Tuesday 9 February 2010

Happy frappy

Round 25: Summer 2021
last update/next update

Adam Gottlieb is 66, Athena is 61, Amelia is 32, Wade is 31, Sophie is 8, Noah is 3 and Emma is 6 months.
(Evan is 32, Lia is 24)

Narrated by Amelia Gottlieb.

We've been in our new house for a few months now and it's wonderful being back in Sullivan where I grew up. The house is amazing - Adam's started quite the wine collection now that we have a place to store it all!



We got all new furniture for the move and ended up accidentally leaving Sophie's water wiggler behind. She was heartbroken, so I spent the first few days in the new place making a new one for her.

She does love it though, especially now that it's summer. Playing with it is the beginning of her afternoon routine. She usually has one of her cousins over with her (she's got 10 of them!) and lately it's been Anthony.

Then she does her homework.

Then piano practice - Athena is giving her lessons.

By the time she's done all that, Wade is home from work and she's out with that damn sprinkler again! I don't mind, because Wade plays in it with her and he honestly needs to hose himself off after work before he comes inside!

Athena's new home office is much better than the one at our old house, which was really just a converted bedroom. She had it designed especially for the purpose, so it's working out well for her.

Athena's not in charge of drawing up plans for new construction but she does often have to approve them, so she had a drafting table put in to make it easier. There are a few new projects the city has planned and seeing next year is an election year, she's hoping she'll win another term so she can see them come to fruition.

The first is a major renovation of Exeter Library. It's been pretty pathetic for a while now and it really needs an overhaul.

Lia Novak is the new, rather idealistic, librarian there now though, and she's been really pushing to get some improvements made and Athena has agreed to start discussing what they need.

She's very busy, seeing she's still working as an attorney as well as being the governor. She's grateful for any bit of time she gets at home.

Adam retired this year and let Max Nihill take over his show, so he's home a lot more during the day now.

He's the primary caregiver for the kids until either Wade or I get home from work and he just loves it.

In the evening, he's still running The Claudette.

It's at about Level 5 now, ten years after opening. Restaurants can take a while to get off the ground but the diners seem to really like it when Adam has Steve Rider come in and play piano. He brings in many more people than normal on the nights he plays.

Adam's not yet at the point where he wants to pass the restaurant on but honestly, I'm hoping he doesn't ask me. I think it's something that needs to be your passion and food is mostly a job for me. I don't think I could deal with uppity waitresses quitting in the middle of their shifts, like what happened to Adam last week! He was totally calm about it, and just called one of the other ones in to cover her shift but that would have driven me insane. I don't think I have the right temperament to own a business!

Sophie though...I bet Sophie could do it, when she's older. She constantly wants to hear about my work, and Adam's work and she just talks about cooking all day long. She's a lot more even-tempered than I am, so she might be able to deal with that sort of unprofessionalism!

My brother Evan just found out he and Ione are expecting twins and he's kind of freaking out about it.

I think it's made us both start thinking about Mum a lot - she would have had plenty of advice for Evan, whether he asked for it or not! But you know, she did raise two sets of twins, so she probably knew a little about it. I've been trying to reassure him but I really don't know anything about raising twins - just being one!

He's been practising a little bit with Emma, but think one six month-old is probably not a very close comparison to newborn twins! Better than nothing though! Despite all his nieces and nephews, Evan actually has close to zero experience with babies.

Speaking of babies, I think Wade and I might actually be in complete agreement on the issue, for the first time in our marriage!

Sophie was a huge surprise and Emma was unexpected too. We planned Noah but Wade took so much convincing to have a second.

I don't want to say never but I think we might be done and I know Wade definitely wants us to be done! Maybe a few years down the track, I'll want another but for now, I'm enjoying not being pregnant or thinking about getting pregnant!

Extra:
The meeting between Lia and Athena was originally supposed to take place at the house but for some reason, Lia just would not sit in the chair across from the desk while the computer was there (why? Is it the desk? I've definitely had Sims sit in dining chairs across from computers before). So she and Athena went on an outing to the library instead, after which she decided she was in the mood for a little dancing! I love that she autonomously decided to dance but she's still not very into it!

Notes:
  • Title is from Happy Frappy by Guster.
  • I love the Gottliebs' new house! It's this one, if you're looking for a really nice playable house for a large family. It's only two levels, which is a nice change from the five (yes, FIVE!) storeys of the house I initially had them in!
  • Steve autonomously started playing piano at the restaurant, which is cool because he's a Music and Dance Sim. I think of him as a violinist but I'm not cross at him for playing the piano instead, because most people I know who play strings also play piano, so it seems to fit. No room for a piano in his tiny apartment though!
  • I ended this play session with the Gottliebs and Amelia was not pregnant, nor did she have a baby want! This is a first since they got married!

