Week 12

Last week all three of cats finally passed on to the great catnip field in the sky. Not really sad about it, they were cute, but annoying. Caraway become a child and Betony gave birth to twins Camphor and Cassia. It was decided that Cassia would be heir since she was the only child to have Agrimony's eyes. The 2nd generation continued to move steadily up their career ladders, miraculously managing to not get fired because of chance cards. Burdock made it to Hostage Negotiator (twice)(L8), Joe made it to Power Leveler (L7), and Betony got all the way to College Senior Professor(L8). The original lot was plagued by a horrid glitch that caused the lot to crash every time it got to 7:06 pm, necessitated a move to a new lot. The move will have to be repeated so that the family's days match up my schedule.

Day 79 - Monday (Winter)
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"Lady, are you FINALLY finished moving us around?"
Yeah I think so dear, although there was a tiny snaffu this time around.
"A 'snaffu'? What kind of 'snaffu'?"
Err, you know how last time I put all the graves in Caraway's inventory, and then when we got to the new house we had two sets of graves?
"Yes....."
Well, this time I figured they'd just follow us anyway, so I didn't bother, and they kinda didn't follow us....
"You mean you LOST my MOTHER'S GRAVE?!?!"
Well, it's not really lost, I'm sure it's still at the other house..... I guess I could send someone to get it once we lift Military.....

Now that that little bit of drama is over, it's time to start toddler skilling. It's actually pretty easy to get walking, talking, and most of potty training done on one bottle, as long as everyone's in a good mood before you start. Actually what really bugs me about moving is that they all lose their aspiration levels. Well, except for Glen since he's permaplat.

Geez Cassia, I know I said I wanted a little color variation in the Gen 3 spouse, but not at the expense of THAT nose. BTW, how do you walk with your ankles forced that far apart by the extra "no-panties" fabric of your dress?

Oh No!!! The zombies found us again! Do the brains of the Leaf family really smell that good?

Way to go Burdock!! Of course, now you don't work until Thursday, but one more promotion and I'll let you get working on Becoming a Rock God. Or at least, I will as soon as Agrimony's finished topping her career.

Woot!!! We're having an awesome day! If you can manage to get that last promotion tomorrow that would be really awesome! You see, you're brother will only have about 4 days to find a job in the Music track as it is.

"Ugh, I'm so tired I can barely keep my eyes open. Why didn't you warn me how hard it was to be a career woman and a mother?"
Because, if I had, you wouldn't have done it.

Day 80 - Tuesday (Winter)
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You all know what this means by now, yes, it's another Togetherness Tuesday.

I'm sorry Brandi, but he needs another aspiration boost.

At 6 pm, everything went crazy....

Happy Birthday Caraway
Aspiration: Popularity
LTW: Become Rock God
Neat-4, Outgoing-4, Active-9, Playful-7, Nice-1
Sagittarius

One step closer to free phonelines....

"Come with me old man, your time of suffering has ended."

Betony and Cassia took Glen's death the hardest. The men mostly just went on with their day, but it took me hours to get the girls settled.

Joe and Betony did their best to make the loss of the twins grandfather easier to bare, but it was hard keeping a happy smile on their faces.

Once again it was Uncle Burdock to the rescue. Joe and Betony were exhausted and fell into a coma like sleep, but Burdock had had a little nap after his rendez-vous with Brandi and was able to watch the children all night. BTW, EA/Maxis, toddlers actually do sleep all night long.

Day 81 - Wednesday (Winter)
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You just never appreciate how hard it all is, until you have to do it all by yourself.

The worst part is, I like this girl. I think she's cute in a rather wacky way, but I'm betting that she's one of those new townies who don't have phones. Bummer.

I guess Caraway agrees with me.

This boy's been getting tips from his uncle. I mean honestly, he just met the girl today! Her name is Renee fyi, which I also totally love.

*Here's were I realized that yet again I'd broken a rule! I forgot to NOT let Caraway go on the bus, which is why he was able to bring this girl home. No more school for you until your mother lifts that restriction, bad NightRowan!*

Go Joe! One more promotion and the phone lines are free!

Day 82 - Thursday (Winter)
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One of the high points of having toddlers in the house is how quickly the Wabbit raises the fun of children and teens!

Arghh!!!! Hurry up Burdock! I want to be able to use some of those career rewards!

Of course I was so destracted by the chance card I missed Cassia's birthday, then again, so did everyone else!

Oddly enough, nobody missed Camphor's birthday. Are you guys trying to tell me something?

