Branden

All posts tagged Branden

1.26 Let’s Party!

Posted by Echo Weaver on July 22, 2013
Posted in: Gen 1. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 12 comments

After Deanne’s birthday, Jin headed out on a mission of her ow. She seemed pretty nervous, but not so nervous that she couldn’t appreciate the local scenery.

She headed straight to Chauncey’s house. She must have been worried about what he would think of her new, older self.

But she needn’t have worried. Jin and Chauncey are the same age, after all.

They headed inside to do whatever it is they do when they’re alone. It’s certainly none of MY business.

Well, she didn’t come home that night. She called in the morning to tell me that we should get the family out to Eerie Festival Grounds, and we should dress up.

Who am I to question Jin?

We even brought out little Erin, who wasn’t terribly thrilled.

I guess she just needed out of the stroller to play.

Then Jin showed up, looking like a million bucks!

And it started to hail.

“Today’s your lucky day” she told Chauncey. “We’re getting married!”

Chauncey seemed surprised, but he decided now was as good a time as any. Chauncey’s such an easy-going fellow.

Jules MacDuff didn’t seem to be getting the hint, though.

He’s not terribly good about personal space.

Another unhappy wedding guest was Ayden van Gould.

And you can add William to Jin’s fan club.

He seemed to have something against Branden.

It took quite a long time for Chauncey to make it from one side of the park to the ceremony.

I thought Jin’s look was going to burn my head off.

But at last Chauncey made it. You just have to give those seniors extra time.

“I know what we’re doin’ tonight!” Chauncey declared.

Jin couldn’t stop laughing.

Then they got to the vows.

And Jin was Mrs. Jin Grimm-Anjali! I was so happy for her!

I’d been hoping that we could have Erin’s birthday in the park, but it was still hailing, and Erin was still screaming on the sidewalk, so I decided to take the family home. I invited Jin and Chauncey back for birthday cake, but they seemed to have something else planned.

Oh, well. The house sure isn’t going to be the same without her.

Wow, two major parties in one day! At least Erin’s was in out of the rain.

And here’s my little Erin! What a beautiful little girl!

She better be a genius at potty training. That’s all I have to say about that.

Branden bailed out on cake because apparently prom was tonight.

It would have been nice if he’d told me beforehand. I don’t even know if he had a date!

The other kids bonded over cake, though.

I event got to have some while Hetal put Erin to bed.

Oh, and somebody we don’t know crashed the party. I’m starting to get really tired of the lack of privacy around here.

I waited up for Branden and asked him how prom went. See, I really am a good mom!

He said it was kind of boring.

Most of the time everyone just stood around.

But he did get to hang out with Larry Pierce for a bit.

And he met this wonderful girl Lacey!

He couldn’t stop talking about her. He says she’s the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen. And she even danced with him.!

Well, I can’t wait to meet her!

During the night, it seems we had a vistor.

Our house seems to be popular with people from everywhere, I have to say!

———

Wait, we still don’t have any fails! Two posts without fails? How is that possible??

Does dumping your baby on the sidewalk in a hail storm so you can go watch a wedding (outside in a hail storm) count as a fail?

OMG, all of a sudden I’m not so annoyed about having a fifth kid. Erin is perfect. Hetal’s skin, Jin’s hair, Allison’s eyes, Hetal’s nose, and Allison’s eyebrows. She also has Anjali pointed ears (not visible with that hairstyle), and I think she has Hetal’s expressive mouth. That’s just what I see from her as a toddler!

Even though, out of five kids, THREE of them have Jin’s hair, and NONE of them have Allison’s! And grandparent hair is supposed to be lower probability than parent hair. *headesk*

I considered keeping Jin around as slave nanny for one last child, but I wanted to get her out of the house to have some of her own life. I don’t know how the Wonderlands will manage without her, but I bet she’s happier now.

1.24 Let it All Hang Out

Posted by Echo Weaver on July 3, 2013
Posted in: Gen 1. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 5 comments

We now had two little ones, and only one crib. But it turned out that wouldn’t be a problem.

It was Deanne’s big day.

While we all got ready to welcome Our second-youngest into childhood, Hetal slipped away to put the youngest to bed.

It was kind of neat and tidy that way, actually. Having our last child so much later than the others had its benefits.

Deanne was only too eager to get her cake, which was Branden’s cake that he failed to use.

Afterward, we tried to clean up. But the dishwasher was broken.

Also the bathtub. You’d think I never fix anything around here.

Afterward Hetal read Caitlyn a bedtime story. She really has become a model mom.

Though Caitlyn wasn’t satisfied. It seems like the kids never get the bedtime story they want.

Christof wanted his own bedtime story, and Hetal was occupied. Apparently I wasn’t good enough, so he ran across the street to ask a stranger

When he got there, he realized that was actually kind of creepy.

So he ran back home instead.

The next morning, my little genius was off to school!

I just know she’ll do well.

But I guess the first day was a field trip to the jail, which didn’t go all the well.

The poor girl has a bit of a sensitive stomach.

I headed off to work, and where do you think the emergency was?

William’s house! He was home on his honeymoon, and apparently things got a little out of hand.

I would never have guessed it, but William is a big baby when HIS house is the one on fire.

He freaked out, hid in the basement, and peed himself.

But I won’t tell.

The first thing I had to do was clear the escape for a…. young woman who is not Beatrice.

Wait a minute…. maybe William wasn’t hiding because of the fire!

What are you up to, William? Does your wife know about this??

I guess a good friend asks no questions. So I went ahead a opened up the bathroom for him.

No wonder he peed himself.

Meanwhile, Jin was back to baby care duty. She decided to relax and let everything hang loose.

