Well, I had some drama brewing in my Crystal Pleasantview. After Bottom Summerdream had aged to a teen, Ren Grunt got her pregnant. I've never had this happen before (I have a mod that allows for teen pregnancy), and I was quite excited to see where it went. I also got Goneril Capp and her family played until Friday, where Ariel was taught all of her toddler skills and aged to a child, and Miranda got a job in the Slacker career.

Why am I talking in past tense?

The hood somehow saved in a weird way last play session, so the game doesn't recognise it. Everything opens fine, just the format is weird. Hopefully, I can find a fix, otherwise backup we go!

In the past, I've always changed werewolves back after a day or two because I just find them annoying. But Loki - yes, he's different. It suits him so perfectly. Maybe he was born to be a werewolf? He is named for a shape-shifter, after all. And that castle, up in the hills on the outskirts of town . . . a perfect werewolf lair, if he undoes the winterization and puts back the archways.

Strangetown may indeed be going to the wolves.

I've been experimenting playing in a "random rotational" style in Pleasantview. I roll for which household to start with each play session. Then I try to take someone to a community lot at least once while I play the household. If they meet another playable there--or perhaps bring one home from work/school or invite someone over--then I go to that house next and play it for a day or two until they meet someone playable. My main rule is I can't ping-pong, or go back and forth between houses. So far, I'm liking this--although I have to not worry about whether ages are syncing up. But I figure time is pretty fluid in The Sims world, anyway--after all, they have the elixir of life!

This is forcing me to slow down my play. Instead of having the goal of growing children up or getting them through college, I'm taking more of a "day in the life" approach. And I'm noticing things I haven't before. For instance, I noticed that when Brandi was peeping at Mortimer through the telescope in the daytime, she got downright disgusted by some things he was doing. And then Don peeped at Nina and Dina, and Dina came over to slap him instead of Mortimer, destroying their relationship. I thought it was the same Sim who got mad at the peepers, but I guess not always?

It's the lowest numbered adult/elder sim who is not in the household. Unless you have a mod to change this, such as:
https://modthesims.info/d/602718

Yeah, that's what I thought. Maybe Dina got mad at him for something else, and he just happened to be looking through the telescope at the time. It was a little chaotic.

That explains why it's Consort Capp who is the shover in Veronaville, and not Bottom Summerdream (who is the lowest numbered Sim). The thought of being shoved by little Bottom Summerdream is somehow a little less than terrifying.

I'm currently falling in love with the improved lot impostors by LazyDuchess, how about y'all?

Yes, but lots of diagonal siding makes an eye-crossing moiré fringe effect!

luckily i don't use siding often

Hugh Knowe completed his postgraduate semester, and thanks to Inteen continues to live on campus as an adult. He is considered a researcher and is permitted to publish, so he's swapped the vanilla computer for Monique's and is earning his skill points by publishing articles. Since he now has income, the university is asking him to pay the bills, but the rent on his fully-furnished bungalow is still just a one-off damage deposit.

Ripp Grunt graduated and has moved in with Tank for now. He doesn't have a job yet but was able to sign up for social security - though it was Friday afternoon when he arrived, and sign-on time is Friday morning, so it'll be a while before he gets a cheque. He and Tank are both sweet on Ida Juana Knowe, so let's hope that doesn't become a problem for them.

Buck headed off to LGU. He had managed to earn four scholarships, and Buzz had saved up quite a bit since Ripp left, so Buck started college with nearly $9000 to his name - more than his two brothers put together! He and Jill Smith are totally in love and it wouldn't surprise me if he's the first brother to marry.

I spent much of yesterday with a free love commune near the pier in Baldrair Bluffs. There are four adults and three teens in the commune, and their rule seems to be that it's OK to do it with anyone who isn't a blood relative. I don't think I need to describe what they were doing when I was there. (They did manage to serve a meal to themselves and some visitors too!)

In view of their lifestyle, it won't come as much of a surprise that there's a baby living there too. He's called Donald, and he has an adult mother and a teenage father. Well, whatever we may think of their morals, it has to be said that Donald is very well looked after. Maybe not so surprising -- after all he's got seven commune members looking out for his every need. His parents do try to spend some quality time with him, but the general rule seem to be that, when Donald needs something, whoever's nearest gets it for him. Earlier in the commune's life, money was tight, but now, with four adult wages coming into the house, they're really living in comfort. The two female adults in the commune are both serving soldiers, and it has to be said that army pay these days isn't bad. (Jessica is currently on leave following Donald's birth.)

