These sims are killing me

Lots of micromanaging today, and lots of glitches to deal with. It made for a very long day of playing but a very short update.

A lot of relationships have disappeared again, but there's not much I can do about that because I've lost track of who knows who. They'll just have to pick up where they left off and meet each other again. I also had to keep quitting and restarting because of glitches like the speed settings suddenly not working, the game freezing, and sims getting stuck with tasks queuing up and instantly deleting themselves.

The Townsend family had moved out of town, as well as the Grants, so I moved both missing families back into the neighborhood and gave them a second chance. By the time I'd finished the rest of my housekeeping, the Sharmas had moved out. I got them back, too. Within four sim days, they'd moved out again. As much as I want to see everybody's kids grow up, and see new babies, if any more families move out, I'll have to let them alone and just see what happens. It is supposed to be free will, after all, and I'm not spending all my time moving families back in. It's too ridiculous.

Before I turned my people's lives back over to them though, I got them all jobs because they've refused to do it on their own for long enough. They don't need the cash, but they do need something to do besides raise babies and read books. Some of them were getting restless. I got each sim the first job he wished for, whether or not it had anything to do with his Lifetime Wish. Oddly, Tyler and Talia are the only two sims who had gotten jobs on their own, and they did it while they were out of town. They're both in the culinary career, although Tyler has advanced much farther. Even odder, in the time it took me to get jobs for everybody else, Ronnie ran out and got his own. He's in the military. I can't picture it, but we'll see.

I relocated Plumpuddle Park closer to where most of our families are clustered. Predictably, the Townsends were the first to visit the "new" park. Just as predictably, they left as soon as they'd arrived. They're a funny couple. They're always doing that.

So let's get started with the spying.

The Muleskinner house

Menuchah
Career: Culinary

She did a little gardening - she's at level 5 now - and made ratatouille for dinner. The sink sprung a leak while she was washing up, and she shouted out, "Ah, noob!" That always cracks me up. It sounds like they're calling the broken appliance a noob. I stayed with her an extra day because it was already evening when I started with her.

She had a cheese plate for breakfast the next day. I haven't seen that meal before. I bet it's something new from WA. Sounds like something you'd be served in France. Afterwards, in my ongoing quest to make her get out of the house and make friends, I sent her to the park. None of our sims were out and about, so I let her play foosball with a new townie. As soon as one of our sims showed up anywhere, I pounced. It was William at (of course) the pub. They talked for a while and he taught her the recipe for eggrolls.

 

That William, I swear he's going to steal Freddie away from Wyatt and Lexie. Even in the household thumbnail, he's the one holding the baby.

I notice I let some plants stick through the walls of the pub. Oops.

Menuchah impressed her boss and got a promotion on her very first day of work. She changed clothes and went right back in for drinks before heading home. Then she went back in for seconds. I made her go home after thirds. She must've really needed to unwind.

The Staples

Max

Career: Athletic

Rachel

Career: Science

They had the usual race to pick up the baby. This time Rachel won. I think Max let her. Max wanted to quit his job before his first day of work! Since the job is his lifetime wish, I didn't let him. They didn't do much else noteworthy except chat and meet coworkers.

The Sharmas

Becky

Career: Science

Larry

Career: Politics

Sharla

While out of town, Becky changed jobs and they both got themselves promoted. She's now a lab tech and Larry's a city council member, which is level 5 in politics. He's at level 4 in charisma and guitar. Becky's at level 4 charisma.

Larry spent some time playing with Sharla and, he hopes, getting her interested in music.

Who says being an adult and a parent means you have to be serious all the time?

"If you really loved me, you'd give me a spoon."

The Walker/Manchester house

Wyatt

Career: Culinary

Lexie

Career: Science

Freddy

William

Career: Music

I'm positive I put Wyatt in the criminal career because I remember thinking that finally one of them wanted a career that matched their LTW. By the time I got around to visiting his family, though, he was level 5 in culinary. But he still wants the criminal career. Silly man. Lexie got a promotion, too.

William's at level 4 guitar and sounding very good. He has also been getting to know Menuchah better behind my back (which was the idea), and they are now in a romantic relationship. Took them long enough. He'd be a great father. Just as I expected, when nighttime rolled around, he was the one who put Freddie to bed.

That's all our sims hooked up now but Ronnie. He doesn't show a bit of interest in romance. Maybe he'll meet a nice girl at work.

