World Adventures Sneaks In With Birthdays Galore

This entry sees the installation of the first game expansion, World Adventures. I have played with this expansion some in the past, though not as much as I might have wanted to, and things were severely buggy last time I played it. I *think* most of the bugs with traveling have been resolved now from what I've read, but we shall see. I've also installed the High End Loft Stuff pack. After giving it some thought, I decided that when I install an expansion I'll also install any of the stuff packs that came out after it but before the next expansion. Installing these two packs hasn't had any immediate impact on the Medina-Britt household, but hopefully it will start to figure in soon.

Returning to the story, the day after Carolyn's death passed fairly uneventfully. Damien had the day off for some reason (His work schedule said he was supposed to work, and I got a notice about the carpool, but it never showed up and when I clicked the "go to work" button it told me he doesn't work for 2 days yet), so I had him working on his writing skill. Charles tended the garden with a little help from Carina (forgot to send her out to help until he was almost done) then spent most of the rest of the day crying about his sister's death. Dylan worked on his current novel some more, and when the laptop broke, I had Jeanna fix it (she still didn't get zapped). Adrianna went to her first day of work and ended up working late, and Carina spent most of the day out socializing after going to the bistro to turn in an opportunity (i.e., I sent her out then left her to her own devices). Benito finished one painting, sold it, then puttered around the house most of the day doing little. He had just started working on another one when Grim came for him around 6PM. He died having contributed 3 points to the challenge.

Benito Britt's Achievements

• Traits - Brave
• LTW - Chess Legend
• Skills - Logic: Grand Master

Damien consoled himself about his father's death by making love with his wife Adrianna. The next morning, she wasn't feeling so well, but she went to work anyway. The day passed fairly routinely with Dylan and Damien both working on writing novels. Damien had the day off again and apparently this is some new "personal time" feature because around the time he would have gotten off I got a message that he'd received his pay for personal time off. Jeanna passed the time on the treadmill then later coached Charles on it.

When Adrianna got home that evening she headed out to the hot tub to relax for awhile. She sat out there for a few hours until a sudden odd feeling in her stomach made her get out. Once she had, her belly popped out and she realized she was pregnant.

Another ho hum day after that. This family is really pretty boring right now. There was this awkward moment though when Adrianna went up to talk to Charles right after he and Jeanna had been making love. She just walked right in before he'd had a chance to get dressed again and he just stood there in the nude talking with her like it didn't bother him at all.

The following evening, Adrianna went into labor. She and Damien rushed to the hospital, and she gave birth a baby girl they named Eugenia. She got the traits Absent-Minded and Athletic, the hidden trait Makes No Messes (daughter of a maid), and her favorites are Chinese music, Vegetarian Lobster Thermidor, and Black.

Chatting with Charles must have made an impression on Adrianna, for after she got home with Eugenia and put her in the crib, she flirted with him a bit while Damien was getting something to eat. Jeanna was nearby, and wasn't pleased about it, but the incident didn't cause any major strife and it only took a little bit of Charles talking with her before they were on very good terms with one another again. The next day, however, I discovered that for some reason Dylan is pretty put out with Adrianna. No idea what that's about, but when she tried to talk to him he really gave her some attitude.

I think they're sending each other some mixed signals here...

When Eugenia was born, Adrianna decided that she wanted to quit work. Since her LTW is finished, I let her. As soon as she'd made the call to quit her job in Law Enforcement, she rolled a wish to join the Criminal career. Since I found that amusing, she'll be taking that job. Damien also rolled a wish to quit his job, but since his job is part of his LTW he won't be allowed to quit.

That same day, while she was working out in the garden, Carina realized that she was pregnant. This came as a bit of surprise to me as well, because while I did have her and Dylan have risky woohoo a few times, I hadn't heard any chimes and didn't realize it "took". I could well have missed it in the midst of other things going on though.

Adrianna started her new job in the Criminal field the next day and ended up getting herself arrested on her first day on the job.

