I keep restarting and it'd driving me insane. One minuet I want to start a hood from scratch, building as I go, next I want a ready-built hood with everything I could possibly need and a ready community of sims I can dive into. I just get too bored too quickly :/

I have an idea for an awesome story but I can;t get around to making all the parts for it!

Almost done with a week at the orphanage, which is very chaotic. ACR is off, which keeps inappropriate behavior from manifesting (Sophie Miguel, I saw you swooning over Jason Larson). The Larson siblings are the caretakers, and they have spent most of their time either cleaning the place or teaching the orphans to do homework. Thursday, after everything was clean, I took them out one at a time.
Jodie met John Mole, thought he was cute. He reciprocated, and she asked him on a date, got her first kiss, and had a wonderful time. He brought her by a bouquet of roses later in the evening. Jason met Marisa Bendett, and things proceeded between them the same way as for Jodie and John. While the Larsons would like to have more income, they've built up a bunch of useful skills for their future careers, are getting close to friendship with all the orphans, and have romantic interests, so their first week of play is going pretty well.

The teens will have a chance to go out in small groups Friday after work and school. The children can just keep playing with each other around the orphanage for now. The orphanage rotation stops a day early so that Saturday, after other families have been played through the week, they can come and meet the orphans if they want to adopt.

My main hood, Ullerby, is getting more knit together now when there is a sort of "everyone knows everybody else"-feel to it. Mostly due to Ophelia Girardet, legacy founder and mayor. She knows a sim in every household, there is only 12 other besides her own, but still. She knows them and they know her. And there is only three days left until she turns to elder. Already permplat from becoming mayor the party will be an epic event.

But that is in the future. As pere now, it looks like the Svan-family and the Grattons might start a family feud, Adam Essex will forever be a lonley gardener, Martina Hult might stop her sons from being friends with Helena Dahls daugher as soon as she realises the connection.

One dramatic event already occured at the latest Girardet-party. Ophelia and Kari have been in love since university, but have been happily married to other sims their whole adult lives, Kari with Martina (they now have three adopted children) and Ophelia to Amin sims. They have countinued to be good friends and have been going to the same parties as eachother. With and without their spouses. But this evening Amin hugged Ophelia romantically - in the presens of Kari! How this never happeded before is beyond me. But that was when Kari realised that Ophelia really was married to Amin, and not just pretending to be into men to please "the society" (I do not play with homophobia in my game, but simce this is a illogical response to a marriage lasting more then 20 sim days, I let it slip). Thank god Martina was home with the kids, I do not dare to think about her response.. But the party was going towards a roof-raiser when the police showed, 23:30 a friday, when all of the neighbours was at the party. Sometimes I love this game.

This rotation I also have to decide if Adam Essex will marry Gisela Gratton, look away from the age difference - he is 16 days older then her, and her public affair with a college freshman, who also have a relationship with Adams sister. His other alternative is a) to live alone with his garden, family-aspiration and wish to become captain hero, b) adopt as a single father, c) find another girl to marry that he have triple bolts with or d) all of the above. Gisela might be more fun on her own, but then I have the problem of a lot of households.. Them marrying is the most neat relating to the amount of households that might explode within a generation.

A strange spell has gripped SimNation... Sims are frozen in place, unmoving for weeks now. Meanwhile, mansions, skyscrapers, parks, slums, kingdoms, and nations are rising up amidst the immobile population. No one can tell what impact this mysterious construction will have on the Sims of SimNation once they awaken, and no one can say what otherworldly force might be controlling such an impossible-seeming event!

(in other words, I haven't actually played any of my Sims in a long time, but I've been on something of a construction binge! )

Julien Cooke died age 68 after a pretty miserable life - twice widowed, his only son killed and fired from his job as chef.
Meanwhile, it's the turn of lots of baby girls being born. (I had lots of boys, and now I seem to have dozens of male university students, with not a pretty female in sight.)

I swapped my default replacement skins to a more matte set and am now playing guess who in my hood actually has default skins and who has one from the three sets of genetised skins I have in game. I'm also wondering how much damage it would do to my hood to delete a towniefied skin, I know one professor spawned with it but I smited him to death on sight and am keeping a careful eye out for any others who might spawn with it but it would be easier to just remove it. I'm on a mac to SimPE fixing isn't an option.

I've also remodelled a house so it will probably gain the family entry into private school next season which is makes the lot far less playable as the family are on three floors and use all three floors but will make the fortune sim moving in three seasons from now far happier and it will be playable when the daughter and her twins move out and the family is down to mother, son and in a few seasons dad. At the moment there are babies in the way of everything because the house is designed to hold four sims provided only one is a baby/toddler not two babies and one toddler like it had this season.

I have a house design on split levels with garage and conservatory that turns into a greenhouse connected and idylic watery garden running through my head but none of my households could afford it which makes building it rather pointless

Because I'm further in the game than I updated here, I'll bring a summary of occurences in several households to create less backlog.

