Narrated by Madelyn Novak
James and I caught up with Kendal and Lake over dinner the other night. James can be a bit tight with money sometimes, so it's been a while since we've been out to eat.
Kendal's son Troy and his wife just had a baby and she and Lake are just thrilled about it. Jude is Kendal's first grandchild and she's having to restrain herself from going over to visit every single day.
It's been a nice distraction for her from thinking about Chris going away to college next year.
Lake's looking forward to having the house to themselves but Kendal wishes Chris would stay at home for a few more years.
We had a great time at the Claudette but all night, I kept wondering if I was maybe a bit strange as a mother. I've never really felt sad at the prospect of my kids moving out of home. I love my boys but I've never wished to have them living with us forever.
James feels the same way. We have much more time to ourselves now but it's not like we never see our kids any more.
Ethan has his own house now, which he bought with his girlfriend, Maia. I'm very proud of him. He's been saving for a long time, before he even knew how serious things were with Maia.
We paid a visit to them recently and took the tour. You can really tell Ethan is proud as well.
James and I first met Connor's girlfriend Audrey at Aaron's wedding. When Connor comes home now, he usually has Audrey in tow.
I really love Audrey. We could talk all day, I think. She's such a sweet girl.
His last girlfriend was quite different, so I was surprised when I met Audrey. I know James finds them an odd couple as well.
But they seem happy together and that's all that really matters to me.
James and I were both so excited to be able to move to a smaller place once Connor left for college. It's only a few blocks away from our old house but it's a nice change anyway.
It's very peaceful and quiet without any teenagers around.
There's a little less peace and quiet lately, since I bought us a dog, Waldo.
He's quite the troublemaker and James wasn't thrilled that I'd brought him home at first. He's a little charmer though and it didn't take too long for James to warm up to him.
Things are perfect for us here at the moment.
Or they would be, if not for James and Max and their feuding.
Our newspapers started going missing every morning and James was annoyed about it. He really likes his morning paper. James caught Max in the act and was not happy.
Stealing newspapers is pretty silly, considering Max has more than enough money to buy his own newspaper. I just couldn't get myself as worked up about it as James did though.
Max thought the whole thing was pretty hilarious, which just made James fume even more.
Of course, it doesn't help that Max keeps taking the paper.
Had I not kicked him under the table, James probably would have brought up Max when we had Aaron and Calvin over. As if they care about petty neighbour squabbles between middle-aged men.
There are plenty of things I'd rather discuss with my son and son-in-law.
Thankfully, James dropped Max as a topic of conversation and we ended up having a very nice evening with the boys after dinner.
They're not talking about kids yet but they're starting to look into buying a house. It's expensive, so they're not sure when it's going to be a possibility for them. Calvin is a bit like James with money, so they want to save up.
After the boys went home, I was hoping I'd heard the end of the whole Max thing. But James brought up the newspapers again right before bed.
I finally just had to tell him to let it go and get some sleep. It's so childish and I was sick of hearing about it.
That must have finally done it. The next morning, James said he was feeling a little silly over the whole thing.
I'm hoping that means he's going to be at least civil with Max now. He lives so close by and James is on the council with his wife. It's for the best that they get along. Extras:
I love my downtown! I almost always take street view pics every time I send my Sims down there. 
I shared this on Twitter but for those you who didn't see it, here's Megan rejecting a hapless young townie who tried to flirt with her!Notes:
- Title is from Under Cover of Darkness by The Strokes.
- Sneak preview of Ethan and Maia's house. It's kind of spartan at the moment; they had about $500 left when I was done, so more decor will have to wait. I'll have to go in and hang some photos on the wall - that'll make it look a little more lived-in.
- James rolled the "PMS" ROS this round - to annoy a walkby 6 times. In the end though, it sort of wrote itself. Max stole the newspaper two days in a row and James caught him on the second day. But then the day after, James rolled the want to be friends with Max, so I guess he's over it now. ;)
How funny that Max is stealing the newspaper! Of all the things! I'm glad he's not going to let this form a lasting feud.
ReplyDeleteI adore Maia's new place, super cute! I really like the placemats on the table, it reminds me of a table i saw in real life that was stone on the center piece. I was hoping at first that your table was like that! But the mats really make it work. I really like their new home, and the living room colors are so soothing, perfect for this couple.
Maisie, it is pretty silly! Mean Sims just love newspapers, apparently! James can be a bit of a stick in the mud but he's ultimately too nice to let it get to him for too long.
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'm glad you like Ethan and Maia's new place. It's a bit bare but that will change soon, hopefully.
I think I'm going to have to use placemats more often! I left the kitchen/dining area mostly as is because I liked it so much.
Thanks for reading!
LOL! I love how you wrote the PMS ROS in this update, it was very funny seeing the middle aged men squabbling :)
ReplyDeleteWell, IRL men can be quite petty even when they don't realize it lol. I literally lol'd at the townie flirting with Megan. Obviously not a good idea! I love your view of downtown too!
ReplyDeleteApple Valley, I'm glad you liked it. It was nice to write something a little lighter, after Patience and Rob's update.
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading!
Mizzgin03, LOL, that's very true, though I'm sure men would say we can be plenty petty as well!
That poor townie...he didn't know what he was dealing with!
Thanks for reading!