Or maybe she forgot her clothes? I’m not sure. She went to play with the kitties.

Then she headed to the bathroom, and a strange feeling swept over her.

Well, it was about time, I guess. She certainly earned her gray hairs. Considering her new, wisened state, perhaps it would be a good idea for her to put on some clothes.

But she decided to sleep in my bed instead.

———-

NO FAILS! Really! There will be plenty next post, though.

I’m on a roll, so let’s keep going!

I wanted to get all the way to Erin’s age-up, but there is SO MUCH STUFF happening, and I was starting to feel that having too much in one post makes it hard to appreciate all the hilarity. So we’ll get there next time.

William and Beatrice are living in a copy of Buffy’s Revello Drive house that I downloaded from ModTheSims. It was nice to get to show it off a bit.

Now that Deanne is a child, I’d say she’s not quite a face clone of Allison. She has Allison’s face shape, nose, and eyebrows, but I think she has Jin’s mouth. Jin almost always looks stern or unhappy. Deanne also looks serious almost all the time, either contemplative or just vacant.

And no, Deanne is not a Genius. She is, however, Insane as of her childhood birthday. Allison managed to give her all her skills with the help of the deliciously cheaty playpen and walker. Deanne is a Clumsy, Insane Angler.

Now only Christof is sane.

Hetal, by the way, had such an amazing fifth pregnancy that I got to pick both of Erin’s traits despite her being born outside the hospital. I rolled the second one. She’s an Insane Schmoozer.

Cats. We need more cat pictures. I think that will be in the next update too. We need a kitty heir poll!

1.23 Now That’s What I Call Magic

Posted by Echo Weaver on July 3, 2013
Posted in: Gen 1. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 11 comments

It turned out Branden ALMOST got his birthday right, but not quite.

So we shoved the cake in the refrigerator and hoped it would last until Deanne’s birthday

“Let me cook you dinner,” Hetal said anxiously.

“That’s all right,” I said flatly. “I have leftover waffles.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose,” Hetal said. “I’d never lie about that.”

I softened. “That’s a relief to know,” I said, and I meant it. Of course I believed her. When had my beloved Hetal ever lied to me? That I found out about?

“I was wishing for another baby,” Hetal said, “and it just happened. I never thought I wanted to be a parent, but you know? It turned out to be the best thing in my life. What I want more than anything else in the world is to be a good parent.

“I didn’t know you felt so strongly about it,” I said, impressed.

“Well, I do now,” she said.

I couldn’t help but smile at her. My, had my Hetal changed since we were married! “All right, then,” I said. “We’re having a baby!”

And so all the pregnancy stuff started over. Again.

I did my best to take care of Hetal through the sickness and backaches.

While random people came running in through our garage, around the house, and out the front door.

Who WERE these people, anyway?

It’s like our house has become one big game of tag.

Well, not a lot to do about it, and I had to get to work.

To Hetal’s credit, she worked very hard to make my life easier. She cleaned.

And cooked.

Though, since becoming a teen, Branden wasn’t terribly interested in what she cooked. He said he found it inhuman to eat the flesh of animals. So he made his own waffles and salads.

Christof was pretty excited about Branden’s cooking. Hetal wasn’t too pleased. It’s hard to deal with picky eaters.

Sometimes Hetal worked so hard she didn’t take the time to take care of herself.

One day when I came home from work, there was a car in the driveway! Hetal said it was high time we stopped riding bicycles to work and started behaving like mature parents.

I thought she was crazy, and we had a long talk about how expensive another baby would be. But I had to admit in private that the Renault was pretty sweet.

Jin had been floating around the house, humming to herself. She was terribly distracted, but she seemed so happy that I didn’t have the heart to try to bring her down to reality.

I caught her murmuring to herself, “He’s the apple of my eye,” a lot. And then she’d conjure and apple.

She must have had a lot of apples.

One evening, she got a phone call and went dashing out to the festival grounds. I think she was going to meet Chauncey Grimm.

I heard through the grapevine that Chauncey’s ex-fiancee didn’t take long to get over him.

I can’t keep up with Jin’s love life. The mailbox is always stuffed with letters from her admirers.

But I have to admit that things seemed different with Chauncey.

She and her beau must’ve had a wonderful time, because she didn’t come home.

It just seemed like there was magic in the air that night.

I think she wanted to ask him something very important, but he had to dash off to work at dawn before she worked up the nerve.

Plus, she’d been holding back some… personal needs… until he left.

I spent some time catching up with William at the fire house.

Then the alarm went off. Wow, does he react fast!

He called the firefighters to get to the emergency, which was funny because I was right there.

This time, it was Ayden van Gould’s mansion. If I were a less honorable hero, I’d just have turned around to go home. Who needs that jerk face anyway?

He called us out to deal with his swearing gnomes. Way to waste my time.

He sure knows how to live.

And all these bookcases! Who would ever want to read this much?

They just kept getting in my way.

But even though the house was a maze, I eventually sneaked up on the little bastards.

At least van Gould pays well.

Branden came home from school pretty nervous and worked up.

Something really big was going on at school.

Christof and Caitlyn hung out after school to be with their friends.

Christof more than Caitlyn.

They both came home talking about this cool guy they were playing with called Larry Pierce who had glowing eyes and sharp teeth.

That must be William’s son! I guess he finally married his girlfriend, Beatrice Saunders.

Christof got home and went to bed early, but thoughtful Caitlyn hung around the school and did her homework.

I got to take the quiet time to spend a little time with my baby while she was still my little baby.

Jin was gone for almost 24 hours. She must have had a really good time.

She came home with a terrible sunburn.

It must have been painful, but I have to admit that the color kind of looked good on her.

Then I came home home after a long day at work, and it was time!

