Re: And the Winner Is..The End of It All - Graveyard Please

[Magpie2012]

I love the explanation of their origins and how Essie only really bonds when she sees mom in the alien getup... Geez, Johnny, couldn't you at least have woken the person up and kicked them out the tent?!?

*side note* how many people can actually fit in that tent?

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[Nettlejuice]

I'm sorry for not commenting earlier, I wanted to catch up first. I cracked up over Essie's age up screenshot xD Poor Johnny, at least he found love with the gorgeous Zoe. I love how each household is so different and want to commend you on your landscaping, teach me your ways, sensei!

[Joria]

"How many can fit in that tent?"  Hmmm.  Well, in RL two comfortably, four if they are very thin, six if they are very small children, (expect fighting to break out).  In Sims, I think 4 is the limit but I've never tested it beyond 3.  The big tent would be known as a four man tent in RL but in Sims I would have to wonder.  Might be fun to try to cram an entire 8 Sims in one and see what happens!  I was sitting here, doing my job watching, and I hadn't noticed anyone going in to the tent till I saw the hearts AND the ZZZs.  Cracked me up.  Guess he didn't want to waste any time since he'd been having such bad luck.  He is definitely no Don Lothario.

@Nettlejuice :  think in terms of prime numbers for landscaping.  For some reason the eye does not find even numbers of anything really pleasing when it comes to decor or landscapes.  I always group at least 3 of anything and I tend to symmetry in the landscape.  Does not have to be the same 3 things.  Could be a rock, a shrub and a tree.  Or a pond with a rock and shrub.  Or just one rock with nothing else to confuse the eye.  Also, there are no perfectly straight lines in nature, (or so my art prof. told me, and I'm still trying to see if he's wrong). 

I'm happy you all are enjoying this!  Now if I could pull myself away from challenging myself to do an Immortal Dynasty in NO BUY MODE, (really NJ your strategy skills could do this whilst I struggle), I'd actual post the next section, retail!

[Nettlejuice]

Oh, thank you for the tips! A no buy mode? So you'd only be able to use items from social events, career rewards and such? Sounds like a challenge!

[Joria]

"Sooo, what's on the agenda today my love?"

"More of the same I guess.  Time for our sprout to grow and make her own club, and I've heard there are some new challenges out there to do.  Something about eggs equals bunnies and some growfruit."

"Ok, enough with the challenges.  Don't you have another milestone to max or something?"

"A gold medal dinner party, or something like that.  I won't complete my Master's degree in culinary arts till I fulfill all the requirements.  You know how much I hate parties, Don, yet I have the suspicion our home is soon going to be party central."

"That's what happens when you're the best chef in town, and the whole town is so aware of the pastries our family bakes.  Don't worry, hon.  I'll do the mixology honors, you cook, and it will be great."



Watcher be blessed, truer words were never spoken.  Our party was a complete, gold medal success!  Whoo hoo!  Maybe it wasn't so bad.  One of these days I just might have a HUGE party.  Naaah.  jk



"Hey, there Sugar Lumps!  Slip me a slobber and hug yer ol' man."

"Daddy!  You are so silly sometimes.  Ok, hug time it is."



"I'm really glad that party thing is over.  Bunch of old people and nothing much for a kid to do.  Cake was good though.  Everything Mom cooks is good."

"Now don't be rude.  You will have to have your share of parties too you know.  Your Mom really didn't want to do this but she handled it well so I'd better hear you telling her how great it was.  Got that?"

"Yes, sir.  Sorry.  Didn't mean anything bad."



"That's better, honey.  Look, you just keep on being sweet and caring, work hard at all you do, and you can reach the stars.  The world is your oyster baby."



"Now, what say we go tackle that homework you've been putting off?  You get that done to your best ability and then it's ok if you go play.  Ok?"

"Ok, Daddy. *sighs*  Even Math?"

"Especially Math!  C'mon.  I'll help with the hard ones."



"Errrr.  What did you say that equation was?"

"No worries, Dad.  I've got it.  You can test my spelling words next, ok?"

*relieved*  "Oh, sure.  I'm real good at spelling!"



