Gameplay: November 25th 2009

Today I headed to Pleasantview to play Dustin and Lucy Broke. I took my default replacement skins out almost immediately and was ashamed of myself for doing so. I wasn't used to the shiny, I must confess. So these pics have normal maxis skintones in them. However, after I finished playing I put my new default replacements back in and am determined to give them a real chance this time.

Thursday was Dustin's day off and he invited his friend Heather Ruben over to spend the day with him. Lucy was, of course, making bouquets for most of the day - she was determined to earn her next badge. She took a break for lunch though. And then, at 3:34pm, Lucy gave birth to a healthy baby girl who she named Tiffany, after her paternal grandmother. Tiffany has Dustin's skintone and eyes and Lucy's hair color. Lucy immediately called the nanny service to arrange care for Tiffany during her work hours. Dustin spent some simoleons on a better bookcase and immediately sat down with his cookbooks to gain three cooking points. Lucy was in bed exhausted by 6pm - the birth had taken a lot out of her. Heather was kind enough to pass on her cold to Dustin once again. 
 
Friday started extremely early with Lucy waking at midnight. From then on, her sleeping schedule was only going to get worse. She spent the wee hours making more bouquets. Dustin served up an extremely unhealthy chips and dip platter for breakfast, but recovered from his cold despite the lack of vitamins. Lucy called her new neighbour, Erik Swain for a chat before it was time for her and Dustin to leave for work. Tiffany's nanny turned out to be heavily in to baby harrassment - bad luck! At work, Lucy broke the FrigglyFreeze machine and tried to fix it with duct tape, but all she accomplished was to get her hair stuck in the intake vent. While she was stuck, several teenagers shoplifted candy and magazines to their hearts' content. Lucy lost a day's pay over the incident. Dustin's day at work was far more productive - he was promoted to Junior Executive. Lucy used some of his bonus money to purchase a remote controlled helicopter for when Tiffany was older, and a dart board for herself. She invited Erik Swain over in the hopes of getting to know him a little better. Dustin cleaned the bathroom and gained a cleaning point for his trouble. Lucy was in bed exhausted by 5:30pm - definitely getting worse. Dustin used some of those promotion bonus simoleons to purchase a chess table for himself. He immediately started practicing to gain a much needed logic point. Then it was time for Tiffany to grow in to a toddler. She looks a lot like Dustin. 
 
Heather Ruben walked right in to the Broke home without being invited and immediately passed on her cold to Dustin again. Dustin helped Tiffany to earn her first charisma point and Lucy was up at 11pm. She spent this particular all-nighter once again making bouquets. She finally earned her silver flower arranging badge too.
She kept at it through all the night hours of Saturday morning - she wanted to go for the gold next. When Dustin woke, he continued to spend productive parenting time with Tiffany by teaching her a nursery rhyme and also helping her to gain another charisma point. He got over his cold in the meantime. He and Lucy both headed to work and Lucy was in bed exhausted by 4:30pm. Definitely worse. Dustin played chess with townie Jason Menon and gained another logic point, which he needed. He decided it was time to upgrade the dining room chairs before spending some time in front of the bathroom mirror practicing his speech. He gained two much needed charisma points. Lucy was up at 9:30pm, proving once and for all that her sleeping pattern is only going to get worse before there's any light at the end of the tunnel. She gained herself a cooking point while serving up a late dinner of chef salad and also gained a cleaning point when she cleaned the kitchen afterwards. She spent her all-nighter once again making bouquets.

Gameplay: November 26th 2009

So I decided that in order to get used to my new default replacements, I'd have to ease myself in by playing some sims that I'm not so attached to as Dustin and Lucy Broke. And it worked. I'm much more familiar with the skintones now. Today I headed to Veronaville's Academie Le Tour and merged the "Students Household" (Emily Lee and Tom Freshe), whom I've never played, into the Sharpe Household with Wendy Parker. Tom is majoring in economics and will continue to. No pictures for this household's entry, sorry.

