Baker - The Young and the Old

Welcome back to the Baker household. Last time we were here Malcolm finished his LTW, retired, and married his long time fianceé Madison VanWatson. She joined the household then died the next day. His step-mother Bebe died a few days later. Topher worked on his LTW, completing Sculpting and Painting. He just has Inventing left to master. Becky retired from her job, Felix aged from baby to teen and Carly gave birth to Radana just before we left them. Moving forward I'll be working on completing Topher and Carly's LTWs.

It's perhaps worth noting that I do have Late Night installed now, though it probably won't have any immediate impact on my game play here. I'm still thinking about whether I want to create a new sim for Bridgeport or move an existing sim there. Until then, I'll carry on with my families as they are.

It was early on Friday morning when I rejoined the Bakers, and most everyone was asleep. Felix was the first up, but didn't do much except get ready for school before the bus came for him. I had Topher start working on Inventing once he was up and had eaten. He was doing ok until suddenly there was a large explosion and he caught himself on fire. Luckily for him there was a shower installed right next to the bench precisely so he could extinguish himself quickly in such an event.

Meanwhile Carly spent most of her afternoon outside in her garden. While she was out there, Donnell Andrews came by to reject her. I wasn't aware they were a thing before. She's been married to Topher for quite awhile now, so Donnell took his time about "breaking up" with her if they had been a thing in the past.

The only other thing of note was that there appears to be some kind of continued glitchiness going on with using a laptop at the dining room table. For some reason they'll put the laptop at the middle chair, then sit in the end chair and reach their arms over at a strange angle to use it. Bebe did it in the past, and now Felix was doing it both while playing games and then afterwards while trying to fix it after it broke.

On Saturday Becky got invited to a friend's party. It was a small affair with just his family and a few other friends. She went swimming in his pool and then played with his grandson, who unfortunately did not have a crib so he'd been left on the kitchen floor. Also unfortunate was the fact that his parents had named him Brain.

On Sunday it was Radana's birthday and Topher decided he wanted to throw a birthday party for her. He invited over a few of their friends, and once they had all arrived, Carly took Radana out to her cake. The guests were all too busy upstairs dancing by the stereo to come down, but the family gathered on the porch to watch Radana transition to Toddler.

On Monday Carly went down to the shore and spent the day fishing. Not only did she need the skill for her job, but she was going stir crazy after so many days cooped up in the house while she was pregnant and after Radana was born. Topher went to the consignment store to sell some of his inventing products then headed over to the junkyard to stock up on more scrap. After he came home, showered, and had dinner, he took Radana down to the library to read the toddler books to her just like he had with Felix.

Tuesday went by fairly uneventfully. The main thing of potential note was that I finally decided to take a more active role in having Becky and Malcolm become a couple. They've been doing romantic interactions on their own, but I decided to push it a bit more. Strangly, messages popped up about them getting cheater reputations as I did so. Becky must have had a romantic interest I'd forgotten about. I thought all her old flames had died...oops. Ah well, she always was a free spirit anyway.

Wednesday was Carly's birthday. She wasn't interested in having a big party, so once Felix was home from school, she simply blew out the candles on a cake with the family gathered around. She transitioned to Elder. Odd to think that she was still on her last day of maternity leave as well. At least there won't be any other kids here for awhile.

The clothes got changed right away

On Thursday Becky was feeling the need to get out of the house, so she took Malcolm downtown for a tour of the theatre. After they had finished, she decided to put on an impromptu performance for the citizens of Sunset Valley, so she set out her tip jar and got out her guitar and started to play there in front of the theatre. It was just like old times, only this time she was doing it just because she wanted to and not because they desperately needed the money.

On Thursday Felix went over to a friend's house after school. While there he got a phone call from Helen Marabel asking if he'd like to go out on a date. He accepted, and the two met outside the consignment store downtown. They talked for awhile, getting to know one another, and then he offered to help tutor her on their assignments. She accepted and they sat down there in the grass to work. I wouldn't mind making a match between them since she's the granddaughter of my sim Eileen Marabel that we saw pass away in the last Baker update. Would be nice to incorporate part of the Marabel line into the Bakers, but we'll have to see how things go between them I suppose.

