Tuesday 22 June 2010

Woodgrain

Round 27: Summer 2026
last update/next update

Mina Lachance is 76, Abigail Carmody is 43, Jesse is 41, Mitchell is 7 and Austin and Lauren are both 5.
(Nick is 23)

Narrated by Abigail Carmody

For the last several months, I've been feeling really on edge. I've been so nervous about Nick and this whole paternity test thing with Adrienne. A few days after the baby was born, Nick received the results and found that he'd been excluded as the father. These tests are supposed to be completely accurate and I couldn't be more relieved.

Nick's still a little bit down right now. This whole ordeal was emotionally exhausting for all of us but of course, Nick felt it the most.

He's picking up a little every day though and he's starting to see why not being the father isn't such a bad thing.

Nick really wants a family one day but he knows this wasn't his only chance. Raising a kid alone is tough and Nick would have had it harder than Caleb and I did.

Adrienne is giving the baby up for adoption and I'm not convinced she would have wanted to be involved if it did turn out to be Nick's. I know that's not really how Nick pictures his life when he thinks about having a family one day.

Mum is on his back to get a jump start on that. Every time he comes over, she asks him if he has a girlfriend, or if he's started dating again yet.

I don't blame him if he's a little nervous about getting back out there. Secretly, I kind of hope he doesn't take too much longer. I'm not going to bug him about it. Mum's doing a fine job of that already.

Things have been a bit crazy around here recently and I feel like I'm shouldering all of it. Since Jesse started working for Jonas, his hours are much better. Yet when I get home at 7pm, dinner isn't made, the house is a mess and I have to do everything.

Half the time, the kids haven't started their homework and all three of them are sitting in front of the TV playing video games.

That's really fun for me to try to organise, especially with Austin's whining.

Jesse adores the kids and vice versa but lately, he's been doing all the "fun" stuff with them, while I get stuck with the rest.

If I ask him to do the littlest thing to help out, like pull up the bedspread, he whines about it like a 5 year-old.

And then he has the nerve to try to get all romantic with me afterwards, when I'm dead tired from doing everything around here.


That's if you can call butt grabs in the kitchen romantic.

Mum and Dad always made their marriage look so easy. She always says marriage takes work, but it never looked like that when I saw my parents together.

I keep venting about Jesse to Mum and finally she told me that maybe I should talk to him about how I'm feeling.

I probably should have waited until I wasn't so pissed off at him though. Once I was done, it didn't feel like it was a particularly productive conversation.

Maybe it worked though. The next day, he got Mum to watch the kids and insisted on taking me out to dinner. I was a little suspicious that he was just sucking up to get out of trouble.

That wasn't it at all though. Jesse actually sounded like he was really sincerely sorry about letting me do everything lately and he admitted he'd been very lazy. Lazy even for him, which is really saying something!

Jesse and I used to go out to eat all the time but it had been so long. I didn't realise how much I missed it. We ended up having a really wonderful time.

Until the stupid waiter spilled a salad over my head, that is.

He was falling all over himself to apologise but ugh...there wasn't really much else he could do.

I tried to ignore the fact that I smelled like salad dressing and enjoy the rest of the night.

When we got home, I felt so much more relaxed! It was a nice change from how I've been feeling lately.

Jesse made dinner for the whole family the next night and I'm hoping this is a sign of him turning over a new leaf.

He didn't exactly do a great job but he tried, at least. It's the thought that counts!

The soup was revolting but I choked it down. I don't want to do anything to discourage Jesse from helping out around here!

Notes:
  • Title is from Woodgrain by Wilco.
  • Jesse and Abigail's marital issues were caused by a very weird glitch these two have with ACR. It's been happening for at least a few rounds now and I can't really figure it out. Their attraction score is displays as 0, even though their relationship panel icons still show them as 3-bolters (their score should be 138). Anyway, it results in their romantic interactions being rejected sometimes, even when their moods are high.
  • I haven't really written it in before now, because it didn't seem to be following any sort of pattern I could make sense of. But this round, Jesse was rolling hardly any romantic wants for Abigail and when he'd autonomously flirt with her, she'd reject him. I had her yell at him and a couple of hours later, he rolled the want to go on a date. So he took Abigail out to dinner and all of a sudden, they were all over each other again. And he made dinner autonomously the next night.
  • When I had Nick over, he had rolled up the want to talk to Adrienne. Who he doesn't even like any more. Poor Nick...he's too nice for his own good!