I'm sure this news won't go down well with some Family Sims, but from what I've seen here, this sort of communal living might actually provide better care for young children than the traditional nuclear family. I wonder though, as he grows up, will Donald know which of his companions are his parents?

Lots of birthdays these days, and more coming up. Amongst others, twins Picasso Melinder and Palahniuk Schwissenbaum, as well as Palahniuk's husband Pixi Schwissenbaum, became elders. Palahniuk donned the Neighbour-clan's heirloom-beret.


Their respective children also grew up - Picasso's Lovelace became a teen, as did their roommate Love-in-a-mist, and Palahniuk's and Picasso's Look Away-inator became an adult. At Look Away-inator's birthday party, one of the two aforementioned new teens did something with the other so that they fell in love. Later at home they shared their first kiss.


Look Away-inator moved into a small house Downtown, and moved in with her boyfriend Antonio Caliente, who proposed. Unfortunately there's a flu and the cold going around, with some poor sods catching both, so the newly engaged couple spent their first days living together mostly resting and eating comfort soup to battle their on-and-off sicknesses.


Love-in-a-mist's father Justice Larsen-Neighbour got a taste of love, too. Espresso Neighbour wanted to date and find love, so I looked for someone he had chemistry with as well as a high relationship, which ended up being Justice. I had no memory of them being close enough to be friends, let alone BFF's, but apparently they were. In any case, they also just so happen to be second cousins. But this being Espresso Neighbour, whose gotten it on autonomously with three of his first-cousins-once-removed, that's nothing by his standards. (Also, I realized one of said firstcousinsonceremoved, Nessie Larsen, who he was the most involved with including ruining his marriage for, was Justice's half-brother, and another was pretty much like a brother to Nessie as well as his cousin -- and also Justice's father. Espresso's found his niche in the gene-pool, let's just say that.)
Seeing as Espresso and Justice were BFF's before they started dating, their love grew strong very quickly, and they both wanted to get engaged. Frankly speaking, it wouldn't be that big of a commitment to either of them as Espresso isn't long for this world, so I went ahead with it.
Anyhow, they had their date at the Botanical dining, a place Espresso used to frequent as a kid, and finally managed to do what the family never did back then - successfully skip out on the bill. Once Justice caught up to him wandering around outside, they were so stealthy that they even made out half buried in the bushes. After skipping the bill the restaurant workers had apparently completely forgotten what they looked like so they went inside again to wohoo in the photo booth. The day after Espresso got a coupon in the mail for a free restaurant dinner. Sure, sure, just reward his behaviour.

Playing a rebooted Pleasantview.

Alexander Goth graduated from college and the first thing he did was booty-call his good friend Angela Pleasant, so I thought, all right, let's see if we can make this happen. After all, it seems likely that Angela would think she was destined for better things than living in the trailer park with Dustin. It didn't take but a couple of dates, and they were engaged. But all that went out the window when Alexander caught Angela and Dustin flirting at some party--of course. He is very bitter when he's cheated on.

Dina (who married Mortimer) had her friend Brandi over, and Alexander met her and talked to her a bit. The chemistry wasn't great, but he wanted a friend to get a promotion, and his social was low, so he called her and they talked until they were friends. I thought, this could be something different. So I went to play Brandi, and she wanted to become best friends with Alexander. She invited him over and he asked to bring John Burb, who he's friends with (they are colleagues in the Natural Sciences career). The more, the merrier. But just as they got there, a wolf chased off Alexander, and John walked in alone. As soon as he met Brandi, he couldn't leave her alone. They flirted and fooled around all day, he met the kids, and then they autonomously woohooed. He fell asleep, then woke up early in the morning to take a bath and just hang out waiting for her to wake up. She fixed him breakfast and he still didn't leave--she finally had to tell him good-bye so she could go to work. So the question is now, is he going to trash his marriage for her? With the way he was acting, I think he probably will.

In Arundel, it's the 1st day of winter, and everyone is getting married.

Jordan Moseley married Marion Sawyer before they both went to work (in their medical careers as Barber-Surgeons) and when they came home, Marion had brought home none other than Edwin Tyler. Everything was going smoothly, and the happy couple had just consummated their marriage when Edwin came into the bedroom to personally congratulate the bride.
The groom took great exception to the form of his congratulations, which involved a very deep kiss, which the bride did not object to. Jordan immediately banished her from their marital bed, and she took up a single bed in the children's bedroom. That is if there are any children. It will be fairly interesting to see if their marriage succeeds. Jordan had no idea of the bond between his wife and Edwin, because Edwin had been very friendly to him and promised him more pay for his job. Jordan feels like a fool.

