Round 26: Summer 2024
last update/next update
Narrated by Tate Benton
I went into the restaurant one evening to find that my waitress, Virginia, had left us high and dry. Customers were lining up, Vanessa was trying to seat them and there was no one to serve them.
Seeing she gave us absolutely no notice that she was quitting, I had no choice but to call Zelda and ask her to fill in. She wasn't happy, as she'd planned to work on her novel that night, but she came down to help.
We had to put out an ad as soon as we could and it fortunately didn't take long before we hired Viola.
We found out Virginia is now working at the Claudette and they're welcome to her! I hope she's a more courteous employee for them than she was for us! Viola is working out very well for us so far, so we're pleased.
I don't think anyone is happier than Zelda. We had Josie's old bedroom turned into a study for Zelda. She wanted somewhere quiet so she could write; she was getting too distracted in the living room.
With the amount of books she has, she really needs her own room for them. They were beginning to take over the bookshelf in the living room.
Maybe it's the novelty but the boys have been using Zelda's computer lately and one of them always seems to be on it as soon as she goes to use it! She's talking about putting a lock on the door!
So Zelda's had the boys' rooms redone too, in the hopes they'll keep out of hers.
Their old rooms were really much too childish for them for the past few years. Jack still had an activity table in his that he hadn't played with since he was 6 or 7.
Jack and Charlie both love their bedrooms now.
Josie is living only a few streets away now, so we're hoping that will mean more visits. So far, so good.
Zelda and I were so proud that she graduated with a 4.0 GPA and I think she was pretty proud of herself too, as she should be. She'll be starting medical school in the spring semester, which we'll be footing the bill for.
I couldn't believe it when she told me how much it was going to be! For the four years, it will total $32,000, which is more than some families earn in a year! We're all just fortunate that our family is in a position to be able to do this for our kids and that sending Josie to med school isn't going to break the bank.
When Josie starts to get really busy with med school, I hope she remembers who's paying and still makes time to come and see us!
Josie is much more open about Troy than she was about the last guy. She talks about him all the time, whereas we never even met the last guy.
Zelda is thrilled. I think she was more hurt than she let on that Josie never even introduced us to Will.
So Josie's opening up again but now we've got Jack clamming up.
He's really perfected the whole sullen teen act.
He'll start talking if you keep at him but it takes a good amount of effort to get anything more than a grunt out of him sometimes.
Charlie never stops talking, so maybe his brother will take a leaf out of his book sooner or later.
Jack's a good kid, so I'm hoping it's just a phase. He and Charlie still get along great.
Most of the time, anyway.
Charlie and Jack have both just started high school but Zelda and I are both hoping we still have a couple of years before any sort of girl drama starts.
I think Jack might be a bit keener than Charlie is. He's always bringing different girls home from school, though none of them seem as interested in him as he is in them.
I don't think much of Julia, the girl he's been hanging around with lately. One minute she's perfectly friendly and the next she's mouthing off.
She doesn't seem to care that it's not her house, or that I'm her elder. She just says what she likes.
Charlie seems content to be a kid a little longer. He hangs out a lot with Audrey Lachance but that's not really anything new. Audrey has been close to both boys since they were little.
Audrey's a really sweet girl and always has been. When Charlie's ready, we wouldn't mind if he started dating Audrey one day. Not too soon, though! Zelda and I aren't ready yet!Extras:
Oh, I had a feeling there'd be trouble with Audrey and the Benton boys!
Sigh. I'm not pretending it didn't happen or anything but Tate likely wouldn't have seen it and this happened near the end of play (within minutes, seriously), when I'd already written my notes from Tate's perspective.They both have chemistry with her and I think it's quite close. Can't remember the attraction scores but they each have two bolts with Audrey, without matching turn-ons.
Notes:
- Title is from ATM (Longitude and Latitude) by Local H.
- Yet another ROS! Zelda rolled the "Renovations! - a total makeover for one room of your house" event. I planned to do a study for her as soon as I rolled it but the boys' rooms were in severe need of makeovers as well. Tate and Zelda have plenty of cash, so I let them go crazy. ;)
- I was talking about Tate's missing waitress yesterday and I discovered it was apparently my fault. I can't remember hiring Virginia at the Claudette but I guess I did! LOL. Let's blame it on her being an untrustworthy worker though. Remember when she woohooed with Leo Draper and then wouldn't even kiss him? The girl's a nut job.
