The View from the Hill

Continuing On…

Posted in Gen 2 - Alexa by jessicasims3 on November 23, 2009

Sorry for the delay in posting – I usually post from work, and we have been really busy this week. I’m hoping to get in another update before Thanksgiving, especially since I have now played ahead a little bit!

The family mourned for their matriarch as appropriate, but still continued to fulfill their LTWs and things.

This commemorates Alexa finishing the painting challenges! Yay Alexa!

Also, we managed to do a reasonable self-portrait! It was tough, but we managed. BTW, I really love CASt – the bedspread is one of my favorites patterns, but I can make it look really different with just different colors!

Zoe, ever the attentive grandmother, liked to read to Beckett, even if it did disrupt the TSAL. However, I think he actually skilled faster, since he was done with the TSAL faster than his sister. That is not a scientific fact, but a theory. Maybe being read to is like being helped with homework? Either way, it was super adorable!

Observant readers will noted that the legacy house finally has some siding. Since I play with walls down, I usually don’t notice the outside of the building, but there have been more outside shots lately, so I thought I should fix that. Just in time too, as the legacy house had it’s first haunting. Buck apparently wanted to stop by for a visit.

Zoe was just watching some TV before bed., and I thought it would be nice for them to be able to hug. They never got a good chance to say goodbye, since he died during the party, and I am a totally sentimental fool like that.

I had to send Zoe to bed afterwards, so Buck decided to hang around and watch some television.

The next morning, it was time for Blythe’s birthday. I was almost a little hesitant that Aurora was the one that picked her up for the blowing out. Does anyone else have that happen? You pick a sim to take the baby to the birthday cake, and the sim that does it isn’t the one you picked. I believe I initially picked Alexa for the role, but there she is, partying it up in the background.

Meet little Blythe – complete with red hair and her dad’s eyes. If we have more kids this generation (I currently have space for one more), they will have to have excellent genetics to win over this combination. I love that she got the red hair too much. Her favorite color is pink, so I am decorating her room accordingly.

Buck did a lot of haunting. I don’t know if it was because he is currently the only ghost on the lot or what, but he totally rocked out at the stereo here for much of the night.

In a display of how awesome he is, he then went to lie down on the bed he and Zoe used to share. Zoe was already up for the day, so he took a little catnap on their old bed. Out the window you can see the little fence around the graveyard. I also feel as though these guys stick around for a huge amount of time after the sun goes up. Maybe I just expect them to disappear as soon as it gets light, but if he is haunting, it is often until it’s really bright outside. Case in point here!

This picture illustrates Aurora hitting her LTW! She is earning the bucks now. However, she is still doing a lot of writing until we hit all those writing challenges. Wahoo. She is also athletic so I am hoping she might get me the athletic challenges, but we’ll see. She has also been stepping up on the whole childcare thing, so that’s cool.

A little while later, it was time for another birthday, and this time, it was Beckett’s birthday. He excelled at the TSAL and got his other skills done as well, so we picked a trait.

Beckett: Good, Excitable and Brave!

Next time: The family hits more goals, and more sadness. Plus, is there possibly a third gen 2 child on the way?

Total points: 16 (one for Alexa finishing the painting challenge, one for Alexa’s self portrait, one for Aurora finishing her LTW!)

Expected…and Unexpected.

Posted in Gen 2 - Alexa by jessicasims3 on November 17, 2009

So, you knew, given how lovey-dovey these two are (and continue to be) – including autonomous hand holding – that things were going to get interesting, right?

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This is what happens when you let autonomous hand holding go too far. Or, you know, click “try for baby”.

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While Alexa is cooking the baby, I had Zoe making everyone’s favorite food, since I was worried she would kick the bucket before we could get through them.  The mad session of favorite food making actually paid off – she finished the cooking challenge – one more point for Zoe!

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Alexa, not to be outdone, finished this portrait of Aurora, so now Aurora gets that point (yay!)

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The girls are also studiously working on more points. Arianna has made it to level 10 in writing now – and I think is one or two books away from $4000 a week – but we’re going to keep working her to get the writing challenges done. We’ll see how that goes, right? Alexa, not to be outdone, also is practicing her guitar while pregnant. She’s at level 8 in both painting and guitar. Aurora has been working on her guitar skill to ensure quick promotions. Usually I get her to go play for tips, but she started skilling autonomously here. She is at level 7 in guitar, and level 4 in her career!