Branden was just taking the trash out, and when he saw his mom, he freaked out and dumped it on the front porch.

Hetal’s such a pro at this that she didn’t even bother with the hospital. She had her baby in the driveway while the weird kid who runs through our garage watched in horror.

And that’s how Erin, our VERY LAST CHILD, was brought into the world.

The weird kid thought that having babies in the driveway was pretty awful. What does he know about the miracle of life?

I told him what’s what. How dare he talk to my wife that way!

———-

Passing Out: 12 + 2 = 14
Self-Peeing: 6 + 1 = 7
Yes, Jin peed herself STANDING BY THE BATHROOM! Go Jin.

Minor Cheats: 1 + 2 = 3
Babies: 4 + 1 = 5!

Another long one, but there was just so much awesomeness to get through before the baby was born. I had a real glitch-fest in here someplace and had to replay one of the days about three times, so the fail count is approximate. It was a bit hard to track which of the fails in my screenshots were from the day I kept. During one of them, I couldn’t get either Christof OR Caitlyn to go to bed, so they were dropping all over the place. If that day had been the keeper, I’d have about 5 more passing out to count.

Yes, that was Jin and Chauncey woohooing in an invisible hot tub. Somebody PLEASE tell me that Eerie Festival Grounds has a hot tub in that spot during one of the seasons.

I have to own up to another minor cheat. I forced the baby’s gender with MasterController. I have no attachment to the gender preference of any of the Wonderlands, but since the heir is essentially betrothed at birth, I AM rather attached to Spike being straight. So I figured that if I was going to be stuck with another baby, I could at least swing the odds in favor of a female heir. It wouldn’t even be cheating if it had been Allison, since I could have her eat watermelons, but ah well.

Also, I couldn’t resist the name, considering her origins. Err in Wonderland, amiright?

I’m never going to replace a baby outright again, though. I can’t handle the guilt.

That does mean that the child was born with Hetal’s skintone with no influence by me! One out of five! Woot!

I have used StoryProgression to turn off pregnancy for both Hetal and Allison, just in case Woohooer gets “confused” again.

This is the first time I’ve raised five sim kids. I decided that I might as well get an idiot LTW out of this.

1.22 Lunacy

Posted by Echo Weaver on June 14, 2013
Posted in: Gen 1. Tagged: , , , , , , . 9 comments

The kids were starting to get more independent. I can’t describe what a relief that was.

Caitlyn had an active imagination.

Christof liked to run and exercise whenever he could.

He was the most level headed of the kids. He didn’t have wild conversations with the furniture. He tended to be the most responsible.

Even Deanne played on her own more.

She was a smart one. I can tell. My little genius.

Branden, of all the kids, was a little TOO independent. But he seemed to open up a little more toward Jin.

It warmed my heart to see them bonding.

He even did his homework sometimes, which is better than you can say for the twins.

He was clearly brilliant, but he always had his head in the clouds, and he sometimes didn’t think to take care of the most basic needs.

Hetal was taking more interest in her political career. She’d spend hours practicing speeches in front of the mirror. Of course, right now she was just falsifying vote counts for her boss, but she could dream.

Branden started following in her footsteps when he thought no one was looking. He really does have a sweet side.

That’s not say that things always ran smoothly around here. Things were always breaking down, and the place was always a bit.

I did my best to keep up with the repairs, but sometimes I really felt unappreciated.

I couldn’t get a minute to work without someone complaining!

Other times, I felt like my contributions were a lot more appreciated. One evening, I spent hours standing in the bathroom telling Jin about this amazing, gorgeous fire I got to fight.

She was really impressed, but eventually she kicked me out because she had to pee.

And of course, Hetal and I always made some alone time.

“Have you ever thought of having another kid?” Hetal asked suddenly one night.

“Every once in a while,” I admitted. “I want another kid sort of the way I want to pull out my fingernails. I’m so glad we’re about to finish potty training our last child.”

“Oh,” Hetal said. “Want to woohoo?”

Of course!
One strange night, under a full moon, a frightening creature rose up from the ground in our front lawn.

He crept up on Bailey Swain, who was standing on our front porch for some reason.

Then he spent all evening hitting on her.

The nerve of some people.

At last, Branden’s birthday rolled around. He didn’t want us to make a big deal about it, but I insisted on a traditional family party. I’m not sure he completely got the point.

Jin, Caitlin, and I cheered Branden into teenager hood.

Where were Hetal and Christof? Out playing tag in the back yard. They completely forgot about Branden’s birthday.

I love that they are spending so much time together, but I wish they’d picked a better time!

I think Branden preferred it to be a smaller party. Even with just family, it’s a lot of people.

*Sniff* My little boy is almost a man!

Meanwhile, in the back yard, something ominous was happening.

“Um, Allison? Can we talk?” Hetal said sheepishly when she came in after the party.

“Sure!” I said. “Deanne is potty trained! Use the potty for mommy, Deanne! I am so glad I’m never going to have to do this again!”

“Uh,” Hetal said. “About that….”

———-

Self-peeing: 5 + 1 = 6 (Yeah, that was Branden peeing in the bathroom. He was just halfway through the door, so I couldn’t get a good shot. All kinds of fail there.)

This was a really long chapter for this ISBI, but I just HAD to get to Branden’s birthday and the big reveal, and there was so much funny stuff to cover.

There are no words for the screaming and the swearing on my side of the computer screen when Hetal’s pregnancy popped. I even got the little popup about her maternity leave during Branden’s birthday and thought, “Oh, wow, that’s a weird glitch.”

