace is a toddler. She's yet another Aries, which means Rylan and Tori are three for three in that area. Her stats are 5/9/6/3/3, which is only one active point above the default Aries allocation.

Don't you just love the smustle?

Points this round: 2, 1 for Rylan's TOC, 1 for the birth of Peace.

2007-03-01T03:50:00.000+01:00

Oh look, it's a lot with more than one or two sims on it! Not that it's a traditional nuclear family by any means...

We have former vampiress Contessa Sadie Nettles, now a widow raising a young son - and her three teenage step-granddaughters.

Here's Naomie, fortune sim and karaoke singer extraordinaire. Has been abducted, and now just needs a couple more skill points and some dancing moves in order to have more than $10,000 in scholarships. She wants to ba a Hall of Famer, which is a nice change from all those wannabe criminals, doctors, cops and chefs.

Natalie loves to sing karaoke as well, but being a pleasure seeker, she'd rather do it as part of a date. Does it have to be Ricky, though? For one thing, he dated your oldest sister Nadia, who is now an adult. For another, it's - well, it's Ricky. For a third, he likes to float hearts around for the third triplet...

Nicholette. She's not interested in Ricky, though, she only has eyes for one boy.

George McCarthy. Best friends and first kiss, all at once! Good job, Nicholette! As a reward, you'll get to bring him to college with you. (Ricky is not going.)

Then she decides to sneak out with George, and promptly gets busted. The cop searches in vain for some parental figure to lecture about keeping track of your kids, but leaves with that mission unaccomplished. I guess step-grandmothers don't count.

Sadie was more interested in reaching her goal of becoming a professional party guest, anyway. With that done, she quickly switches into the culinary career.

And Natalie, who wants to be a chef, immediately begins using the career reward whenever Sadie isn't claiming it. Max those cooking points! Even if you re-roll your aspiration in uni, they'll still come in handy one day, I'm sure.

Somewhere in here, the time came for our little heir, Napoleon, to grow up. Time to leave dollhouses and pink PJs behind, kiddo!

Aww, he's cute. And he runs everywhere, despite not being very active. Extremely playful, though.

"Stop! in the name of love..."

This kid seriously cracks me up. And he's still wearing pink! No, Napoleon, you're not allowed to be gay. I need you to be heir to this house, and we have far too few boyz 'n the hood to let any of them get out of marrying girls.

Dancing with Naomie.

Oh, look, Nolen made an appearance! He cried because his urn had been moved, cheered because his bed was still around, then floated around outside the rest of the night. He did scare Nicholette a couple times, but only outdoors. Those who stayed inside were safe from haunting.

I like a well-mannered ghost.

Napoleon got an A+!

I got curious, and wanted to get a better look at just what that report card said. Zooming in...

Um, yeah, much clearer. Now I understand everything.

Points this round: 1, for Sadie's TOC.

2007-03-01T03:10:00.000+01:00

Another case of five YAs on the same lot, and this time in a dorm. A dorm I soon grew to hate - no bathrooms on the ground floor? Seriously!

Anyway, the only male in the bunch was Will Ryan, here showing off his fabulous dancing skills. As a family sim, he was very eager to fall in love ASAP, but had two bolts for two of the girls in his dorm... Decision time!

There was his teen love, Nina Nettles. These two go way back, and were always finding each other from across the dorm to play red hands, hang out, or tell jokes.

And there's poor jilted Rebecca Forsythe. Both Nina and Rebecca are fortune sims, and I've promised myself to find out which of them has better chemistry with Will, Daniel Vega, and...

Jade Knight. She has a longstanding friendship with Rebecca - it was Jade's older brother who broke her heart - and is always floating hearts for her all over the place. Then again, she does that for several other girls, as well.

Oh, and her lips are huge. I tried to find a lipstick that would make them look slightly less enormous, but finally just shrugged and decided to brazen it out. Clearly she likes bright colors.