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Not to be outdone, Michale has been at that chess board like a fanatic. He also now has the much more family-friendly LTW of hitting the top of the medical career.

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As you can tell  here, the first baby has been born, but it is just a pod-baby right now, so only interesting pictures of it. (mwah, ha, ha.). This is Arianna’s portrait. Or at least, it is supposed to be. I may try that one again because it is so god-awful horrible. At least, I know that she is not biased about it, because Michale’s comes out basically the same way later on.

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Buck is keeping busy too – I have him doing concerts as often as possible. They are lucrative (although they take A.LOT.OF.TIME – not nearly as much as a full time job though – and if you time it right you can get two in an evening.) Ever since they were married, Buck & Zoe’s favorite autonomous action together is dancing. When Buck got back from the concert, he invited to her to dance, and I let them, since everyone else was asleep and they were both too tired to skill. So, they danced in the kitchen.

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In the morning, Buck took Beckett to the cake during a party. As annoying as I find parties, I really liked the moodlet that the birthday boy got from having a party. I feel like people get that moodlet too – the “yay people like me” moodlet. You can also tell that I wasted no time getting Alexa pregnant again – with a matriarchy, we need an heiress!

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Anyway, now that he’s a toddler: introducing Beckett Washburne, who is Good & Excitable. I am trying to decide  what I want to do with his lifetime want. I’ll let you know what I come up with!

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However, I didn’t get a lot more pictures of the party because something surprising happened.

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He was 89 days old, and had only just filled his life bar. I had hoped I had a few more days left with him.

Buck Washburne (born Buck Broke), 89, was the husband of our founder and with us nearly from the beginning.  He wowed Riverview by being a Rock God, and performed for hundreds of sims. Although he spent much of the girls childhood out of the house earning money for the struggling family, he was a devoted father. He raised three daughters, and met his grandson, and helped build a solid foundation for this legacy.

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Grimmy hung around a little, first disrupting my TSAL…

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…and then discussing favorite foods with Zoe, who was taking a break from weeping in this picture.

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I set up a little graveyard in the front yard. I am sure it will be getting bigger…

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Michale was the first to come to the graveyard. What a good son-in-law! I am so glad that mourning at the grave helps the moodlet. Although these guys are generally in the green bubble anyway, I like that mourning is considered useful.

Join us next time for more babies, and hopefully not more funerals!!

Total Points: 13 ( one for Aurora’s portrait, one for Arianna’s portrait, and one for Zoe completing the cooking challenge)

Husband Hunting

Posted in Gen 2 - Alexa by jessicasims3 on November 12, 2009

Welcome to the first post of Generation 2 – the rein of Alexa. Since both Zoe and Buck have fulfilled their lifetime wants, and Alexa is now an adult, it’s time to get going on the second generation of this challenge. Now, I wanted to be careful about this one, since although I had gotten lucky with Buck, I did not want an old man for young Alexa! So, my idea was to invite all the young adult men that the family knew and see what happened. We got the buffet table in preparation, and soon the eligible bachelors started to arrive.

Bachelor #1 turned out to be Michael Newbie. After a few interactions (and checking that he was single) it was time to move Alexa on to the next contender.

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Who turned out to be Reinaldo. Reinaldo engaged Alexa in lots of great automatic talking, so we were both interested.

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Until, of course, Reinaldo started doing stuff like this:

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Which got him the name “Reinaldo the Inappropriate.” Everyone at the party was talking about how rude he was being, and were getting negative moodlets from him. I have no idea if he was just inappropriate or what, but it was definitely entertaining! Not right for Alexa, but he brought some spice to the party.

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Alexa and Michael Newbie talked about it for quite a while, before she decided to move on again to her next suspect.

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He turned out to be Michale Weathers, which was great because, apparently, he and Alexa are friends! Like, good friends! So…

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He aged up to young adult between the party and when he came over, and aged up in the farmer John outfit (apparently, he and Michael Newbie have the same tailor), and then things got more interesting. I had to have them flirt for a while before she got the romantic interactions, but from there it moved really well because of their pre-existing relationship. There were lots of super cute autonomous romantic interactions, until I directed this:

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And then this – just a little step up from the gym bathroom that her parents got married in, which seems appropriate for Gen 2.