For the record, she really wasn’t pregnant when she threw up in the last chapter. I went back and checked over my pictures. Hetal and Allison are always at it like bunnies. The woohoo in THIS chapter was a “Try for Baby” initiated autonomously by Hetal. However, I noticed, canceled the action, replaced it with ordinary woohoo, and breathed a sigh of relief that I’d been on the ball. I mean, I had the maximum house size for autonomous Try for Baby se at 7 in Woohooer, and the household had 7 human sims in it, so I shouldn’t have *needed* to be checking. I thought that was that, and I never thought about it again until Hetail popped. She had no morning sickness that I noticed.

Wellll…. it appears that my settings in Woohooer got reset somehow back to 8, and my little cancel-and-switch didn’t actually work. Or something.

ARRRRRRRGH. For a split second, I thought about canceling the pregnancy with MasterController. Then I gave myself a lecture about being a control freak in an ISBI.

OK, then, if that’s the way we’re going to play it, here we go. One more kid.

That makes Branden’s age-up a complete anti-climax. If there was one guy I was sure would not be heir, it was Branden. And I actually love the way he looks now that he’s a teen! He really did grow into that face. It’s rather aristocratic.

Oh, yeah, and the scenes in front of the mirror were Hetal and Branden’s free actions for their age state. Hetal is finally learning Charisma for her political career. I also turned on speeches in front of the mirror for children with Retuner, which EA doesn’t permit for some reason even though kids can learn almost all the other skills that you can learn from objects. I figure that the free action for teens should be to go to prom, but I wasn’t sure what to do with kids. I think I will have most kids use their free action to learn Charism. Once you have a point, it just levels up from social interactions that sims do autonomously all the time, and it’s so valuable.

1.21 Growing Up A Little

Posted by Echo Weaver on June 13, 2013
Posted in: Gen 1. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

Another morning, another argument about changing the toddler’s diaper.

All three of my troopers headed off to school!

They are such great kids!

I headed to work and upgraded the fire alarm. That pissed William off because he’s just like that, I guess.

Hetal went back to work! She’s been out forever on maternity leave, and she was really nervous. She shouldn’t have been. She did so well that her bosses said they wouldn’t fire her after all!

That’s my wife.

Jin took over again as primary child care during the work day.

She had a bit of trouble getting back in the swing.

But eventually she remembered how to sleep when the baby sleeps.

Branden’s class went on a field trip to a medical research facility.

It really seemed to get him thinking about his future. After that trip, he acted like he had a new sense of purpose.

Christof made it home on the bus.

But then gravity was too much for him. He would have had a better time if he hadn’t been up all night looking at comic books.

Caitlyn didn’t bother with the bus and came sprinting home like a springtime fairy.

Branden didn’t bother to come home.

I came home early from work so that I’d be waiting when Hetal came home. I sent her off to take a nice relaxing bath while I got ready for her birthday celebration.

And then it was time for cake!

I don’t seen too many wrinkles. Do you?

Everyone sat down together to have cake except Branden. I really don’t know what to do to draw that boy out of his shell.

When we finished our cake, I slyly suggested that everyone head to bed early.

That gave me a chance to give Hetal her big surprise!

“It’s the best on the market. It’s supposed to be like sleeping on a dream cloud. Do you like it?”

Hetal bounced on the cushions a bit, then she patted the mattress beside her with a gleam in her eye. “I think I can show you how much I like it,” she said.

And she did.

There was a surprise for the whole family too. I dug a fish pond in the back yard.

It was mostly for Jin, since she longed to fish and never got a chance to do it with the kids so demanding. It also made the place seem a little bit nicer, since it’s so cramped for our big family. So far, it seems like the kitties like it best, though.

Jin did jump at the chance to show of the lovely pond to her old friend Carmela Hai, who happened to be walking by.

Looking at them together makes me wonder if I’ve been looking in the wrong direction for Hetal’s dad all this time.

Unfortunately, the cake didn’t sit so well on her stomach after she spent too much time cleaning out the kitties’ horrendous-smelling litter box.

Poor dear. Fortunately, it didn’t last long. She was right as rain in no time.

———-

Passing Out: 12 + 2 = 14

I freaked out and checked Hetal’s moodlet panel, and it was totally nausea from the disgusting litter box. I seem to have managed to fail to a take a screenshot of it.

I failed to mention that I couldn’t get the Wonderlands out of poverty to the point where they could actually afford to move, and then I remembered the Allison had stacked up a nice collection of happiness points. I bought her the family inheritance. That finally got them back on their feet. Instead of moving houses, I got the overworked couple a bed with sleep value 10. Now they can sleep a shorter time and wake up more refreshed. Woot.

Annoyingly, ALL the bunk beds have sleep 4, no matter how fancy and expensive they are. WTH, EA? I’ve been looking for a mod to change this, but the only mods I’ve seen are the ones that give all beds the same sleep values. Maybe I’ll just go with that and buy them expensive beds to compensate.

One reason I wanted to move was because Jin and Deanne are both Anglers, and I wanted them to have a way to fish on autonomy. Plus it could generate a little bit of idiot income. When the move crashed and burned, I gave up and added a pond to the property. To date, nobody has ever fished in this pond, even though Charles would wander off and fish the instant I left him on autonomy.

1.20 NIghtmare on Huckleberry Lane

Posted by Echo Weaver on June 12, 2013
Posted in: Gen 1. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . 7 comments

I came home one night after a hard day putting out fires.

And this was what was waiting for me.

“Allison!” Hetal came running down the stairs. “Where are we going for my birthday?”

I just stopped and stared.

Hetal’s eyes narrowed. “You DID remember my birthday, didn’t you?” she asked.

“Of course I did,” I lied. “You have the best birthday present ever waiting for you.”

Hetal clapped her hands greedily. “What?”

“A new house!”