And the fifth member of the bunch is Rebecca's sister Rose; you know, the one who stole her boyfriend. Rose is a bit of an outsider in this group - her friendship with Rebecca has faded fast, and of the others, only Will seems to enjoy her company. (They have two bolts, as well, but she has three for Tavarez.)

Oh, and look who stopped by - it's Remus Bonaccord. As it happens, he has three bolts for Rose... Oh no, that's not going to happen! She already has a three-bolt boyfriend, and Remus is married! So just back away, you two - it's not going to happen.

I had one of them invite Daniel Vega over, and asked Rebecca to check him out. Now that he's cleanshaven, theirs is yet another three-bolt relationship. Aren't you glad you're not stuck with Tavarez, huh Becks? (Although I wish she'd get rid of that facial hair turn-off - Daniel looks so much better with some stubble...)

This means Will and Nina will stay together, and leaves Jade to hook up with Priscilla Antonius. They seem very happy with that state of affairs. Finally Jade has found a girl who likes her back!

All five became big sims on campus, greek house members, secret society members, and maintained a 4.0 GPA. Rebecca did re-roll her turn-ons, and got black hair as a turn-on this time... But she still doesn't like beards. Sigh.

And I am never, ever, playing that dorm again.

2007-03-01T03:07:00.000+01:00

Extremely boring round for the Black family this week - so boring that I barely have any pictures to show. Just like the Knights, Timothy and Renee have the house all to themselves, what with Face having moved into a place of his own, and Jackson at college.

Highlight of the week consisted of Timothy fulfilling his LTW by becoming a general. Renee still hasn't reached hers, although that's mostly because slackers work so few days a week. She only has one week left before she turns elder, and in that time she has to reach the top of her career and get started on the next one...

Painting. Gains creativity, raises fun, and makes some extra cash. Not very exciting to watch, though... Thank the great simmer in the sky for speed three! Oh, there was also stargazing, and woohoo, and skilling. Yawn. Can Jackson and his girlfriend come home already, and start producing babies?

Timothy brought Joel Cooper home from work one day, so Renee is working on a new friend. They've both spent a lot of time on the phone this round, making and keeping friends.

Well, that was a boring week, wasn't it? Just to add something else to say, let's throw in a brief story witnessed on a community lot here. I don't think it happened when I was playing the Blacks, since I don't remember sending them to any community lots, but who cares...

Early on in this prosperity, pleasure seeker Jessamyn Cantrell was dating several sims at once. One was old Nolen Nettles, another was Romulus Bonaccord. Remus Bonaccord saw her dating Nolen, and got very mad on his twin brother's behalf. He attacked Nolen... and lost.

Apparently, he hasn't forgotten or forgiven. When he came face to face with Jessamyn again - neither of them being controllable at the time - he immediately started poking her. Is he upset that she's living with Ethan Cooper now? That another man is raising his little niece? Does he even know that Jessamyn is the mother of his twin's child, and that Romulus couldn't leave fast enough once he saw the baby?

In any case, poking soon progressed to slapping. Not nice, Remus.

Then he has the nerve to look shocked when she pokes him back. Well, what did you expect? Should she just stand there and take it? Cry a bit, maybe? Not Jessamyn!

Ohh, these two really don't like each other... I'm not sure which of them should be more worried, though - they're both mean and grouchy, and apparently know how to hold a grudge.

Well, in any case, the Black family racked up a whopping one point this week, for Timothy's TOC. Yippiee. Now get me to a house where something happens!

2007-02-27T20:46:00.000+01:00

With the two oldest girls starting their own families, and the three younger kids off at college, Joe and Marisa Knight had the whole house to themselves. With two fortune sims, you can guess what that meant - skilling, promotions, work... It's all about the money.

Marisa became a criminal mastermind at last. Permaplat, baby!

Joe moved up in his medical career, as well. Here he brings home Paul Ryan from work...

Which prompts his wife to start floating hearts for the guy all over the place. Hey Marisa, your husband is sitting right there!

Clearly it's time Joe starts to get back into shape. Marisa likes him fit, so maybe this will keep her from being so interested in other men?