13 comments:

  1. Their new house looks wonderful! Thanks for posting the link. I need bigger houses for Allerdale and that one looks really nice.

    I was wondering what on earth Wade does for work if he needs to be hosed before coming inside?! It all makes sense after I checked his profile LOL!

    I just can't get over the fact how wonderful The Claudette looks. So luxurious!

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  2. Oh I love their new house! I appreciate you sharing the link to it. You've decorated it beautifully! I especially like the kitchen and the wine collection, very nice touch.

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  3. Thanks for your comments, guys!

    Sari, I really didn't think I'd find another house for the Gottliebs as quickly as I did but Grey Gardens is really beautiful. And it didn't take me half as long to decorate it as the other one did!

    I wish I could link you guys to the Claudette as well! I definitely got it from MTS but I couldn't find it last time I searched. :\

    And yeah, Wade's job is a little smelly. Amelia has voiced her opposition to his job before but seeing he has no wants to earn the skills he needs to be promoted, I guess he's happy and she's learnt to live with it!

    Simmington, you actually didn't even see the kitchen in this update! That's the dining room where the wine collection is - it's really huge and it looked odd with just a table stuck in there, so I figured Adam might be the type to enjoy a fine wine. And now he can!

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  4. As always I'm impressed by that your restaurant is going to smoothly.
    At Zanobi's they are in desperate need of help, but the restaurant doesn't make enough money to hire some, so it's Lucas and Sophie, but it's hard!

    Their house is amazing! I can imagine you would look for an easier house to play, after trying a 5-storeys house!

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  5. Tanja, I actually don't even know if The Claudette is all that profitable but the Gottliebs are so wealthy that it doesn't really matter much! I do think restaurants are a lot of fun though!

    And thank you! I don't know why I even tried five storeys - it was pretty crazy and as I decorated it, it just seemed more and more ridiculous! So I abandoned it completely. It was kind of a shame, because I did like how it was turning out but it would have been too hard to play.

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  6. She has homework? But I thought that it was summer? Do you have the hack that gives students summer vacation? I think Pine Hollow has the link on her site.

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  7. LaToya, thanks, I know about that hack. :) I made a conscious decision not to use it because here in Australia, kids are not off school for the entire summer. Their summer vacation lasts for about 5 weeks (they also have 3 other two week breaks throughout the year), which is really not long enough to bother with a hack to represent it. So my kids go to school in the summer.

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  8. I like year-round schooling (that's what they call it in the U.S.); I wish more schools do it. I guess because you're in Australia, their summer break would actually be in the winter, right? Since the seasons are switched?

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  9. LaToya, heh, all schools do it here so we don't have a special name for it!

    The kids here have a 2 week break at around Easter (our autumn), a 2 week break in July/August (our winter), a 2 week break in September/October (our spring) and then 5 weeks at Christmas, which is in summer here.

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  10. Their new house looks great! I really like Athena's office, so bright and open.

    Evan is cute practicing on the baby... I agree though, newborn twins is nothing like a 6 month old.

    Are you planning on having Sophie take over when she grows up?

    Are we voting for the election? :D

    Side topic, I can never wrap my brain around opposite seasons... I get the concept of it. But the whole Christmas in the summer just makes wires pop in my brain or something. LOL.

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  11. Maisie, thank you! Athena's office is my favourite room in this house.

    Poor Evan is pretty nervous about his impending fatherhood and I don't think he's kidding himself thinking caring for Emma will be anything like caring for his twins. That's going to be much more insane.

    As for Sophie taking over the restaurant, yes, probably. I considered it for Joanna, who is also Cuisine, but she's very independent and I think she'd probably rather start her own, if that's the path she chooses to take.

    If I can work out the polls thing, you guys will be able to vote in the election. Also, if I can manage to decide who'll run against Athena. I haven't even thought about it yet!

    I hear a lot of Americans saying that about our seasons and it's kind of funny, because we don't have the opposite problem here! It's because we get so much American media that Christmas in winter seems quite normal to us!

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  12. The house is very nice, I wish it was smaller so one of my simmies could move in. Apple Valley's terrain is so tiny that the largest lots I use are 3x3. LOL-the first time she wasn't pregnant, giving birth or had a baby want. Wow.

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  13. Apple Valley, ooh, yeah, your terrain is quite small, isn't it? Most of my lots aren't any bigger than 3x3 either though, come to think of it. More for playability than to conserve space though.

    And yeah, Amelia has been pretty keen for babies since she got married but I think she might be done, finally!

    She'll roll up a baby want next time I play her now that I've said that!

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