The next day was Eugenia's birthday, and Charles called around to invite people over for a birthday party. Maybe I shouldn't have had him do so because about the same time Carina came home from the library and went into labor. I also got a notification that Adrianna had been arrested again. Carina left for the hospital about the time the first guest was arriving. For some reason Dylan didn't go with her. She gave birth to a baby boy she named Eldred. He got the traits Easily Impressed and Evil, the hidden trait Can Catch Burglars (passed down from his great-great-grandfather Hank Goddard), and his favorites are Egyptian music, Crepes, and Black. Amusingly, Damien threw a wish to interview him when he was born.

The party went on, though judging by what the guests were doing you'd have thought it was a much different sort of party than a baby's birthday party.

These folks were just one of at least three couples that tried out the beds during Eugenia's party.

It was getting late by the time I finally managed to have Damien take Eugenia to her cake, and most of the guests had left by then, but we got it done. She aged up to Toddler and, I was happy to see, she has her grandmother's red hair. I was afraid the red hair would be lost from the family with all of the black haired people in this last generation.

The next day things were largely back to normal. In the afternoon, Charles spun up a want to visit the graveyard, and that prompted me to have him take Morganna and Beau's graves over there, something I'd been planning to do for a bit. His visit there was uneventful, and he headed home shortly after completing his task.

The next day was Carina's birthday, and though she did get a cake, it was just a small affair with the family present. While the family generally loved throwing parties, Carina decided to be a bit more low key with this birthday.

The birthdays kept coming, with Eldred and Damien both having birthdays the following day, Damien to Adult, and Eldred to Toddler. Charles arranged a party for the two of them and they each took their turn blowing out candles in the back yard.

While cleaning up from the party, Carina realized that she was pregnant again.

Still the birthdays weren't finished here. The following day was Adrianna's birthday. She had the day off and slept for much of the day since she'd been up most of the night taking care of Eugenia and Eldred. Then she spent some time working on her Athletic skill for her job. By evening, it had almost been forgotten, but they quickly got a cake and set it up out back so that she at least got to blow out candles with her family around her while she transitioned to Elder.

The next day started out fairly ordinary, but by evening became quite eventful indeed. The evening was going along normally, Carina had woken Eldred up from a nap and fed him some mushed up waffles, then was teaching him how to walk when she went into labor. She left for the hospital, and shortly afterwards Dylan followed her there. While Carina was at the hospital giving birth, Grim came for Jeanna finally. Charles was devastated as they had been practically inseparable since she'd retired. She died having contributed 5 points to the challenge.

Jeanna (Whitmore) Medina's Achievements

• Traits - Athletic, Lucky, Mooch, Party Animal
• LTW - Become a Superstar Athlete

Meanwhile, back at the hospital, Carina gave birth to a baby girl she named Edita. She got the traits Clumsy and Hates the Outdoors, the hidden trait Can Catch Burglars, and her favorites are French music, Stir Fry, and Yellow.

The next day passed uneventfully, then the day after that was another double birthday day. This time it was Dylan aging up to Adult, and Eugenia aging up to Child. Eugenia went first, her great-uncle Charles taking her to the cake and helping her blow out the candles. She transitioned to Child and picked up the Computer Whiz trait.

Once everyone had a chance to enjoy some of Eugenia's cake, Dylan blew out the candles on his cake. His transition was less dramatic, but everyone still cheered him on.

Another birthday the following day, this time for baby Edita. Since they'd just done a big party the day before, we opted to keep it small and just do a cake in the backyard with the immediate household. It took a bit of doing to convince someone to take her out to the cake, but eventually Charles paid attention to me and took her out and she transitioned up to Toddler. Sadly, without red hair.

And that's where this entry will end. I'd been intending to play a bit more to add on to this post, but that hasn't happened, so I decided to just get this up for now. Hopefully I'll be able to get some more play time in with this family soon. What lies ahead for them? Well, I expect Charles to die any sim day now (I'm surprised he's lasted this long frankly). Dylan is closing in on his LTW I think - he's maxed writing already and is more than halfway through painting. Damien is making slow but steady progress toward his LTW, though I forget how far he has to go offhand. There will also likely be a lot more birthdays and toddler training and all of the kids deciding what they want to do with their lives as well. And who knows, we might even get more kids if risky woohoo hates me decides we need more.