Hmmpphh. No such luck. What a hussy you are, Marisa!

Not too bright, either. The bed is right there. I swear, some sims... Too bad I'm not allowed to kill her.

Instead, I make her write a novel. About the stock market, apparently. Okay, she wanted to write a best seller, so it's not much of a punishment, really.

It did sell, so that's fine by me. I don't have to like it, as long as enough others do...

Ouch! Now that has got to hurt!

Points this round: 2, for TOCs. Marisa became a Criminal Mastermind, Joe the Chief of Staff, which means they're now both permaplat. Joe has already started on his next career, but I can't remember at the moment what it was. Science, maybe?

2007-02-27T19:59:00.000+01:00

At Fruhm Fraternity, I had to squeeze in Jennifer's dormie boyfriend as well as the original four I had intended, so things got a bit crowded.

Speaking of the dormie, here he is after a slight makeover. Renaud Bendett, Pisces (5/3/7/3/7), is a knowledge sim who wants to be a criminal mastermind. Him and everybody else - I swear half the sims in Strawberry Fields want to be either criminals or cops. (Or chefs. Maybe it's the letter C that attracts them?) Anyway, Renaud likes red hair and underwear, but is turned off by brown hair.

He spent most of his time skilling and making friends. Once co-opted into the secret society, his criminal bent made itself known when he began hacking his grades.

Oops. Hi Demi...

Awww, she took the computer! Oh well, I'll just buy them a new one.

Tavarez Knight and his high school sweetheart Rebecca had decided to "see other sims" in college. Of course, she didn't know that meant he'd be seeing her little sister Rose... Or, indeed, that he'd been doing so behind her back when they were teens back home.

But what can you do? Three bolts are three bolts, after all. These two are so much in love, who could deny them? Not me. They're just so perfect for each other.

Daniel Vega didn't have a future wife picked out yet when he came to college, although I had a few possibilities in mind: Rebecca Forsythe, Nina Nettles, or Priscilla Antonius. Given his extreme sloppiness (one neat point) a virgo neat freak like Nina didn't seem like a very good idea, despite the two bolts. Priscilla or Rebecca? Well, I was planning to re-roll his turn-ons after two years, to get rid of that fitness turn-off, so maybe that would give me a better idea of what to do. I decided to wait.

Meanwhile he skilled, did his schoolwork, made friends, and painted masterpieces. The life of a fortune sim in college.

Our other family sim around here, Ronnie Black, did pretty much the same - except for the painting part. Well, he painted, but they weren't masterpieces, and he let Daniel do the selling. Since Ronnie was adopted as a child, and never had the smart milk effect, he had considerably fewer skill points than the others when he came to uni. Fewer than anyone except Renaud the dormie, that is.

He did find the time to fall in love with and get engaged to Lexie Nottington in between skilling sessions. Ohhh, shiny!

And the romancer of the bunch, Ramsey Bonaccord. He stayed faithful to his love Mercedes - smart move, when rooming with her brother Daniel! They're a solid three bolt couple. Yep, another one. They seem to be all over the place - not that I'm complaining.

Nobody changed their aspiration at the end of sophomore year, but Daniel did get new turn-ons. Now he likes fitness (yay!) and brown hair, but dislikes blond hair. Hmmm - Rebecca has brown hair... She doesn't like facial hair though, so let's have Daniel shave before I leave the lot, and then we'll see.

All five were Greek House members (obviously), secret society members, big sims on campus, and maintained a 4.0 GPA.

2007-01-30T01:44:00.000+01:00

Very uneventful week at the Vega house, with only newly graduated Javier in residence. He added to the house...

Got a job as a business man...

Invited Tamara over...

Took her out on a date, where they had their first woohoo in the hot tub...

Fulfilled his LTW by becoming a business tycoon...

And stargazed at night.

Seriously, aside from some skilling, pretty much nothing else happened.

Except this funny glitch. It gives a whole new meaning to the word headphones...

Points this round: 1, for TOC. Javier became a Business Tycoon.