- Jack almost never talks during meals. I was waiting for a shot of all the family engaged in the conversation when Josie was over but I never got it. Jack was silent through the whole meal. He's being sulky.
- This was the first round where I actually noted down Zelda's royalties. She sold two novels this round and earned $3410 for the first one and $2963 for the second. WTF, Sim publishers? This is a prolific author! She's written 5 novels in this house alone and at least another 3 when they were living in their little unit, all those years ago. I'm going to keep at it though and see if it's possible to get very much over $3000. I saw a screen cap of a figure close to $16,000 once and I want to make it happen for Zelda!
Lol, good luck with the Bentons! Josie and Troy, Audrey and Charlie and Jack, novel writing over $3,000... you've got your work cut out for you! :P
ReplyDeleteWow...Audrey. There is going to be some serious trouble, hopefully one of the boys will find another girl.
ReplyDeleteI like the makeovers-wow, a video game in your room. Talk about spoiled! :P I'm surprised she didn't just get them their own computer so they'd stay off hers.
LOL! I'm like AV, I was looking for their own computers, too. hahaha!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful makeovers and I just love looking around all your rooms whenever I read an update...just beautiful wallpapers and decorations in all of them!
I hope Zelda can one day get that big royalty check she's working so hard for! That would be awesome!
You worked it in well about the waitress quitting...I've always been afraid that I would accidentally hire someone else from another sim-owned business, but I don't have as many Sims as you, yet. :P It's still kind of hard to make that mistake.
Tessa, fortunately, Josie and Troy aren't giving me any trouble. They're just all cute and in love right now. This Audrey/Charlie/Jack thing is headed for love triangle territory though! I only have a rough idea of where I'm going with it though.
ReplyDeleteApple Valley, I know, I'm seeing the fireworks already! One of the boys will have to find another girl eventually. They can't share her! I almost made a reference to another Sim story but it's a pretty big spoiler if you haven't read it. If you have read it, you likely know which one I'm talking about.
The video game is one of the only things left in Jack's room from its first incarnation. He's a Games Sim and yes, he is spoiled. But I rarely put computers in the bedrooms of children or teens, actually. I like them to have a desk for their homework, so desk space in the bedroom is usually reserved for that.
Simmington, there's a computer down in the living room, which I have rarely seen Charlie use! He either wanted to get on Zelda's nerves or he was attracted by the "oooh, shiny", just because it was new!
And thank you! That's a huge compliment coming from someone who is such an amazing decorator!
I hope that screen cap I saw wasn't due to a hack. I know there's a novels earn more money hack but I'm really loathe to download anything to make making money easier. It's already so easy! Zelda's writing skill is apparently 8, according to InSim, so I guess I'll watch to see if that gets any higher too.
Heh, most of my glitches seem to be caused by me. I don't know why I hired her, because when you see the Sims in the hiring list on the phone, it tells you what job they have and with the phone is the only way I ever hire. It would be understandable if I hired Sims in person but I never do. Anyway, Virginia is happy at The Claudette, Viola seems happy working for Tate, so I guess everything worked out okay.
You were right about the impending love triangle with Audrey and the Benton boys! It could turn ugly if one of them doesn't find another girl.
ReplyDeleteI think it would be great if the royalties became bigger once the author has published a few books. 3000 isn't much for a full-time writer.
A love triangle between brothers, oh, my! I hope this doesn't turn sour and they are mad at each other until college. LOL Silly kids and their hormones.
ReplyDeleteLoved the make overs! And a video game in your room, well I should say an arcad machine. And I though I had it made when I was little because I had a super nintendo and a sega. LOL
Uh-oh! Looks like there might be some serious drama coming up soon!
ReplyDeleteMy Suzie has written several books now and from what I remember she's still making around $3,000 per book. :( I'd love for her to get a big royalty check since she's been writing for many years now.
Um, Tate dear, I bet there are households that don't make more than 35,000 in a lifetime! (At least in my hood).
ReplyDeleteWow on the Benton boys and Audrey... this could cause some strife for those boys if they both plan to pursue her. I'm interested in where this story line will go particularly, and I'm also curious what's going on with Jack's mind.
The makeovers turned out fabulous. LOL on the nut job that is Virginia. I remember that with Leo Draper.
Oh hey... do you mind? Happen to know WCIF Viola's hair and Julias? Viola's hair is like mine when I happen to bother cutting it, and I'd love to use it. And I just like Julias/Ione's cause it's purty.
