The importance of being idle

Round 16: Days 76-80

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Narrated by Linnea Lane

I went into labour in our teeny tiny bathroom on Saturday morning. Everybody was home but only Debbie was able to squeeze in to coach me through birth.

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Nuthin's ever gone be the same again

Round 14: Days 66-70

last update/Debbie and Linnea's last update/next update

Narrated by Linnea Lane

Debbie and I have finally graduated from Suffolk and have moved in with my parents. It's kind of a drag, so we take advantage of any privacy we can get. There was no bed for us when we moved in, so the closet had to do!

I spent most of the first few weeks at home alone though, so I filled my time with lots of jogging and tai chi. Everyone else was working but I just couldn't find anything interesting.

I did eventually decide I wanted to entertain people though and found a job as a mime! I've worked my way up to ventriloquist now - my career is so much fun!
Getting a good job was exciting but even more exciting was my proposal to Debbie.

She was thrilled, of course. We started planning right away.
Mum started working on her mother of the bride speech right away. Considering I didn't think marriage was a big deal to her or Dad, I was kind of shocked she was so enthusiastic about the whole wedding thing. I guess the most shocking this is that we're not having speeches or toasts anyway. I hope Mum won't be too disappointed.

Lucky Debbie had the wedding to focus on at home because she was seriously bored at work. She was helping out with experiments at the lab and somehow didn't find it challenging to have to choose between red and blue pieces of liquorice.

The night before the wedding, I took Debbie and Mum on a jog to make sure we all slept really soundly that night. Dad probably should have come too - he's porking up a bit lately!

At last, it was time for our big day!

When we started walking over to the chapel, we were very happy with our choice of venue. Not only was it the cheapest but it was freezing cold outside - the chapel is heated!

Dad was first inside the chapel. We have become pretty close of late, after me feeling quite neglected by him, pre-college.

Ah! We were finally married! We had quite a large guest list and not all of them could even fit into the chapel! Athena did come, but she was late and missed the ceremony. Not going to mention exactly what I think of that, but suffice to say, I was not impressed.

I sent Dad out for a weather test - if it warmed up a bit, we were all going to go outside and socialise. But no, it was still cold and there was a thunderstorm brewing. That's good luck, right? Gah, don't tell me otherwise!

So the manager of the chapel let us have our mini-reception inside, as long as we didn't make a mess. I was a little worried that Leo and Filippo were going to break something with their kicky bag but they promised to be careful!

Oh, yeah...this girl. I still have no idea who she was but she seemed to know Leo quite well. Debbie was about to go over and ask her to leave when she told us she could get us a discount on our rent. Well...nice strategy. We couldn't exactly ask her to leave after that!

So instead, Debbie and I just sat at the back of the chapel, watched our guests and chilled out for a bit. It had been a long day, we were both in heels and we'd inexplicably decided go to the chapel on foot, so we had a lengthy walk ahead of us.

Random pic:
Galen actually visits Drusilla all the time but I thought it was a bit suspicious that he happened to visit while Debbie was the only one around one day! He's probably trying for a conversion (which can't happen if you're wondering - all my gay Sims are very, very gay)!

Notes:

• I've been taking family portraits of each household at the beginning of each round, so I thought I'd use them at the beginning of each update. I might turn them into paintings or photos for the game if I'm feeling spectacularly unlazy one day.
• Linnea's the only Sim I've had roll a specific want to woohoo in the closet.
• I considered having less traditional wedding gowns for these two but succumbed to the princess dresses in the end. I'm glad I did, because the poufy dresses are always fun.
• Neither of these two have the want to adopt a child yet but it will be forced on them sooner or later - I never let my Sims remain childless! I might consider mixing their genes and artificially inseminating one of them to get a biological baby too. I'm curious what kind of child they'd make.

Too careful

Round 13: Days 61-65

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Narrated by Drusilla Clarke

Ever since our daughters left home for university, Floyd and I have been enjoying our increased privacy.

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All mine

Round 13: Days 61-65

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Narrated by Ben Nihill

It took us long enough but Caterina and I finally found an apartment we were happy with. It's in Exeter and has 2 beds and 2 baths. We weren't planning on kids just yet but the second bedroom would come in handy for something.

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Porcelina of the vast oceans

Round 12: Days 56-60

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Since her recent promotion to manager, Drusilla had been hard at work trying to earn her gold badge in pottery. She didn't have a wheel at home, so she read about different techniques on the internet instead.

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Men's needs

Round 12: Days 56-60

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As usual, Magdalena's friend Araminta had come home with her after school. After Magdalena finished her homework, the girls spent most of their time giggling and dancing to the stereo in the dining room.