First Cavanah-Davies
Actor Keyvan Davies and his long time partner Bobby-Jo Cavanah always have been more into each other than parenting. They weren't neglecting their off-spring, but when they had to make a choice between a crying child or flirting and kissing in the garden, the latter would happen. They figured other people in the house would tend to the crying or whatever requested need. Like their teenage daughter Belle or Bobby-Jo's sister Bailey. Bailey was constantly thinking about marriage and exchanging rings with someone. She came across as lonely, which was understandable. She was abanoned by her former married lover Darim Akbari, after he found out she was pregnant. For him she just was a one night stand. If something came from that, not his problem.
And since she moved in with her then baby son Badi, she had to watch how her sister and her partner had good times and she didn't. She 'only' had her desk job a couple of hours in the morning and Badi. She wanted more. A dating service was the answer and they did a good job. Bailey and Al(fons) de Wethouder hit it off as best as a couple can hit it off. They went to bed together soon after and the next day he came back to stay. And Belle moved out to college.

Alfons, in red training suit, is trying to impress the sister of his new love, but fails to do so. He seems to have more credit with red haired Keyvan.


The Magee-Dumitru household
Frank Magee has 'things' on his mind. He and his wife Romy have six dogs, who do well in making a mess of their territory in the garden. There are days Frank can't handle it very well. He hates mess. It's one big chaos and this day is 'one of these days' that one event after another is happening on top of the usual.
For example, his son Ian has come into the garden to play in the pee one of the dog's left and Frank can't keep up with mopping it all up. Finally Ian gives up and goes for a snack, finding it in one of the dogs' bowls.

Frank and Romy's daughter Ruby thought it was a good idea to invite the whole university dorm her best friend Noni is attending. Or should I say, was intending, because she will be moved to another dorm due to her behaviour. Anyway, it meant not one teenager in the house but seven. And one of them left the door open. A street dog took advantage, snuck in, with causing mayhem on his mind. He managed to destroy Ruby's bed, but that didn't matter in hindside, she went to college anyway.

Of course, Frank's wife wasn't there to pitch in. She's the director of a zoo and works quite some hours outside of the home. Frank only works as a desk clerk, two hours in the morning, and returns before his wife Romy has to leave. Therefore, they didn't bother to hire someone to help, but some days Frank regrets it. Their 'dog breeding kennel' sure was time consuming and most of the work had to be done by him. Suddenly he noticed he had gotten old.

'You're still my cuty pie, Frank!'
Romy's letting her husband know she's still attracted to him and it doesn't matter to her he just turned into an elder.
Son Ian is watching the scene from the couch.


McCrae-Larsson
When Joppe met Caley and hit it off with her, he only wanted to move in if his sister could come along as well. Joppe and his sister Jasmijn had been down on their luck and basically were homeless. Joppe didn't want to leave Jasmijn on the streets while he would have a roof over his head again. Caley agreed and took both of them in. Caley and Joppe reproduced and have a baby girl called Kay now.
Jasmijn wants to be in the medical field to make her mark there. First she did great, but then made a huge mistake and got fired. She was awfully upset. She thought she would get a promotion, not the sack. When she came home earlier than expected, she walked into Joppe and Caley doing it on the couch in the living-room. Awkward...


Besides her job, Caley has a sowing room upstairs to make some extra money by sowing curtains. The plan was to make it a business, but lately she has too little time to make more of it than it is now.
Joppe is doing well at his work and promoted to be head of construction site.
They expended their house, because their daughter is growing up soon and needs her own room. The house got too small for the four of them.

PS: since I reïnstalled windows 7 I don't have a wordprocessor on my pc yet again, to check grammar and spelling. Sorry for any mistakes.

Well, last night, I finished making up 113 Wright Way (the unoccupied mansion) for my rich family, The D'Autriches

Lucius just came back from Sim State and is actually supposed to be living with the Landgraab's because his fiance and child live there but since the Sim God (me) forgot about him when I played the Landgraab's I have to play him for three days so he is the same age as Mavis. I guess for storyline purposes we can just say he is at home packing up his things and enjoying his last couple of days as a 'bachelor' before he jumps into the fatherhood/husband life. His son, Liam is going to have the best of both worlds because his grandparents are the two richest families in the entire city. Even though the Milad's are technically more wealthy than the Landgraabs they're considered new money.

Lucius' brother Demitri invited his ex girlfriend over to confess to her that she is the only one he wants to be with. I can't remember exactly who cheated on who but that was the end of their relationship. Some time has passed and they haven't really found anyone else that compares to what they had with each other. Isabella moved in and they are now back together. :lovestruc Ethan threw a party the next day and invited his friends over and proposed to Isabella in front of everyone. I was thinking of having the wedding the next day since he had the day off but I'll just wait until the next time I play them. I mean, they just got back together anyway

Demitri's dad, Ethan runs three businesses. An athletic store, a furniture store and an art gallery. The gallery is doing okay but the other two stores are doing very well. The furniture store is at level 8 and the sports store is already maxed out at 10. Ethan's wife Ceres has been having a bit of back luck career wise. She keeps getting promoted, getting a chance card, then getting demoted so her aspiration has been kind of low lately. Ethan decided to remodel the back yard and surprise her but apparently I have some CC that is causing all my fountains/water stuff to not work properly. Once I put it on a lot it makes my sims not do anything and their portrait keeps switching. I can't believe its taken me this long to figure out whats causing it. I've had sooooo many lots that I have gotten rid of because I thought they were borked in some way and of course they all had one thing in common, actually two; they all had a fountain of some sort and I have the sim blender on them which I then blamed on.