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The next morning -

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Meet Michale Washburne

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His traits are: Genius, Lucky, Bookworm…Mean-Spirited and Can’t Stand Art. I’m wondering if the Can’t Stand Art has to do with why they took so long to get it together. Since Alexa is artistic and all.

Of course, his LTW is heartbreaker. Which I’m changing. He is currently in the medical career, so we’re saving for a change of LTW, I think. Hopefully he’ll get the doctor one, or more drastic measures might be taken. He’s such a good guy though, I can hardly believe the whole mean-spirited trait! Oh well.

That’s all for today – Gen 2 is about to be on it’s way!

Total Points: Still 10! But we should get right on that portrait painting…

MOAR points…

Posted in Gen 1 - Zoe by jessicasims3 on November 11, 2009

Hello again!

When we last left our heroes, they were dancing around outside their house.

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Wait, what? No, no, no. This picture is showing that Alexa is finishing Zoe’s portrait (I swear, it’s done already)…and then Zoe and Buck decided to autonomously dance.  It was cute, so I took a picture. Anyway…back to the grindstone guys!

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And then, of course, this happens. Someone died while Buck was playing for tips, which of course meant that he stopped playing. Seriously, Buck – we don’t let a little thing like a death get in the way!

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Unless of course, you’re this cop guy and FAINT in the presence of death. Buck kind of looked on with interest. I guess he’s trying to gain tips for when his time comes?

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What he doesn’t need tips on is getting to the top of the Rock career , hitting 100,000 LTH points and achieving his LTW - three points for you! So far, I think Buck is the points leader, with his portrait painted first as well. Yaaay Buck!

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Aurora is still working on her guitar. I’ve been having Alexa mostly down there working for tips, but I should just send the three of them (Alexa, Buck and Aurora) down to play for tips at different places downtown, so we can be working on those skills challenge points towards the 25K. But she’s at level 7 of guitar, and she hasn’t even hit adult yet. Awesome.

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I sent Arianna down to the library to write, since she was getting stir crazy from sitting inside the whole day. I don’t blame her! She’s getting two or three hundred a week in royalties so far, and I’m having her write fantasy. I think she’s on level 8 now – mystery just opened up, but we’re sticking to fantasy, since those seem to be good for her in terms of money. We did a couple of sci fi ones first, since those are quick and get the money moving in. I am excited for romance to open up. It’s sort of fun to watch. Also, a great thing about her being a computer whiz? If she gets stressed out, just set her playing games for a while, and she gets back up to full green really easily and she can write for longer.

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That evening, Zoe got her promotion at work. I was expecting it, but it was great – she was so excited, aside from being stressed out since I had hit “work hard” to make sure she’d get it, since she wouldn’t work after tonight for another 4 days. So for the LTW, and the career and 100,000 LTH! It made me really happy too – she also got the great fridge, which I immediately put in the new house. I am so excited for it! Now, her main goals for the time being are to learn the rest of the meals and to get cooking on those cooking challenges – we’ll see how we do on this one!

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Later that evening, Aurora had her birthday – she got the ambitious trait, which works well, since she is the only one of the girls who has a career-related LTW! She rolled a want almost immediately to join the music career, but hasn’t had her first day yet. I am hoping with her excellent guitar skills that she will pick up the promotions fast!

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(Sorry that her eyes are closed in this picture – I didn’t realize until I posted it) She is a very sweet sim, and I am glad that she’ll be around for a while (hopefully, unless Gen 2 has a bundle of boys, and Gen 1 sticks around forever).

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I’ll end this update with a look at the new house. With Zoe’s promotion and the new fridge, plus Aurora reaching adulthood, I moved them into the new house, and finished furnishing it with the money from demolishing the first house. Bye bye good first house! Anyway, there’ll be more of the new house in the next update, but I had a lot of fun with this, and everyone gets great moodlets from that fridge. Although, all the expensive bathroom stuff keeps breaking. Blech. We were having a party at this point, hence the buffet table in the front of the house. It was epic, as you will find out! There are a couple more rooms to the left of the picture as well – mostly empty for right now though.

Join us next time as Alexa’s husband search begins in earnest!