Of course, I was away at work when all of this was going down.  I had tried to make a nice cake or two because it was time for Nancy and Geoffrey to age up.  Unfortunately, work called in early and I barely made it there on time.  Nance stepped in ready to bake up a storm but.......................



Poor gal.  After all her hard work no birthday cake for her.  I have to admit she took it all in stride though, and just planned on it being for Geof instead.  Unfortunately.........................



Old age hit him in mid stride.  So neither one of them got a birthday cake.  They both had a good laugh over it though and decided one more cake for the bakery wasn't a bad thing.

As the day wore on, evening descended to find our little Sinead busy collecting frogs for the museum.  Actually, what she really wanted was to find enough Easter Eggs to win that huge bunny.



I wasn't too happy with her being out that late at night but we live in a pretty safe neighborhood with hardly anyone else here in town.  Plus she was really right close to home and her dad could keep an eye out. 

Her best plans for a ton of eggs in one night fell apart though.  Here was a great opportunity to accomplish another of her personal goals.  Her very own club.  She made contact with several of her friends and before you knew it they were all congregated together playing pirate, right in the park just to the right of our house.  All my fears went away having her so close.



"Ahoy there!!!  Kraken to the starboard bow!!  Man the gunsails, hoist the jibs, gunners to your posts."



"Aaaah, who made you the boss?  I wanna be captain this time.  You'd better let me before I pop this pimply faced little girly snot in the kisser."

"Max!  You behave or you're out of the club.  Meanness is NOT allowed in our club!"

"All right, all right.  Sissies."



"We have him in our sights Cap'n."

"Fire when ready!  Steady as she goes!"



"We got him!!!  Great job crew!........"

*sound from distance*  Sinead........Sinead time to come home.

"Rats.  Thanks you guys.  We can gather again tomorrow ok?  I gotta go."

I guess it wasn't too fair to her to call her away from her friends but we do have a retail store to run and a dynasty to win.  Off we went to get the store set up for another business day.  I didn't have to be back at work for another two days so we should be able to make some good progress with our goals.

"Whoa, Dude.  I'm not your type."

"Sorry, Don.  Just came down to work on baking.  Didn't mean to poke you in the ribs that way. The only thing fresh down here is the pastry."

"S'alright Dude.  Just keep those cupcakes coming and we'll be cool."



Meanwhile, two other members of the Landgraab family were proving they still had what it takes.  Guess you're never too old for a little tickle and squeeze.  We really should sell those tents!



Another fine day over, it was time to go home and rest up.  Guarantee tomorrow will be a busy day.

[Joria]

@Nettlejuice:  Yep.  Normal ID rules plus can't buy anything except from a computer, at the kiosk and what you can steal, or obtain via work or parties.  One exception, since it is an ID dynasty, I'm allowing the purchase of a mail box, a trash bin of your choice AND child drawing table and work bench.  Nooboos automatically get a bassinet so no buying that or toys or other skill items.  So far I've tried 3 times.  Oh, for your strategy skills!!  Will be posting on ID board soon.

[Nettlejuice]

Ah, burst out laughing at Nancy and Geoffrey aging before they could get to the cake, it's cute they get along (I love them so much). I'm with Don, a lot better at spelling than maths.

[oshizu]

After your last chapter on Star and Matt, I was certain that they were my favorite couple.
But there's something so irresistible about your hard-working Audry and her household, especially the ever-bubbly Snead!

Too funny about Don thinking Mal was hitting on him. Wait, I though Mal's with Maalike?
Don trying but not succeeding to help Snead with her homework was golden!

What's this I hear? You're working on a revised rule-set that combines the IDC + No Buy Mode challenges?

[Joria]

I was right.  The next day dawned with a glorious burst of sunshine and customers flocking to the store.  We could hardly manage to greet them all and serve them.  I must say, it does my ego good to see how much they love my baked goods, all of them except the bread.  I wonder why?



It certainly kept Nancy and I hopping.  Don took this shot of us before we opened.  We thought we'd never have enough, and truly there were very few baked goods left for our day old sales.  Poor Mal was pretty bewildered by it all.  We finally shooed him over to the bakery machine and got him busy.  Everyone likes muffins!