Cassia Leaf
Neat-4, Outgoing-8, Active-4, Playful-7, Nice-6
Libra
This girl always seems to pick great clothes!

Camphor Leaf
Neat-4, Outgoing-4, Active-9, Playful-7, Nice-1
Sagittarius
Poor Camphor, pink pants. Really Maxis, what were you thinking?

Day 83 - Friday (Winter)
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"Hi! The Plumbbob Diety Lady said I should be nice to you since I'll probably want a boyfriend when I get older and newspaper boys make good boyfriends, especially since Daddy is having a hard time getting rid of the gamers who are hogging the phone lines."

Joe's been chained to the chess table. He needs to finish maximizing his logic before he goes to work tomorrow. After that I think we may have to put him on some sort of workout routine because someone's getting a bit 'chunky'.

Great, the rugrats brought home friends, le sigh.

I love Uncle Burdock! He's always there to help his niece and nephew!

It's a bit of overkill when you have the Dean of a college helping you with your homework, but hey, maybe it'll make it even faster!

Day 84 - Saturday (Winter)
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It's 2:37 am, but at least Joe finally finished with his logic!

A little family together time before everyone works on skill building, AGAIN.

AGAIN, I've lost track of how many times he's made it this far.

Joe, you really need to lose some weight, that's just gross.

HOORAY!!!!!!

" Once a Sim reaches the top of the adventure career, they locate the stone's thief, the nefarious Dr. Vu. In a daring raid of Dr. Vu’s lab guarded by pirates, ninjas, ninja-pirates, pirate-ninjas and chartered accountants; your Sim makes off with Dr. Vu’s ill gotten gains. In addition to recovering the stone of Unga-Nunga, your Sim makes off with top secret technology Dr. Vu had hidden the base. The Adventure restriction is lifted. In addition, you may choose a single aspiration reward. You may now place and use aspiration reward, even if Alien Technology is not yet lifted. This can only be done once, by the first Sim reaching the top of Adventure."

Burdock's choice of Alien Technology will be some more Smart Milk!

Another cool thing I noticed, is that while nobody can use career rewards from the original careers (except for sims in that career) until their restrictions have been lifted, that doesn't apply to Seasons careers. I've no idea whether that's an oversight on Pinstar's part or intentional, but I'm all for it. Bookcase of Knowledge, hooray! We don't even need the other rewards with that thing around!

Joe really likes to give gifts out, which is a great way for us to get rid single tile objects we no longer need and things that spouses have in their inventories when they move in.


Day 85 - Sunday (Winter)
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Time for Joe to lose some weight! Although with my luck, I'll get him skinny and he'll age into a Santa outfit which will of course give me the urge to make him fat, lol!

Burdock's last chance at becoming a Rock God, will it be the only job available.....

YES!!!!! Burdock's gone from being a Space Pirate to a Record Store Clerk and we're happy about it. I really doubt he'll make it to the top before he dies, but at least he'll have a chance.

This thing may take up a lot of space, but it's now the fastest way to raise fun in the Hut!

Hey! Who said you could stop skill building to show-off for Burdock?

We're having an excellent weekend!

You now have 7 days to find a job in the Law Enforcement track.

" With your Sim rising to the top of Education, they rebuild the region’s educational system, and even restore the old college back to its former glory. The education restrictions are lifted.
- Sim teenagers may attend school.
- Sims may attend college. (once military is lifted)
- Sims may teach other Sims skills via career rewards
- Sims may "pass on" learned business perks to other Sims.
- you may once again choose your sims's aspirations and change them as you please"

Burdock really seems to enjoy hitting on all the townies I might consider marrying into the family. Christy's not pretty, but she's not ugly, and if memory serves, she's a family sim, which is no bad thing during an apocalypse.

"I feel sparkley..."

Burdock Leaf
Aspiration: Romance
LTW: Become Rock God
Neat-3, Outgoing-4, Active-10, Playful-10, Nice-7
Sagittarius
Wow! Nice threads!
So far I've been very lucky with the clothes they've grown-up into!

*Happy Dance*

Generation Two has finished unlocking their restrictions!!! Unfortunatly Joe only has two days to find a career in Law Enforcement.
"Your Sim has a brilliant two part plan, upon reaching the top of Gamer; they create their own MMO, and base the servers out of the region. The second part is they master the current MMO, and PK every single player on the servers constantly. People get so fed up and frustrated with the current MMO, they go looking for a new one to play. Your sim’s new MMO becomes all the rage. The server load that once tied up the phones is now gone. The Gamer restrictions are lifted.
- Sims can use the phone for any reason other than quitting their job.
- Sims can use the computer for anything other than "write novel" or "write term paper", if the science restriction is unlocked."