Besides all of the family events to come, I have a new house built for them that I'll hopefully get them moved into before to much longer. I would have moved them in the course of this update, but I got lazy about it. I'm also considering borrowing ASimWen's idea and splitting the two families up and sending the Britt family to live in another neighborhood. With so many sims in one household I find I get so caught up with just keeping everyone healthy and happy that I forget to have them work on completion challenge items a lot, especially the elders which end up being left to their own devices most of the time except when I need them to train a toddler in something or some other such task. I think splitting them up into smaller family units would help me focus on challenge progress more and less on simply trying to keep up with everyone.

So, lots of things ahead still for the Medina and Britt families. Thanks for reading, and I hope you'll continue to follow along with them.

Twilight for Generation 3

Everyone in the house was depressed on Friday because of Rigoberto's death. Charles, who was developing quite a reputation as a comedian was even too depressed to tell any jokes when he was speaking with someone outside the science center. Silvia Whitfield came home from school with Dylan that day, though he had to run off to work immediately so she was left to hang around the house on her own for a bit. He did chat with her later, however, and found that he was rather attracted to her.

The following day was Dylan's birthday. Charles and Jeanna worked together to get the garden tended early, giving Benito a bit of a break from the chore. Then Charles called up their friends and Benito's family, being sure to include the two girls that Dylan had shown an interest in, as well as the guy who had called Damien up for a date awhile back. Once everyone had arrived, Dylan blew out his candles and transitioned to Young Adult. He picked up the Hydrophobic trait.

After the party, Dylan went down to the bistro to meet Carina Akers. She'd called to ask him out on a date after leaving the party. I'm starting to wonder if I should really be so leery of all the date invites the sims get, for of the ones I've accepted lately, none have been actual dates. Rigoberto and Carolyn barely knew the people they'd accepted a "date" with, but Dylan is good friends with Carina. Still, when they met, the moving heart thing indicating the two are on a date wasn't there. Carina is still available, and Dylan is attracted to her, but I'm keeping the romantic interactions between them light until I have him get to know Silvia a bit better to see if he shows a preference.

The next day went by fairly routinely, with everyone kind of doing their own thing. That evening, Jeanna decided she just had to get out of the house, so she went down to the gym for awhile. She invited Miles Cavazos to join her, offering to show him a few pointers with the equipment. He accepted, and Jeanna played personal trainer for him for awhile.

Meanwhile, Silvia Whitfield had called Dylan up for a date after he'd gotten home from work, and he accepted. She wanted to meet at the cemetery, which to my mind is kind of a creepy place for a date, but whatever floats your boat. This was another non-date date, since she's still a teenager and the game won't let them have any romantic interactions. He did get a chance to chat with her and get to know her better though.

I tried to get them to move over to a place with more light, but she wouldn't cooperate.

The next day after work, Damien got a call from Adrianna Seaman, their maid, asking if he wanted to go on a date. I had been kind of intending to make him gay due to that earlier date call, but his gender preference still shows as undecided, and I decided that cultivating a relationship with a maid could be beneficial to the challenge, so I had him accept. They didn't really know each other yet, so the "date" was really more of a getting to know one another outing, and he discovered that he's quite attracted to her. She's considerably older than him, but young enough she could still have a child if I got them together soon.

They hung out at the beach talking for a long while before Damien started to put the moves on her. She was receptive to his flirtations, and even to a hug, so eventually he leaned in and had his first kiss with her.

The next morning Jeanna was at loose ends. Her needs were all good, there's not really much for her to be doing skillwise, she's retired...all in all, I'm at something of a loss what to do with her now. So I just try to keep her busy. This morning I had her fix the laptop that one of the ghosts had broken even though she had no skill in Handiness. I'll admit, I was kind of hoping she'd fry herself, but no such luck. She was able to fix it without mishap.

About the time that Jeanna was working on the laptop, Damien was leaving for work via the Not So Routine Machine, and he got sucked into the Dreamscape. He had a few adventures there, quite a bit of fun, and then got himself spit out and was late for work.