Later that evening Geof and I took a break so he could paint my portrait.  One was needed for our museum.  I just love this outfit and so did he.  I'll show you the actual painting another time.



As for Sinead, she kept her grades up in a most unusual way.  She'd call a meeting of her club and set everyone down doing their homework together!  I'm sure all their mom's were very appreciative of that.  She continued to maintain straight A's.  I was beginning to worry a little bit though as she was only a day or so away from her teen birthday.  I didn't want to have to be at work at miss it.  Meanwhile, she completed her last aspiration, Rambunctious Scamp. 



I think "Scamp" is definitely the key word when we're talking about Sinead.  Once her club all had gathered she took them off at a run right where she knew she was not supposed to go while unsupervised.





I know they are all good swimmers but I got cold chills at the thought of what could have happened.  Her whining, "But Mom, I just wanted to work on my fishing skill", just did not cut it with me.  Especially with that Max always picking on little Joanna.  You never know what that boy will do.  After all, he does have the evil trait.

We decided to take a day off from work and to spend the whole day with getting ready for the big party.  Since the rules allowed, not only was Sinead allowed a birthday cake but so were all her "good" friends, and she had made sure all of them were in the good range, all but poor Alexander Goth.  It was also Don's turn at birthdays.  He was finally going to become an adult and we wanted him to celebrate as well.  Taking a day off from the bakery didn't mean a day off from baking.  Not with all those cakes we needed!

"Hey, hon, check out down the hall."

"Huh?  Oh my.  She is such a good girl.  I think that will be her level 10 at violin, won't it?"

"Yeah.  I'm gonna whip up some muffins while you bake the cakes.  Can't hurt to have some inventory for tomorrow.  It will be our last day of the week for sales so we want to make it good."

"Ok, Don.  Thank you.  We're doing pretty well you know.  I only have one more perk to obtain and then it's concentrate on promotions."

"You'll do it, hon.  You're definitely the best in the competition.  Our bloodline is going to succeed.  Sinead.......time to call up your friends and bring them over for some fun.  Last time as kids."

"Ok, Dad."



Soon the sound of happy voices, splashing and jumping could be heard from our pool area.  It really would be better to have a bigger pool but that would have to wait. 



As the time for the party drew closer, the kids all changed out of swimwear, (all except the new boy in town, Giancarlo), and went down to the party room to play games and dance.  They sure had some moves.  I wonder what they call that dance?



True to his word, Don dialed up the party and became the official mixologist.  Check out all those cakes I made!  The one in the bowl is the special one for Don.  I'd complete that later.  Meanwhile, he was doing real well with his skills!

"Whoa, Dude!  Don't duck now!"

"Shut up, Mal.  I got this down pat!  If you're not careful you might wind up wearing a drink."

"Just kiddin' man.  You got it."



Finally it was cake time!  Nancy stepped in as chef so I could take the birthday pictures.  My little girl was growing up.  What a party it was!  Everyone seemed happy for her, blowing horns, and tossing confetti.  She modestly took it all in stride.



Of course, the obligatory blowing out of the candles had to be set down for posterity.



And there she was.  Our beautiful little girl, growing up.



One after the other her friends joined the cake brigade.  Can you imagine a whole houseful of teens?  We were tossed between over joyed and dismayed.  Ah well, we all went through it now didn't we?  Max looked particularly handsome in his party outfit but poor Giancarlo just kept rockin' the swimsuit thing.



Our Sinead would up a bit unhappy.  She caught sight of that adorable Candy Behr and was devastated at her clothes.  Really, that hat!



Easily fixed.  Later on she and her gang headed down for more dancing and she sure looked fine with her new "do" and clothes.  She's the one in back with the pink top and black hair.



I could tell this party was going to rock on all night long and we hadn't even done Don yet!  Good thing we all could rally the troops!  Finally it was his turn.



My handsome man made such a funny face.  I swear his eyes were about to pop right out of his face.



We had more fun that I could ever imagine or say.  The only sour note was I wound up missing work, guess I called in that vacay day too late.  Sure took a big hit on my performance rating. (sigh)  No, there was one more.  We had hoped some of the boys in the group would be good potential husband material.  The red head, Spencer, wound up with his dad's jealous trait which ruled him out.  Max was evil, but cheerful.  The Bunch boy was adorable but insane and we never did find out any of Giancarlo's traits.  All we knew about him was his liked swimwear.  We'll just have to see how things go.