Sari, yes, I've seen the Charlie/Audrey/Jack thing coming for about 4 years, actually! I didn't plan it, I was just pretty damn sure it was going to happen!
ReplyDeleteNo one would bother writing books if you could never make more than $3000 from them! I'm not a fan of a lot of things about TS3 but I think the novel writing system is better in that game. The royalties increase with skill and they come every week for 6 weeks.
Riverdale, these sort of situations are so ripe for trouble, aren't they? I was planning to do the next Lachance-Weaver from Dominic's point of view but I think Audrey might be pushing her way in now!
So jealous that you had a Super Nintendo and a Sega! We never had any gaming consoles but Dad was an early adopter with computers. He had his first one in the late 70s, so we always had games to play.
Shana, LOL, I'm kind of excited!
And thanks for the info on Suzie. I was planning on asking you about her next time you did an update on her family, so I'm glad you weighed in.
Maisie, Tate's never wanted for anything in his life - his family were rich too, though not as rich as he is now. So he may have a skewed perspective on finances!
Neither of the guys has spun up any wants towards Audrey and neither of them even had the first kiss want. Audrey did have the first kiss want and after she kissed them, she fell in love with both of them. I InSimmed that away because I think it's silly to fall in love after one kiss (unless that's the story I'm going for!) but when I checked Audrey later, she had the want to Fall in Love with Charlie.
Viola's hair is by Adele and Julia/Ione's hair is by Mikexx2 at MTS. Julia's hair looks pretty much like mine does when I bother to straighten it so it looks all shiny, LOL!
The renovations look great- I like the shelves above the desks.
ReplyDeleteAnd you really dealt with the restaurant crisis easily - when my businesses begin to get angry customers, I completely panic!
LOL that both boys had their first kiss with Audrey! Homegirl needs to calm down a bit!
I liked seeing Josie, and wow, 4.0????
bbop, the shelves are actually part of the desks, which is handy. I can never seem to find shelf add-ons when I need them, seeing every creator seems to put them in a different category.
ReplyDeleteThe restaurant crisis was mostly smoke and mirrors. I hired Viola as soon as I went in. I then had Zelda come in very briefly just to get that picture. No one was getting served when I took the Novaks there though and oddly, no one seemed to mind. They were all just sitting at their tables, happily sipping water and reading menus listing food that would never come!
It's the boys who need to calm down; they kissed Audrey, not the other way around!
Yup, our Josie's a smart one! She was very close to getting a full scholarship but her Pleasure secondary didn't push her to study as often she needed for that.
I very rarely put computers in kids' and teens' rooms either, Carla. The makeovers were so good! I was surprised it was a Random Event thing.
ReplyDeleteThat is weird about nut job girl. I wonder if you were hiring late at night?
It will definitely be fun to see how you develop this love triangle. she does seem determined to fall in love with Charlie.
Love triangles are never good! Especially when brothers are concerned! I loved your make-overs of the rooms! I have a question: How do I join N99? I am completely confused on it.
ReplyDeleteFrancesca, oh, probably! I do a lot of my Simming late at night.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to playing through this whole mess too. Fun!
Mizzgin03, I know, this sort of situation is just ripe for hurt feelings. :/
For N99, once you've signed up for a Yuku account, you should just be able to log in and go to http://starlightsims.yuku.com/ and hit Apply for Membership. I don't think you have to write anything in the box (I'm a mod, not an admin, so I have nothing to do with applications) but you can just write where you heard about the forum, if you like. :) If you let me know what user name you're using, I can have the admin keep an eye out for it. It might speed up the process if I can vouch for you.
I did that and a message came back that said the Admin only accepted messages from friends, which is when I asked you about it. Shortly after posting that, I got an email saying my application had been accepted lol.....so it was easier than I thought haha. I'm mizzgin03 on there.
ReplyDeleteEther I have too many hairs in my game, or I had the case of gimmie-gimmie-new-shinies, cause I already have Viola's/Adele's hair in my game. Duh.
ReplyDeleteI wish I could do my hair like Ione's though, soo pretty. I see it's based on a Kate Hudson do, and well I'd be pretty happy to have her hair.
Mizzgin03, oh, good, I'm glad you made it in finally! The application process can be confusing - we get a lot of people asking about it on behalf of friends. I think I was confused myself when I first joined (all the way back in '01!)
ReplyDeleteMaisie, no such thing as too much hair, so we'll blame it on the shinies! LOL.