Unfortunately for Felix, he got so caught up in the study session that he forgot to pay attention to what time it was and he ended up staying out after curfew. The cops were quick to notice the two teens and showed up to escort them to their homes.

Friday was a fairly normal day. Topher spent most of the day sculpting while listening to a tabcast about inventing. When the tabcast finished that evening he'd finally mastered the craft and thus had completed his LTW. His points will now count for the challenge. I'll most likely have him focus on sculpting to get to the top of that career as well as hopefully complete the skill challenges, or at least some of them.

On Saturday Felix spent much of the day searching the galaxy for new stars. He had already found a couple and was keen to find 5 if he could. That evening, he decided he wanted to be a scientist like his mother, though with a different twist. He wanted to become a Forensic Specialist in the Law Enforcement career.

Sunday was Radana's birthday. The family all slept in a bit late, but once everyone was up and had eaten, Carly took Radana to the cake so she could blow out her candles. She transitioned to Child and picked up the trait Star Quality.

That evening, to help him get started with the athletic skill he'd need in law enforcement, Becky trained Felix on the weight bench for awhile, helping him to get several skill points.

Monday started out as another normal day. Radana had her first day of school, Topher went to put some of his sculptures on consignment, and Carly went to work. When she finished the day she received a promotion to Creature-Robot Cross Breeder which completed her LTW. Her points will now count for the challenge (except then there was that awkward moment where I went to update the spreadsheet and realized she hasn't scored any points for the challenge yet).

Tuesday passed uneventfully, then on Wednesday it was Felix's birthday. Once everyone was home, they gathered out back and he blew out his candles and transitioned to Young Adult. He gained the Ambitious trait.

Wednesday was also Topher's birthday (actually I think I may have read the alert wrong and thought it was Felix's then aged him up a day early, but whatever). Since it caught me by surprise, he didn't have his own cake and aged up on his own in the kitchen after the mini-party they'd had for Felix. He transitioned to Elder.

Thursday passed rather ordinarily. Felix had his first day at work, Radana went to school, Carly spent the day fishing, and Becky spent the day collecting seeds. That evening Felix invited Helen Marabel over to see if they still had a spark going. They were fairly good friends now, but apparently she hadn't aged up yet. We decided to remedy that by getting out a cake and sending her to blow out the candles.

After she had aged up, Felix started flirting with her a bit, with mixed results. Since it looked like she would take a bit of wooing, he asked her to move in with them so there'd be plenty of time to win her over. She agreed.

Helen Marabel
Traits: No Sense of Humor, Great Kisser, Loves the Outdoors, Coward, Easily Impressed
Favorites, Kids music, Mac and Cheese, Black
LTW: World Renowned Surgeon













As it turned out, the Romantic interactions went much smoother when I had Helen do the initiating. Unfortunately she had a boyfriend I hadn't known about, but that was easily dealt with when she agreed to break up with him. A few more interactions and Felix had her agreeing to marry him.

She got a makeover after this - new outfit is shown in the picture above, though her hair also changed after that pic was taken

On Friday after a couple days of working really hard, Carly got to the top of her career. Upon returning home she promptly made the call to retire. She'll now collect her pension and devote herself to fishing in hopes that she'll be able to complete the Commercial Fisherman challenge and at least bring in one point before she dies.

That evening after they'd both rested up after work, Felix and Helen decided they didn't want to wait for a formal wedding (and I decided I didn't want to bother with one). They had their own private wedding and exchanged rings in the foyer while the rest of the family was busy with other things. Helen took Felix's name and became Helen Baker.

On Saturday Topher sold some more sculptures which earned him a promotion in the Sculptor career. He received notice that he was to come by City Hall to collect a service award as well. He headed down there right away, and found that there was a protest of some sort going on. Apparently people were protesting unicorns? (No clue on this one...I don't have Pets installed so far)

Sunday turned out to be a notable day. First of all Topher completed his 35th sculpture and his 25th ice sculpture and thus fulfilled two different skill challenges for Sculpturing. It was also Radana's birthday. They had a small party for her out back with just the family. She transitioned to teen and picked up the Unlucky trait.

