Thursday 9 January 2014

Don't steal our sun

Round 35: January 2041
last update/next update
Moretti 1 household profile
Caleb Moretti is 59 and Cara is 51. 
(Nick is 38, Sarah is 36, Anthony and Veronica are 24, Thomas is 10, Ryan is 9, Catherine is 7 and Alex is 2.) 

Narrated by Caleb Moretti


I’m so happy with how my catering business is going. I was able to expand it recently and it’s been great.


We moved to a new site - much larger than the old one - and I have a proper-sized kitchen now, unlike the shoebox I had before. 

It took some work to get it like we have it now. It was overrun with cockroaches when we moved in. 

But with a bit of time and not a small amount of money, we were ready to go.

I’ve also hired someone - Amber - to run the register for me, which is such a load off.

I can spend time doing what I love instead, which is cooking and baking.

I like to meet the customers as well, so I occasionally come out and do a few sales pitches too.

Speaking of customers, they were very happy to have us open again. We’re the only catering business in town, so some were lost without us.

I work pretty hard at Delizioso, which makes me feel like I’m neglecting Cara sometimes. I try to make it up to her with semi-regular date nights.

It’s a nice opportunity to relax and talk about our weeks. As a doctor, Cara keeps herself pretty busy at work as well.

Last time, we ended up talking about babies, of all things. Out of the blue, Cara asked me if I’d ever regretted not having more children.

Seeing Cara was the one who wanted to stop with Anthony and Veronica, I was pretty surprised!

She remembered that all too well but admitted that lately, she’s wondered if we should have had a third together.

I wanted another when the twins were still small but I think we made the right decision. Our house was tiny and we were in no position to move. 

Still, I’ve been missing having someone to care for here at home lately and thought maybe Cara was too. So I adopted us a puppy.

I thought for a moment Cara might actually be angry, seeing I didn’t really discuss it with her first. But fortunately, she was taken with little Jessie right away.

She won’t be little for long; her parents are both larger dogs, so she’ll be a decent size one day. Right now though, she’s tiny. 

We love Jessie but neither of us are really loving the puddles we find in the kitchen every morning. 

She’s a smart dog though and we’re hoping she’s housebroken soon. 

The grandkids adore the puppy. Nick and Sarah have a dog at home but she’s pretty big.

Being able to pick Jessie up and carry her around is a novelty for the kids.

Even Alex is being very gentle and careful with her. She’s probably the only creature he’s come across smaller than himself.

The kids are all off school right now, so they’re full of stories of how they’ve been spending their time.

Thomas is already keen to go back to school, with about three weeks left of the holidays!

Nick has promised him he can join the school soccer team this year and he can’t wait to start.

Ryan’s going to join as well but he didn't seem nearly so desperate for the holidays to end!

Our place is too small to have everyone over at once, so Anthony and Veronica usually don’t visit with Nick and his family. I don’t mind having a bit more one-on-one time with them, without the chaos of four little kids running around.

Anthony is still working at the video game store and Cara is still valiantly holding her tongue about it. 

She wants him to get something with a bit more opportunity for advancement but she’s hoping backing off a bit will encourage him more than nagging has.

He doesn’t seem to be making any moves yet but he doesn’t seem quite as adamant about never needing a real job.

I think he’s starting to realise that although he got off to a very good start financially, that money has mostly been sunk into the house now. Eventually, he’s going to need more.

I think he'll probably get bored eventually as well, but I'm not saying anything. He'll work it all out for himself in time, like I did. 

Veronica has finished her Masters and is still teaching. She’s put a lot of time and effort into it, so she's not likely to move on any time soon. 

She wants to make herself known at the high school, with the hope of becoming principal one day. She’s the most junior there so she has a long way to go, but that’s her dream. 

Veronica loves telling me about her job but she clams right up when it comes to her personal life.

That’s a domain only for her mother, apparently. She's never liked talking to me about guys; she thinks I'm over-protective. 

She told Cara that she is dating someone. His name is Chris and he’s an architect, just a few years older than Veronica.

She said neither of them wanted to label things or get too serious but Cara seemed to think it sounded like that was coming more from Chris’s side than Veronica’s.

On Veronica’s end, she was quite enthusiastic about this guy. He’s handsome, he’s smart, he’s interesting, he’s so much fun. She says she wants to keep things casual but everything else she was saying indicated otherwise.

Cara gently suggested Veronica might feel more than she was letting on but of course, Veronica dismissed that immediately. 

I don’t like this guy already, personally. I don’t like the idea of someone stringing my daughter along and to me, it sounds like that’s what’s happening.