2007-01-30T00:48:00.000+01:00

We start this week at the Coopers with Isabella taking care of little Hogan, while the other family members are at work. She plays with him all day long. Perhaps she knows it'll be the last time, and not only because he'll be starting school soon.

When Joel comes home, they head for the bedroom right away. One last woohoo.

Grimmy doesn't show up at six o'clock. Maybe I was wrong, and she has one more day left? Instead, Hogan celebrates his birthday. He looks more like Andrea every day.

And immediately afterwards, as the clock strikes seven, guess who appears?

Yes, Hogan, she's in her underwear. Now pay attention to what's going on! That is - as weird as this sounds - your sister-in-law who's about to leave this world for the next one.

Awww, poor Joel! He loved her so much!

Although Andrea looks distinctly unimpressed. Given that she just lost her husband, Joel's father, a couple days earlier, you'd think she'd be a little more understanding... Maybe the fortune sim in her is too busy thinking about the money he just inherited.

And so Isabella joins Fred in the Cooper Mausoleum.

Which seems to prompt Fred to leave it, and cry about his tombstone being moved. First ghost sighting in Strawberry Fields.

He scares his youngest son...

... but then seems content to play with the toddler toys the rest of the night. And all through his next appearance, a few nights later. Very quiet ghost, our Fred. Well, maybe quiet isn't the word, as you can hear the xylophone all through the house, but you get my drift.

When Isabella makes her first otherworldly appearance, she follows his lead - she scares Joel once, then spends the rest of her time haunting the microwave and wandering the hallways.

And she has grown a beard? Oh, I see, that's just her hair. For a moment there I thought she had turned into Santa. If Santa died, would he become a ghost?

But enough of ghosts, let's return to the world of the living. Joel deals with his grief by jumping into a new career - he joins the army. And grows some scruff (not showing yet in this pic).

At night, he stargazes. Oh wait, he always did that.

Little brother Hogan is a handsome young boy, who learns skills fast, does well in school, and makes friends easily.

Especially with girls. Here he is hugging Rhea Cantrell. He's also close with Keziah Black.

His mother is eager to get him into private school, so they have the headmaster over. Unfortunately the chili was burned, so the food score was a bit on the low side. Time to do some schmoozing, quick!

Ahem. Andrea? What are you doing with the headmaster, in the bathroom, in your PJs? And with that look on your face? Do I even want to know?

Actually, she very nearly ruined the whole thing with her attempts at schmoozing - Hogan had to step in and save the day. Leave it to the kid to make things right when the parent messes up...

Yes, Andrea, I know you need to max your mechanical skill to get that last promotion. I'm working on it!

Voila. Andrea becomes a Criminal Mastermind, just as she has always dreamed of.

And celebrates by passing out on the sidewalk. Snicker.

Towards the end of the week, Joel decides he needs some friendly company to cheer him up. He invites his good friend Carmen Vega over, and she brings her sister Rosario along.

"She's hot!"
"He's hot!"
"I'm not seeing this... If I close my eyes, maybe I can pretend my brother isn't flirting with a college girl... He's old!"

Now now, Hogan, he's not that old! Besides, I think it's good to see him moving on with his life.

Joel certainly doesn't have any hang-ups about age. His first love was old enough to be his mother; this second one is young enough to be his daughter. I think he and Carmen first met when she was a toddler inviting him to come play with her and her bunny rabbit...

Komei, you put that gnome down right now!

Spooky glitch - the urn is hovering in mid-air, even though it's broad daylight...

Points this round: 1, for TOC. Andrea became a Criminal Mastermind.

2007-01-30T00:13:00.000+01:00

At one of the LFT dorms, these four spent their first two years of uni life. That's Janson Knight (family), Jennifer Ryan (also family), Tamara Black (fortune) and Aston Dante (knowledge). Interesting that the fortune sim is the only one who's thinking about her good grades, rather than the money she got for making the Dean's list...

But long before they got that far, something else had happened when they first moved into the dorm. Jennifer met this guy, whom it turns out she has three bolts for. So he was pledged into the fraternity, and will be played there along with the other frat boys.