I found William visiting Ronnie again. They're still only listed as aquaintances, but the game must be resetting their relationship, because they spend an awful lot of time together not to be friends. Doesn't Ronnie look adorable in his camos?

"I'm hungry too! Who's going to feed me?!"

He foolishly let William cook. He manned up and ate it anyway. What are friends for?

The Rausage house

Ronnie

Career: Military

Uh oh. Ronnie's not starting out too well. He already hates his boss. Unfortunately, his boss is AJ. That may be why I got the message that he and Sam are no longer friends. I knew a military career was a mistake for a guy who has no qualifying skills and whose lifelong desire is to write and paint.

With nothing else to do while Ronnie was at work, I looked around town and found Tyler's boss dancing with a ghost in the park. I think that's Rachel's house ghost.

I made him invite Sam over and try to patch things up, and I saw an interaction I hadn't seen before. I got a popup message that "Sam is having a bad day..." and Ronnie had a "console" action available to him that I'd never seen before. This is what consoling looks like. Anyway, they're friends again.

The Townsends

Tyler

Career: Culinary

Talia

Career: Culinary

Stephenie

Carter

Tyler's boss, Kermit Werner, had been visiting when I got there. Interestingly, he's not Talia's boss. Talia reports to Wyatt, who reports to Tyler, who reports to Kermit. Need a flowchart?

I'm worried about Stephenie (and by the way, the game spells her name oddly and I've been misspelling it this whole time). She's flunking out of school and she has no friends. It's possible that there aren't any other children her age in town. I'll have to keep an eye on her.

I encouraged some father-daughter bonding time, and had Tyler give her a pep talk and help her with her homework. I'll have to wait until next time to see if it helped enough.

The Grants

Sam

Career: Politics

AJ

Career: Military

Andrea

AJ is already at level 5, flight officer. I'm seeing a pattern. Maybe moving out of town is good for sims.

They spent a quiet family day in the new house. Sam started meeting his coworkers. He's been working on his charisma so should get that promotion he's anxious for soon enough.

An eventful week

Once again I was determined not to let Menuchah stay home all day, so I sent her to the pub where Tyler and Talia were having a relaxing drink and watching Carter play on the floor.

Carter has reached the turbo charged rugrat stage. No wonder they wanted to get him out of the house. Probably trying to tire him out.

Uh oh. I see where you're headed.

 

Aw. He just wanted mommy to come out of that tiny room and help him practice walking.

 

Who's a good boy? Who likes to be tickled?

 

I found a book in Menuchah's inventory that I don't remember seeing before. I was fairly sure that, last time, I deleted all books from her inventory and put only gardening skill books there. Maybe she got it out of her bookcase at home. It was worth $2,000. I checked to make sure it wasn't connected to an opportunity, and then sold it. There was also a picnic basket in her inventory that I definitely didn't give her.

After a while, she went home and talked to her apple trees.

 

 

 Ha, ha! Tell me you weren't just talking to that tree.

 

 They say it makes them grow better.

 

Oh, mister apple tree! Tell the truth. Don't you think Menuchah's been hitting the sauce a little? Get it? Apple sauce?

 

Oh, Becky, you nut!

Rachel was conflicted. She was sad from losing a friend - it's been happening ever since the patch and WA - yet all aglow from her first romance. At last. I was so excited for her. I was glad when I saw that it's Max. I kept seeing them talking but their friendship never seemed to get anywhere. I'm just sorry I didn't get to be a fly on the wall when it happened.

She had a $2k book in her inventory, too.

The entire Townsend family was once again at the pub. so I sent Rachel there for breakfast when she got up. As soon as she ate, she got nauseated. We know what THAT means.

While she was puking her guts out, I got the house ready. Decorating for babies is even more fun now that I have all these new gifts!

The radios now play music from the three vacation locations. I found that out when I sent Rachel to the park and she turned on the radio and worked out to ... French music! Boy did that look weird.

Larry Sharma had stayed up til one o'clock trying to teach himself to play guitar, so he slept until noon while Becky worked on her cooking and Sharla amused herself.

Soft!

 

 I just looooove this book!

I wanted to look at what she was reading. It really is a counting book. Only goes up to three, though.

Larry, getting a little frisky, is completely captivated by Becky's sudden shyness.

Rachel called and wanted Becky to come over. I followed to see if Rachel was in her preggers clothes. Good thing she is pregnant, because if I hadn't seen her have morning sickness, we'd have to have a come to Jesus talk about her fashion sense. Actually, the whole time Becky was visiting her, she got bigger by the minute. I started to think pregnancies had been shortened to one day instead of three.