“You have to be kidding me.”

That wasn’t the kind of response I was expecting, but it was too late now.

I got the family together, and we said goodbye to our cramped little duplex. I was so glad to be getting out of this place.

I sent Hetal ahead with the kids, and I walked the kitties to their new home.

Kitties have a rough time with change. They just need a little bit of extra loving care at a time like this, you know?

Our new house was waiting for us.

Sure, it looked a little bit creepy, but it was nighttime. I would look a whole lot better in the morning.

While I was still walking to the new house, Hetal had her birthday.

Her mom was there to greet her to middle age, but I missed it. She was never going to let me live that down, new house or no new house.

The kids explored the new yard while they waited for me. Such a lot of space to run and play!

When I showed up, I brought a cake with me from the store so that we could at least have a little something to celebrate Hetal’s age up.

Hetal wasn’t terribly grateful. “I am not sitting here” she exclaimed. “This chair has something growing on it!”

“Then don’t,” I said.

So we all sat in the living room.

Hetal said that living in a dump like this was going to turn her to a life of crime.

“I’m going to fix it up,” I said. “It’s going to look amazing. You’ll see.”

Jin and Caitlyn knew better than to say anything, so they just ate their cake.

Branden, meanwhile, got really attached to Raspberry.

And we seemed to have mislaid Deanne.

Christof appreciated the dining table at least. He’s not scared off by a little bit of scuzz.

“I can’t believe I’m sleeping in this,” Hetal whimpered as we curled up together in the damp, creaky bed.

“We’ll be living in the lap of luxury,” I said. “You’ll see.

Jin and Deanne slept on the upstairs landing with a lot of old clutter.

And the kids got bunk beds! See! Just as good as at the old house.

And everything looked better the next morning.

Hetal and Jin went to explore the shed at the back of the property. They almost needed a machete to get there.

I headed to City Hall to receive another award for capturing gnomes, but something went very wrong.

Fortunately, when I got home, Hetal found my new look a real turn-on.

Not that I’m complaining.

At least the kitties liked the new place.

Caitlyn and Christof got used to it and played hide and seek in the waist-high brambles.

I put Deanne’s potty out in the dirt-floor garage.

At least it kept the stink away from the house.

And then it was Branden’s birthday!

We all cheered while he transformed….

…. into some kind of horrible, distorted monster.

Then the kids all climbed up through the floor.

To sleep in the air over my bedroom.

Even the monster-that-was-Branden.

And then I woke up.

“Allison? Allison? Are you ok?” Hetal was shaking me awake.

“Uh, what?” I mumbled.

“You were crying out in your sleep. Are you ok?”

I blinked. I was in our shabby, but comfortable, bed in our cramped but comfortable duplex. It had never looked so wonderful. “I think I just had a nightmare,” I said.

Hetal pulled me close. “Oh, baby!” she said. “Let me scare the monsters away,”

Whew.

Now that I had a chance to do this over, I was NOT going to forget her birthday.

———-

So here’s a little bit of retcon from the lot and the playtime I lost. Plus all the messed-up glitch shots I was able to take. I didn’t bother to track fails. Branden peed himself once, and that’s the only one I’m sure of.

Allison used a LLAMA to go to City Hall to collect an award, and she got the fail that turned her into a tragic clown for a day. It was pretty funny. She stumbled around everywhere, but I couldn’t catch it in a screenshot.

And it occurs to me that I never went back to get that award since I restored from save. The opportunity has been sitting at City Hall for about a sim-week. I need to go do that.

1.19 Lovin’ All Day Long

Posted by Echo Weaver on June 10, 2013
Posted in: Gen 1. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a Comment

It our first morning as a house of three children!


My, we’re a big family. Sigh.

It began about the way you’d expect.

Caitlin wasn’t quite ready to give up being a toddler, so she sat on her top bunk and watched her brothers wander around while playing with her feet.

Then cleaned up!

And played with Dinah!

I would never play favorites with my children, but I have to say that Caitlyn is a special girl. She appreciates kitties as much as I do.

Today was Love Day! I decided to take the family out to the festival in the afternoon. But since I had the day off work, I had to spend the morning doing chores.

Do I get a day off? No, not really. Why do you ask?

But I don’t want to sound like too much of a martyr. Other members of the family do try to help out. Hetal cleaned the litter box.

Then got into a great conversation with Branden on the way out to the trash and dropped all the ick on the floor.

I actually kind of wish she’d just left it in the litter box.

Jin got a call from her best friend Chauncy Grimm, inviting her to his Love Day party. She seemed really distracted when she left, and for some reason she took Deanne with her.

When she got to Chauncey’s house,

She just left Deanne on the lawn and forgot about her while she went in to talk to Chauncy.

I have to say, this was not her most brilliant grandparenting moment.

Then again, she had a pretty good reason.

She burst into the garage, where Chauncey was hanging out avoiding his other party guests.

She told him that they’d been friends since they were kids, and it was time to stop pretending. She couldn’t deny her feelings for him any longer.

Chauncey told her he had the same feelings, but it just wasn’t right for them to do anything about it. He we already engaged to Chrissy Rain.

Jin wouldn’t give up, though. She followed him back into the house when the party guests left, and she worked her wiles on him.

In the end, Chauncey just couldn’t hold out. Plus, I think he’s been pretty crazy about her all the time.

And who cares about his fiancé anyway?

How do I know all this? Well, I might’ve done a little bit of eavesdropping when I came to rescue my toddler from Chauncey’s lawn.

Hetal came too. She had a little fainting spell.

While she was out, she kept whispering, “Just eat the apple, Snow White. It’s such a pretty apple!”

Sometimes I know better than to even ask.