Anywho, Ethan is trying to decide on who to pass down his businesses to. Or if he should just sell them. Even though Demitri is technically the heir, nothing about his persona seems like he'd want them. Max's LTW is to be a professional party guess so that is definitely out of the question. I guess the only one left is Lucius who is in the business career. Perhaps he can give him the furniture store and then sell the others one and split the money between all the children. Max will be going to college next time I play him finally. I really have to work on Max's and Lucius' relationship because they hardly have a relationship to begin with. So weird considering they were the ones who shared rooms growing up and whatnot.

Isabella is a legal secretary and still hasn't found a job in the police field. Which sucks because she graduated from the police academy before she even went into college. Oh well at least she can look forward to her wedding next time I play them. I think I'm going to have to force a new rule when I have weddings. Only immediate family will be allowed because my computer starts doing something weird with the game when there's too many people on the lot

So I took the orphan teens out in foursomes to Speedy's. I figured out who was in which group based on what ACR had to say--or didn't. Group one (because they all got showered after work and back outside fastest) were Bernard, Vivian, Misty, and Ricky. Misty formed a casual group so they could eat dinner together but Vivian wasn't having any of that, not one bit. So she ate separately, and Tiffany Zarubin snatched her first plate of lobster out from under her nose, so she had to order twice. Bernard wanted his first kiss, but he's not into any of the girls at the orphanage. Fortunately for him, Violet Joque came in, and so he got to meet someone he thought was really cute and bowl with her. So he at least got to meet someone new. Misty and Ricky had a date and shared their first kiss after dinner. Danny and Mary Sue Pleasant came in, and Danny tried to admire Ricky (who is in the teen athletic career) but Ricky wouldn't have any of that. Vivian is also in the teen athletic career, and she chatted for a bit with Danny and they got along okay. Perhaps the Pleasants would like to adopt a teen knowledge sim who works as a team mascot.
They returned home, and group two went out. This was Orlando, Neal, Sophie, and Ivy. This was slightly awkward at first, as they had an attraction square going on, but Ivy shot down Orlando's opening flirt and after that he turned his attention to Sophie, which made that mutual, and Ivy went after Neal with sufficient vigor that he forgot he was more interested in Sophie. First kisses were shared, dinner was eaten, and they had a very enjoyable evening.
Group three consisted of Meadow, Alvin, Randy, and Tosha. There was no doubt at all about which pairs would form in this group, Meadow and Randy and Tosha and Alvin. Alvin's LTW happens to be Cult Leader, and who but aspiring Cult Leader Pascal Curious showed up! They had a good chat, and I think Pascal is ready to call up the orphanage and bring Alvin home to Strangetown. The teens ate, bowled, kissed, and got themselves home, and that was the end of their week.
These sims are all former townies or downtownies. The children currently living in the orphanage, who spent a large part of the afternoon autonomously in the pool or the playground out back, are Brittany, Chloe, Marsha, Orlando, Elbert, and Chandler. There are no toddlers or babies because there haven't been any given up for adoption. I know that Brittany will go to Armand DeBateau, Chloe will go to the Kims, Marsha will go to the Ottomas, and Orlando will go to the Tinkers: this is set from previous megahood plays. Elbert and Chandler are still up for grabs, as well as the teens other than Alvin. (I'm still thinking about the Pleasants and Vivian. This has a lot of potential--Mary Sue was adopted, adopting a hard-on-her-luck teen ought to play well to her voters, Vivian is a well-behaved stereotypically overachieving knowledge sim so there's lots of room for "Why can't you act like her?", Danny has a secondary of family and likes Vivian, and the potential for drama with a third female teen in the house is immense--to start with, which two have to share? On the other hand, what social worker in her right mind would approve a home study there? On the gripping hand, sim social workers don't seem particularly competent in the department of assessing sim parenting.)

Testing out making a new 'hood. Seeing as I read a short while ago that pre-lived in houses could be a cause of corruption, it put my plans on transferring Cresdale and Adamswater Ridge to new hoods on hold (as while I have lot-only versions, they were built with some of the same pre-lived in houses so odds are I'd have to start over again and I don't have the mental energy to deal with that right now, for personal reasons).

For this new hood, I'm still debating on just how to run it. Pseudo-Prosperity challenge? Documented or not? Keep all the rules I apply to Cresdale, or give up most of them? At the moment, I'm just putting the buildings together (newly built and saving a sim-less copy). I'm using Lake Crossing after crapping my previous version. This one I plan on setting up the smallest island with the families and some businesses, and expanding from there as opposed to building up the whole thing first.

I have my families all set up and ready, to be created in Bodyshop:

Family 1: Insua. Father Colin (Family) and teen daughter Karla (Fortune). Colin's wife Amy died a couple of years back, leaving him in charge of their only daughter. Since her passing, the family has gotten into some financial trouble, giving Karla incentive to work hard and ensure they can get out of the problems they're in.

Family 2: Crumpton. Parents Devin (Popularity) and Bianca (Romance), teen Marc (Fortune), child Rebecca, toddler Thomas. Devin needing to be the social centre has allowed Bianca to know a lot of the people who live nearby. Whether that's a good thing or bad thing depends on who you ask, and the more suspicious cast their doubts on their children's true parentage.