Total Points: 10! (one for Zoe’s portrait, one for Bucks LTW, one for 100,000 LTH, and one for topping the career, one for Zoe’s LTW, 100,000 LTH and topping her career)

This is Your Birthday Song…

Posted in Gen 1 - Zoe by jessicasims3 on November 9, 2009

Happy Monday ladies and gents. I didn’t get a lot of playing time this weekend, so a short update today. I am perilously close to getting several points, but today I just got the one:

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Alexa painted Buck’s portrait! It needed to be done because we needed him to not be an Elder in the portrait, and it is, amazingly, totally legible. It is enormous because I didn’t know exactly how to use the still life buttons. Still, pretty good!

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The next picture she painted? Alexa’s first brilliant painting! I was so excited I stopped everything to set up the shot. I even had to plant a few lights, since she was outside and it was dark. That made my evening, since I was worrying about getting those taken care of while she’s doing all this painting. She is at level six now in both painting and guitar. I decided to not have her play for tips until she graduates, since I have too much trouble keeping track of her homework and stuff otherwise. Easier that she should just paint in the evenings, and she really likes it, so it works out well.  Speaking of guitar, someone else had a birthday – Buck is now an elder. A totally rocking elder!

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Seriously, he grew up in that leather jacket. I just had to add the earring to complete the look! I think he makes a really convincing elder too – he has lines in all the right places. Although he does seem to be dropping actions from his queue more quickly now. I am keeping him in the profession until he tops it – he’s only one level away, so that should be relatively easy.  He’s at about $13,000 for tips – we’ll see if he can make that one. I keep spending money on the legacy house so we haven’t bought all the compositions yet for him, but I think that might be my next money goal! At least the two of them are earning lots of moolah when they go to work – they just don’t go to work very often anymore!

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Right after his age transition, Alexa walked in on Arianna taking a shower (seriously, why are the sisters unable to use the bathroom at the same time?!? I don’t get it) and so she got the embarrassed moodlet. And autonomously starts having a conversation with her dad about it. SO CUTE. They talked about it for quite a while, until Arianna was out of the shower and Alexa could go pee. It was super, duper cute.

The next morning I got notice that it was not only Zoe’s birthday, but also Arianna and Alexa’s!  Zoe went first, and aged pretty well, if I do say so myself.  Alexa had also started Zoe’s portrait before the aging, although it’s not finished yet.

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She is at level 8 of culinary, and has rolled a couple of great wishes: Along with her regular 30,000 for getting her LTW, she also has another 9,000 for getting to level ten of the career, and then another 5000 one for learning all the recipes. Again, I need to spend some serious money getting her those recipes! I think with all of those, she should easily pass the 100K mark!  Next up were the twins – all the birthdays happened in the kitchen, and I couldn’t get good pictures, so I only have the CASt pictures. Of course, my graphics in CASt are also a lot better, so…deal :)

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Anyway, Arianna rolled the trait of Loves the Outdoors. My plan is to roll their traits and keep the first positive one that comes up, so she got that. I’m considering placing her writing desk outside on the porch of the new house now, so she can get that moodlet when she’s writing. Also, she might be helping Aurora with the garden. Also, she clearly grew into some of her features! I was worried there for a while, but she’s not totally hideous by any stretch. And I had fun in CASt with her shirt :)

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And Alexa. Alexa rolled Genius, and so hopefully that will help with her skilling. She grew up beautifully, as expected.

Next up, if Alexa needs a husband soon, we need to move the family into their new house! Also, it’ll be full time skilling for Alexa and full time writing for Arianna. Aurora is doing great in school, so hopefully our next events will be our two founders fulfilling their LTWs!

Total Points: 3! (one for Buck’s portrait)

A Few Milestones

Posted in Gen 1 - Zoe by jessicasims3 on November 6, 2009

 

So, as the title suggests, we hit a few little milestones!

First, see Buck getting to level 10 with guitar! Yay! And the crowd is here to celebrate with him! (and pay money – he makes abuot $500 per few hours now!)

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And since we are between toddlers now and the family is bringing in money more steadily, we hired our first maid! It was taking too much of Alexa’s time to keep the family neat – and she should be painting. BTW, she did the lighthouse painting in the back – too bad she’s never seen Sunset Valley.