17 comments:

  1. Haha, I love how Nick has managed to sneak his way into,what is it now, three updates? maybe that aren't his :P I love him though, so I really don't care!

    I'm glad that Abigail and Jesse worked it out, I was a little bit nervous there for a moment, but then it all got better, yay!

    The kids are so adorable! Almost as adorable as Nick! Haha, just kidding, they're equally as adorable :P

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  2. Aw, Nick looks like he needs a big hug from his fans. ;)

    I can see why Abigail was getting really annoyed with Jesse! I'm glad he finally got the hint and started helping out. Maybe soon he'll figure out how to cook the soup without burning it, lol!

    I had some weirdness with ACR in my last round. Some of my Sims were having their One Sim randomly changed to someone else--someone that isn't even the right gender. Sinjin kept rejecting Audrey's flirts and when I checked his stats, he suddenly had Waylon Menon as his One Sim. Um, what?? As far as I know, Sinjin and Waylon don't even know each other, not to mention the fact that neither one is attracted to men, lol. It kept happening to a few other Sims also, so I ended up having to set all of those Sims so that their One Sim won't change on its own anymore.

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  3. Wow, ACR is acting up for everyone. My ACR is doing the whole "0" attraction score, but it's a good thing since it's bewteen a teen and an adult (even though I have adult/teen interactions enabled).

    Huggles for Nick, he is going to be a good father one day. I'm glad she snapped on Jesse, sometimes you just have to let your feelings be known.

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  4. Nick is such a sweetheart, which reminds me I want to go back and download him now that I'm home.

    That's a relief that Jesse and Abigail are reconnected. It was pretty true to real life the way you wrote it up, I know my husband has had his fair share of "Fun" stuff, while I've done the "nag" stuff to the kids. :p Poor Abigail though, finally getting out of the house and having the salad dropped on her head, then burnt soup the next night. Sometimes it just doesn't work out! (Off screen, I had Grant take Leah out to dinner after the miscarriage, and she had food dropped on her head too! It's like the wait staff knows when you are having it rough!)

    Odd on the ACR, I haven't noticed any issues with mine.

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  5. Thanks for your comments, everyone!

    Tessa, well, he was in his own update, Adrienne's update, Caleb's update and now Abigail's! He'll possibly be in the next update too, with Adrienne's parents. So it could be five by the end of this. This round is quickly turning into Round Nick!

    I figure it's about time some of my Sims have marriage problems. They don't seem to happen very often but that's partly my fault. I don't watch their wants closely enough once they're married. It spices things up a bit when not everything is perfect with every single family.

    Wait till you see Lauren as an adult (she'll probably look similar as a teen). I think she turns out super-pretty.

    Shana, Nick could probably use a hug right now, poor boy!

    Jesse's kind of a big kid but he's 41 now and it's about time he started taking some responsibility and doing some not-so-fun stuff. He's been leaving it all to Mina and Abigail but Mina won't be around forever and if he had kept up this crap, Abigail mightn't have been either! He's only got one cooking point, which is pretty amazing. Before he married Abigail, his various roommates were doing all the cooking.

    And OMG, the same thing happened with me with ACR and I think it was with Abigail! Her "One" changed to some random townie girl (Abigail is totally straight). I should check that again. But even if that's happened again, it shouldn't really affect her score with Jesse. Hmmm.

    Apple Valley, not just me then! I wonder what causes that and if it can be fixed.

    Nick will be a great dad, when his time comes. I can't wait to see Nick with his kids!

    Maisie, it makes me smile to think of Nick walking around in other people's hoods. Apple Valley showed a picture of Nick and his "brothers" at N99 and I got a total kick out of it.

    Fingers crossed Jesse and Abigail continue on this path. He was really being kind of an ass this round! I'm glad it seemed realistic enough though. I worry about some of my updates and this was one of them.

    Poor Leah! I've definitely noticed my down-on-their-luck Sims seem to always get salad dumped on their heads. It happened to either Max or Zaria when one of them was going through a bit of a tough time several rounds ago.

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  6. That ACR weirdness has me a little nervous. I'll have to keep an eye on mine. But at least it changed the pace a little bit for them and got them out of their rut. I liked how you handled it. Sometimes you really need to put your foot down. I learned that much so far.