Becky looks so surprised. Gosh, Becky, it took you all day to notice?

It was pretty funny. I'd been so worried about Rachel never talking to anybody, but on this day she wouldn't shut up. Becky kept trying to read and, every time, Rachel stopped her to talk some more.

I see Sharla's going to be one of those (normal) children who drags her toys out of the playroom into the hallway to play with them. Bunny looks scared shitless. I don't blame it. Looks like Sharla's about to take a bite out of it.

Nope. No biting here. Can you say "Aww?"

William is still head over heels about his self-appointed role as nanny. I hardly see him without Freddie in his arms. Unless he's running next door to have a chat with Ronnie. Not that Wyatt is neglecting his fatherly duties. The minute he woke up, even before he peed (and that, to me, is real dedication), he went and got Freddie up and started teaching him to walk.

I made Wyatt go to town and buy a bunch of toddler skill books, and I left them all over the floor so Freddie could read them. I had to stop Lexie from putting them away. I have a feeling that's a losing battle. She'll just wait until my back is turned.

Freddie worked hard, and now it's play time. He prefers blocks and horses.

Wyatt was determined to keep on that treadmill until he was thoroughly fatigued. I'd say he made it.

I know Rachel's already had her turn in the rotation, but I had to pop in on her before another day passed, because I figured she was about ready to deliver. I guess pregnancies still only last 3 days no matter what the lifespan. Max was there, and I'd obviously just missed a tender moment. He was spending the night, but went to sleep on the sofa for some reason. I woke him up and sent him upstairs to sleep with Rachel. It only seemed fair.

And not a moment too soon!

Unfortunately, Max got confused and thought he was supposed to go home. I tried to send him back upstairs but he wouldn't go back into the house because it was too late. Rachel was in far too much distress to get herself to the hospital, so the baby was born right then and there. It was so much cuter than just watching her walk out of the hospital carrying him, because she cuddled him and stood there rocking him in her arms for a minute.

As is my habit in my free will game when I have to name the babies, I used a random name generator. Given his mom's somewhat lofty background, I really liked the sound of Ambrose Thorpe Staple, but I couldn't quash that voice in my head that said, "Are you CRAZY? You WOULDN'T name a poor, defenseless baby Ambrose?" so I settled for my second favorite, Riley. I got to choose his second trait so, mindful of his adventurous mom and his athletic dad, he ended up friendly and disciplined.

Ronnie just painted in his underwear all day long. I didn't mind because he looks so contented.

Max has moved in with Rachel and the baby. I'm so happy that this is happening now in story progression. I knew what to expect from Dee's blog, but I was still holding my breath. It was very bizarre, because it happened before my very eyes. I was in map view, in preparation for switching to Max's house. One second the map tag was there, the next it had gone.

Just as with my other families, when I switched, the baby was lying on the floor. Just as with my other families, both parents raced to get to the baby first. Max won.

The family ghost came out - I heard the music at 11:29 a.m.  - and hung around all day! I didn't think ghosts could do that unless they'd been brought back to life like Wyatt Acosta in my other game. Now that he's coming out in the daytime, I guess the family will meet him properly at some point. He'll be very annoying if he's going to keep sleeping in their bed, though.

I saw by Max's relationship panel that he'd had another romantic fling at some point, before he finally got together with Rachel. It's that impudent woman who had moved into Max's house uninvited, with two kids not her own. I was horrified. When I kicked them out of his house back then, I didn't know or care where they went. At some point she came back and moved into Tyler's old house with the kids, making her Max's next door neighbor. She must have had her sights set on him the whole time. I'm going to butt in and get Max safely married off to Rachel instead of waiting to see if the game will do it. Maybe then she'll keep her hands off him.

I have some very sad news to report. Sam and AJ and Stephanie have moved out of town! Now I understand why they were suddenly distant friends with everybody. My sims can still invite them over, but I can no long play them. And I doubt we'll see Stephanie again, because she hadn't been "alive" long enough to make friends with anyone. We'll miss you, Sam and AJ. Sniff.