Sadly, Sunday was also the end of the road for Becky. She passed away at the age of 93 (I think) while attending Noel Keaton's party. Malcolm came and crashed the party when he found out so he could pick up her tombstone to bring it home to rest beside her parents', his stepmother and his wife. Becky contributed 2 points to the challenge in her lifetime (yeah, I probably should have pushed more on at least one of the guitar skill challenges for her, but I was too busy with the others in the household most of the time to pay much attention to her).

The next day Felix saw a meteor crash down while he was searching for more new stars through the telescope. It landed in the neighbor's yard and he ran over to collect it before returning to his galaxy searching.

Not sure whose tombstone that is

Monday night Malcolm finally got around to doing an opportunity he'd had for awhile that wanted him to jog for an hour while carrying some monitoring device. I guess they wanted to see how well someone his age would do jogging. When he went to turn the device in and complete the opportunity, his contact was invisible.

She is there, and he was able to talk to her, but she never was visible

On Tuesday Radana brought an acquaintance home from school with her. She then took off to the science facility to complete an opportunity. Felix chatted with the girl and then offered to tutor her for awhile.

While Felix was still busy tutoring Radana's friend, Helen decided to get to know Malcolm better. As they stood chatting in the living room, Grim came for him. Malcolm died at age 103 days and contributed 3 points to the challenge. Truth be told, I'd been waiting for Malcolm to kick it for ages and had thought he would go before Becky since he was older.

And that seems like a decent place to end this visit with the Bakers. It was a reasonably productive round I think. Here is a look at the score at the end of this round:

Next up I'll probably be visiting the Britt family again unless I decide to start someone in Bridgeport instead. Until then, Cheers!

Baker - Working Hard and Getting Older

In our last visit with the Baker family, Heathcliff passed on, Topher aged up to Young Adult and married Carly Landgraab, he and Becky moved in with Carly and her brother Malcolm and step-mother Bebe, and Becky and Bebe completed their LTWs. The family left the Landgraab mansion behind for a somewhat more modest house on the coast on the other side of town, and Carly became pregnant with her and Topher's first child. I decided not to kick Malcolm and Bebe out so I could get some points out of them first, but am pushing to finish Malcolm's LTW as quickly as possible so I can let him marry his fiancee Madison so he can go live with her and their son Bobby.

Going forward, I intend to continue pushing Malcolm with his career to finish the LTW, and also to work a lot with Topher to finish his LTW. Once their LTWs are completed I'm going to consider Ambitions content completed enough to install Late Night. Hopefully things will go smoothly, because I'm anxious to get moving with the expansions.

It was early on Saturday morning when I started the game up and after taking care of morning tasks for the household, the day passed without much of note happening. Topher worked on his sculpting and Malcolm did stylist work around town. He had several private appointments with people in their homes, so he didn't even have to go into the salon. He was off the following day so he set to work with the drafting table to keep gaining job experience that way.

Shortly after midnight on Monday morning, Carly went into labor. Like most sim husbands, Topher freaked out about it for a bit, then decided to go do something else. Becky came in after finishing her mud bath and did a freak out, then wandered off. Even Heathcliff, who was out of his grave that night, came in to freak out about Carly being in labor.

In due course she gave birth to a baby boy that she named Felix. He got the traits Perceptive and Slob, and his favorites are Indie music, Fish and Chips, and Green. Unless they roll persistent wishes for more children, he'll likely be their only child. At the very least, he'll be the only one until this house empties out more.

Later that evening, Topher mastered the Sculpting skill while working on an ice sculpture. This meant he'd completed 1/3 of his LTW. He still needs to master Inventing and Painting to finish it.

On Tuesday Malcolm spent the day doing makeovers for people at their houses. After his third appointment he got a call asking him to come to City Hall to collect a service award for having styled 10 sims. He hurried downtown to pick it up. Afterwards he went to the salon and earned another promotion after doing a few makeovers there. That took him up to level 7 of the career and a good bit closer to achieving his dream.