Family 3: Vanhorn. Teen Alyssa (Popularity), child sister Vivian, toddler brother Eliot. Fostered but now finding themselves alone, Alyssa's quickly become the head of the household and in charge of her two younger siblings.

Family 4: McNair. Elder Clara (Popularity), daughter Brynn (Fortune), toddler grandchildren Octavia, Carson, and Garet. With Brynn falling on hard times and accidentally pregnant, Clara welcomed her back home. That may not have been such a great idea when Brynn had triplets...

Family 5: Dalporto. Noel (Knowledge) and Leila (Popularity), teen children Luke (Knowledge) and Viki (Pleasure), child Riley. The picture-perfect family.

Family 6: Chai. Teens Shing (Knowledge) and Bolin (Fortune), child sister Meilin, child brother Li, toddler sister Yun. Striking out on their own in a new country, things might be more than a little unfamiliar for this sibling group.

So I've been playing inbetween work and holidays and there have been some interesting developments in my quiet mountain town.

The biggest change came from the addition of a shopping district, which saw its first business open in the form of Foster's Fantastic Cars, opened by a desperate (and newly fired) Morris Foster in an effort to feed the many, ravenous mouths in the place he calls home. The number of which is, very thankfully, down to just eight children under one roof as Hadley and Maryanne managed to claw their way into college with Maryanne using her overachiever status to get into La Fiesta Tech and Hadley taking advantage of the GI Bill to attend Sim State University.
Although, this was eight and not seven due to the latest and very much final addition to the current generation of Fosters, Errol Foster, who I'm pretty sure is surviving almost entirely on catfood at this point.
The business has turned out to have been a brilliant decision which has already paid for itself, a much needed extension to the previously 2 bedroom family home and financed just enough cleaning up to get all the children into private school!

Aside from the oldest two obviously. And Errol. Sorry Errol.

The children in the family have also become close friends with their nearby neighbours the Mosher family, who have been doing rather well themselves.
Crystal and Beatrix have embraced their retirement by becoming surgically attached to their computer screens; as it turns out coding is extremely profitable and, well, when you have three overachieving children right on track to attend a top university you have to finance it somehow.
Well, maybe three; middle child (now teenager) Nikolas took a fancy to kindhearted neighbour Brianna Foster and their shared affections soon turned into a new relationship.
Unfortunately he got her pregnant. Goddamnit Nikolas.
This development has somewhat thrown both their university plans into jeopardy, but there may be hope on the horizon because...

Newly graduated Maryanne Foster moved into a condo in the shopping district with her college sweetheart and fiancée Mette Machina (Can you guess whose name is going to be taken? Hint: It sounds awesome) and in between wedding plans are considering adopting Brianna's child in order to allow her to attend university (Thus fufilling Maryanne's want for Brianna to go to college as well as Mette's want to adopt a child. I am such a pro at this.)
Maryanne has begun working towards her lifetime goal by beginning a career in law and Mette, as she wants to raise twenty puppies or kittens, is currently working from home while I wrap my head around such a thing (It's bound to be easier than the Fosters at least)

Down the road in an apartment building Maryanne's twin sister Hadley Foster is continuing her... interesting romance with Frances J. Worthington III, whom she met at one of Maryanne's college parties and has been, most unfortunately, inseperable from since. Most unfortunately because goddamn is Hadley a grumpy sim, I swear she just goes off at him over nothing and has inherited just the right amount of her mum's genes to obtain a brow that makes her angry faces VERY ANGRY. Poor Frances, he does seem to love her quiet a lot though because he just takes it like a champ

Across the district is the third and final of the recent college graduates; freshly graduated with honours from Academie La Tour Hall Sleeper and her fiancée Thyme Shultze, whom she has settled down with after a university career of wild dorm parties and doing an excellent impression of a romance sim. With them it was really love at first sight though (Or it was, after Hall was done woohooing the rest of the dorm) and they're both happy in a small apartment while they save for their wedding and pursue their shared lifetime ambition of becoming ballet dancers.

Next on the roundup of my hood, we return to the Sleeper household where my policy of minimum interference has continued to bring mixed results.
Firstly, Cindy Sleeper and Jose Parker finally tied the knot in their twilight years, in a quiet ceremony witnessed by youngest child Light Sleeper and the ghost of Abhijeet Depiesse (Who starved to death on the property some time ago and has continued to stick around and complain since) Local reports described the ceremony as "Quiet, intimate, could've probably been improved if the child wasn't passed out on the floor"
Said child has somewhat been surviving; Light's grades are far from being great (Or even good really) but luckily he has a future career lined up for him managing the new family business Sleeper's Sewing Shack in the shopping district, which is definitely not a sweatshop. The family home continues to be in a state of perpetual mess and disrepair, but luckily he's a very neat sim who has been investing his time in obtaining mechanical skill points in an attempt to offset Jose's level ten "laying on the sofa" skill. He's also been making firm friend's with the daughters of...