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Speaking of Alexa – here she is autonomously doing homework. I love the picture of cheese. I think she did that one as well. Either that or Zoe did it. I’m saving all the different pictures I get.

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Our next milestone? Aurora became a teen! She rolled Green Thumb, which has nothing to do with her LTW, but oh well. She is MUCH better looking than Arianna, and she is my second favorite. That’s probably why I wouldn’t make her heir.

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Usually, Buck’s playing is quiet – until this happened. He didn’t seem to notice, but I found it hysterical.

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At the end of the school day one day, Arianna asked to go to Nichole Broke’s house. I let her go, because they are cousins (Buck’s sister is her mom) and when I went to check on her, she was talking to Trigger! Pretty sure she had never met him – and he’s her half brother (Buck had a wife who died, apparently, and two kids, but they don’t come around. He occassionally rolls wants for Trigger to get married). Oh, I should add. These were two different play sessions, and so between the fight above and the meeting below, I installed Tallen’s Story Progression 2 Mod, that is based on IndieStone. I love it, so far. I have had to go edit town to add a few smaller houses for people, but I like it right now. Oh, and the kid on the floor? Dayna Broke. I need to go into the family tree and see how she’s related to Arianna, since the game wouldn’t let her pick her up, even though they are most likely family.

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After a few promotions, and Buck’s diligent playing, we also hit another milestone in legacy house building. Look ma! Walls!

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And then things got really crazy, and added windows and doors! I’ll probably end up adding a few more before declaring it done, but it’s coming along.

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Also speaking of coming along, Zoe is getting along with her painting skill. I just love teh colors on this one. I need to get started on painting a portrait of Buck before he elderifies. Which will be SOON.

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In another milestone, Buck was playing and then when I stopped him – he started talking to Susie. They seem to have a good relationship, even though he hasn’t seen her since she was little and he married Zoe. Oh, and later on, when Arianna went to the computer to chat to raise her social because no one else was awake – she was also able to chat with Susie. We like family togetherness!

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In other news, Alexa is at 6 painting and 5 guitar – we’re looking for 10s for both of those, so making progress. She autonomously decided to start painting while I was checking her needs, so that worked great, althouhg I like the smaller ones since we’re also going for the skill challenges. Oh well.

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Alexa paintsAurora, trying to get her skill up before she starts the music career. Aurora plays guitar

  Arianna is at level 4 writing – I think we’re on our third novel. Awesomeness!

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Arianna writes

 Alright, that’s it for this week! I will probably start posting again on Monday, and if not, start yelling at me over on Boolprop or comment to remind me ;)

Total Points: 2 (although I totally wanted to get the third for maxing guitar)

 

Growing on up

Posted in Gen 1 - Zoe by jessicasims3 on November 5, 2009

When we last left the family, Aurora had just become a toddler. You can see her in the back with Buck getting her potty training on.   Alexa has really gotten into painting, so she and Zoe often end up painting side by side. Since Arianna is athletic, she also gets a little fun boost from working out. So we do that when she’s bummed out by school. Ugh, school.

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As mentioned previously, Alexa has firmly established herself as my favorite for being neat and for having picked her LTW quickly. Of course, Arianna, to be difficult, decided to wait and wait and then pop up with TWO at the same time, so that I had to panic and choose one. Anyway, I chose Illustrious Author, which I figure should keep her out of the way for much of the generation to follow, since she won’t be the heir, and we’ll have a nice little cash infusion from the novels. The other option was whatever it’s called when they have the wish to paint and write. I suppose in hindsight that might have been a good way to keep her entertained while she’s writing – have her paint in between, since apparently writing sucks the life out of you (I’m doing NaNoWriMo, I should know!)

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Here is Arianna and the life-force-sucking-machine. She does well getting writing points though. However, novel writing is suffers severely from the fact that she has to go to school. Seriously, she wants to write novels, why does she have to finish high school? Oh wait. Nevermind.