After sleeping in, Carolyn went down to the theatre to play for tips for awhile, as she didn't really have much else to do. While there, an old friend of theirs, Melissa Sowell, died while watching her perform. (I actually missed seeing this happen, just saw the notifications and zipped over to get the best shot I could. Melissa's ghost was gone, but Grim was still there, and he looked rather pleased with himself judging by his thought bubble.)

The next day, Adrianna was still cleaning the house when Damien got home. He talked to her in the kitchen for a bit, and then asked her to hang out once she was done. She agreed, and soon they were hugging and kissing, then one thing led to another and they ended up upstairs in Damien's bed together. Later, after they'd gotten changed again, Damien proposed to her in the living room with most of the family around (though not paying any attention to them). She happily accepted.

Meanwhile, Dylan got a call from Carina, asking him out on a date and he went down to meet her at Central Park. They chatted a bit, and then Dylan started flirting with her. She was very receptive, and before long he was having his first kiss with her.  He decided she was the woman he wanted to be with, so he asked her to go steady.

The following day passed uneventfully. Charles worked in the garden, Jeanna spent the day on the treadmill because she wanted to work out for 12 hours straight, Carolyn went to work, and Benito wen to the park to fish. He'd hoped to be able to tutor some kids, but there were none around. After he got home from work, Damien invited Adrianna over, and they spent some time kissing and generally acting like an engaged couple. Dylan invited Carina over once he got home from his job, and asked her to marry him.

Both women were invited to move in, and both accepted. Both women also had LTWs that instantly completed upon moving in, which feels a little cheaty, but after consulting with Robin, the challenge creator, it's legal to count them, so I'll have the bonus of being able to count everything they achieve right away.  Neither couple will be able to have children until a couple of the elders die off (full house).  Here's a look at the two ladies:

Carina Akers
Traits: Over-Emotional,  Good Sense of Humor, Technophobe, Party Animal, Green Thumb
Favorites: Kids music, French Toast, Green
LTW: The Perfect Garden
Age: Young Adult - 9 days to Adult

Adrianna Seaman
Traits:   Flirty, Brave, Perfectionist, Neat, Kleptomaniac
Favorites: Pop music, Cheesesteak, Orange
LTW: Living in the Lap of Luxury
Age: Adult - 11 days to Elder

The next morning was Saturday, and Dylan decided that it was time he quit his part time job at the spa to concentrate on his writing and painting. He called his boss and gave his notice and joined the ranks of the unemployed. He'd chosen the day largely because he and Carina, and Damien and Adrianna were intending to have a double wedding that day. He and Damien both knew that their parents were getting fairly old and they wanted them to be able to see them married at least. Charles made the calls to set it up, and both couples were married out by the garden that afternoon.

Given Adrianna's age, I transferred some life fruit to her inventory and decided I'd have her eat one per day until one of the elders dies and makes room for her to have a child. I don't want her to age up to elder before she's had a chance to have a baby since she's a former maid and I'm hoping to get the hidden trait from that in her offspring. Carina is young enough that she has plenty of time still to produce an heir with the Medina name.

Sunday was spent with the various members of the household doing their own thing for the most part. Charles and Benito went to turn in some opportunities, Carina worked out in the garden all day, gaining a few points in gardening in the process, Dylan finished work on one novel and started work on another, and Damien worked on learning charisma for his job. After he'd mastered the basics, he spent some time chatting with his Aunt Jeanna to help raise it. In the evening, Carolyn went down to City Hall to fix some pipes there after receiving a desperate call for help from the head of maintenance there. Sadly, just as she was coming out of the front door after finishing the job, Grim came for her, and not to take her on a date this time. Benito had a feeling that something was wrong, and tried to teleport over to her, but he got held up in the Dreamscape and was too late. All he could do by the time he got there was collect her tombstone and go home. Carolyn died having contributed 10 points to the challenge.

Even as she's dying, someone's calling her. No doubt to ask for a date.