The Martin family, specifically the younger daughters Harmony, Marla and Peta. Harmony in particular has taken a liking to him and invites Light over most days to play on their extravagant back garden playground set. Older sister Peyton currently has her time consumed by studying, although her admittance to a top university is a sure thing, what with her family's money and all. Parents Hector and Christy have continued their lives much the same, with Christy bringing home simoleons from work and proceeding to make even more with her various hobbies, and retired Hector spending his time painting and tending to the youngest member of the family, and last child, Ulysses Giles Martin

So going quite well at the moment. Nobody's died yet (There was a scare in the Foster household involving a screaming toddler distracting his mother from the stove, but that's basically tuesday for them) which is really quite something all considering!

Did some more work on Dillard Bay (my new 'hood). Built up three houses to start with and need to figure out plans for a fourth, plus an apartment complex. Save for the apartments (which will be housing the two families headed by teens), the houses are my best attempts at themed/suiting the families and their starting situations. The Insua family is on a 2x1 lot with a house almost like a trailer home; the McNairs with three toddlers have what looks like a hastily-built second floor with three unusually-designed bedrooms and all the toddler stuff save for the cribs splayed out on the landing; the Crumptons have a middle class-ish house, two stories and four bedrooms (enough to give even toddler Thomas his own room).

Community lot wise, I plunked down an old standby restaurant (a diner type place) and a playground. Built up a gym and a clothing store, and added in a community centre. With the hood being 'small', the community centre combines a lot of different community types: a library, ballet dance studio, chess room, art studio, computer room, kids room (general relax area), bathrooms, a buffet area, and a meeting centre. Has two slots open for further expansion if needed. There's also a small, local grocery store on a 2x1 lot and a cemetary (which'll be needed as I'll be killing off a few sims before I even start playing).

As of now, this is what it looks like:

My generation 3 Legacy heiress, Collete Kimbrell, just gave birth to twin boys Brent and Stuart. She's in her last year of college at SSU. She moved out of the dorm and into a house with her fiance, Damian.

A fresh can of teens, ready for college, could be opened. Chaz and Briar Dumitru, Belle Davies, Hana Akbari and Ruby Dumitru. Ruby is Chaz's and Briar's niece. They got assigned to a brand new five bedroom dorm. Chaz succeeded in letting two girls fall in love with him. Belle Davies and Hana Akbari. Chaz already was with Belle since they were teenagers. But this was college and he played the field a bit. Belle still seems his favorite, because not much later his heart is bouncing for her. Poor Hana, because she wants to be engaged to Chaz, but it's more likely he will propose to Belle. Belle on the other hand has none of that in her thinking process.

Then Chaz invited the students over from the dorm next door. Noni was with them as well. Noni happened to be still packing for her move to a new dorm when the invitation call came, so Noni joined. Caiden reluctantly went to their neighbors also. Luckily, Noni was too busy with Faustin to even think about making trouble for Caiden. They only saw each other briefly in the 'dining room' and Caiden gave her a foul look.

It was quite a gathering...
Chaz and Belle retreated to sleep together. Right after, Noni came in the room and made the bed. Gesture of friendship? Hardly. Faustin stepped into the room right after her. Noni and him had plans.


Noni and Fausten had met outside of college during a recent party of one of Fausten's sisters. Noni had been swooning over Fausten for a while already. During the party, Faustin got feelings for Noni and tried a few seducing moves on her that worked out fine. He didn't go that far to kiss her. His sisters were in the vicinity, keeping an eye on him what their younger brother was doing. It's hard to make a move on a girl while your sisters are on the porch with you, and watching. But now they were back on college ground, over at their neighbor's dorm, without the sisterly busybodies. They of course then did far more than just kissing.

'Do you really think they nééd cheering?'

By the time they had used the bed and the room Hana must have sensed, realised or otherwise she and Chaz wouldn't work out. Because of that she either wanted to make a statement, or get back at Chaz, or moved on to his brother, because Briar hasn't another female interest and Chaz does. So. Hana slept with Briar.

Over at the neighbors, it was high time Noni would finish packing and move out. Since Noni is gone it's far more quiet in that dorm. Noni sure spiced things up. It was that it already was decided, because Fausten just 'found' her and seems to hit it off with her and just then she moved out. And his other 'regular make out with girl' Rebecka also moved out, on her own accord, before that. She tried to get a room in the dorm where the new opened can of collegers were moving in. She considered that a better dorm, I suppose. But something was wrong with the building and it was considered no longer safe to stay there. The new set of College go-ers got a new dorm, meant for five people. There was no room for Rebecka and her old room had been taken over by another. Rebecka dropped out of sight, so to speak. Now I kind of feel sorry for Fausten that 'both' his girls are no longer in the same dorm as he does.

But he still will be able to see Noni. She only moved into a new third 5p dorm, a building already planned to be erected and really close to the other two. It doesn't matter where you 'put' Noni. She's making it everywhere, socially speaking.

For Caiden it really was a good thing Noni left, because a new girl moved in to replace her. Low and behold, he at last feels some attraction to one of the opposite sex. Maybe they will hit it off in the near future. Then he finally can make use of that double bed he insisted on having in 'the way' he had in mind.

It's been a while because I finished another Apoc hood (I just love that challenge!). Here are the recaps: recap1, recap 2, recap 3.

After being long-time friends and eventually lovers, Don Lothario and Jenny Smith got engaged after she saved his life from the plague. But in a horribly tragic turn of events (totally generated by the game; I had nothing to do with it), Jenny died the day before the wedding of old age. But she died in a platinum mood, so she lived a good life. After a few sim days of mourning, Don decided to move out of the condo and move in with Chloe Curious and their daughter, Lisette, who is a teen now. He missed most of Lisette's life when he was sick, so he's trying to make up for that time.