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Still looking promising, Aurora aged up to child. She got genius as her third trait and then proceeded to roll no wishes related to anything remotely interesting, and half the time not filling her wish panel. ARGH. And I was trying to decide what to do with her that whole time. Anyway, at a certain point I just got fed up and decided to start having her play chess, which almost immediately brought up the LTW to be chess master. I clicked on it, then decided better on it and made her into the Hit Movie Composer. That way we’ll get the music careers knocked out right at the beginning here. Of course, that still meant that I had very little idea what to do with her as a child, since there are no instruments to be used as a youngster. RAWR. However, I did start her working on some handiness points, since although Zoe is good at that sort of stuff, it’s nice to have more than one sim who can do that in a household, at least in my experience. Then, Alexa decided to remind me why she’s my favorite:

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Autonomous bed making FTW. What a cutie. As Aurora is now a child, the girls bedroom became a triple again. I just added enough space to the room for the third bed. Alexa’s bed is the yellow one with the pink flowers on the left, the blue one is Arianna’s and the yellow is Aurora’s. I later changed the spread on Alexa’s to match her favorite color (which is the same as Arianna’s, which I find cute), blue. Aurora’s is yellow, hence her sunshiney bedspread.

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Right at the end, the girls aged up. And um, holy crap. Arianna was going for the award for heaviest features. YIKES. This is her post makeover, and she’s definitely not bad looking, but still – eep. However, as she’s not heir, it’s okay. No one needs to know…back away slowly…

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Alexa, of course decides to be beautiful. Holy crap. this is her post makeover. Aurora’s going to have to work very hard to overcome that. Also, apparently, I am extremely shallow when it comes to my sims. All other things being equal, beauty wins for me every time. Oh well – good to know these things about oneself, right?

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Next up, with the girls all having picked LTWs and their parents rapidly climbing the ladder of success, will they EVER get to live in the main legacy house. Speaking of it, is it more than just a foundation and a few walls yet? These answers and more, next time :)

ETA: Total Points: 2

Getting into the Groove

Posted in Gen 1 - Zoe by jessicasims3 on November 4, 2009

So, we have gotten into the swing of things. With the third baby on the way, Buck spends most of his time down by City Hall doing this:

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It actually works quite well. In the morning, he’ll get up and care for the kiddies until Zoe gets up and then go down to the City Hall and play until he goes to work. When he comes back, he goes to bed early so he can get up and do it again. Zoe spends her days taking care of the kiddies, and puts the kids to bed before she goes to bed herself. It has worked well, but they are barely making ends meet.

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It managed to get us enough money to buy the third crib for the baby, and buy Arianna and Alexa the blocks and the xylophone. It’s not a real TSAL (Toddler Skilling Assembly Line, TM Catherine) but it’s about what we can afford at this point. Maybe Catherine had a point making her founder a Kleptomaniac? Also, marrying Buck Broke certainly did not bring in a lot of money!! Oh well – it’s definitely been a challenge. Luckily, with our routine, we are slowly making money. First, I was able to enclose the main bedroom, and then:

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The girls got their own room, with the skilling stations inside, which was a great improvement. The kitchen and bathroom stayed outside for quite a while afterwards, but it was totally important to get everyone inside.

However, it was soon time for someone to grow up, so: meet Aurora. She was born with the Virtuoso and Friendly traits locked in, since Zoe had a hard time keeping her bar up with the twins needing so much attention and Buck out earning money most of the time. Anyway:

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So far, I think she might be the prettiest of the girls, and she skills well. Although I’m sure that had to do with the whole there’s only one of her, rather than twins. You may have noticed that I don’t take pictures of the girls before they became toddlers. All babies in the Sims look the same, and so I just take them when they hit toddler. No guessing about hair and eye color then!

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Right before her birthday, we were able to add a kitchen onto the house, and you can see our first easel! I am hoping to get a painting of the whole generation soon – and with Alexa’s artistic trait, it might happen sooner or later. Speaking of the girls:

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Alexa. She has established herself as my favorite. She rolled Perfectionist and after her makeover, she immediately started washing dishes. Her dad is a SLOB so it’s been a constant struggle to keep the place clean, but there is hardly that trouble with Alexa around.  Even if she’s not heir, I will keep her around for that trait, if nothing else. She also chose her LTW, Master of the Arts, which is mastering the guitar skill and the painting skill. She’s already about halfway rough the painting skill, which did not take very long. I’m hoping she’ll be able to complete the painting skill challenges as well, while she’s maxing the painting skill. I’m using the trick of painting small paintings to get there (thanks Catherine!).