Carolyn (Medina) Britt's Achievements

• Traits 
  • Grumpy
  • Hopeless Romantic
  • No Sense of Humor
  • Vehicle Enthusiast
  • Virtuoso
  • Hidden: Can Catch Burglars
• Career: Science
• LTW: Become a Creature-Robot Cross-Breeder
• Skills
  • Guitar - Master Guitarist
• Miscellaneous: Have a Funeral

And that brings us to a fairly good place to stop for now. Current progress on the challenge is:

Total Points: 92/405 (22.72% complete)
Base Game Points: 92/174 (52.87% complete)

I'll be installing the World Adventures EP finally before I play again, which will open up a whole new range of activities for my sims to participate in. Whether or not any of them will take advantage of it right away will remain to be seen. Until next time, Cheers!

A House Full of Elders

After their brief celebration for Rigoberto's retirement, Charles went and made dinner for everyone. He was on a quest to make 10 different perfect dishes, but so far he'd only been able to get his Eggs Machiavellian to come out perfect. Still, he kept trying. After dinner, everyone milled about doing their own things, some of them chatting with the teens that had come home with Damien and Dylan after school even though both had had to leave to go to their jobs. As everyone was getting ready for bed, Dylan chatted some with Carina Akers and discovered that there was some attraction there. Perhaps this will develop into more in time. For now, they're really just getting to know one another.

Despite the fact that she was a Superstar Athelete, and the family was very well off, Jeanna was still a compulsive moocher whenever the opportunity arose. The next morning, she even went out to the garden to hit up Hank's ghost for some money. While she was doing that, Charles was busy making breakfast, and was able to get the French Toast to come out perfectly.

The next day was Charles' birthday. He ended up transitioning to elder and celebrating by himself in the kitchen after making some Ratatouille (which didn't come out perfectly) because I'd forgotten to have him arrange a party for it. The rest of the family was home for the most part, but they were either in bed or were in the other room chatting and didn't bother to come in to help him celebrate.

The birthdays kept on coming with Benito and Jeanna celebrating their birthdays the following day. Jeanna was supposed to work that day, but I'd decided she was taking the day off. Convincing her of that took a bit of doing, however. Finally, after forcing her back home after the second time she'd teleported to work, I got her to the cake. Most of the party guests were there by then. Benito couldn't wait for cake and was making himself something to eat in the kitchen, so we let him wait to blow out his candles until later. Both transitioned to elder, and it was now a house full of teenagers and elders. At least I didn't have to worry anymore about Jeanna getting pregnant again from all the risky woohoo she and Charles had been having.

Carolyn of course had to play her guitar at the party, but people usually didn't mind. In fact, most would stop what they were doing and gather around to listen to her when she started playing. (This time she started playing all on her own.)

While she was playing, various people's cell phones started ringing. This was nothing new, as the cell phones in this family are ringing all the time, sometimes with opportunites, more often with endless date requests, and rarely with someone just wanting to chat. I'm not a huge fan of the new attraction system because of this - my sims, including the married ones, keep getting way too many calls from other sims asking them out on a date. Damien was one of those whose phone rang, and when I had him answer it, it was a date request. More interestingly than most of these requests however was the fact that this time it was another guy that was asking him out. Apparently the game (or maybe it was one of my mods) decided that he's gay even though I haven't had him do any romantic interactions either way so far. I strongly considered letting Damien accept, but it was late, and he was pretty tired already, so I had him decline - for now. I made note of who it was for future exploration though.

The evening ended on a sad note when Mara Britt, Benito's mother, who had come over for the party, passed away while using one of their laptops. Benito couldn't even get into the room to say a final farewell to her because everyone else had crowded in to watch and the doorway was blocked. She left an urn behind that will have to be dealt with (I had Benito take it to the cemetery the next day).

Carolyn had the next day off, and after lounging around chatting with various family members for most of the day, she decided to see if she could find anymore new space objects. It wasn't long before she'd found one. She named it C-Medina-Britt-2. The next day was a good one for Jeanna as well, for she received another promotion to Sports Legend and was now at the top of her profession. And of course, what do all Sports Legends decide to do? No, not go to Simneyland. Jeanna, like many before her, decided to retire. Benito threw confetti while Dylan clapped, and no one waved the weird monkey sign.