Checking in and growing babies

Since the patches, all my Riverview relationships are tanking like crazy. I'm suddenly getting swamped with "so and so aren't friends anymore" messages. Everybody has a stir crazy moodlet from not getting out of their houses. Some people's skills are messed up or gone, so I stopped taking notes and tracking skill levels. Story progression, whether due to the patches or not, is messing with my families, too. Daddies have moved out, people have moved out of their houses. I quit and restart and it's back to normal. Weird. The babies  keep randomly disappearing when I switch households, both their body from the house and their thumbnail from the screen. I have to wait for somebody to interact with them before they reappear.

Menuchah finally started taking care of all her dying plants. She won't harvest them, though.

She manages to look graceful and stunning even when she's getting her hands dirty in the garden.

I saw Sam and AJ doing a flirty little dance at the pub. At the instant I snapped the picture, Sam shot me a LOOK.

I sent Rachel to introduce herself. She and AJ were pleased to discover they're both the athletic type. Old Sammy was in a dancing mood that day. He danced with AJ, then with Rachel, then by himself. I gave Rachel a trait and clothing makeover so she could become the Lara Craft clone I'd envisioned her to be.

All the babies were about to age up and I didn't want to miss anything, so I went ahead and aged them up myself. I ran out of time to play today, so I'll just post the first batch of toddler pics for now.

Sharla Sharma

Freddie (Alexander) Walker

"Here I am, World!"

Carter (Dean) Townsend

Andrea (Anderson) Grant

Oh, those doting daddies

Well, I lost a couple of sim days in the last crash. Shame, because some of my sims did some amusing things. I apologize in advance to all readers if and when this happens again. It could result in some minor inconsistencies in the storyline, but I'm afraid there's nothing I can do about it.

It's no coincidence that I have almost nothing but pictures of daddies with their babies. This is the most baby-crazy town I've ever seen. And in every household, it's the men who play mommy. Hardly anybody did anything else worth taking a picture of.

When we left off last time, we'd just had a massive party at the Sharma's that I was afraid was going to turn into an orgy with all that flirting.

Now it's Ronnie's turn in the spotlight. He's gained 3 athletic levels since I saw him last. I found him on his way to shop at the bookstore. He didn't buy anything, but while he was in there Sam and AJ showed up and he went over to talk to them. I'm glad to see him getting out and meeting people. I don't know why he's been so shy with people until now. Sam and AJ think he's a good guy and tells a heck of a joke.

After the first round of classes, I've resisted sending them to any more, but I have been buying them skill building objects when they ask for them so they can skill on their own. Ronnie, inspired no doubt by his recent visit to the art gallery, wanted to learn painting, so I bought him an easel and he made good use of it. His triple threat of artistic, neurotic, and insane traits ought to produce some interesting artwork.

Max stayed home all day working on his skills and chatting to Rachel on the phone. He was halfway to level 3 on the guitar and sounding pretty good by bed time.

I visited the Townsend household next. At some point (back in one of the games that didn't crash) I forgot to turn aging and sp off when switching households, so no more toddler pics of Stephanie. Sorry, Steph. The first order of business was to redecorate the kids' room to include some big girl furniture, and to give Stephanie some decent clothes. She rolled insane for her third trait, which is awfully cute in a child.

She loves to read as much as her mom does, even though she doesn't officially have the bookworm trait. She also sometimes washes dishes that are left lying around though she doesn't have the neat trait. I even caught her cleaning the toilet. Maybe her parents are just good role models.

They spent a nice, quiet day at home working on various skills. Talia taught herself to paint and Stephanie began teaching herself to play chess. Tyler ... well, Tyler worked on his Playing with Babies skill and his Foosball skill.

They're really good parents. They have lots of conversations with Stephanie, and they race to see who can get to Carter first when he needs something or when they both want to play with him. So far, Tyler wins every time. He's a very hands on daddy.

At the Grant house, Sam gained a cooking level, even if he did burn the hell out of the waffles. They ate them anyway. He and AJ are also racing to see who gets to the baby first, and it's no surprise that Sam gets there first. As expected, he can hardly keep his hands off her.

Wyatt and Lexie's baby boy is named Alexander. He's a genius and he loves the outdoors. I moved them in with Wyatt and William because they had an extra room for the baby. William immediately wanted to give Alexander his bottle. He's going to be a good uncle.

William had a new guitar and was dying to show it off by playing in the park. Lexie was stir crazy from being stuck indoors with an infant, so I let them both go to the park. Lexie changed her mind at the last minute and went to bed. She was exhausted.

Wyatt is looking at Alexander like he's thinking, "Whoa. Look at what I did."

 

And William is just plain in love. I wonder if having a baby around will give him any ideas?