Remember I had said we were having a hard time dealing with all our customers?  Watcher decided the bakery needed some changes so we could better serve them.  Live and learn.  Cute is not always a good thing!  I'll leave you with the image of the new bakery floor.  See you in two weeks!

[oshizu]

That's some club your Sinead runs!

After she became a teen, I couldn't spot anyone in a pink top and a black hat on the dance floor.  Is Sinead the one wearing dark-blue short shorts?
Too bad about the spouse prospects!
Before you'd mentioned that, I'd thought Spencer looked really cute. (I'm not a fan of Max)
I've never played a sim with the Jealous trait--have you had a bad experience with it?
With all the rotating between bloodlines, how many sim-weeks do you actually play an heir?  From childhood to young adulthood or adulthood?

When I read about the restaurant game pack, I immediately thought of you!

[Nettlejuice]

Is Sinead the one with the magenta top? Funnily enough Max aged with Gloomy in my game.

@oshizu I think it's one Sim week per family.

[MarianT]

Great to see Sinead become a teen! I hope we can get a better look at her the next time you play the family. And I hope the bakery is going well. As for the layout of the bakery, yeah, you don't want any corners that sims can get trapped in -- plenty of space in the middle works for me, too.

@oshizu, aging is off for everyone except the household you're currently playing, so all the sims get the normal length of childhood and adolescence.

[Shewolf13]

Ooo, wonderful, Joria!  Love Sinead ^^  I will put in a plug for the jealous trait though XD It can actually be a bit fun.  The only real thing it does is cause a tense moodlet when the significant other isn't around.  I haven't seen much of a problem otherwise.

[oshizu]

Great to see Sinead become a teen! I hope we can get a better look at her the next time you play the family. And I hope the bakery is going well. As for the layout of the bakery, yeah, you don't want any corners that sims can get trapped in -- plenty of space in the middle works for me, too.

@oshizu, aging is off for everyone except the household you're currently playing, so all the sims get the normal length of childhood and adolescence.

@MarianT  What I was wondering, but failed to express clearly, was: approximately how long one would need to deal with a spouse with the jealous trait?
                 The jealous spouse moves in when the heir is a YA, but that couple is only played until the their offspring moves out.  Hmmm...I guess it is a long time!

@Joria       Sorry about not identifying Sinead--she would be the sim dancing under the plumbob!  Doh.

[Joria]

The hard part of playing this is you only have one Sim week, so you just really start to get into the swim of things and know where you want to go next and bam!, you have to move on to the next family/bloodline.  It's hard for this old brain to keep it straight sometimes and I wind up having to read my own story line to figure out where that Sim family is and what they are doing!  Then too, if you get too involved in what they are doing on the final day you are liable to go over and ruin that bloodline.  I have to remind myself to check their days/dates/times to make sure I don't run over.

Sorry about not getting a better shot of Sinead.  In the picture with Don's birthdays and all the confetti, she is the one in the striped shirt right in the front, left side.  She really carried over Don's features with bright blue eyes and an unfortunate nose.  You can see her basic face clearly in the shot with her, (in the hat), and Candy Behr.  She's pouting in that shot.  I changed her hair to a longer look, changed her eyebrows a bit and added make up.  When Don mates with a townie the results can be a good mix of the two, but when he mates with a created Sim his features seem to be the strongest.  Good genes!  She's really moving along with her requirements much faster than her mom.  I think having the club was a big boost because it gave her a lot of ways to acquire reward points, so she already has Connections and more which will help her a lot. 

On a side note, Candy begged to be let into Audrey's club so I agreed.  Now it seems she wants to move in as well.  Considering how old the Landgraab elders are, I'm actually considering it even though it means both she and Yuki would join the household.  What do you guys think?  It might make it more complicated later though.

A confusing part of playing this is since they are all in separate files, each bloodline runs into people that may be part of a different bloodline's family or acquaintances.   Like Mal and Malike.  Although he isn't living with Malike, just being a baby maker, it does make it a bit confusing.