His name is Renaud Bendett, and I have no idea whether he's related to Marisa. He's a knowledge sim, Pisces, and attracted to red hair. Jennifer is crazy about him.

Of course, with a three bolts relationship, it wasn't long before she and Renaud were officially in love!

Jenn herself is looking pretty good as a YA. Wonder what their kids will look like? Jennifer wants at least three...

A quiet lunch with Tamara. These two are good friends - all four are, for that matter.

Being a Leo, Tamara is extremely outgoing, and loves to goof around. When she isn't focusing on her grades, that is, or painting for some extra cash.

She's also very much into Javier Vega. As I think I said before, they have two bolts that go up to three when he changes into his swimming trunks. Good thing it isn't Javi who has a swimwear fetish, because Tamara always skinnydips...

Despite being in love with Javier, Tamara still occasionally rolls up a want to fall in love with Aston. I ignore her, figuring it's just a hang-over from when they were dating in high school. Never forgetting your first love, and all that.

Speaking of Aston, not only is he fashion sense challenged, but he developed a weird habit of sitting on non-existent chairs and eating from invisible bowls.

When he'd eaten enough to get less fit, I had him invite Rosario Vega over to see how much that improved their chemistry (since fitness is her turn-off). Should he marry her or Lexie Nottington?

My question was answered pretty quickly.

And after a greeting her like that, is it any wonder her immediate - and autonomous - response was to do this?

Madly in love with Rosario, Aston makes sure he doesn't get too fit for her taste by shoveling food into his mouth as fast as he can. Nice table manners there, Aston.

As you can see, he also got rid of those clothes. So what if all he had to change into was his jogging suit? It seemed a small price to pay.

Once a slob, always a slob, though.

He still managed to join the fraternity, on his second attempt. The first time the frat boys kept running around so much he couldn't get his relationship with them up fast enough.

And finally poor forgotten Janson. I've discovered I have very few pics of him from these two years. He just didn't do much of interest... Because I've decided to pair Lexie Nottington with Ronnie Black, Janson is going to have to wait for the next batch of college kids to arrive in order to find his soul mate. He does like Rosario, a lot, but she's taken. Maybe I can pair him up with Aston's little sister Marlee - they have very similar personalities, and she's a fortune sim...

All four sims joined the secret society, are fraternity or sorority members, and became big sims on campus. All are maintaining a 4.0 GPA.

2007-01-29T23:08:00.000+01:00

Jessamyn Cantrell called up Ethan Cooper first thing she did this week, and told him she was pregnant with his child. he imediately agreed to move in with her and help her raise the baby - as well as her young daughter, since Rhea's father Romulus Bonaccord wants nothing to do with her. It seems his father's death has made Ethan want to change his lifestyle...

"Make-out on tap!"

Or maybe his reasons are less noble than that.

Despite not feeling very good, Jessamyn managed to squeeze in one more day's work - and one promotion - before going on maternity leave.

Which left Etahn to take care of little Rhea. Fortunately, the two of them are fast friends, ever since he spent hours playing with her and the wobbly wabbit last round.

Ethan and Rhea make beautiful music together.

What? They do!

He fulfills another LTW by reaching the top of the slacker career. Time to find something else to do, bud - although maybe you should get some more skill points first, so you can move up in the next career faster.

Meanwhile Jessamyn has developed a craving for chocolate.

Rhea gfrows up into a child... and those Bonaccord genes still freak me out. She'd better grow into that face, or she'll have to be introduced to the face lift thingy when she gets to college!

But you know, from the right angle, with the right hairdo to cover up those cheeks, she's almost cute.

Jessamyn gave birth to a second daughter. This one was named Fredrica, for her late grandfather. She has her mother's skintone and haircolor, but her father's brown eyes.

Ethan was thrilled to have a daughter!

And because the baby years bore me, we move straight to Fredrica as a toddler.