Summary: This week was amazing and incredibly eventful! Hotty Glen passed away leaving his loving family fairly distraught. The same evening Caraway became a teen and two days later Cassia and Camphor became children. Burdock, Betony and Joe all managed to lift their restrictions on the weekend, which means that we can now use career rewards, phone lines, and the educational system has been restored, although local sims still can't make it to college until the military cleans up the roads. Even better, we can choose aspirations for the teens! I actually was rolling them all along, but at least now I can guarantee that Cassia won't be Romance or Pleasure! Burdock, ever the show-off decided to have his birthday right before the end of the week, and became quite a distinguished gentleman. All in all, it was a great week!

Mob Payout: $1,800
Household Cash: $248,728

Week 11

Last week our beloved founder Agrimony passed away at the ripe age of 75 days old. Not bad for a sim who never achieved her LTW. To balance things out we also saw the birth of the first 3rd generation child, Caraway Leaf. All the adults managed to find jobs in the career tracks that I wanted (how amazing is that?). Betony is currently an Elementary School Teacher, Joe is a Flag Capturer, and Burdock has made it all the way to Deep Sea Excavator. Of course, all this meant that Glen was forced to quit his job and stay home with Caraway, but he seems to be enjoying it. Also, Mouse, Mr. Whiskers, and Sassy all became elders. Hopefully there will be some deaths soon so that Betony and Joe can have some more children. Hopefully none of the new graves will further obstruct the house!

Day 72 - Monday (Winter)
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Well now, that's an excellent start to the week. These new careers, I never know which card to pick, I just figured the volcano sounded potentially messy.

Sassy worked until her dying day, which was a good thing since it guaranteed her grave didn't clutter up the house.

You guys rock! Double high fives!

Talk about a stressful start. I mean sure, I didn't get fired on either chance card, but those things are murder!

Yummy Pirate! I hope you're as sexy as Cap'n Jack for your sake Burdock!

I hope you guys can keep up this pace, I'm not sure how much longer Glen can last, and Betony really needs to pop out a few more kids to help us out. Now get your butt upstairs, your son is about to become a child!

Oh man! Pink jammies! I am so not reintroducing you in that get up! Go take a shower so we can see your "normal" clothes.

"You know sweetie, with Sassy gone we've got a bit more space...."

Arghh, this family is nuts, summer clothes in a never ending winter, you're as bad as your mother! Oh well.

Caraway Leaf
Neat-4, Outgoing-4, Active-9, Playful-7, Nice-1
Sagittarius

Poor Caraway! It's his first night as a child and the ghosts have already gotten him twice!

Day 73 - Tuesday (Winter)
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Glen gets along much better with generation of cats than he did the last, although that could be because they're very needy cats, and he's actually fairly lonely despite being crammed into a teeny tiny little house with his two children, a son-in-law, and a grandson.

Hah! I see you trying to hide your Maximized doohickey thingy!

It's Togetherness Tuesday again, which means Burdock is a happy man. This is the closest he'll ever get to date night!

At least Joe just wants the ladies to play chess with him..... ok, that sounds really bad, doesn't it?

Well, that's one good thing about having a parent who works for the school board, at least she gets home just in time to cheer Caraway up after his first day of school.

Caraway, wipe that miserable expression off your face. Do you know how lucky you are to be allowed to Learn To Do Homework?

Pardon the picture quality, but I thought it was interesting that this is how they've all decided to spend their Togetherness Tuesday. Seriously, other than giving Burdock the go ahead for romantic moves and having Glen prepare Gelatin they all made their own decisions.

Belly-Pop #1 at 11pm.

Day 74 - Wednesday (Winter)
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Heh heh! Glad that I learned something from the local version of learnt something from the local version of Spirit Day! Go EAST!!!

Death came for both Mouse and Mr. Whiskers on the same day. Bye guys, it was fun having you around. On the upside, I no longer have to fast forward through the nights.

"Did you hear?"

Yes, now, I'm sorry but you're cats are dead, and you have to go back to work and try for another promotion.

I almost want to say darn! He actually was a fairly cute pirate.

Apparently Glen never mentioned the "special" properties of cheesecake to Betony...

Day 75 - Thursday (Winter)
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I know just how you feel buddy....

Geez Agrimony! Can't you have a little sympathy for the poor sap?

"Dad! Dad! I got an A!"

"That's nice son, now help me beat the nice lady."

