Two-headed boy

Round 20: Winter 2011

last update/next update/Rose's next update

Lake Draper is 54, Rose is 16 and Patience is 9.
(Kendal is 35, Joanna is 16 and Calvin and Troy are both 8)

Narrated by Lake Draper

Things just haven't been good at all in our house since Ottilie died. Rose misses her mother and she's furious at me because I've been dating again. I started dating much too soon for Rose's liking.



It's not that I don't miss Ottilie, because I do - every day. I'm just happier in a relationship than out of one, so as soon as I felt ready, I found someone else.

Kendal has been the only thing, apart from the girls, making me happy these days and to me, that can only be a good thing. Rose doesn't see it that way at all.

She won't even eat breakfast with us at the table any more, preferring to stand at the fridge picking at things and drinking milk out of the cartoon.

Patience seems to be handling Ottilie's death a bit better than Rose but she's very quiet now. She's usually very outgoing and cheerful and I haven't seen much hint of that recently.

I wanted to take Kendal out to dinner, so I had to ask Rose to babysit Patience for me. She almost completely ignored me, as is usual these days, when she's not arguing with me. I heard a murmur that I translated as an "okay" though, so I went to pick up Kendal.

We had a lovely dinner at The Claudette. It's a little expensive but it was absolutely worth it.

As a couple, we've been doing well and I really wanted Rose to get used to the idea. It wasn't too late and I knew Rose would still be awake, so I decided to bring Kendal home with me.

Kendal tried her hardest to be friendly to Rose and Rose...well, she was civil at least.

The next day though, Rose was very upset. She's still not okay with me dating, not in the slightest and she definitely doesn't want me bringing Kendal around here. I was going to invite her out with us that day but I (correctly) guessed she wouldn't be interested now.

I thought it might be good for Patience to come and play with some other kids though and when I told her Kendal had two boys around her age, she agreed to come to the park with us.

It was a bit too cold for the park, really but the kids had fun. Kendal and I sat ourselves on a bench and supervised them while they played.

I confided to Kendal that I was a little worried about money. Ottilie's parents were reasonably wealthy and left us a lot of money that we have in savings. Lately though, I'm having to dip into the savings almost every day, just to get the bills paid. It's amazing that the $1750 a week I make gets eaten up so fast.

Kendal is very worried about Rose. She's one of those people who wants people to like her and she's really trying with Rose but she's not making much headway. Rose is a really nice girl, under normal circumstances, but she's gone through a lot and Kendal just can't take that personally.

I've started thinking about the age difference between Kendal and me, which never really struck me before. I'm done having kids and I'm almost positive I don't want to get married again. Kendal is still young though and I don't know what we'll do if she decides she does want to try one, the other or both again.

When we got home from the park, I couldn't find Rose. I looked in every room of the house before finally finding her in her grandparents' old bedroom, making out with her friend Joanna.

Or at least, I thought they were just friends. They scrambled apart pretty fast when I walked in. I think we were all shocked but none more than me. I had no idea anything was going on between Rose and Joanna. How could I not know? How long had it been going on?

That night, I was stunned when Rose actually deigned to join me at the dining table (Patience was at a sleepover). I don't know if she was hoping I wouldn't punish her about sneaking Joanna over while I was out or if she was just ready to stop fighting. Or both. She was very quiet but she wasn't scowling at me, which was a nice change.

I had the day off the day after that and the girls had a snow day, so we got to talk a little more. I hope this is all a good sign for the future. I want our relationship to be back to normal by the time she leaves for college.

Random pic:
Awww! I've been playing with different animation and pose objects today and discovered I can now set up the consolable cry when I need it! The only time I've ever had it happen organically in Sullivan was when Tatiana had her miscarriage. I think it's triggered only when the Sim is crying and their mood is in the red and it's pretty rare that my Sims' moods get that low (miscarriages force mood to drop drastically, if you're not one who uses that part of Inteen).

Anyway, this blog is still definitely driven by my gameplay (as opposed to a set story I've got in my head) but sometimes things happen in gameplay that a regular picture doesn't represent, so I've been using poses and reshooting certain things quite a bit lately.

Mac and cheese at The Claudette? Kendal, honey, they serve better meals there, really! And Lake wanted pancakes. I'll have to see if Adam has the money to buy this place so he can set up the menu! It won't stop them from wanting mac and cheese but they won't be able to order it and ruin my pictures.

Lake was a little too late if he had hoped storming into the bedroom had stopped Rose and Joanna from going all the way. They'd already done that two days earlier.

Notes:

• During this session, Lake had the fear of marrying Kendal and the fear of having a baby. They'd roll away and then back again. So far, Kendal hasn't wanted to marry Lake or have a baby so right now, they want the same things but we'll see if it changes in the future.
• Kendal got a really sweet want (well, two sweet wants) after she came back to the Draper house after her date with Lake. After a little while interacting with Lake, she rolled up the wants to "Talk to Calvin" and "Talk to Troy". It was like she was telling me, "I've had enough of this dating stuff for now, I want to go home and see my boys!"
• Up until now, the game considered Lake and Ottilie and Samson and Kendal to still be married. I had to use "Nuke Dead Romances" on the Lot Debugger to get the game to recognise that their spouses were dead.
• Rose has four scholarships so will definitely be attending college with Joanna. I'll show them both in the Summer 2013 birthdays post and they'll start classes in Autumn 2013. Those two feel like they've grown up so fast, even considering they age a lot slower under this system.