It is week eight in the Lazlo household, and they finally have walls. I was trying to be conservative with the family funds because Adaeze has the Swimming in Cash lifetime wish. After relentless teasing by my husband about my Sims living on the lawn, I caved and started building their house.
On the left, we have the master bedroom and master bath. Next door is the kitchen. Near the front of the house is the dining room. The big open area in the center is the living room. On the right are the kids' bedrooms. Faith's room is towards the front of the house, while Fortune and Chance's room is towards the back.
My favorite feature of the house is the kids' bathroom suite. Faith has her own half-bath and walk-in closet while the boys share another half-bath and walk-in closet. The two half-baths are connected by a shower/tub that the three share.
Now that you've had the tour, let's see what the family is up to.
Now that you've had the tour, let's see what the family is up to.
After many hours of meditation (150 to be exact), Justice completes his final skill challenge and completely masters the Martial Arts skill. Yay! I'm glad this skill is out of the way. It is tedious with having to travel back and forth to China to compete in tournaments, sparring with 75 people, breaking 150 boards, and meditating for 150 hours. Don't look for any other Lazlos to master this skill!
Adaeze is out for a morning jog. She's been at level 10 in Athletics for a while, but she hasn't completed any of the skill challenges.
Chance has a lifetime wish to become a Superstar Athlete, so he’s going to focus on mastering the Athletic skill. Here, he is discussing his enthusiasm for fitness with Marlena Alto (I remembered her name!)
Chance is not going to become another Martial Arts master, but he will take advantage of his parents' training dummy to add variety to his workout regimen.
Chance and Marlena have become good friends and often go to each other's house after school. If Chance wasn't already involved with Nicol, I'd consider a romance between them. Fortune is still single, though.
On the other hand, maybe not! Perhaps this is what a child of Marlena and Chance would look like. Actually, it's a glitch. They were standing on the same spot, so the game fused their looks together.
This is Tracey Ursine, the baby that Claire was pregnant with at the start of the hood.
Today, Chance and Marlena have decided to go to the Alto home.
Remember when I mentioned in an earlier post that the Altos had moved? This is their new home, the Americana lot which is near the Andrews family.
Chance goes inside and meets Marlena's family. Her older sister, Holly, has aged to Young Adult. Is it just me or does Holly look a little bit like Theresa Dolphina?
Vita has aged to elder. I don't think Nick was home at the time. I thought I heard his voice, but I looked all over the lot and couldn't find him.
Speaking of elders, it is time for Adaeze's elder birthday. Incidentally, the washer and dryer in the background are not actual washers and dryers from Ambitions.These were custom objects, cloned from cabinets. When I installed Ambitions, I did replace them with a real washer and dryer set.
Here is one last shot of the youthful Adaeze. She looks beautiful, and I think this is closest she's ever come to a smile.
Here's elder Adaeze with her hunky husband in the background. I got a little emotional at this point because I realized Adaeze's days are numbered. Literally. The game says she's 163 days old.
At this point, I installed Ambitions, so the Lazlos now have an honest-to-goodness washer and dryer set.
Here is Adaeze doing the first load. The laundry system works like this: Whenever a Sim changes clothes, for example to go to bed or to take a shower, a pile of clothing appears on the floor. (The Sim also gets a Fresh Clothing moodlet.) These piles have to be collected and placed either in a hamper or directly in the washing machine. To start the laundry, click on the Washer and choose the "Do Laundry" option. There is also the option to do a Delicate load. The washing machine will go for a while and then buzz. Click on the washer and select the "Move clothes to dryer" option (or something like that). The Sim will move the clothes and the dryer will run for a while. The dryer will buzz when done, and there will be an option to "Get clean clothes" (or something like that). The Sim removes the laundry from the dryer and sniffs the fresh scent.
Fortune could use some fresh laundry, but Marlena doesn't seem to mind. She's always hanging around. I think she's desperate to become a Lazlo.
She hopes learning "Ping and His Checkers" will impress Fortune.
If that doesn't work, she'll try getting in good with his mother. Check out Fortune's picture on the Family Profiles. I think he looks like Toby Issacs from Degrassi: The Next Generation.
During this week, I discovered the power of the bubble bath. I usually have Sims shower because it's faster, but Sims get good moodlets from taking baths, especially if you put a rubber duckie on the side of the tub. I finally filled up Faith's aspiration bar with a bubble bath, and her grades and job performance started going up. Needless to say, bubble baths have become a daily ritual for Faith.