Interestingly enough, she has a personality that reminds me very much of Leeland Dante's - 2/10/2/10/1 - but instead of a Leo like him, she's a Taurus. Not to mention that it's almost the exact opposite of her sister Rhea's personality (10/2/10/3/10). I predict some future sibling tension here...

Jessamyn, if you toss her in the air like that, don't come complaining to me when she throws up on you!

Some people just never learn...

She's very good for Daddy, though. Definitely a daddy's little girl.

What, a romance sim potty training his daughter? Ethan, has your father's family-minded ghost taken over your body?

"No more dirty diapers, ever!"

Of course it's not all about taking care of the kids. Whenever possible, Ethan and Jessamyn squeeze in some private time and have themselves a date. I can't tell whether she's more anxious to reach her IW of 50 dream dates, or worried that he'll stray if she doesn't keep him satisfied...

Points this round: 2, for TOC and new sim. Ethan became a Professional Party Guest, and Fredrica was born.

2007-01-29T22:31:00.000+01:00

The Ryan house was getting a bit crowded, now that Paul had come home from college, and brought Paige Antonius with him. So Joe and Barbara decided to move out with their twin daughters, Frannie and Sabrina, into a home of their own. I had never seen anyone moving out with babies before, so I was a bit curious about how that would work when getting into the taxi.

Teehee. Floating babies, complaining that something is blocking their path? Maybe trying to move just as the maid was arriving wasn't very smart, huh Joe?

And a quick look at the new Carr home. Wish I could remember where I downloaded it, so I could give proper credit.

Anyway, Paul and Paige now had the house all to themselves... Which they quickly decided to take advantage of.

Oh yeah, Paul couldn't find an opening in the medical career, so he became a cop for the moment. Didn't take him very long to reach the top of that career - and then he did get his chance to become a doctor.

Paige soon began to feel nauseous in the mornings...

And because we've all seen the pregnancy pics before, let's move straight to the birth of their daughter, Peg. There are multiple reasons why I chose that name... Anyone wanna guess at some of them?

Poor little Peg had to suffer through some nanny abuse...

So Paige could fulfill her LTW of becoming a famous chef. And it just occurred to me that all the Antonius girls seem to choose the culinary career! Did they never get fed properly at home?

To celebrate, they threw a party for Peg's birthday. Among the very first to arrive was Grandma Barbara, who seems to have as much insight into what a baby needs as the average nanny. Stink does not mean hunger, Babs!

Guest list, left to right: Nadia Nettles, Javier Vega, downtownie guy, Joe Carr, Barbara Ryan Carr, Priscilla Antonius, behind Paul there's a glimpse of Ravi Custer and in front of him with her back to the camera is Bryony Forsythe, behind Paige are siblings Kora and Tavarez Knight, and to the far right we have Penelope Antonius.

And little Peg grows up to look almost too much like her father! His mouth and jaw just don't look as good on a toddler girl as they do on him...

And at this point, when I'm checking Peg's sign and personality, I suddenly discover that her name isn't Peg Ryan, it's Peg Antonius. What's up with that? And then it dawns on me that I may have forgotten one small detail. Like, you know, the wedding. Paul and Paige aren't even engaged!

So right there in the middle of the party, he goes down on one knee and proposes. Birthday party becomes engagement party as well.

Which is a good thing, because as you can see, Paige is already pregnant again. At least this baby will have the Ryan name!

Aww, a wedding in their underwear in the bedroom, with her heavily pregnant with their second child. How... romantic. Isn't it?

Isn't it?

Points this round: 3, 2 for TOC, 1 for new sim. Captain Hero for Paul, Celebrity Chef for Paige, and Peg was born.

2007-01-21T15:32:00.000+01:00

Popping over to check out the sorority at La Fiesta Tech, the four girls living there had a busy first two years, where all of them joined the secret society and became big sims on campus. Let's start by getting a look at who they are.

Lexie Nottington, family sim that she is, was of course mainly looking for a life partner. Top three runners-up were Ronnie Black, Aston Dante, and Janson Knight. She looks better as a YA than as a teen, IMO, and the dreads suit her.