Angela Pleasant was in a total downward spiral. She and Ripp Grunt lived in an apartment (right next door to Lilith and Aaliyah, Mary-Sue's daughter by Joe Carr). Both were heavy in the rock-and-roll lifestyle, but Ripp eventually grew out of it when he became a concert pianist (and later a symphony conductor). Angela was stuck in her role as Roadie (aka groupie), and eventually succumbed to that life. She died of a drug overdose. (In-game, she blew bubbles til she nearly starved to death, then stopped blowing only to have a drink at the bar. To me that screamed drug dependency so I rolled with it, story-wise.) Ripp came home and called 911, but it was too late. He couldn't bear living in the apartment by himself, so he crashed on Lilith's couch, plus it gave him comfort to be around Angie's twin. Aaliyah adored Ripp because he would always swing her around. Eventually Lilith and Ripp became romantic and he formally moved in with Lilith and Aaliyah. He became an Inspirational Rock God.

Oh man...I don't know if I mentioned this, but Johnny Smith broke up with Ophelia and married Kristen Loste because she was pregnant and told him the baby was his. When the baby was born, he found out that Kristen had lied to him, but they worked it out and stayed married. Ophelia moved to Pleasantview and eventually married Dirk Dreamer, so she and Johnny lost contact for several years. Well, one day, Dirk brought home a friend from work, and to Ophelia's surprise, it was Johnny! Well, that spark between Johnny and Ophelia flamed up, and even though they tried to resist each other, they eventually entered a torrid affair, culminating in Ophelia getting pregnant. She doesn't know who the father is and is beating herself up with guilt. Johnny doesn't feel so guilty because there is a history of lies and betrayal in his marriage, but Dirk has been nothing but wonderful to Ophelia, saving her from the slums when she got kicked out of Olive Specter's estate in a lawsuit. Ophelia is afraid to tell Dirk that she's pregnant again because she knows Dirk will be ecstatic and she doesn't want to hurt him. She's also afraid for her unborn child because alien genetics are still not understood and her baby could come out looking any kind of way if Johnny's the father (his other child has normal skin with alien eyes, and Chloe Curious also had a baby with normal skin and alien eyes). It would be ok in Strangetown, but not so in Pleasantview, where prejudice still is an issue.

Nothing much else is going on that I can think of right now...Cassandra Goth Curious is in a bad state after suffering 3 aspiration failures in as many sim days (her husband, Lazlo, died, she burned food, and her daughter, Belle, was rejected for private school). She's currently raising her orphaned sister Gina (Mortimer and Dina's child) and Belle by herself. Darren Dreamer and Brandi Broke Dreamer have an adopted teenage daughter who is going steady with Pascal's only son, PJ (the baby he carries in the shipped Strangetown). I'm looking forward to seeing how those kids will turn out. Pascal is a vampire. My plan is to have him live through many generations. He's sad because all of his siblings on his mom's side are dead, so he's already feeling that vampire loneliness, when everyone around him ages and dies while he continues to live.

Kid 3 of Gen 4 of my Heir Apparent challange has been born! It's a boy, so can't be heir (EXTREME SADNESS) but he's ADORABLE with mommy's brown hair (even though I was hoping for a blond kid like daddy, tears), daddy's (or mommy's mommy's) grey eyes and the cute freckled skin tone I downloaded yday!
I was so happy when he was born with that skin tone that I took about a million pictures!
I hope I can marry him to some of the other families umu

So, after having a few glitches I've thrown my hands in the air and said "hell with it, I'll just play". The errors I'm getting in the apartments don't seem to actually affect anything (yet), I just have to make sure I have testing cheats off when I play them.

I started off with the Crumpton family (husband, wife, three kids) and everything was normal. Bianca was initially in charge of ensuring Thomas learned his toddler skills in good time, later finding herself a job in the music career. Marc and Rebecca started off at school, and might I say it is such a surprise to have kids and teens get A+ so easily after all the restrictions in my other 'hoods.

Not before long, Devin got a job in the military to tide him over waiting for his ideal job in atheletics. Unfortunately for him, after one day of Bianca rolling a want to woohoo specifically with him, up popped a woohoo heart with a three in it. I sent Bianca off to the community centre to see if she could pick up any sims she had chemistry with, and later did a quick swing-by of the grocery store to cover her visit. She found two sims she had mediocre chemistry with (Dennis and John), but that woohoo with [x] sims is all about quantity, not quality.

Thursday morning came around, and Devin comes home with a promotion. That immediately allows him to turn around and go back to work; in the meantime, Bianca calls up one of her new beaus and invites John over.

The two end up woohooing on the couch, and she (*cough* technically I) forgot the time when Devin was due back from work. He arrives back just as Bianca and John are really getting into it, so naturally Devin wants nothing more to do with Bianca. However, no one quite knows it yet but Bianca has a fourth child on the way, and this one is not by her husband.

--

The Insua family started off similarly low-key. Kayla headed off to school and Colin picked up a job in Business to tide them over. Colin has a want to graduate three children from college, so he either needs a partner or get into a good enough financial situation to move house and adopt.