Cara thinks I should be more laid back about it. If Chris and Veronica do end up making something of this, she doesn’t want there to be any bad blood between us.

And if they don’t, she’s confident Veronica is intelligent enough to make her own decisions about what to do. 

I know she’s right but I still can’t say I’m too keen on this Chris guy at the moment. 

Notes:
  • Title is from Don't Steal Our Sun by The Thrills.
  • So I'm loving that my sims talk about memories/wants/gossip in speech bubbles. These are a few shots from Cara and Veronica's chat in the kitchen. 




   They were definitely talking about romance, weren't they, lol? I wasn't expecting this but when I      brought Veronica onto the lot and made her selectable, her panel was full of wants for Chris. I don't  think she's ever been the type of Romance sim (she's Knowledge/Romance, actually) who rolled a  whole bunch of romantic wants for multiple sims but I wasn't expecting her to latch onto Chris this  fast either! Makes me wonder what he's thinking!
  • I did the career criteria thing on Anthony and he actually doesn't fit into a whole lot. He's even a fairly poor fit for Slacker, which is the career he wants to reach the top of for his LTW. He is a perfect fit for one career though, so I think I might let him do his LTW and then I'll let him move into this other career. 
  • When I loaded up this lot, Cara and Caleb had rolled the want for a baby. Not unusual for Caleb - he's a Family sim, after all - but fairly significant for Cara, who is Knowledge/Popularity. I often ignore the baby wants from my empty nesters but seeing Cara didn't even roll one when she was in her childbearing years (remember that my non-Family sims in Sullivan 1.0 never rolled baby wants), I thought I'd write a little something in. Caleb wanted a puppy, so I tied it into that. 
  • Trivia Tidbit #1: Jessie was the name of my childhood dog, who we had to put down when I was 20.
  • Trivia Tidbit #2: Sim Jessie is the offspring of Nick's dog Christy and Veronica's dog Clancy. So she's going to look like a chocolate lab like Christy, a collie-type thing like Clancy or an unholy mix of the two!
  • Max and Zaria are next up!


14 comments:

  1. I like Caleb's new business, it looks very nice.

    You've written Cara's baby-want in very well! It's a good thing that Caleb was able to convince her they made the right choice years ago. I think they have a nice family the way it is :)
    I love the puppy! It's going to be interesting to see how he turns out when he's older!
    I always love your family gathering. And I think it's a good thing they don't have all the kids over all at once, I think it's going to be a little bit too busy having them all together.

    I recently did the career thing on my new teens, and with some of them I had a ton of options, while with others it was a lot harder to find a suiting job. I'm really curious which is the job you've found for him after reaching his LTW.

    I'm also curious to see how things will go between Veronica and Chris :)

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I don't think I changed much about Caleb's business when I redecorated. It was a few months ago now, so I can't quite remember!

      I came across a few other older entries while writing the household profile for this family and Cara was always very adamant about no more babies, so the want was a surprise! It also seems natural, now that Caleb and Cara are alone at home. Alone with Jessie now. :) She's a cutie.

      Anthony is the first sim I've done this career thing on who only got a 5/5 for ONE job! My sims always fit at least two. So typically Anthony to be difficult about this kind of thing, lol!

      I don't know about Veronica and Chris either. Last time I played him, he wasn't as enthusiastic as Veronica curently is but then, she wasn't either! This is all quite new! So we'll see, when we get to Chris. Or when we get to Veronica, I can't remember who's up first. :)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  2. I too wonder what Chris is thinking, it's good that Anthony is realizing that he will need to make money to continue to live, lol.

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    1. I'm sure Caleb and Cara are wondering too. We'll see soon enough.

      Heh, Anthony is not especially keen on working but he's not stupid. Eventually, he'll have to get a real job and he knows that. :)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  3. I like it when middle-aged sims have weird wants/fears. It adds some flavour to the game, I suppose. :) In my hood Karen Chaplin have had a persistent fear of having a baby for several rounds now, which is odd since her youngest is a teen and she's nearly 50. Heh.

    I'm interested to see where things are going between Chris and Veronica though I totally get her parents being sceptical.

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    1. Yeah, weird wants definitely add a bit of interest! I think I remember you saying something about Karen's fear of having a baby. Perhaps she heard about Araminta in my hood, who had a baby at 52. ;)

      I'm pretty curious about Chris myself. If he does want to get serious with Veronica, he might have some work to do to get on Caleb's good side!