First thing Monday morning, Emily changed her major from history to biology. Tom settled down on the old sofa with a cookbook to gain a much needed cooking point. Emily did the same. Afterwards, Emily plowed through her first assignment. Tom was less keen to study - he spent some time playing Sims 3 on the computer instead. Wendy cleaned the bathroom and earned a cleaning point in the process, which she needed. It was then time for them all to go to class. When Wendy got back, she purchased a makeover station and gave her very first makeover to a poor college dormie - the results were disastrous and he didn't stick around for her to fix her mistakes, so there's a college dormie lurking around campus with failed clownish makeup. Sexy.
On Tuesday morning Tom was once again in the mood to study, and gained a cleaning point that he needed. It was up to Emily to make breakfast for everybody, and she did very well in making her first ever successful toaster pastries. Wendy called her boyfriend, Jonah Powers to ask him out on a date. They met at P.U.R.E for some slow dancing. The date went okay and Wendy took a taxi home immediately afterwards. Emily settled down to study and gained a much needed mechanical point. Tom later gave his first ever makeover to Emily and it turned out beautifully. Wendy made a phone call to her college professor, Prof. Griff Kody for a long chat before class. Tom managed to break the computer while trying to write a term paper (which he was never to complete) and called the repairman to come out straight away. Emily churned out another assignment before both she and Tom had to go to class. When Wendy got back, she called Jonah again to ask him on another date. This time they met at Lost In Love Hedge Maze and once more indulged in some slow dancing in the moonlight. However, the date turned incredibly sour when Jonah's wife, Prof. Virginia Powers, caught them dancing far too closely. Jonah's cheating ways had been discovered by his wife, and she was to stalk Wendy's home from then on. Wendy was a little confused over seeing this strange woman whom she'd never met so angry at Jonah, and decided it would be best to end the date early. In spite of everything, the date scored okay. Wendy went straight home and invited Prof. Griff over to hang out in the hopes of making him her friend - it didn't take much, they were made to be friends. When Emily got back from class she spent some more time studying and gained two mechanical points. Wendy served up a huge platter of grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner and Jonah dropped by to leave Wendy a gift to commemorate their date (yeah, 'cause the date where your wife catches you cheating is the one you want to remember) - a remote controlled car. Romantic!
All through the night, Prof. Virginia staged a rampage of furious walkbys, stealing newspapers, kicking over the trashcan and causing a lovely cockroach infestation on the front lawn. When Wendy woke, she called her new friend Prof. Griff and asked him if he'd like to come over and spend the day with her. He agreed. Tom actually settled down to do an assignment and Emily pored over some cookbooks to gain a cooking point. She also harvested some tasty oranges from the orange tree. Wendy went to class and Tom decided he'd now met enough random college students and professors to call them all and invite them to a party. He spent some time playing video games before he and Emily went to class. Wendy called Jonah upon arrival home and asked him if he'd like to join her on a field trip to Deh'Javu Modern Art Museum so she could get extra credit. Of course, any excuse for a date! The date began innocently enough with some sweet hand holding and a backrub from Wendy. Things went downhill quite quickly when a game of punch you, punch me got a little too violent on Jonah's part. Wendy tried to engage Jonah in some conversation, but they couldn't seem to agree on anything. So they went back to what they're best at - slow dancing. This was followed by increasingly intense caressing and a heavy makeout session in the street. Wendy and Jonah retired to a park bench for a very public and very nude woohoo. The date scored as a dream date and Wendy went home without having set foot inside the art museum. As soon as she got home, she called Jonah again and asked him to come over and join the party atmosphere at her house. As soon as he arrived, she spirited him away to the bedroom for a much more private woohoo, followed by a post coital nap. Tom gave a couple of dormie makeovers and his first party was a big success. And now for some back story - but it's on topic, I swear. Long ago, when Jonah still lived in the Sharpe Household, he had a terrible rivalry with a Prof. Zion Barrett over one of his girlfriends. Jonah was so filled with vengeance and hatred after seeing Prof. Zion hit on his then girlfriend (whom he also hated after seeing her flirt with Prof. Zion) that in a fit of rage, Jonah locked Prof. Zion in the spare bedroom until he slowly starved to death. And here's where it gets on topic - Wednesday night was the first time Prof. Zion's ghost has ever shown itself. Now where was I? Ahh, yes, Wendy's nap was interrupted when the time came for her final exam. She earned herself a grade of B. When she got back from the exam, Tom gave her a makeover. And later that night, Wendy was to bear the brunt of the ghost of Prof. Zion's wrath. He scared her repeatedly. Poor girl. She had nothing to do with it.