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Arianna has definitely been cursed with the droopy eyes and thin lips of her dad, even if she has her mom’s coloring. She also had a mishap with traits. I gave her the genius trait, as both parents had a want for her to get it, and then it didn’t stick! Anyone have any suggestions for adding it back? I don’t consider it cheating to give her the trait that she should have gotten anyway! In any case, I think because of the lack of third trait she started life as exceedingly boring, until I was able to buy a computer when both Zoe & Buck got promoted. Now she’s writing up a storm, which is a great money maker. I’m considering making her a journalist.

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And this is where we are. I’m hoping to be able to add another wall between the girls room and the living room, maybe add a little furniture. I also worked out the design of their more permanent home in another version of Riverview, but that’s about $38,000 or so before we get there. I am waiting until they have some financial wiggle room before we begin work on that. So, they’ll probably be staying in some version of this house for a while. Although, I realized while I was playing that if the girls are staying for a while, then I might need another bedroom for them. Hmmmm.

Anyway, stay tuned.  I most likely will be updating every few days, except I am hoping for another one tomorrow!

Hello world!

Posted in Gen 1 - Zoe by jessicasims3 on November 3, 2009
 I want to do a legacy so that I can explore the game. I always want my people to get married, and I always want my people to have babies, so this challenge seems right up my alley. I have attempted several times. And this is not the greatest time in my life to start something new, but I want to see if I can make it. At least, it’s an attempt, versus anything else!
I will be using the unofficial rules by Aaroc and Kaintheslayer at Boolprop. Pinstar’s don’t address the changes to the game well, and so – these guys do it better. I don’t play with any mods. I tried AwesomeMod and it crashed my game. I tried Indie Stone but they stopped updating it. So, I play without any. We’ll see how it goes.

I choose a matriarchy, because I always do. Strict family values as well, and I will try for each of the careers and LTWs.

I’m using the big lot in Riverview, since I have another family in Sunset Valley and it’s easier for me to just have the two games at the moment.

This is Zoe Washburne, the founder of this legacy, posing by the mailbox. She just got back from starting her career, which is in the culinary field, as she has the Celebrated Five Star Chef LTW. 

Zoe Washburne

Her traits are:

Vegetarian, Bookworm, Athletic, Lucky & Frugal

She is “enjoying” the lawn – which is good. She ends up being there for a while. Anyway, we spent some time wandering around town trying to find eligible bachelors. I was hoping to find one in the library, but apparently only married or old people come there.

Anyway, I took her to the gym where she found this guy:

Buck and Zoe Meet

Meet Buck Broke, who is apparently a fitness enthusiast as well. In any case, things progressed from there…

The traditional tasteful bathroom wedding

As per tradition, my legacy founder got married in the bathroom. Of the gym. Isn’t that worse than the bathroom at home?

Anyway, Buck  traits: Good Sense of Humor, Flirty, Snob, Loves the Outdoors & Party Animal

Not too bad there. His LTW is to be a Rock God, and although he is currently working at the cemetary with terrible job performance, he does have a guitar in his inventory and enough guitar skill to play for tips. This will come in handy later! I thought about having him finish the cemetary part-time job, but he was close to his adult birthday and needed to climb all the way to Rock God, so I had him join the music career almost immediately. Something else I had him do almost immediately was this:

Something in the Oven

Pregnant Zoe hung out and read cooking books during her maternity leave. Each generation will have at least three kids. The only way they’d get more than that is if I had a run of boys. Ideally I’d like an heir & a spare, but that’s not totally necessary. Anyway, I had the stereo playing while she was pregnant, not realizing what station it was on.

So…introducing Alexa:

Toddler Alexa

(traits: Brave & Artistic)

And Arianna…

Toddler Arianna

(traits: Athletic & Virtuoso)

So far, I am conflicted about the heiress. Although Alexa is prettier, Arianna has her mother’s hair and eyes, and so I’m trying to decide which way to go with this. And of course, there’s still the third child, although Zoe is hoping for a boy (although Buck wants a girl – I locked in both so either way someone gets a LTH boost!)

Special thanks to CatherineSims3 for this particular way of writing a legacy – I shamelessly steal it because I find it amazingly useful and inspiring, although I don’t think I can be as…efficient…as she is! Look for her legacy (completed!) at catherinesims3.wordpress.com

Anyway, until next time – happy simming!

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