In other news, there is a new family that has moved in. Nobody has seen them in public, and they haven't visited anyone either..It was rumored they moved into their house in the dead of night, and are very pale looking. Their last name is Vatore, and they're siblings. Otherwise than those details, nobody knows anything about these mysterious strangers.

The Lord Mayor William Potter and his wife Brenda are pleased to announce the birth of their twins, Sarah and Leonard Potter. The family is doing well, and Brenda is relieved at having had the required heir and a girl in the first birth so she doesn't have to ruin her figure with repeated births. She's an ambitious woman, and she will not be kept at home tending the house while her husband does his thing. She demands and receives equal pay, and respect.

I can't use them because they need Mansions and Gardens, but to be honest I'm still quite impressed by the Maxis lot imposters (in high definition) as compared to what they looked like in low definition on my old computer, which I was using until a year ago. The difference is especially marked when the lot imposter is viewed from another lot in Lot View. This is Veronaville Market on my old computer, when viewed from across the road at 19 Chorus Court (Andrew's house). (Actually I've zoomed out a bit to get the whole building.)

In comparison, this is what it looks like, from more or less the same viewpoint, in high definition on my new computer (a year old today).

I put up with the low definition ones for nearly eight years. Do you understand why I'm happy?

(The house in the background is Cappland, where Goneril, Albany and their brood live.)

I went to play the Burbs to see how John was feeling about his marriage, and he just had romantic wants for his wife. Feeling a little guilty, maybe, or just planning to keep Brandi on the side? After all, he is best friends with Daniel Pleasant, so we can presume he learned at the feet of the master. But then consider where Daniel ended up... Not too bad, really, living with his hot young girlfriend, Nina Caliente, but he did also get that new baby he didn't want, and he's on the cusp of elderhood, too. (The baby's name is Mina.)

Isabel Pleasant (daughter of Angela Pleasant) became an elder. She rolled the want to meet Aliens. Which was strange as there were no Aliens and Alien abductions yet in my neighbourhood. I locked the want of course. She used the hacked telescope and got her want. It did gave her a negative memory though. Her daughter and son also got negative memories. And her boyfriend Checo Ramirez (divorced from Lisa Ramirez) too. Checo Ramirez also rolled the fear of being abducted by aliens. No need to lock it. It never got away. He very recently passed away of old age (84!).

So after getting my hood sorted after it saved improperly (backups saved me!), I'll just kind of round up the recent drama surrounding it.

Bottom Summerdream got pregnant with the child of Ren Grunt shortly after becoming a teenager; they're both teens, so there's going to be some unhappy parents. In other news, Titania is also expecting her first birth child, which is exciting for her; she conceived an hour after Bottom conceived, so this may be an interesting one.

Miranda got a job in the Slacker career, while Hal and Desdemona became teenagers and Ariel became a child. Albany caught Goneril woohooing with Guy Wrightley in the photobooth while I was playing Kent Capp. Suffice to say, they've hit a rocky road.

Speaking of Kent, he was working at a bar to try and make some money to move out of Regan and Cornwall's house. He just got a job in the Education Career when he was given money by Consort to rent an apartment, because Regan unexpectedly got pregnant.

On a much more cheerful not, Bianca got married to a townie called Tucker Benson and is expecting her first baby. A lot of babies being conceived this round.

Alexander Goth autonomously flirted with Lilith Pleasant at some party so he woke up with romantic wants toward her. I thought, no way, she's living with Dirk, we're not going down this road again. So I sent him to work hoping the wants would roll away. But when he got back, he wanted to get engaged to her. I just can't resist an engagement want. And let's be honest, that's more commitment than Dirk has ever been willing to make. I had put back in the mod that causes random rejection of proposals, so I figured it was likely she'd say no anyway, and we could move on. He took her to Londoste, the restaurant for engagements, and popped the question at the table. And she said yes! I didn't even know she was in love with him, but I guess she was fed up with Dirk's laid-back attitude and was ready to settle down. This gave me an excuse to move Alexander out of the Goth mansion before Dina could get her mitts on him (since Mortimer recently passed). He bought the house next door and threw a wedding party. I was still expecting Lilith to leave him at the altar, but she went through with it and immediately got pregnant. So Alexander may have lost one Pleasant twin but he snagged the other. I wonder what Dirk will do now. I doubt he and Lilith will leave each other alone, though.