While Colin's off at work, Kayla comes home and spies Brynn McNair (a fellow playable) walking along the sidewalk. Kayla greets Brynn and chats to her before inviting her in. 4PM comes around, Colin gets home from work, and the proverbial cupid's arrow strikes strong and true.

Colin and Brynn have two bolts and after some initial small talk could not keep their hands off each other. They woohooed and made out that very same day, and I can almost hear wedding bells ringing in Colin's head. If I'm exceptionally lucky, step-children will count towards his LTW, but I know it probably won't without some wrangling involved.

For Kayla, she's a bit more money-focused to be thinking about romance; she got a job in dance to tide her over until she finds a job in journalism. She brought home fellow playable Shing Chai on Tuesday, but with a big red cross through the lightning bolt, I'd say we're not going to have a similar true love's meeting.

(Meanwhile I'm watching Colin and Brynn be sickeningly sweet to each other. Having two more people in the household would certainly make Brynn's job of looking after her own kids a lot easier.)

By the end of the week, Colin was stil in the same level 3 position, but Kayla had not only gotten an A+ at school, she'd reached the top of her teen career. Not bad at all.

--

The McNair household, due to Brynn walking by the Insua family home, has a little more of a starting story. When Brynn found herself unexpectedly pregnant, her mother Clara allowed her to move back in. Things got hectic when Brynn found out she was having triplets though. Brynn finding and falling in love with Colin may make things a bit easier -- sure he has a teenage daughter and the McNairs will need to move to a new house, but they'll be two more people to help.

Things are highly regimented with three toddlers, and Brynn has no thoughts towards even trying to look for a job in architecture until the triplets are children, off to school, and able to feed and bathe themselves.

With the triplets turning into children, things became a lot less complicated. Brynn found a job in Law Enforcement, and Clara got back to work on the small garden at the front of the lot. To celebrate, Brynn invited around Colin and Kayla for a little celebration-slash-get together. One of the triplets brought home Meilin Chai, and there was a brief surprise when Brynn proposed to Colin. Thankfully, he said yes and the plans for a new merged household are on the way.

--

The Vanhorn family is a group of three siblings, all bounced around from place to place. Alyssa argued for and gained custody of her younger siblings Vivian and Elliot, but social workers are keeping a keen eye out and Alyssa knows she needs to do well to provide. She ended up so distracted on Tuesday morning that she accidentally set her breakfast on fire.

Unfortunately, things didn't go completely well. Elliot grew up without a single toddler skill learned, and needing to look after her siblings has put a dampner on Alyssa's thoughts on getting a job. With Vivian due to grow up soon, however, things might get slightly easier.

Yesterday I began making a new neighborhood from scratch. I now have some businesses placed and some homes with sims living in them. I'm playing 1 family right now and will play rotation style as the generations build. My main charachter I made is Karen West. Pretty blonde hair, green eyed and loves to cook. Her favorite color is pink. I then made a handsome male sim named Mark Myers. He has reddish hair and blue eyes, some neatly trimmed facial hair and is really into fitness and working out. I combined him into her household and they quickly became friends. Not long after they went out on a date and had a blast. It was love for them both and they had a dream date in which Mark proposed to Karen and she happily accepted. Both Mark and Karen enjoy painting and they sell alot of portraits to earn money. They both have also written a novel each so far, using that also as an income. They really wanted to get married right away but did not have the funds for a lavish wedding so they just had a one on one marriage at home.

Mark wanted a dog so he went and adopted a big dog he named Bruno. This dog is pure genius and learns commands very fast. Mark and Bruno are very close and he is his master. The dog is quite hyper so Mark often plays fetch with him. The dog works in security. Before long Karen discovers she is pregnant. Mark dotes on her during her whole pregnancy. Soon she gives birth to a baby girl they named Nora. She is a cookie cut of her mother with blonde hair and green eyes. Their house was getting to be way to cluttered so I had them move across town into a larger home. Did some inside remodeling which im happy with. Right now when i exited the game it was their 1st day in new house.

My largest household has thankfully reduced from two elders, two adults, three teenagers, and two toddlers to one elder, two adults, one teenager, two children and one toddler this rotation. The toddler twins Vivian Rose and Zoey Anne Thomas-Tallis grew up platinum, their mum Zoey Tallis gave birth to their baby brother Mark Mitchell Thomas-Tallis, their grandmother, Rose Brooke, died of old age and their twin aunt and uncle, Timothy Lucas and Ruth Elizabeth Thomas Brooke, went to college.

Of Rose Brooke and her husband John David Thomas's nine surviving children that leaves only Mitchell David Thomas-Brooke, married to Zoey Tallis, and Matthew Paul Thomas-Brooke, who will go to college next rotation, at home. John David is two grandchildren away from his LTW of having six grandchildren which I think might happen before he dies as his son John Duncan Thomas-Brooke wants another child with his wife, Taeryn Aerinn Brooke-Martin, and I foresee a birth control failure requiring his daughter Elsapeth Rose Thomas-Brooke and her boyfriend Lucas Tallis to drop out of University, they have no interest in studying and I hate playing University. Elsapeth Rose will give birth this rotation and Taeryn next rotation but before the Thomas-Brooke household in play cycle and John David will die next rotation.

