Tiny spark

Round 26: Winter 2023

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Lake Draper is 66, Kendal is 47 and Chris is 8.
(Patience Draper and Calvin Clarke are both 21, Rob Ashton is 22, Rose Draper is 28, and Zelda Benton is 48)

Narrated by Kendal Draper

Our new house is smaller than our old place in Exeter but it's absolutely beautiful. The fact that it's smaller makes it feel a little less empty. But it's definitely drove home the fact that we won't be having another baby, which I'm still feeling a little wistful about.

Chris seems pretty happy as an only child (well, he might as well be an only child anyway, seeing all of his siblings are so much older), so maybe it won't be so bad. He really loves the pool here, even though it's really too cold to swim right now.

In fact, the only thing that's really wrong with this house is how cold it seems to be. We never had this problem in Exeter but we've had to put radiators in the bedrooms. We shiver under the covers if we forget to turn them on.

Chris isn't bothered by the cold, nor is his friend Edward.

Regardless, I'm trying to encourage indoor activities for the boys. I wouldn't mind them playing in the snow if they always remembered their coats or if they didn't stay out so long, but they'd stay out there all night if I let them. I don't want anyone getting sick!

We now live across the street from a nice little cafe where I meet up with Zelda on my days off. She writes full time now, so her hours are more flexible. Zelda was one of the first friends I made when I moved here but we haven't found the time to catch up lately. I guess if things keep going well between Troy and Josie, we might end up being something like family.

Tate and Zelda went on a family holiday last spring and took Troy along, so they could get to know him better. I'd only heard about it from Troy's point of view, so I was so glad to hear that Zelda thought it went well too. I already know Josie pretty well - she was almost a part of the furniture at our house when Patience was a teenager. I can't say I ever saw her with Troy but I'm thrilled he's found somebody.

It would be nice if he'd call his mother a little more often though. I usually have to call him and forget about getting a visit! He's "too busy". Whatever he's busy doing, it's not studying.

I pester him about his grades all the time but I can practically feel him rolling his eyes through the phone line. He figures as long as he's passing there's no problem. It'll be so much easier for him to find a job after university if he's got a good transcript though and that's what I really worry about.

Calvin's the complete opposite of his brother. He visits as often as he can and he's made the Dean's List every semester so far. I wish some of his influence would rub off on Troy.

Lake is glad to be living so close to Rose again. It's so easy for her to drop by whenever she likes now and we see her most days.

The relationship Rose and I share is something in between friendship and a parent-child dynamic. We've never shared a living space so we don't have the same kind of bond that I was able to develop with Patience. Whatever our bond is, it's something I really cherish.

Speaking of Patience, she's going to bring her boyfriend Rob over to meet us and I'm so excited! I've heard so much about him from Patience and I'm dying of curiosity. I've already squeezed all the information I could out of Troy. Even though their girlfriends live together, Troy's only met Rob briefly a couple of times.

Lake's not looking forward to it as much as I am. He says he's withholding judgement and he's not going to get excited until he knows there's something to be excited about.

I keep reminding him that he was the one who wanted Patience to find someone while she was away and now that's what's happened.

He's saying he's going to give the guy a chance, so I have high hopes for this dinner.

He says he just wants to make sure Rob is "good enough" for Patience.

So much for giving Rob a chance. The looks Lake was giving Rob during dinner...he wasn't frowning or glaring exactly but it was almost like he was trying to stare him down or something.

I shot Lake some looks of my own during our meal but he kept it up. I think Lake was a little put off by the fact that Rob didn't seem to talk much to him at dinner but then Lake wasn't really making an effort there either.

I did talk to Rob during the meal. I think he might have been intimidated by Lake or maybe just a little shy. I really like him. He's smart and once he gets talking, he's very friendly.

Obviously, they're at least serious enough about each other to do the whole family thing and they are very sweet together. Rob seems like a very genuine guy.

Lake was a little better when we retired to the living room after dinner, asking Rob questions about law school and everything.

Still, some of the looks Lake was firing off at Rob while he was speaking!

I don't blame the poor guy for being nervous.

After Rob and Patience left, I was sort of annoyed at Lake for being so hard on him.

Lake didn't want Rob to think he could get away with anything, so he decided he'd present a tough front, at least at first.

Which is so silly. I'd rather wait for a reason to be hard on Rob, instead of pre-emptively making things difficult for him. I did get Lake to agree to ease up next time we see Rob, so I hope our next get-together goes a bit more smoothly.

Random pic:

In Comments the other day, a few people brought up the fact that the snapdragon bouquet behind Lia in one of the pictures kind of made it look like she was farting flowers. That, in turn, reminded me of this picture of Victoria and Finn, which I have dug up by special request for Maisie.

Well, what does the dog care, right? He needed to go! I didn't notice the dog while I was playing. It wasn't until I went to use this picture in the update that I saw it and thought maybe there was another picture I could use instead.

Notes:

• Title is from Tiny Spark by Brendan Benson.
• Oh, man, this was all game play, pretty much. Kendal was very keen to chat with Rob but Lake didn't talk to him at all during the meal and when he looked at him, he was always so serious. I guess he doesn't want anyone breaking his daughter's heart again but I think Patience may be better equipped to handle a break-up now. She was 14 when Jacob dumped her and she's 21 now.
• The family portrait was taken in the whole 6 Sim hours I played this house before getting hit with the slowdown bug. Nothing was popping up with testingcheats, so I just moved them. I was getting kind of sick of that house anyway. It had hardly been changed at all since well before Ottilie died and it was much too big for such a small family. I like this house better anyway, now that I've played with it. There's space for two cars (because Kendal and Lake would have two cars) and the layout is less open. I'm not a fan of huge rooms, generally and the rooms in their old house were all quite large.