It's that time, when children of the Cosgrove family apply to get into the Private School, Kashmire Preparatory Academy. No Cosgrove has ever been denied, it could be said because of the connections, influence, and wealth of the Cosgroves.

Bryce Calhoun, only son of the Cosgrove's eldest daughter, would like to go to private school and get in based on his own merits, but what is life but a series of complex social contacts that decide your worth? His parents pulled out the salmon dinner, had the maid do a deep scrub of the house, and made sure every bush on the lawn was manicured to perfection when the Headmaster arrived. Bryce works hard, he has the grades and the well-rounded interests and hobbies yet the fact his mother is an alumni and his father has a mutual acquaintance with the Headmaster that he helped with a trial case strike a shadow over Bryce's achievements as a points of dinner conversation. It's no surprise that Bryce is accepted into the private school at the end of the evening with a 129/90 due to elegant schmoozing from his parents.

His cousins barely scrape by when a representative of the Academy show to their house the following night. Alexander Calhoun is the eldest son of the second-eldest Cosgrove daughter. Alexander is usually all torn-at-the-knees jeans, bruised elbows, uncombed hair, and untucked shirt, so it's a pain and annoyance when his mother makes him clean his room and put on some stiff-collared shirt to receive this dinner 'guest.' He rebels and throws on a colorful sweater. His little sisters have much more poise and would fit in better at the private school, but unfortunately it's an all or nothing type deal. It rests on his shoulders to impress the rep. The only silver-lining to it all is that Bryce would be in his classes.

His father, Marty, doesn't understand all the hootenanny around private school. Marty did well enough at public education but only does this dog and pony show for Melinda's sake, as she was also an alumni and is...desperately adamant on their children attending the Academy. Alexander has nothing to offer but feigned politeness and decent grades. Melinda offers a 'considerable donation' and the rep accepts the deal.

There was a major event today in Arundel-Daniel Klein was stood up at the altar by his fiancee, Esther Williamson when he tried to force her to marry him; they'd had a bad falling out previously to this, and she was not in the mood to marry him at all. She refused him there, and when they returned back to the house, he told her:
""You have to move out today. I do not want to return with you still here. Do you understand?"
"I most certainly do. I will happily oblige you, Daniel. Our relationship is over. Here's your ring, too."

With that, he walked to his job, and Esther moved out to her own place. She has no plans in mind for marriage, but Edwin Tyler is free, and she's not working today, so she's thinking of asking him over for a visit...

Beatrice and Benedick aged to teens; I gave the former the Knowledge aspiration due to her high interest in school, paranormal and sci-fi, and the latter the family aspiration.

The Arsonist came three times in one week, but fortunately the police got him before he could even do anything. And Antonio got addicted to the swimming pool, that much so he lost weight, so he's thin now. The teens are also really into the hot tub which doesn't surprise me.

Helen Wheels is engaged! Whatever was the silly girl thinking?! She'd rolled wants for public woohoo and woohoo with three different Sims, so she called Professor Ethan Simpson for a date. A little way into the date, Ethan rolled a want to get engaged to Helen; it was his turn to have a want filled, but I opted for one of his lesser wants, since Helen isn't the marrying kind. A few interactions later, however, it was still there - and Helen rolled the want to get engaged, too! She was obviously a bit carried away in the moment, but if both parties are showing the want . . .

Of course Helen woke up the next morning worrying that she would have to get married now, and when she got home from work and found Andy Bellum at her door, she invited him in and hopped straight into bed with him to put Ethan out of her mind. It may have worked briefly, but she and Andy were still sleeping it off when Ethan phoned, gushing about their last date and asking for another. Embarrassed, Helen said she couldn't because she had to work that evening (she had been promoted that day), but she and Ethan are going to have to sort things out sooner or later.

The first Neighbour to have been born in Strangetown rather than moving there from Pleasantview, Batty Neighbour, became an adult. Being a knowledge sim who loves the paranormal, dreams of seeing ghosts and being saved from death, and who I plan to make an alien parent, I'd say he's a Strangetown kind of guy to the core. He had a birthday party with his family and friends which he spent storytelling and trying to get to work, and then moved out to live on his own. His mother Roadnight Neighbour moved out as well to live with her friends in the Neighbour-elder-collective.