Mitchell David is rolling desperate wants to have another baby but his wife Zoey is enjoying not being pregnant and tells him to go spend time with Mark Mitchell. She is a knowledge sim who didn't get to go to university because she was already married and pregnant with Viviane Rose and Zoey Anne so she's rolling career progression and skill building wants like they're going out of fashion and has a fear of having another child. She'll probably give in once Mark Mitchell is a child but I don't expect John David to live that long.

Matthew Paul has no relationship with his father, John David, or any of his older siblings bar Mitchell David who was already married by the time Matthew Paul was born and is more of an uncle than brother. He's a pretty sweet sim who loves his little cousins and would happily skip school to read to them if I let him. While I don't want nine Thomas-Brooke kids to play through he's kind of cool but so is Elsapeth Rose and if I play her Timothy Lukas is a necessity to make her happy. I'm almost hoping the hood corruption I can see creeping into want bars happens before I have to make that decision.

My hood is also off generations wise. Tulip Brooke is fifth generation from the hood founder, she's the foster mum of Eric Addams-Vaugan and Kaylynn Vaugan-Vaugan who aren't connected to the founder at all but are on the same generation line as Esmee Brooke-Bell, who is fourth generation, and Tulip is married to Tyber Brooke-Martin who is third generation. That makes Tulip's first biological children who she gave birth to this season both fourth and sixth generation from the hood founder.

The birth of Danube and Thames Brooke-Brooke was anticlimactic after the fuss Tulip had gone through to foster Eric and Kaylynn. However the aftermath was rather fascicle. Tulip decided after she was done giving birth that she was tired dropped Thames on the floor in front of the sofa and went to sleep in the master bedroom. Tyber carried Danube into the new nursery, Eric was complaining he couldn't play video games because Thames was in the way screaming his lungs out and in all the chaos Kaylynn decided to sneak into the master bathroom and have a bubble bath. Trapping Tyber in the nursery with Danube who he promptly dragged out of her crib to cuddle and play with. Danube threw up over him, so Tyber dumped her on the floor and threw a hissy fit about how he couldn't get to the bath tub to take a bubble bath because Kaylynn was already using it. All the while Thames and Eric were competing to out scream each other about the indignity of being respectively dumped on the floor or prevented from playing games and Tulip was peacefully sleeping through the whole thing with a want for 10 babies.

I sent tori and mitch for a long overdue honeymoon at twikkii island. They srt of had a rush wedding because she was pregnant with michael at the time and I was finally able to make it so they could get married. Mitch and tori met in college and were instantly into each other. I didnt know he was playable at the time and the option for marriage and moving in wasnt showing up for them. So I broke off their engagement even though tori was pregnant. Then I figured out the problem, went back to load up his lot, dropped him out, grew him up and merged him into toris house.

They had a quick wedding at the chapel then went to begin their lives.

Because it was such a quick wedding and because she was pregnant, and because those two kept on having babies one after the other, they never had a honeymoon. So I after the children got a little older and I promptly tied a knot in that bitch's tubes, I booked the trip. Then mitch got killed by a satalite a week before time to go, getting ressurrected, then he and tori remarried.

At twikkii, they got quite a few vacation mementos. They found the mysterious hut map, so I sent them there. I though I had fixed all the appliances, and mopped up the water but the witch doctor was still standing around not moving. So I figured I had to give it til morning. I watch mitch and tori dance, flirt, bathe, eat, have constant sex on his couch and started to think it was taking an awfully long time. Sure enough, witch doctor is still standing there frozen.

I tried resetting him, thinking it was a glitch, but he'd return to that same position each time. I sent tori over to see if she could interact, but there were no options.

So I went online to see if this sort of thing happens to other people. Not finding anything at all, I went back, then starting checking the appliances again and cleaning up. Turns out the microwave was still broken. Tori had repaired it and hadstopped, making me think she was done. Nope, just being impatient. So I fixed it completely bring the witch doctor back to life and got the voodoo doll.

Upon returning, there was a group hula taking place so they were able to snag that one. On the last day, she finaly got a local to hang loose to her.plus they got the seashanty, found seashells, and learned hot stone massage. They made offering to timbok IV, then mitch poured soap into it and turned it red. They hit the tours with all positive outcomes, and swam in the ocean.

Since tori and mitch are loaded, I was thinking about going for broke and letting them obtain all the momentos. Even though I have a feeling I will regret it completely.

I've started on the Newson kids; My plan was to have them adopted by someone and I've decided on Cyd Roseland. I'd like it if I could give them a formal memory of adoption, but I'm not sure how that'd possible, so I'm just moving them in and attaching them on the tree.

Go to the "Memories" tab in SimPE (It's under "More"). From there, you can create a memory for each child. Back up your game first (I presume you do so anyway before opening SimPE), because this is a tedious process, and it's easy to get one of them with a memory of adopting Cyd.

Right now, my babies are refusing to age because no one's picking them up. Blah.

For the first time in River State, we have an update from the quiet little village of Riverside instead of the bustling River City. In this episode, Adding to the Family, we meet Jimmy Hamilton, a young man with big dreams. There's some impulsive behavior that might come back to bite him as well as some additions to his family. For the full story and pictures, please see my blog Stories of River State. The link is in my signature.