By the time I got to the festival with Deanne, night had fallen, and everything was closing up.

At least the kids got a little bit of time to run around.

And we did take a photo for our greeting cards.

When we got home, Hetal and I took a little bit of time to ourselves.

There weren’t a lot of stars to watch because it was raining, and we got soaked, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

And then we took some time to steam each other off afterward.

Caitlyn wandered out into the rain and failed to find her bed.

And when Jin got home, I think she just didn’t know which way was up.

But I forgive her.

———-

Passing Out: 10 + 2 = 12

Hetal’s little misstep with the poisoned apple does not count :).

So here I use Jin’s free action to resolve her melodramatic love life. I decided that I’m going to interpret “free action” fairly broadly. I decided that Jin’s free action was going to be to ask whoever asked her out next to be her boyfriend, so she was allowed to do romantic interactions on him until she got the option. But *only* romantic interactions, so I couldn’t control her to invite him over or take care of her own needs. Miraculously, she didn’t pee herself in this exchange, though Chauncey did because she wouldn’t let him go to the bathroom.

The lucky guy turned out to be Chauncey, and I’m glad it was. The other two men in her swarm of admirers, Ayden and Jules, are both jerkfaces. Chauncey seems to be pretty sweet, and he was her best friend with a maxed out relationship bar when she joined the household.

I believe it’s the next post when things get seriously messed up.

1.18 Getting it Right

Posted by Echo Weaver on April 25, 2013
Posted in: Gen 1. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . 13 comments

Spring was just starting to slink into Moonlight Falls, but there was still frost on the ground.

Some lady showed up with an umbrella on a cloudless day to hang out in our yard.

Apparently her idea of fun was cleaning up our old newspapers.

Don’t ask me. I didn’t hire her.

I, on the other hand, was up at the crack of dawn. The city wanted to throw some kind of ceremony to recognize my awesome heroism, but the only time I figured I could get away was when people were asleep.

Oh, I guess that lady with the umbrella knew what she was doing because now it was pour rain. I guess that’s Spring for you. I should have put on a raincoat.

I dashed into a nearby phone booth to get out of the rain.

And something very strange happened….

And I got out right across the street from city hall!

Phone booths — the only way to travel!

A bunch of people came to see me get a new award. At least, I’m sure they must have been here to see me.

This hot fellow is William’s older brother Anton Pierce. Mmmmm. Hot does seem to run in the family.

A young politician named Miyuki Mai presented me with my award. I guess they couldn’t book the actual mayor.

I guess umbrellas are another way to travel. I’ll have to try that out.

And after all that, all I got was a trophy!

I appreciate the thought and all, but folks? If you want to show me how much you appreciate my work for our fair city, do it with a really fat check. We’re sitting on cat-scratched folding chairs in an empty living room, but now I have a statuette.

While I was gone, Jin tried to cook again.

Sigh.

But at least her love life was looking promising again.

On the way home, I decided to spend the money I didn’t get as an award to pick up some birthday cakes. We got so busy we missed the last ones, and I wasn’t going to let that happen again.

Christof was first because Caitlin was sleeping.

Suddenly, Jin realized that she’d forgotten something.

It was the hot dogs she’d been cooking when the birthday party started. Whoops.

This could have been a serious problem in another house, but Allison Wonderland lives here. I knew just what to do. First, I set Christof down where he’d be safe.

And while I was doing that Hetal put out the fire.

By the time I got outside, the only thing left to do was clean up the soot.

I’m ok with this. I swear. I am a mature woman who does not feel threatened when her wife steals her thunder without even asking.

Hetal seemed pretty ticked off at her mom for starting that fire. I hope they’re going to be OK.

While we were out, Christof grew up.

And went to get the first slice of cake.

And where was Branden, anyway?

He never seems to come home from school anymore. Doesn’t he like us?

Next it was Caitlin’s turn. She was fresh up from her nap, so the timing was perfect. Caitlin’s such a sweet little girl. I’m sorry she’s going to be getting too big for me to hold her in my arms. I’m glad that she’s going to be too big to scream her head off all the time, though.

She didn’t think we needed a cake just for her, though, and decided to age up when she got downstairs.

All right, then. We had one more chance to get this whole birthday cake celebration right. This time I was going to make it happen no matter what!

I did have a bit of trouble getting Deanne out of her crib.

But she was all right.

The whole family — except Branden — gathered around to welcome our last (and I mean LAST) baby into toddlerhood.

Raspberry was just sinking into the rug with excitement.

My sweet little green girl!

Jin was ready to get to work.

I dashed over to give Deanne her first toddler tickle!

But Hetal discovered that her ice spell was more exhausting than she’d expected. This wouldn’t have happened if she’d just let me do my job, now would it? But of course I’m not bitter or anything.

While we were all finishing up the party, Branden showed up.

“Where have you been?” I exclaimed.

“I was just out,” he said, and he immediately headed up to bed.

I just don’t know about that boy.

Right after that, Caitlin turned red and dashed to the shower.

We had to rearrange things a bit for bedtime. We figured the best place for Deanne was in the garage with Jin. I mean, Hetal and I are the breadwinners, or Hetal will be too if she ever goes back to work. We really can’t deal with a kid waking us up at night.

But it worked out all right the first night. I mean, really really all right.

How’s that for getting it right?

———-

Fires in Home: 0 + 1
Passing out: 9 + 1 = 10
Self-peeing: 4 + 1 = 5
Minor Cheats: 1 + 1 = 2
Pet Social Worker Visits: 0 + 1 = 1

I think there should be bonus points awarded for getting 7 sims and 5/6 cats all to go to bed on time. Just saying’. I think I am going to record that under “Beautiful Moments.”