Later, I felt confident enough with my new default skintones to go to Strangetown and move Alec and Cheva Hiatt in to their first home together. I didn't mention before, I guess because I didn't check, but Alec works in the medical career as a Medical Researcher.

After furnishing their new home on Monday morning, Alec called the pet adoption service and adopted a puppy named Ben, who was thereafter ignored by both him and Cheva. Then both he and Cheva retired to the bedroom for the christening of their brand new bed. Cheva fell pregnant this time around and Alec left for work. Cheva was woken from her post coital nap by the doorbell - the neighbourhood welcome wagon had arrived. Cheva greeted them warmly and told them to make themselves at home. She keenly felt the lack of a telescope in her new digs and immediately remedied the situation before settling down on the couch with a book to gain a mechanical point. Afterwards, she purchased an outdoor chess table and played a game of chess with townie Nery Turner. She also gained two logic points. When Alec got home from work, he booted up the computer in the hopes of finding his dream job in the military. There was indeed an opening in the military career and he traded in his current job for it, regardless of the much lower pay. He then pored over a cookbook to gain a cooking point. Later, he called all his friends to invite them to a housewarming party. Cheva spent the evening outside stargazing with her new telescope and apart from gaining a logic point, she also discovered a new star. Alec jumped online to browse for music & dance websites. He was far from sleepy enough for bed, so he decided to pull an all-nighter.
Alec's party was a total flop and he spent the early hours of Tuesday morning acting very teary and emo. To cheer himself up, he spent some money on a remote controlled car and his first actual car. He went to his first day of his new job exhausted on account of his all-nighter. It was Cheva's day off work and she logged on to the computer to start a cuisine blog. She was feeling pretty queasy all morning (and blogging about food can't have helped), but her morning sickness never got the better of her and the bathroom remained puke free. Her pregnancy started showing and she spent some time playing chess with townie Sinjin Couderc. She gained a logic point as well. Alec was promoted to Drill Instructor on his first day in the military. Good going! He went straight to bed after work though. Cheva received a phone call offering a subscription to the Games magazine, which she accepted. Alec was up at 9pm to pull another all-nighter. He used his promotion bonus to trade in their television set for a much bigger one. He then cranked the stereo and smustled to his heart's content. 
 
He later practiced his chess skills and gained a logic point.
Cheva stayed up late in to the early hours of Wednesday morning stargazing with her telescope. All of a sudden, she became the victim of an alien abduction. 
 
(Cheva is my first ever sim to be abducted - seriously! I know that sounds absurd, since I've had the game since release, but I've also never used any cheats apart from moveobjects on when something gets stuck, so I guess it was just the luck of the draw not to have an abduction until now. I've tried hard enough without cheating, let me tell you! I knew what to expect, as I've seen a million pictures over the years, but I was still chuffed that I finally had an abduction. Too bad it was Cheva and not Alec - I've never had an alien birth apart from, of course, Pascal Curious since he's alien pregnant at the beginning of the game.)
Alec spent some simoleons on a hot tub and went to gaze through the telescope himself in the hopes of spotting where Cheva had gone. He discovered a star for his trouble, but nothing else. Cheva was returned in a very shaken up state. She went straight to bed to sleep off her ordeal and Alec went to work. Cheva was up again at midday to pop and was then very heavily pregnant and awkward. She served up the ultimate comfort food for her lunch - cheesecake! (Will she have twins? I've never noticed whether it made a difference or whether it was just a rumor, so maybe this will be the test, as I have it on record that she ate cheesecake while pregnant.) Alec was promoted again, to Junior Officer. Cheva went online to upload her cheesecake recipe to her cuisine blog. Then she and Alec played chess together and Cheva gained a logic point. Alec gained membership to Games Of Glory and went to bed exhausted at 7pm. Thankfully, that fixed his sleeping pattern and he slept through the night.
Cheva will give birth next time - hooray! And she's had a blissfully easy pregnancy. I've had so many difficult ones lately that I'd forgotten that some sims barely have any need drop during pregnancy.