You know, I hate to say it Burdock, but you're almost too pretty to be a boy. Yes, I know it's off topic, but it just hit me how pretty he is.

"Now can I stay home?"

'Fraid not hon, that's only level 7, you've got three more promotions to go, and you have to work tomorrow. Be a dear, and pop out that kid tonight.

"Peek-a-Boo!!!"

CRASH!!!! CRASH!!!!! CRASH!!!!

The lot went totally haywire on me for some unknown reason. In the end the only way I could fix it was to move the family to a new lot. The new lot is only a 4x4, but I've subtracted $5,800 to make up for that difference. Also, the family won't be paying the mob this week since they had to re-buy all of their furniture anyway. I figure it ends up the same. To keep my game on schedule I used the Insimenator to change the date time to Thursday at 6pm. The game crashed around 6:30, so they've only gained half an hour. This is their new home. It looks different, but has the same layout. I just changed colors. I did change one desk and chair because they were custom content that I was afraid were glitching the lot. They have approximately the same value as the old and take up the same amount of space.

Day 76 - Friday (Winter)
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Bless you Betony! I was beginning to think you'd be forced to quit your job because of this pregnancy.

Welcome Camphor Leaf (it's a boy)

Welcome Cassia Leaf (it's a girl)
Cassia will be the heir because she's the only one who has Agrimony's eyes.

For now we're going to see if the twins can get away with sharing the crib. Cassia got the first turn just because she was the first one changed.

And the answer is, apparently not. I thought that sim babies just fell asleep on the floor like normal babies. Darn, now I'm stuck with two cribs in this tiny room until Athletic, Law, and Politics are lifted.

Run!!! Run for your lives!!! The zombies are attacking!!!!

Glen is weird. He's afraid of changing diapers, but he's feeding the babies constantly. Big Dummy!

Cool! Now you have two days to work on your cleaning skills, so get to it!

I really hate all these new townies who don't own phones. Has anyone found a hack to fix it yet? Pretty please with sugar on top?

"Hello? Can I go to bed now? It's exhausting playing on the computer all day!"

*snicker*

Day 77 - Saturday (Winter)
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Woops! Forgot to take a shot of the outcome. Apparently Burdock doesn't know what reverse psychology is, and the terrorists used it on him instead. He got demoted to Warhead Disarmer.

Back to work you go fool!

It's a day of skill building for these two. Betony needs more cleaning skills for her next promotion and for some reason I thought Caraway would need 10 Body skill to go to High School (if Betony tops Education) but it looks like it's only if he wants to leave the lot for any other reason.

Good man, now try not to screw up this time.

It's odd, but Romance sims seem to make great Aunts and Uncles. Burdock's almost always got one of the twins in his arms and he persistently wants to be best friends with Caraway.

Day 78 - Sunday (Winter)
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Another day of skilling... at least this time Caraway got to spend some quality time with his dad. Don't look so worried kid, don't forget, you cheat.

The real reason that Burdock likes to say that they're too old for this game is that he's kind of a wuss and his sister constantly beats him.

This poor family is deprived. This is their first ever Berry Pie, and it's likely Glen's last as well. He'll be turning 80 tonight. I can't remember what the oldest sim I've ever had was, but he's getting up there.

It was almost 9 pm before I got one of these blasted kids would grow-up. I guess I should have used the cakes.

Camphor
Neat-4, Outgoing-4, Active-9, Playful-7, Nice-1
Sagittarius
(he's a little clone of Caraway)

Cassia
Neat-4, Outgoing-8, Active-4, Playful-7, Nice-6
Libra
Aww... I love her!!!

A/N: The family will be moving into a replica of this house AGAIN on Monday because the time/date cheat that I used only lasts until midnight, and I'm getting bloody sick of having to reset the day.

Summary: This week all three of cats finally passed on to the great catnip field in the sky. Not really sad about it, they were cute, but annoying. Caraway become a child and Betony gave birth to twins Camphor and Cassia. It was decided that Cassia would be heir since she was the only child to have Agrimony's eyes. The 2nd generation continued to move steadily up their career ladders, miraculously managing to not get fired because of chance cards. Burdock made it to Hostage Negotiator (twice)(L8), Joe made it to Power Leveler (L7), and Betony got all the way to College Senior Professor(L8). The original lot was plagued by a horrid glitch that caused the lot to crash every time it got to 7:06 pm, necessitated a move to a new lot. The move will have to be repeated so that the family's days match up my schedule.

Mob Payout: none because of the move
Household Cash: $184,772