Brown-eyed girl

Round 15: Days 71-75

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Narrated by Collette Sitko

At our place, we've been preparing for Kirstin's fifth birthday.

We had planned on a party but in the end, the only person available that day was my sister-in-law Aphrodite.

It was okay though - no one ever minds an afternoon of Marco Polo in our pool.

I've been noticing little things that seem to suggest Kirstin definitely takes after me in the personality stakes (even though she looks so much like Julian). I wasn't very keen on Aphrodite when Charlton first got together with her either.

At least she gets along with Owen, though I think that's due more to his disposition than hers.

Owen's been very good about keeping her occupied after school. Kirstin is very sporty and Owen is happy to oblige her by tossing a football around with her...

...and by letting her play his game console with him.

She's also been bringing Tatiana Moretti home from school, who just happens to be Owen's half-sister. He hasn't shown much interest in her but I'm wondering how to bring this up with him. Or if I should bring it up with him at all. All the Galen drama feels like so long ago and I don't know if I want to dredge it all back up again.

The Greasy Spoon is at level 4 now but Julian thinks he might lose one of his staff members soon. Araminta has become a good waitress but the job just doesn't pay enough now that she's out on her own.

He's also having problems with some kind of skipping epidemic. Who skips inside a diner? He should hire me! I'd give them all what for! Julian says that's what he's afraid of and that he doesn't think I'm cut out for customer service. Huh. He's probably right.

Oh, and I got a promotion! I'm now a Mad Scientist, like Mum. Bwahahaha! We're not really "mad" - it's just a funny term we use at the lab for the higher-ups.

Mum and I both work nights now, so we get up later than everyone else and go to bed much later than everyone else.

I don't mind working nights though, as it means I'm now home for the kids when they get home from school. Mum won't be around forever and Owen will probably want an after school job when he gets older, so he won't be able to watch Kirstin.

And there's my big boy now, studiously ignoring the little book behind him. I don't know what Mum was thinking, discussing a romance novel with a 6 year-old!

Speaking of romance, I think Owen might have a little thing going with Naomi Novak. It's kind of sweet. They went on a date the other night. Naomi is two years older though and will be heading off to college soon so we'll see where it goes.

We will have to end on a sad note now, because my mother died recently, aged 79. She's lived such a full life since coming to Sullivan as a teenager. I was expecting her to go but it was still hard to have to break it to my brothers.

Not to mention the kids. They took it really hard, as Mum was really close to both of them. She has had as big a hand in raising them as Julian and I have.

We let them take a day off school the next day - they would have been too upset to get much work done anyway.

Random pic:
Just thought it was cute to see Jonah and his grandson Caleb out for lunch together.

Notes:

• I love that I'm getting some teens paired up this round. It feels like forever since I've had proper teen couples (as in two playables). I just looked back and it hasn't quite been forever but it hasn't happened since the Hanna and Augustin/Ben and Caterina era. Which, in Sullivan years, was about 20 years ago! I'm hoping these couples last - there's a lot of Romance Sims. Naomi, Anna and Emil are all Romance.