The same three guys were Rosario Vega's potential suitors. Another family sim. Unfortunately she has fitness as a turn-off, which is a clear setback where chemistry's concerned... What is it with the Vegas not liking fit sims? Her brothers Javier and Daniel both have the same turn-off - that's three out of six siblings! I'll try to re-roll it when she finishes sophomore year.

Priscilla Antonius is a pleasure seeker, and will be re-rolling her aspiration. She's a Gemini, so I'm hoping to be able to pair her up with either Daniel Vega or Will Ryan... Or maybe even Jade Knight. Those three are currently only interested in Nina Nettles and Rebecca Forsythe, so we need a third girl to throw into the mix.

Sasha Dante. Popularity sim with no outgoing or nice points. Yeah, she's going to re-roll! If she gets a better aspiration, she may grab Ronnie Black, and then Lexie and Rosario can choose between Aston and Janson.

Hmmm - as a teen, Sasha dated the other Ronan Black, the one I call Face. It would be rather ironic if she ended up with his uncle of the same name...

As you can see, Sasha is still up to her old tricks. Here she's picking on one of the pledges, Jade. There were a lot of pledges, since there are 16 female YAs currently in college. Term papers were easy to come by.

It took a while, but all the sorority sisters did eventually become the best of friends, despite their very different outlooks on life.

Rosario isn't getting along very well with her sister Mercedes. Well, one is romance, the other family; one is Cancer, the other Gemini. Not exactly the recipe for a good relationship. They love each other, they just don't like each other very much.

There's an almost constant bed glitch on this lot, where one of the beds will look like there's someone sleeping in it even though it's empty. Here the bed has actually been made, but the "ghost" lingers in one corner...

At the end of sophomore year, it's re-roll time. To my exasperation, Rosario gets fitness as a turn-off again. Sigh. Priscilla changes from pleasure to popularity, and now wants to be a famous chef. She's turned on by formalwear and underwear, but dislikes cologne.

And Sasha? Sasha rolled romance...

2007-01-15T01:55:00.000+01:00

I enter the now much less crowded Dante household to find Amin helping Liza get those last couple of charisma points she needs to become a Hall of Famer. I check out their wants panels, and... what? Liza, is that a "have a baby" want I see? You just got rid of four teenagers, so now you want a baby? I've heard about empty nest syndrom, but I didn't know sims got it...

I was really torn at this point. Amin is a good guy, and after helping raise Liza's brood, he deserves to have a child of his own. Besides, they both have red hair, so the baby would, too, and I love red hair. But - Liza already has five kids, and she really needs to focus on her career and earning money, fortune sims that she is. Still, if she wants to... Sigh. Finally, it was the aspirations points that got to rule - I had "reach top of athletic career" locked, and it's worth way more than "have a baby." So if she gets there and still has the baby want, it's a deal.

Of course, it rolled away almost immediately. Yeah, I kinda figured it would.

That same night, it was time for little Marlee to grow up.

She rolled fortune, just like her mom. She's attracted to red hair and fitness, but turned off by grey hair. She's a Libra, 0/8/2/10/6 - as sloppy as her big brothers, and as playful as Sasha and Leeland, as well as lazier and nicer than any of the other kids.

She got a new look, complete with contacts instead of glasses. Yes, Marlee, I know homework sucks, but it has to be done.

This is a fairly good picture of the state of Amin and Liza's marriage. She spends all her time skilling for promotions, while he stargazes in the hope of an abduction that'll give him a baby. Liza did reach the top of the athletic career, which freed her to pursue her real dream of becoming a criminal mastermind...

And the fact that Amin is the local Captain Hero isn't likely to stop her.

Nope, didn't stop her. Permaplat, baby! To celebrate, they decide to throw a party. Well, that, and Amin really wanted one. I don't think Liza told him what she's celebrating - he probably still believes she's in the import-export business...

