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.