Tuesday was also Carly's birthday. Since this wasn't really a big one for her, I opted to forgo a party in favor of focusing on Malcolm for the day pushing his career. Therefore, she simply aged up on her own to Adult that evening while she and Topher were stealing a few romantic moments in the foyer.

Malcolm continued to be my focus for the next few sim days and I worked to get him to the top of the Stylist career as quickly as possible. He hit level 8 a few days after Carly's birthday after giving Graham Gallant a few makeovers at his home.

That evening it was Felix's birthday. He didn't get a party since I was preoccupied with Malcolm, but instead aged up on the floor of his nursery with a little bit of help from his mother (who simply took him out of his crib, laid him on the floor, then walked off to do something else).

The family started with toddler training almost right away and by the time Bebe put him down to sleep he'd been potty trained. They let him work with the playpen and walker the next day to learn how to walk and talk. After that, Topher took him down to the library and read all of the toddler books with him even though it was very late.

I was amused to see that the Library's copies of the toddler books were still laying around on the tables from when Heathcliff had brought Topher down here to read them.

Malcolm of course continued the push to get to the top of his career so he could marry Madison before she died. Topher began working on his painting skill for his LTW when he wasn't busy with his son.

By the the time he left work the following Saturday Malcolm had worked his way up to level 9 of the Stylist profession. Just one more promotion and he'd have finished his LTW and would be able to marry Madison. He had the next few days off but spent them working on his drafting board to keep making progress toward his goal.

Sunday was Malcolm's birthday. He was so busy at his drafting table all day, and the rest of the family was busy with their own tasks, that there wasn't a cake and he simply aged up to Elder on his own that evening. He'd never bothered to change out of his pajamas all day, so aged up into pajamas.

Topher had an opportunity to create an ice sculpture of Whitney Kauffman, but he had never met the man. Malcolm was acquainted with him, however, and he called him up and invited him over so that Topher could get his opportunity done. He then spent some time chatting with his sister and stepmother before returning to his drafting board.

Tuesday was Topher's birthday, and in keeping with the new trend for this household there wasn't a cake. He celebrated his birthday out in the garden with Carly, Malcolm, and Felix and aged up to Adult.

Thursday was Felix's birthday, and even though I spent the day with Malcolm as usual working on his career, I did manage to get Felix a cake so they were able to hold a small party for him with just the household members. He aged up to Child and acquired the Never Nude trait. Unfortunately it seems I missed getting a pic of the event once he'd become a child.

Friday was a busy day at the salon. There were a lot of customers, and late in the afternoon there were two simultaneous deaths. The Grim Reaper came for Eileen Marabel and for Graham Gallant. Personally I was kind of sad to see Eileen go, for she's a sim that I created and played for awhile a few years ago. I started the Bakers in the old save file I had for her and have found it interesting to see how her family progressed. She left behind two grown sons and a few grandchildren (I'm not sure how many exactly).

Malcolm could tell that he was getting close to being at the top of his career, so when he went home Friday night he had Bebe give him some massages that gave him enough energy to stay up all night working at his drafting table. By the time Saturday morning rolled around he had gained a good bit more experience, but not quite enough. His first appointment of the day proved to be all he needed however as finding little Katrina Dunbar a new pair of shoes gave him the last bit of experience he needed to push him to the top. With his LTW finally fulfilled he immediately spun up a wish to retire.

Malcolm honored the rest of the appointments he had that morning, one of which was to set up his son Bobby with a new hairstyle and wardrobe. After he finished the last appointment he called Madison to give her the good news, then headed to the salon. When he got home that night he called Madison again to invite her over, but she was at work. She didn't feel like coming over when she got off later that night, so he decided to go to her. He'd waited long enough to make her his wife and was determined to do so without any further delay now that he'd achieved his goal. They were married in a private ceremony in her living room, she in her nightgown.

She moved into the Baker household with Malcolm - originally I'd intended to move him out when he reached his goal and married her, but she's already 100 days old so she won't be around very long. She won't count toward the challenge at all.

The next morning Malcolm got a call telling him that there was a ceremony being held in his honor at City Hall and they wanted him to come down to accept an award for his contributions to the town. He hurried down there and was astounded to find a large crowd gathered at the steps. He accepted his award from the Mayor, then took the opportunity to announce his retirement (and made the call to retire).