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

      Delete
  4. Maybe Cara will love it when Anthony or Veronica become parents. She'll be able to satisfy her need for a baby without having to raise another one. Granted, it might be a while but at least it's something.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I'm sure she will. She's already quite experienced with step-grandparenting and she loves Nick's kids. :) Intellectually, I think she appreciates being able to send them home, though the Moretti kids are pretty well-behaved as far as kids go!

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  5. A puppy is certainly a good substitute for a child! ;) You even have to potty train them, haha.

    I really think Cara will make an excellent grandma. Caleb, too, of course... but that's a given. I hope Veronica's love situation doesn't turn out badly for her. Caleb may be right to be a little worried about that one!

    Reading about your businesses always makes me long for the days of Open for Business. It just doesn't work the same in TS3. Sigh!

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Too true! You don't have to pay for puppies to go to university though, which is a plus!

      I think Cara will be an awesome grandma too. Plenty of practice already, with Nick's kids and I just think Cara is pretty cool in general. I'm curious which twin will make her a grandma first!

      I don't think Chris is the kind of guy who goes over too well with the dads, so it's no surprise Caleb's a bit worried. I think Chris will settle down eventually (all my sims seem to want to, eventually) but whether or not it will come soon enough for Caleb's liking, not to mention Veronica's, is another story!

      EA really dropped the ball with businesses in TS3. All those half-assed buggy Store releases and poorly thought-out expansion content. I'm kind of curious to see what it's like to run a resort though. It's not an option I've explored at all. I'm not getting my hopes up though. ;)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  6. Ah the puppy is adorable! I love its giant paws! I am also curious what it will grow up to look like, because they can turn out really adorable and realistic, or really wrong. I think it's sorta sad that Cara finally rolled the baby want, I do think their family worked out really lovely, but still.. a baby want! If she were in my hood she'd still have a chance though, Delaney was 52 when she got pregnant with Lizzie. ;)

    I really like Caleb's catering business, I really like that you put the appetizers in there because that is the one thing I'm certain to buy when we visit friends/family.

    I can see why Caleb isn't thrilled over the prospect of Chris, but I have hopes that he is settling down, and if anything, all that work is making him a dull/tired boy. ;) Plus he has a really great family, and I know Caleb would approve of them, and it's also why I have faith that Chris will be good once he gets older. Both are still young enough to keep enjoying themselves anyway. And how cute was Veronica and Cara's conversation? Totally a Mother-Daughter moment there.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Yeah, I've seen some weird looking sim dogs! Actually, I'm a bit worried about that, because I'm not sure how much I'll be able to edit her, if she's super weird. Hopefully I can make her look okay just with some fur colour changes, if need be!

      The baby want is a bit bittersweet for Cara and Caleb, I suppose. If only she'd rolled it 10-15 years ago. ;) But financially, they couldn't have swung a baby back then, so it was probably for the best that she didn't. A baby is definitely still a remote possibility in Sullivan too - Araminta had Elspeth when she was 51, I think!

      I was so excited that you can sell the appetisers! I see platters like that for sale all the time at the supermarket deli, so I was glad to put it in game. It's just the kind of thing you might buy if you were having a party, especially if you're not very cuisine-inclined!

      All that is true of Chris. I'm sure he'll want to settle down one day, I just don't know when that'll be. Veronica kind of surprised me this round, being so singled-minded about Chris. No marriage or engagement wants yet, so she's not that serious!! But still.

      Loved Cara and Veronica's conversation - it really made me happy. I don't see Cara as a Cool Mom (thinking of Amy Poehler in Mean Girls right now!) but I see her as fairly open and honest and someone Veronica would be happy to talk to about that kind of thing. :)

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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  7. Guess you don't want a repeat of Araminta, LOL! She was the same age when Elspeth was born.

    For them, with their age and jobs, a dog is a much better option. Hopefully Cara will be satisfied. You did a great job of addressing it.
    It's nice to see how close they are with all the children, and I loved to see Veronica and Cara at the table discussing Chris. I can see Caleb not liking him too. :)

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    1. Yes, she was! I don't want a repeat for Caleb and Cara, in any case. I didn't mind so much with Araminta, as their kids were younger than Nick, Veronica and Anthony are. I think Ione was 19 and Finn was 13. Nick is 38!

      I didn't lock the baby want, so I expect it will roll away! I think...I've so rarely dealt with a non-Family sim baby want that I'm not sure if they tend to stick around or not. Regardless, she's going to have to content herself with Jessie anyway!

      Chris is going to have to really impress Caleb to get on his good side now, assuming he ever deigns to meet him! Caleb is very suspicious of him!

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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