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.