Beautiful Moments: 0 + 1 = 1

Now that I’m over the whole control freak thing, I am having a BLAST with this ISBI. People are always failing, but something funny is ALWAYS happening. I’m enjoying collecting all of the obscure fails.

Deanne is ADORABLE. She got of her her hair, skin, and eyes from Jin. However, I’m pretty sure she’s adorable because she’s a face clone of Allison. ARRRRRGH! She is Clumsy and Angler. Since I used MC to replace the baby, I didn’t get to pick traits.

Christof is an Athletic, Friendly Vegetarian I think. I tried to skill him up so I could choose his child trait, but I had a sort-of glitch at the end and didn’t finish his potty training. (It was really bad UI — it turns out that you can’t select potty training as an action if the kid is in the crib, and I thought that having no action meant his potty training was done.) I used a Change of Personality elixer on him, thinking I’d get to pick the changed trait, but no. That was Vegetarian. Christof is running the very real risk of making it to YA without being Insane.

Caitlin is a Good, Insane Cat Person. How appropriate!

I think those “phone booths” are LAAMAs? Or whatever the acronym is? I recall that Twallan said something about making them routing objects at some point. That’s the way Allison decided to go to City Hall to collect her award. You can’t see it very well, but it’s on their bed stand in the last shot.

However, I’m going to take credit for another minor cheat. I think it actually happened in the last chapter, but the social worker came for the cats because one of them was lonely, and I reloaded the game. I was NOT going to lose those cats, and besides that I’m not really planning on including them in anything point-related despite putting them on the scorecard.

The cats were always in the red or orange for social need. I wasn’t sure what to do. As an experiment, I used Twallan’s Retuner to remove React Negatively and React Neutrally from the pet autonomous action list. As far as I can tell, this action is for yowling at food that is left out, and since this is an ISBI, there’s ALWAYS food left out in various stages of decay. That action doesn’t fill any needs, but it seems to be something a pet will do instead of anything useful. Once I got rid of those actions, the cats started actually seeing to their own needs, and I haven’t had a problem since.

And I am caught up again!

1.17 Falling Down on the Job

Posted by Echo Weaver on April 23, 2013
Posted in: Gen 1. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . 15 comments

Caitlin and Deanne were sleeping, but Christof was having none of it, so I ended up leaving him in his new walker while Hetal and I got some sleep.

The next morning, Jin got a call from Ayden. He told her he got married, but he hoped that wouldn’t hurt their relationship.

She told him to take his money and shove it, and then hung up. Jin is an amazing woman. Sure, she’s a hideous old maid trapped into providing free child care, but she has principles!

Jin tried to pretend she wasn’t bothered and went to cook some dinner.

But you could tell it was on her mind.

Then again, she might just be a really bad cook.

This was not my and Hetal’s best moment, but we were desperate!

Sometimes Hetal is the only part of life that keeps me going.


Afterward, I finally got to take some time with Dinah. It’s been so long since I got to play with my sweet kitties.

And Jin ate her own cooking, since nobody else would. And Cheshire scratched up our good folding chair.

OK, this place was a pit, and we only had burned hot dogs to eat. It was time for me to step up and whip us into shape. First I cooked some dinner.

It was pancakes, which is all I know how to make. Everyone will eat it and like it.

Actually, it wasn’t too bad if I do say so myself.

Then I cleaned up the cat puke that had been sitting in the floor for a week.

Then I told Branden to GO TO BED. And to my shock, he did!

Meanwhile, Ayden called Jin again. She told him to shove off.

And then she passed out. This thing with her man really has her off her game.

But Branden got a decent amount of sleep and did 11% of his homework in the morning before dashing off to meet the bus on time. I will have to remember to tell him to go to bed more often.

We didn’t get much sleep, and I had to dash off to work. Hetal stepped up to take care of the kids.

She’s come such a long way from the independent woman who wasn’t sure she wanted to have children. Now she’s a great mom, and she’s about to be fired from her job! What a turnaround.

She even managed to actually read Branden that bedtime story he’s been begging for.

Jin just wouldn’t let go of the hot dog thing until she produced some we could eat.

Kitties! (I don’t have a segue, but who needs one of those anyway?)

Cheshire and Strawberry.

Peanut, Cheshire, Raspberry, and Plum.

Dinah and Raspberry.

I have such a wonderful kitty family.

Actually, I’m posting all that sweetness to distract myself by how lousy the evening was.

OK, look, I worked all day with no break, and the kids wouldn’t let me sleep, OK??

And then there was a golden moment.

Everyone was sleeping so peacefully AT THE SAME TIME.

Well, 6 out of 7 ain’t bad.

———-

Passing out: 5 + 4 = 9.

Oh the fail, it makes you want to cry. But then there’s a baby and two toddlers. It’s pretty much what I expected.

That woohoo while Christof was in the room was totally autonomous, I swear!

While Branden was wandering around, refusing to sleep without a bedtime story, I noticed that Allison had a “Go to sleep” interaction with him. She used it, and he went to sleep! But I haven’t seen it since. I’m not sure what makes it show up.

Also, you should probably get an extra point deduction when the torch holder fails. :-p It’s pretty much what she said. She was moving from baby/toddler crisis to baby/toddler crisis that the idiots weren’t dealing with, and every time she tried to go to bed, a crying kid would wake her up. She actually went to work, and I think she even got promoted, but she couldn’t sleep THERE because there was an emergency and the fire truck was about to break down. I should’ve just left her at the fire house to get a little bit of sleep before throwing her back into the lion’s den.

Poor Allison. It will get better.

On the bright side, Hetal has a Faithful reputation, which is pretty amazing considering her LTW is Master Romancer. Allison must be doing something right.