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Girls & boys

Round 11: Days 51-55

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Exeter, Sullivan's downtown area, had recently undergone a major facelift. Many of the old apartment buildings were demolished and replaced with new ones. One of them was the complex where Drusilla and Floyd were raising their girls. Because of this, they moved into one of the new buildings on the same street.

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Sunken treasure

Round 11: Days 51-55

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Isaac was still continuing his affairs with the various women he'd meet at the restaurant he worked at. He usually didn't see them more than once.

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Snow day

Round 10: Days 46-50

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Linnea, perhaps disgruntled over being the less-favoured twin in her father's eyes, continues to wreak havoc in the Lane household. The rug will help.

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Sleep startles

Round 9: College

(Collette and Charlton)

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As soon as Collette and Charlton arrived at their dorm, they started making friends and doing their coursework immediately. They were determined to succeed at Suffolk.

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Hoodoo voodoo

Round 9: Days 41-45

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Over at the Lane household, Floyd has been left in charge of Athena and Linnea while his girlfriend Drusilla is at work. Unsurprisingly, he's not as quick as Drusilla to stop the twins fighting.

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Shake some action

Round 9: Days 41-45

Last update: Nelson and Gina/Emmy

Next updates: Gina/Emmy

Emmy is the latest resident at Twilight Senior Living Complex.

She's not sure how she'll like it here. She only vaguely knows Gina and has never met Nelson. Amazingly, given how often she drops by on everyone uninvited.

She's on the phone to Pascal here and she looks a little concerned. He's just moved into his first apartment and is all alone. He's the baby of the family.

Emmy's good friend Vincenzo drops by the next day. I made it a point to make Emmy friends with all the influential people in Sullivan (as a Criminal Mastermind) and the Mayor's husband would be pretty influential.

Not sure what Nelson was trying to do here. Nothing romantic because Gina was right there and didn't get upset. Whatever it was, Emmy didn't have a great first impression of Nelson.

She consents to a game of Mahjong anyway.

Meanwhile, at the Clarkes, Nelson rushes outside when he sees Floyd Lane, his daughter Drusilla's live-in boyfriend, pass by. They've never met, so he's not going to give up this opportunity. Weirdly though, considering it's 11:30 in the morning, Floyd tells Nelson it's getting late and he should head home. Right then.

Looks like Nelson's time has run out though and he never will get a chance to interrogate Floyd.

Gina was really upset - much more upset than any other grieving spouse I've seen. She sobbed for ages.

Best friend Noelle feels it's best if she stays a while to make sure Gina is okay and that she eats something. Similar to what I did with Emmy, I tried to make the Clarkes friends with all the Bohemian social group townies.

She's a good friend. Kind of a homewrecker but a good friend.

Finally, a funny:
You'll need to click that to read it (and I just realised I forgot to crop it, so you can see my lovely messy desktop in the background). I'd never seen that memory before and thought it was quite apt for Galen!

Notes:

• I confess that I skipped through much of this session. I played Emmy for 2 days and then aged her 3. Then I went to the Clarkes, aged them up 2 days and played them for 3. The whole old folks' home thing is not working for me - it's not making them any more interesting. Next rotation, I'll probably move Gina and Emmy in with their Romance Sim sons and they can make nuisances of themselves in their apartments. I'm going to go back to keeping the oldies with their families, as I've done in previous hoods.

When you wake up feeling old

Round 8: Days 36-40

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Looks like Drusilla and Floyd's womrat, Patches, is trying to make a break for it.

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Mr and Mrs Benton

Round 8: Days 36-40

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After Xanthia's graduation, she and Stan move to suburban Sullivan, an area new to the both of them. Instead of buying a home, they opt to rent a townhouse (the purple one, to be specific) in the same complex as Kristina and Alexandra.

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Drusilla makes a "friend"

Round 7: Days 31-35

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Meanwhile, just across the road, Nelson and Gina's daughter Drusilla has moved into her own apartment. She's actually living downstairs from Steffi and Anton Collins.

She finds money to be much tighter than she expected, so she places an ad for a roommate. She randomly (or, I randomly) picked Floyd Lane. Here's another instance where I'm glad I take notes because I'd completely forgotten this guy's name. Hey and there's Steffi heading off to work in the background.

Drusilla and Floyd become friends very quickly.


Poor old Curtis Marley isn't so lucky. Floyd does this all the time, and they're now enemies. I expect a dust fight any day now.

It doesn't take long for things between Floyd and Drusilla to become romantic.

Coming back from his errands one day (in his PJs), Floyd finds that Curtis has decided to stand up for himself.

And that the landlord isn't too happy about Floyd harassing his tenants.

So once Drusilla asks Floyd to officially move in, they decide to get away from it all with a trip to Cape Elizabeth. Floyd brought $9000 with him, so they could afford it easily by then.






Sunburn aside, they have a great trip and return much more relaxed.