I like what we've seen form James and Madelyn's place, it looks very pretty, and I would love to see more of Maia and Ethan's place :)
ReplyDeleteThat "fight" between James and Max is so funny! But something a man could really make a huge fuss out of it :)
It's nice when sims write their own stories, sometimes they do co-oporate with their players :D
Tanja, I'm glad you like the new house. I'm not sure when we'll next see Ethan and Maia's place. Maybe not until their next update, which will be next round! But there'll be photos hanging on the wall at least then. ;)
ReplyDeletePoor James. The guy needs to chill a bit, which it seems like he's going to do now. It was nice of him to sort out this ROS for me!
Thanks for reading!
LOL! The newspaper issue is just so funny, and the fact that he kept griping about it is so realistic. Yay for Maia and Ethan's new house!
ReplyDeleteRachel, it was a bit Larry David of James to be so upset about a newspaper! I think there was even an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm when he was upset about the same thing. But James is going to do the non-Larry David thing and let it go. ;)
ReplyDeleteThanks for reading!
Oooh, those placemats are neat! They really do add so much to the room! WCIF?
ReplyDeleteAnd I love how you have James and Madelyn talking underneath the covers! How did you do that?
I'm full of questions today, lol!
And LOL @ the townie! He's have better luck with almost anyone, I'd imagine ;)
Laura, I'll have to get back to you about the placemats. I'm going to check in game - they actually came with this house. I'm hoping there's some info in the catalog because I want to download more of this creator's stuff!
ReplyDeleteJames and Madelyn under the covers is a trick I read about recently that I'm still perfecting. The tutorial is here:
http://tomwood1906.livejournal.com/1346.html
Mine didn't turn out quite right and I had to play with clone stamp a bit. I'm going to keep working with it.
That townie was so persistent! He did manage to become friends with Megan and he got a friendly hug for his efforts. But then he tried flirting with her and got shot down...again. LOL.
Thanks for reading!
Okay, I checked the placemats and the info says they're by Simaddict99. I'm 99% sure that's a TSR creator.
ReplyDeleteI think you've just shown that empty-nesters don't have to be boring, which is a good thing since in a couple of rounds I'll have plenty of those. I liked this update a lot.
ReplyDeleteTheir new house looks really great and I also loved getting a glimpse of Ethan and Maia's house. That "fight" between James and Max is so funny, kind of reminds me of my uncle who seems to get into fight with his neighbours all the time over small things.
Thanks for the link to the "clipping be gone" tutorial. And you're right, Simaddict99 definitely is a TSR (pay) artist.
Sari, thanks, I'm glad I've somehow managed to make the idea of playing empty nesters not boring! To be honest, I often still scramble to give them something to do but it usually seems to work itself out once I start playing!
ReplyDeleteLOL at your uncle! It must something with men approaching their twilight years, because I do know some men who would be likely to get into this sort of argument as well.
I'll have to try out the clipping be gone tutorial again some time; looking at it again, I definitely missed some steps! I was doing it from memory, which was kind of silly! And thanks for the confirmation on Simaddict99.
Thanks for reading!
LOL I was wondering what got into James. I didn't remember him being so pissy about stuff like that. But I forgot all about that ROS. I really like Ethan and Maia's new place and Madelyn and James' new place looks great, too! And it's nice to see that Audrey and Connor are still going strong. An odd couple but I guess it could work. I guess I'm still holding out on Audrey getting with one of the Benton boys (even though one has a lot of baggage right now.. oh and has a girlfriend LOL.)
ReplyDeleteHa! That townie didn't have a chance! He's lucky Megan politely turned him down and didn't rip his head off, or scold and lecture him in front of everyone!
Thanks for the link to that tutorial and getting the info on those placemats. I have a lot of Simaddict's stuff but I don't think I have any placemats. That tut will come in handy. I was wondering how you did that in the pics.
Danielle, with James, it's more that things need to be a certain way and he doesn't like changes to that, rather than being a generally pissy person. If everything's going the way it should, he's happy.
ReplyDeleteLOL, yes, Charlie and Jack are both currently otherwise occupied but we'll see what happens in the future.
I can imagine Megan being kind of like Mrs Crumplebottom, so yeah...townie boy got off easy!
You're welcome for the links. After Sari confirmed Simaddict99 was a TSR person, I went nuts downloading all the recolours of that placemat, as well as a couple of other placemats she's done. And cushions. ;)
Thanks for reading!
James and Madelyn are such an attractive couple, and there's nothing boring about empty nesters! LOL about the newspapers! Honestly, I think that would annoy me too.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link about the clipping. I usually just throw one of jonesi's blankets over them, but this is an interesting process.
I love the placemats too. I recently found some that came with an invisible table which works so much better than trying to line up glasses and bowls on a table with an OMSP. And they're pretty!
S.B., not any more but I did once find empty nesters extremely boring! I think now that I feel like I know my Sims so much better than I did when I started this thing, it's easier to write about them.
ReplyDeleteHeh, the newspaper thing would annoy me as well. I mean...they're free in the game, so stealing them is just jerky. ;)
You know, I've never used Jonesi's blankets for anything like this! I don't know why I never thought of it, because I've used them in hospital scenes before. I'm glad to have a couple of options for talking in bed scenes. It's so much more realistic to me if they're under the covers.
I definitely try to avoid OMSPs where I can, so these placemats are really great! I don't know what they're cloned from but the Sims just put their plates right on them. I'd love to find a more formal setting, maybe with a champagne flute instead of a tumbler.
Thanks for reading!