Ah! Leah!

Yeah I'm listening to Donny Iris, what about it?

I have been way too busy for games this week. I have a TEST to study for. Whoa, wtf, right? So not much game-play to report about.

I am looking forward to the next chance I can play quite a bit though. Polly is nearly 77 Sim days old now. They don't give you any idea how long your Sims will live in the game, but I think she's got to be pushing it a little bit. She's kinda cranky now and prefers sitting on comfortable furniture to almost anything else.

While I love Polly dearly in some kind of weird I-know-this-is-a-game way, I also am pretty curious about experiencing my first natural Sim death in the game. Which might sound sick, but, it is just a game.

Birthdays, awkwardness, and OCD Sims.

Two major birthdays were celebrated last night while Alex and I got caught up with the Nice household.

Thad went from awkward teenager to awkward adult with a stylish new leather jacket. Shortly after his birthday, during a get together with the Experiment sisters, he got engaged to Priscilla. Despite his geekiness, she is crazy about him. I’ll move her in with the family just as soon as I can convince Alex that Dina (Grandpa’s hot young girlfriend) is really boring and should move out. I already broke up Stan’s marriage to Melissa. Actually, they are still married. I just moved her out of the house because she didn’t really do anything to add to the dynamic in the Nice house.

Bridget (as in alien baby Bridget) is now a child. She’s still pretty cute, but she’s very shy. And, as it turns out, she has an extremely neat and tidy personality. This means she does things like scrub the bathtub and take out the trash without being prompted. A Sim with OCD! Neat! I think this might be a product from the compulsive way that every family member had to give the baby a bath when everyone was left to their own devises.

Also, as a birthday gift, we got Bridget a cat. Hooray for the Pets expansion pack.

I spent my birthday in my robe, sick as hell, playing the Sims. Not so bad, actually.

I made a lot of moves in the Neighborhood this week. I’ll try and run down the major developments.

1. Herbert and Marisa split up. Some quirk in the game wouldn’t ever give them the option to actually marry, and honestly Marisa was a boring Sim to play with, so I just moved her out. No hurt feelings, either. Their daughter, Helga, is a well-adjusted Child Sim. She stayed with her dad.

2. Penny and Priscilla Experiment both reached adulthood and moved out of the old Experiment homestead. I didn’t want to separate the family much further, so I placed them in the same house as their older sister, Peggy, and Alex Sim. Wonder how that’s going to go over with Mother Polly.

3. Rupert moved out of Herbert’s house and back in with Polly and Benjamin. He is the nicer of the twins, and it was easy to marry him off to a family-minded Sim named Christy. They promptly had a son, Regis. Polly was delighted to have a legitimate grandchild at last. Now her “wants” inventory has “have 20 grandchildren” in it. No. Way.

4. Back at Herbert’s house, with Marisa gone, the nasty womanizer twin, Roland, made Cassandra Goth fall in love with him. She’s an interesting character, so I moved her in. But he won’t marry her. Either a game quirk, or maybe he’s a total ass. Who knows. Anyway, they have two sons, Ralph and baby Roosevelt.

The pictures:
Top - Polly and Benjamin having an adult conversation on the sofa. Considering that they had six children, this may be the first time they have ever done this.

Middle - Back when the three brothers lived in Herbert's house, Roland used to get into a lot of trouble with the neighborhood women. Here are a couple brawling over him. Whoa. I did not make this happen.

Bottom - Right after Marisa had baby Helga, all three brothers ran from the pool to the bedroom, and just stared at her. No wonder she wasn't so into sticking around.

Turnips.

I haven’t introduced the Turnip family. They are newer to Alex and I, and they haven’t involved themselves in any of the Experiment or Nice sagas. Donald is a family man. He has a budding career in the medical profession and seems like somewhat of a homebody. His wife Ginger isn’t sure what she wants to do yet. Actually, I am holding off on getting her into a job because I am interested in seeing what new career tracks are available in the new expansion packs that I haven’t installed yet.

Ginger and Donald have a toddler daughter named Gertrude. I was curious to see what the Sim genetics simulator would do with her. Donald is a very dark skinned Sim with black dreads. Ginger is extremely pale with bright red hair. So far, Gertrude favors her mother’s complexion and has black hair like her dad. I think there should be maybe one more baby in this family just to see if that child is any different.

I don’t have many pictures of them, but here are a couple of highlights:

1. Donald and Ginger. This was their “family shot” before they had Gertrude.

2. One of their wedding pictures. You can make a wedding happen in the game, it just takes some effort and purchasing a wedding arch thing. I find it easier just to let them shack up until “propose marriage” appears in their interaction options. The blond woman on the left is Polly. The older guy is Earnest Nice. Can't remember the other two guests. A lot like my own wedding in some ways.