With Malcolm taken care of, it was now time to turn my attention fully to Topher. He's already mastered Sculpting, and is up to level 8 of Painting, so he's made good progress toward his LTW. I did my best to keep him working on things that would add to his progress while I was working with Malcolm. I left the Inventing skill until last since that needs a bit more supervision given the chance of the sim blowing themselves up at the bench.

I'd left Malcolm downtown to chat with people as he wished while I went to work with some of the others and after a bit I got a message that he'd witnessed a death. I hopped over to him in time to see that Holly Garvin had died while he was speaking with her. Most likely  he'll be losing a lot of his friends soon (he already has been to some extent).

I took Carly down to the Stones Throw Greenhouse to buy some of the foreign fruits to plant (I added the produce cart from the Al Fresco Marketplace to the Greenhouse lot in this town) and to collect seeds. While I was busy with that I was suddenly jerked back to the house by Grim coming for Madison. Sad for Malcolm, but not unexpected given her age. He was still downtown, and though I immediately told him to come home, he didn't make it back to the lot and upstairs quite in time to see her go.

Monday was Becky's birthday. I had been keeping her as an Adult with the mud baths, but decided I needed to just let her age up since it wasn't likely I was going to do anything much with her at this point. She aged up to Elder on her own in their home gym which had become her favorite place to hang out.

The next day, I had Becky go and perform one last concert at the stadium before having her call to retire. It's not like she'd really been working for a long time anyway, but this way she'll get some kind of steady pension at least.

I also paused about here to do a few renovations on the house, in particular to eliminate the rear garage. This was mainly so I'd have room to use the growing station that came with the greenhouse since it keeps the plants watered at least besides having other nifty functions that help out a lot. The spot at the side of the house where I'd had the garden was too narrow to fit even the sprinkler in to keep them watered so they were having to hand water everything all the time which makes it take way longer than it needs to.

Early the following morning there was a bit of surprise when Carly found out she was pregnant again. I put Twallan's Woohooer mod back in for the risky woohoo and apparently they got "lucky" the first try with it, even with just a 10% chance.

Also that morning Topher mastered the painting skill which means he's 2/3 done with his LTW. He only needs to master Inventing now, and then I'll have him start sculpting again to get to the top of the Sculptor career. Currently he's at level 6 of that, but hasn't been working on it for a bit now.

Now that Malcolm is around the house all the time, and is widowed, he and Becky seem to be forming something of a romance between them. I'd noticed romantic leanings between them in the past, but always discouraged it since I was hoping to let him marry the finacée he already had. Now though, I'm not sure it matters so I figure why not let them enjoy one another if that's what they want. I may not actively pursue a relationship between them, but if it happens I won't stop it.

That night it was the end of the road for Bebe. She hung in a lot longer than I'd thought she would, making it to be 97 or 98 days old I think (I hadn't checked her age for a few sim days so I'm not sure how old she was exactly). Grim came for her as she was chatting with Malcolm out on the side porch. Can't say I was all that sorry to see her go, but...they'd all just stopped crying over Madison and now I was in for another two days of constant wailing. It gets old. She contributed 2 points to the challenge in the time I had her.

The next day was Felix's birthday. As usual I was bad about remembering to get a cake for him, so he aged up on his own in the entryway with his mother and a friend he'd brought home from school to cheer him on. He aged up to Teen and gained the Snob trait.

Early Friday morning Carly went into labor. As before, I had her stay home to have the child and after a bit she gave birth to a baby girl she named Radana. She got the Perceptive and Eccentric traits, and her favorites are Egyptian music, Hot Dogs, and Lilac.

This seems like a good place to end this part. I'd hoped to finish Topher's LTW as well, but that's going to take a bit longer. At least he has most of it done already and he's up to level 5 in Inventing already I think. So at this point I think I'm going to take the time to do another round through my various families and see what other points I can accrue before I finish up with Topher and get started on Late Night. Here's what my score looks like currently:

See you soon with the Britt family hopefully :)