The party was a success. Among those present, we have Joe and Marisa Knight, Joe and Barbara Carr, Paul Ryan, Renee Black, and a random, very ugly DJ who came as a friend of one of the others. I don't remember anyone being friends with him, but as long as he behaves, he can stay.

Paul Stenbeck Ryan, what do you think you're doing?!?! Marisa is married, and you're slated to marry Paige. So stop telling her to call you!

After the party was over, Amin and Liza continued their celebration in private. It's been a while since their last woohoo.

Then Amin went out for his usual stargazing, and Liza decided to set the stove on fire. Well, neither of her careers required her to learn how to cook...

Hey, firefighter Maura, why are you walking away? The stove is still on fire!

Careful, Liza!

The chili was burned, but Liza wasn't. The fire effect still remains, but they can cook on the stove as if there was nothing wrong with it. I kinda like this glitch - it looks funny.

Amin likes it, too. Or maybe he's just grinning like that because he finally got lucky. You don't need the stove for gelatin, anyway, which is what they eat more than anything else.

Marlee wanted a entrepreneur scholarship, so she got a job at the nearest fast food joint. Her sister Sasha used to work there, too, and in this get-up Marlee looks very much like her - except with a bit fuller mouth.

When she's not working, skilling or in school, Marlee likes to shoot pool down at the shopping center. In her jammies. While there, she runs into...

... Javier Vega, who makes faces at her. Stop it, Javi, you're scaring me! I don't like it when you look like that!

And the stove is still on fire.

Points this round: 3, for 3 TOCs. Captain Hero for Amin, Hall of Famer and Criminal Mastermind for Liza.

2007-01-15T01:08:00.000+01:00

Adam Nottington returned to his childhood home after graduation, and was soon joined by his fiancée Kiana Knight. They spent a fair chunk of money on expanding that small one-room shack into a bigger house.

These two weren't behaving much like the family sims they're supposed to be. Neither of them had a want to get married, have a baby, get a job, or any of the usual family wants for new graduates in their first few days as adults. Instead, Adam kept wanting to buy things - and I don't mean the basics as a fridge or bathroom stuff, because that was already there. Kiana on the other hand wanted to call all her friends and family members. You'd think they were fortune and popularity... Just check out this conversation they had over breakfast.

"Adam, now that we've graduated, what should we do next?"

"We'll get jobs, of course. That's what adults do."

"We'll have to work on our skills, or..."

"... we could lose those jobs."

"And friends are important, too. We have to make sure we keep our friendships."

See what I'm talking about?

Well, they did both roll up wants to woohoo, so they did. Still no wants to get married, or have babies. Well, I figured maybe they'd show up eventually, so I waited... and waited...

Hey downtown boy, why are you sitting right outside the room where my sims are woohooing? That's kinda stalkerish, don't you think?

Kiana did bring him home from work with her. She's a doctor, just like her dad.

She actually gets chosen Chief of Staff over her father! That's gotta sting some. But she quickly quit that job for another in the natural scientist field, my favorite career for female family sims. Can't beat a §10,000 a day salary for maternity pay...

See how happy Joe was to hear the news? He and Kiana had a nice father-daughter chat after he came home with her from work.

By then, I had long since given up on waiting for the wants to roll up, and was just trying for baby at any time when both Adam and Kiana were home, and Adam wasn't busy stargazing. (That did limit the time considerably...) Adam was by then a famous chef, and was considering which new career he should try next. Anyway, it took forever to get the lullaby. Five or six tries before success. I hope that doesn't happen every time, because Kiana wants to graduate 3 kids from college.

Now that she's pregnant at last, they do get quietly married, wants or no wants. I need an heir with the Nottington name, after all. And they did roll up the "have a baby" wants right after the ceremony. Both of them. Baby is due on Monday.

Despite all my grumbling, they really are sweet together. They're all over each other all the time - three bolters, of course - and never complain about anything. And please note that while Kiana may be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen, Adam is the one doing the dishes!

Points this round: 3, for 3 TOCs. Chief of Staff and Ecological Guru for Kiana, Celebrity Chef for Adam.