    *Gets in line to give Nick his hug*. At least he's finally realizing that he's MUCH better off NOT being the father of the baby. And maybe he wants to talk to her to make sure she's doing alright giving the baby up. He *is* too nice for his own good.

    I'm still trying to decide when I'll put Nick in my hood. I don't want to start him off as an adult because I don't want him to get old too fast lol.

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  7. OMG, isn't that the truth!? My hubby's dinners are never amazing, but dammit, if he's going to cook, then I'll pretend to love it, lol!

    Oooh, that sounds like some aspiration bug I had once. Try reseting their aspirations with the in-game head-fryer thing (do you know what I'm talking about? lol!)

    Hope you can work things out for them!

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  8. Whew! And I'm caught up, lol! Now to catch up on all the other blogs I'm hopelessly behind on ;)

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  9. Danielle, yeah, the glitch gave me a little something extra to write about this time, so I didn't mind so much! I do hope to get it fixed eventually though.

    I think it took Nick finding out that he was NOT the father for it to really sink in that it's probably for the best that way anyway. While he still thought there was a chance he was the dad, he wouldn't have let himself consider the possibility that his life might be easier without a baby dragging him down at 23.

    I'd probably just make Nick a teen townie. And I'd make him 12, so he was as young as possible, to maximise the years you get with him. OR make him a toddler, and have one of your couples adopt him. But then you might get a little impatient waiting for him to grow up!

    Laura, yay, you're caught up!

    Well, we have to encourage domesticity wherever it occurs, don't we? Even if it means eating something revolting every now and then.

    Oooh, you know, I haven't tried that head fryer (I totally know what you're talking about!) I tried re-doing their turn-ons and turn-offs, to no avail, but I'm definitely going to try out this aspiration thing. I'll report back on how it works out. It might help Shana and Apple too.

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  10. Okay, that last picture, lol! OMG I love the little one's look. It's like he's thinking, "Can I even eat this?"

    Abigale doesn't look any better either in that shot, lol.


    Jesse looks cute with his hair cut, surprisingly. I adore that other mesh you used on him for a while, but I guess he is getting older now and needs to look a bit more mature.

    Funny how this entry was basically born from game play. Love when things work out so perfectly like this that they actually make sense with little help from you!

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  11. Carla - Slightly off topic, but last night I was thinking about what townie teens to send to high school with Lexi and Sam so that they're not the only two students at the school and I remembered Nick. :D So I downloaded him and added him to my game as a twelve-year-old. And I might be hoping that he and Lexi have some chemistry together so I can marry him into a playable family one day. ;)

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  12. I think I probably will make Nick a 12 year old. Depending on when I get a school up and running, I may put him in in a few sim years so my current children can hang out with him or I'll wait until my next generation is born. That seems so far away, though! Actually, it IS far away. No one is pregnant so even if they got pregnant now, it'll be 12-13 sim years before they'd be ready for high school.

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  13. Lunar, LOL, isn't that funny? Austin really does look like he's turning up his nose at it, almost. Abigail's got just a little bit more tact.

    I forgot this is the first Carmody update since Jesse got his hair cut. I actually did it when Nick graduated. I'm used to it now but it took me a while to become accustomed to him. I do love that old mesh!

    For a non-writer like me, having an entry write itself just from game play is always very welcome!

    Shana, ooh, how exciting! I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that he hits it off with Lexi!

    Danielle, I keep forgetting that your hood isn't yet at the point where you're overrun with kids and teens! It's fun to hear what you're all thinking about doing with Nick though.

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  14. It's good that Jesse is taking more responsibility. I hope it's not just a one night thing and that he continues to help Abigail out. She's had enough stress with Nick's situation! I'm glad that it's all solved now and he can move on.

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  15. Sari, Abigail hopes so too! They're both slobs but Abigail is very active and Jesse is super lazy, so she's more inclined to get things done than he is. But yes, this whole family has had plenty to worry about over the past several months. Adrienne's drama has infected so much of the hood!

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  16. Yet again: Sorry for the late response!!

    I understand how Abigail feels about Nick not beeing the father, starting a family shoulb be when you have a stable relationship, and even then it can be hard!
    It's good Jesse and Abigail got through their differences, they are such a sweet couple!

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  17. Tanja, no need to apologise!

    Abigail knows how difficult having a baby at a young age is more than most Sims, so she wasn't keen for Nick to go through the same thing.

    From the way they started out, I wouldn't have expected Jesse and Abigail to be a favourite couple of mine but they are.

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