1.16 Adventures on the Upstairs Landing

Posted by Echo Weaver on April 12, 2013
Posted in: Gen 1. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . 9 comments

Come ON, kids. Can’t you just get out of the way?

The background music in our house is the sound of screaming toddlers. Jin gets the worst of it, and one night it drove her outside to get some peace and quiet.

She got more than she bargained for.

But she didn’t miss much.

When she got back, they were still screaming.

But I guess you couldn’t blame her for passing out that time.

Hetal and I kinda didn’t notice she was gone. I have to say that Hetal is one hot pregnant lady.

Though we were both too exhausted to really do anything about it, so we went to bed.

We woke up to this strange noise. It was someone rustling through our stuff.

And she took our rocking chair!!

Hetal almost lost her mind. Not the rocking chair! She was going to have a baby, and now there wouldn’t be a rocking chair! The world was ending!

She was a little bit hormonal.

While I was frantically calling the police about the intruder, she went into another room and zapped up the towel by the sink. What will we do without a way to dry our hands? We’ll have wet hands, that’s what! Oh, the humanity!

And then it turned out she had a legal right to be there. It turns out we didn’t pay our bills. Whoops.

The next day, Ayden called Jin up for another date.

It was good for her to get out of the house, even if Ayden is kind of boring.

She found a great way to have fun.

Then she told Ayden she had to go home early because she was exhausted.

And she made it all the way to her own bed and slept there! Without passing out! Jin is just made of steel.

The house was filled with kitties. Which is a wonderful thing, but it was a lot of little mouths to feed.

Don’t think that’s complaining, though, because it is totally not. Complaining. I mean, how can you complain about this?

Or this??

And then sweet Peanut had a birthday!

Isn’t he magnificent?

Branden left for his first day of school! Well, really his second day, but it was the first day he actually showed up.

He’s such a responsible little man.

I had the day off, so I tried to focus on one of the least fun parts of being a mom. I swear, I did everything I could to get Christof to do something on that potty.

But nothing! It’s enough to make you crazy!

Finally, I got the twins someplace where they could have some fun in a way that would *not involve us*.

And they did have a good time. Faces like this are why I don’t just run off and join the circus.

Look at them play together! They’re both going to be geniuses. I’m sure of it.

Hetal and I had other plans.

The last couple of times we’d tried to woohoo, something had come up. But this time for sure. The toddlers were playing in their room. Branden was at school. Jin was asleep. What could go wrong?

But when we got to the top of the stairs, Hetal stopped. “Wait,” she said. “I think can feel the baby!”

“Right, right,” I said. “I’m sure you can feel the baby. Can we get to the bedroom?”

“No,” she said. “I mean I can feel the baby coming! Right now!”

I guess this means no woohoo for a while.

I figured now was a pretty good time to celebrate my birthday. I mean, I wasn’t going to get my birthday present, but at least I’d get another kid out of it, right?

Branden came upstairs to watch.

All this parenting stress and no woohoo is really bad for your hair.

Well gathered in the hallway to gawp at Hetal giving birth. It looked really painful. Wow, I’m glad it wasn’t me.

But it took too long, so we all got tired and went to bed.

But at last our fourth (and FINAL!) child was born.

Wait, don’t pay attention to that. You might have *thought* you saw a pale-skinned boy, but you really saw a teal-skinned girl.

This is Deanne.

Hetal laid her in her crib.

The twins were so busy playing peekaboo, they didn’t even notice.

Hetal relaxed after the stresses of childbirth with Dinah. I approve.

So you’re the new baby, huh?

Wow, you’re so sweet.

Anyone who tells this beautiful little girl what I said about her before she was born will see their house burn down. Think I’m bluffing? Don’t try me.

———-

Pregnancies: 2 + 1 = 3
Total Babies: 3 + 1 = 4

Passing out: 4 + 1 = 5
Repo visits: 0 + 1 = 1

Cheats: 0 + 1 = 1

So, my first ever repo visit!

The backstory here is that the mailbox glitched out. This lot had one of the Late Night high-rise mailboxes out front in its own little shelter. I’ve lived in places that did it that way, and I liked it. But I think around the time of the University patch, it stopped working. I’m not entirely sure. I tried all sorts of things — resetting it, moving it around, etc. The news of the bills came up, and even though Allison couldn’t get the bill from the mailbox, the late bill warning dropped it into her inventory for me. So I instructed her to pay it by clicking the bill in her inventory. It dropped out of her queue, and I did it again. And I then I thought it succeeded and all was well.

So I spent the last of their savings on those two strollers to go to the park. And that morning the repo-lady showed up.

Also, I cheated. The first kid born was a boy with Allison’s skin tone and Hetal’s hair and eyes AGAIN. After much grumbling, I used MasterController to create a new baby. This is not a particularly game-changing cheat, and I’m not sure I’m willing to take a point hit for it. (Because this is totally about the points, right? I haven’t even decided how/if I’m going to score the scoresheet.) But I’m going to record them.

Hetal tried about four times to woohoo with Allison, and they couldn’t make it to their bed. With that and the mailbox thing, plus a whole sequence from the pic at the beginning where Hetal and Christof got into a face off at the head of the stairs and neither of them could route anywhere until I reset Hetal, had me ready to dump the condo and move. But I discovered that the door was “in use” by Branden, despite the fact that Branden was in bed downstairs. I had to delete and replace the door to fix that, and while I was at it, I enlarged the landing a bit at the expense of Hetal and Allison’s bedroom. That, and deleting the mailbox and letting the game replace it with a standard one, and the lot is functioning again.

I’ve become kind of stupidly attached to this condo. But also, the Wonderlands have been living hand-to-mouth, and I’m not sure they can afford one much better.