Sunday evening, Carolyn went to the telescope again to search the galaxy. She'd gotten hooked on looking for new stars and she hoped to find at least 5 of them. She found her third that night.

The weekend passed fairly uneventfully, and on Monday morning as everyone was waking up and getting ready for school or work, Rigoberto had a chance to chat with his father's ghost. He never got to see him that much when he was alive, and rarely interacts with him now, but this time he started a conversation on his own and I encouraged it along.

A little while later, Paula Trotter, who used to be their maid, called Rigoberto and asked him out on a date. Usually I have him decline these requests the same as the others since I don't really want to get him involved in a romance at this point, but this time I decided "what the heck" and let him accept. He met her out at the science place, and even though she'd called and asked him out they were strangers to each other at first. They talked for awhile, though it wasn't really a date.

Another date offer came in later in the day, this time for Carolyn. She's gotten plenty such offers of course, however this one was notable because it was from the Grim Reaper. If I were her, I'd be worried. Out of curiosity, I had her accept. She met him at the lake out by the Landgraab and Alto mansions and they chatted for awhile. They were just barely acquaintances, so as with Rigoberto and Paula, it wasn't really a date.

Meanwhile, Dylan had gone home with Carina Akers after school to get to know her better. They sat at her family's dining table and worked on their homework together with her little brother. They hung out together for awhile afterwards, he had dinner there, then he headed home. I would have liked to have used the time to improve their relationship more, but I had some difficulty getting them to start and continue a conversation since one or the other of them kept sitting down at the table for something.

The next day it was Damien's birthday, and Carolyn threw a party for him. It got off to a bit of a bummer start when Sharonda Noel, one of their former maids, died just as the party was getting started. Amusingly enough, there were so many people crowded into the front room that Grim couldn't get in the front door and had to go around and come in the side door of the house to come get her. Everyone just stood around staring at her ghost while he went around. The sound effects had even finished before he got to her and it was just silent. Kind of weird.

As soon as the scene with Sharonda and Grim had played out, Damien headed outside to blow out his candles and everyone followed along to watch and cheer for him. Byron had come out his grave early that evening and was on hand to watch, and Grim stuck around for a bit as well to cheer. He blinked out just before Damien completed his transition to Young Adult. Damien picked up the Family-Oriented trait.

One of the first things I did after his cake was done was send him to a dresser and mirror to get outfits and better hair set (yeah, I don't care for the cornrows on him). I also had to go in with Master Controller to fix his traits, because I'd discovered when the window popped up to pick his new trait that the Neat trait hadn't stuck on him when he turned teenager. Here he is after he got a bit of a makeover.

Carolyn had invited Dylan's friend Carina Akers to the party to give him a chance to socialize with her more. When she showed up, I discovered that she's apparently aged up to Young Adult already, so I may need to rethink setting Dylan up with her. He still has a few days yet before he ages up, but it could still work between them I suppose.

The next day passed unremarkably, but the day after that saw the end of the road for Rigoberto. Just as his father had before him, he passed away while working out on the treadmill. Rigoberto contributed 4 points to the challenge during the time he was in the household.

Rigoberto French's Achievements

• Traits - Evil
• Career - Military
• LTW - Become an Astronaut
• Skills
• Handiness - Tinkerer

Carolyn consoled herself after Rigoberto's death by searching the galaxy again. She found a few more stars which she named C-Medina-Britt-4, -5, and -6 in keeping with the others she had found. Charles made a few more attempts at perfect dishes before taking a shower and going to bed, and Dylan went down to the school to help fix the boiler and ended up being out after curfew. He didn't get caught, however.

The next morning while Carolyn was still in bed, Kesha decided to haunt it. Remarkably, Carolyn did not wake up right away.

Next up: Dylan becomes a Young Adult and possibly takes a wife? Damien starts his career as a Journalist, and likely we will be saying goodbye to at least some of their parents as well.