3. Aw. Donald and Ginger cuddle on the couch sometime right before Gertrude was born.

News, or the sudden lack thereof.

I have been lacking in the Sims updates this week, and for that I sincerely apologize. I just haven't been as indulgent with my time. Time is this funny thing that I just have absolutely very little of.

But, I can at least throw a couple of random pictures of my Sims at you with the promise that Alex and I have some ideas brewing for our current households as well as a couple of new ones.

Anyway, up top we have Stan attending baby Bridget while everyone else plays video games on the giant plasma screen TV. This is a pretty recent picture in their new house.

The bottom picture is of Stan shortly after his return from space. This is an older snapshot, but one of my favorites. I like how this is the only time the family members express any interest in where he was.

Updates:

(Above: Stan in his swim trunks teaching Bridget to talk)




So Herbert Experiment moved out of the Experiment Homestead. Mostly because having so many people in the household makes the game run slower, but also because some glitch was preventing him from marrying anyone while in that house. So he has his own place which I am working on fixing up. I also want to move Rupert and Roland in with him to keep the family bonds close and to take advantage of the combined friends inventories. It is hard to try and have enough friends to advance in your career track, but the game counts the friends of family members, so it is a good strategy.


Polly and Peggy are working through their differences. It is easier since Peggy moved out for Polly to get over the betrayal.


Penny and Priscilla are happy teenagers who often want to sneak out of the house. Trouble makers Roland and Rupert did that a lot as teens, but they often got caught and lectured by Polly. Once, Rupert was brought home in a police squad car.


In the Nice household, the family has moved into a bigger house, and baby Bridget is now a toddler. She's just like any ordinary Sim toddler. Except she's green.

Drama

The latest developments in the Polly Experiment house have been INTENSE. Polly and Benjamin have both moved on to their Elder years. Benjamin retired from his job as "Celebrity Chef" and is collecting a pension. Twins Rupert and Roland, along with little sisters Penny and Priscilla are all Teens. Oldest twins Herbert and Peggy are adults now. Herbert is a criminal investigator looking for a wife. And Peggy is in the Military track, and she is a slut. Yeah, I said it. She always has "WooHoo" in her wants. And this is where it gets tricky. You see, a long time ago, before Alex Sim (not to be confused with my actual human being husband, Alex) had the little fire mishap, he cultivated a relationship with Polly. They had the hots for each other, but never once was Polly unfaithful to Benjamin, for the record. They just had a deep spiritual understanding of each other. In a Sim kind of way.

So as it happens, Alex Sim has been a family friend forever. And befriended all of the Experiment children. Eventually, Peggy grows up, and decides that she really needs to sleep with Alex Sim. Keep in mind that Alex Sim has been in suspended time all the while we haven't been playing his household. Sims only age when you are in their house playing with that family. He and Peggy are the same age now.

To set the scene: a party at the Experiment house. Everyone in the family is entertaining a friend, watching television, eating, swimming, or something downstairs. Peggy slips away with Alex Sim. Things happen. Suddenly, Polly storms in with a flaming thought bubble of first Alex Sim and then Peggy. She is furious! (Which is represented by a red haze over the offending party's icon in her friends inventory). She slaps Alex Sim repeatedly, but he moves on and rejoins the party. However, I could not get her to stop slapping her daughter, which would then result in both of them crying. I tried to manage her movements, make her talk to someone else, bathe, eat, whatever, but she would get distracted and fight some more.

Ultimately, I had to move Peggy out of the household. Slowly, the furious red dissolves and they can be friends again, but it was about time for the eldest daughter to move out anyway I think.

Also, the household I moved her into to get her away from her angry mother? Alex Sim's.

Wooooooo.

This has nothing to do with The Sims. Just sayin'.


Super Bowl. Steelers. Yesyesyesyesyes. I do not have to mention anything about the big deal that last night was.

That being said, did anyone catch Channel 4's coverage of the after-game chaos? From the South Side and Greensburg, looked like people were having a civil, drunken time.

However, my boy Ari Hait was stationed in Oakland, couch burning capital of Pittsburgh. Every time they cut to him it looked like he was reporting from Gaza or something. Things were on fire right next to him, guys were jumping on his back and swatting at his face. Nearly naked college students were making lewd gestures behind his back. He looked very afraid and very angry. What were the WTAE producers thinking? Why leave your guy out there to possibly be mauled by inebriated Pitt students? Holy hell, guys. Poor Ari. And he's the one the morning news always sends out to some remote location when it is -6 so he can report back, "Yep, it's cold." C'mon Channel 4, next time send Ari to the Super Bowl or to the next big thing to report with dignity. He's earned it.





Yay Steelers. And let's go PENS!