General Buzz Grunt and Matthew Picaso are moving on after Jessica Picaso's untimely death. Between their grief, Matthew's food poisoning and three kids in the house to take care of, something happened that had never before occurred in the Grunt household: it got filthy and messy. Eventually, General Buzz took an afternoon to deal with it all, though it didn't take long for the bathrooms to get soiled again. Perhaps the rest of the household are just messy people. Otherwise, things are starting to move smoothly. A bit eerily so, even - someone who didn't know about Jessica and her passing probably wouldn't notice anything amiss but just assume they were a couple with kids, or father and son + grandkids.

Nervous Subject moved out of the Smith house and into my Strangetown quasi-apartment complex, as did Tankette Smith, formerly Beaker. I wanted to set up a little quest for her with the idea that she wants to find her biological parents, who are currently in hiding Downtown, with the key to their whereabouts being Savanna Larsen, the cop who helped them go underground. I toyed with some ideas of having Tankette go into the law enforcement or intelligence career in order for her to know who to talk with and all, but perhaps she had done some research of her own off-screen, because when I went to play with Savanna, there came Tankette, matching the Strangetown view and looking as though she wanted something.

Since another teen, Savanna's niece, was visiting Savanna at the time I had her invite her into the house, as well as Strummer Neighbour who until recently worked in the intelligence career and due to Savanna gossiping now knows for a fact that Savanna knows the Beaker's well enough to know about Circe's and Vidcund's history. Strummer and Tankette kept trying to socialize with each other but responded negatively to the other, but I'd say that's enough connections on Tankette's part that I'll ditch the career part. Especially since Tankette quickly befriended Savanna's bff Apple Neighbour who also lives in one of the "apartments" and helped Tankette get settled. I want Tankette to get a daily relationship score of at least 30 with Savanna, then I'll say she gets Circe's and Loki's phone number from her.
Unfortunately, Apple and Nervous apparently loathe each other, so there's a lot of time spent keeping them apart, with Apple "10 ten nice points" Neighbour constantly bugging Nervous "0 nice points" Subject. In any case, for the latter's hunt for love, I had him call over Vidcund Curious who he's got chemistry with, but their romantic interactions amounted to nothing so I'll have them stay platonic. However, Nervous and another "apartment" resident called Saturn had chemistry as well, so Saturn gave Nervous a peck which he responded well too, and once they'd become friends they developed a crush on each other.

Zelda and Jenny Larsen brought their daughter Samus to Club Caliente Downtown, just like Zelda's mother and uncle did with her and her cousin and siblings when she was a child, and their parents before them. Damn Crystal Vu brought the mood down by poking and annoying Zelda which in turn saddened Samus, but otherwise they had a good time. A few days after, Samus and Zelda both had birthdays. Zelda's brother Broadway and his partner Ville Stenbock, Samus' best bud, invited them to a restaurant. Samus had been trying out Broadway's and Ville's hot tub, so she went in her bathing suit.

Broadway wrote another bestseller, and Ville wants to write another one as well, after his first and so far only novel became one. If only Broadway can stop breaking every piece of electronics he touches. Broadway invited his best friend Tank Grunt to the bowling hall, though Broadway got to spend a lot of time jumping on the sofa and bowling on his own or with other people since Tank got busy ordering plate after plate of lobster thermador.

Kaylynn pretty much moved in with Don without him really agreeing to that. All of the other women in his life had moved on to other relationships. Kaylynn was his maid and stayed over after she finished cleaning every day. Gradually, more and more of her stuff appeared in the condo, until she was finally just living there all the time. Don really didn't think that meant they were serious or that he had to stop dating townies, but of course Kaylynn got pregnant. She just had the baby, so now the condo is suddenly too small and she's going to make Don buy a house in the suburbs. Isn't this exactly what he was trying to avoid when he left Cassandra at the altar in the first place? Cassandra, of course, went on to marry Darren and now they have a couple of kids and are just so happy and boring--except Cassandra totally redecorated Darren's house and it's a lot more livable now.

I'm also pretty pleased that I got Mary-Sue to stop thinking about Daniel long enough to get a boyfriend. She started dating Kennedy Cox and eventually he moved in and brought a lot of cash with him. They seem very well matched, and life in the Pleasant house is much less tumultuous. Coral and Herb are living there too. Coral started a garden in the side yard, so they spent some of Kennedy's money on new landscaping in case she wants to join the garden club at some point.