Adaeze was feeling a little frumpy after her birthday, so she headed to the new salon. She forked over some Simoleons for a professional makeover.
I thought her outfit was nice, but Adaeze wasn't pleased. The stylist was miffed that Adaeze rejected her work. I love the stylist, by the way, she totally looks and acts like a fashion snob.
Adaeze gives Geoffrey Landgraab a shot...
...this time I'm the one who is displeased.
Meanwhile, Geoff moves on to his next victim, Mortimer Goth. On one hand, it's pretty darn neat that NPCs can get makeovers autonomously. On the other hand, if the stylist is horrible, you could end up with a bunch of jacked up Sims running around.
No, Grimmy!
Lucky for me, Grimmy was after Mortimer's mom, Cornelia.
Bye-bye, Cornelia!
Poor Mortimer is devastated. Not only did his mom die, he also got stuck in this track suit. Geoffrey looks at him as if to say, "Your mom dying is bad for business, kid."
One more shot of the heartbroken Mortimer.
After the commotion of Cornelia's passing dies down (pun intended), Adaeze decides to give herself a makeover.
Adaeze is a traditional girl at heart and prefers traditional clothing, even if it's not from her culture. (ETA: I'm having second thoughts about the outfit now. I think it makes her look even older.)
Back at the homestead, Justice is working on his Athletic skill. I checked his Lifetime Happiness points and discover that he has enough points to get the "My Best Friend" reward.
Welcome to the family, simbot Doreen! (The game named her.)
Simbots do walk, but they also fly around on powered jets in their feet. I think it's cute! Unfortunately, Simbots are not like Servo in that they focus on cleaning, cooking, and child rearing. I did see Doreen clean autonomously a couple of times, but Simbots are nothing more than metallic Sims. They have traits, they can get jobs, they sleep, eat scraps, go to the bathroom (WTF, EAxis?), and age. Yes, your Simbot will die someday. And of course, they can woohoo. But poor Doreen won't likely be woohooing because we are practicing Strict Family Values.
Since Doreen is female, she's bunking with Faith. I believe this bed is from High End Loft Stuff, but I thought it was perfect for a robot. The computer programmer in me does like the 0's and 1's for Simbot sleep instead of the Z's. Kudos, EAxis. (I'll give credit where credit is due.)
Doreen has the lifetime wish to Become a Creature-Robot Cross Breeder (I'm not even kidding, she came that way!), so she applies for a job at the Science Facility. I don't know what Aaroc's rules are for Simbots yet, but I don't plan on counting anything Doreen does in my points. [Edited 12/30/2011: No longer relevant since I'm no longer following Aaroc's rules.]
Simbots also get opportunities. Abraham Finkel has asked Doreen to repair a stereo for him.
Doreen finds Abraham at the Bistro hanging out with a Bunch of kids. This is Lisa and Ethan.
Kaylynn Langerak is also there. She's very pretty. I would love to have her as a mate for Fortune, but she will probably be too old by the time he ages up.
Doreen returns home just in time to see Justice complete his final skill challenge for the Handiness skill. He has now mastered both Martial Arts and Handiness. Simbots are so funny around broken appliances. The dishwasher broke, and Doreen went over to it and cried. I hovered over her command queue and discovered she was "Mourning."
After Justice boosts the channels, Adaeze and Faith enjoy some mother-daughter time. As she enjoys this girl time, Adaeze's mind wanders back to an old friend.
Adaeze invites Biyu Shen to Simerica for a visit. Biyu has also aged to elder.
The two embrace and reminisce on good times.
Completion Challenge Scoring:
Unique Traits: 5
Careers: 0
LTW: 1
Skill Challenges: 4 (Justice - Martial Arts - Master of Meditation; Martial Arts - Sim Fu King)
Paranormal: 1 (Justice - Have a playable simbot)
Miscellaneous: 0
Total Points: 11
Aww! I think Doreen is kind of cute! I have Ambitions but I've never tried having a Simbot! I think it's adorable how they sleep 0's and 1's instead of Z's and can fly with their foot-jet-rocket thingies! :D
ReplyDeleteI loved Doreen, but I couldn't stand that the Sims had to react to her every time she entered the room. I wish EA would fix that.
ReplyDeleteWow! That was a busy week! I loved the "this is what Chance & Marlena's baby would look like" glitch. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd I was so scared for Adaeze when Grimmy popped up in the background! I thought that since you were playing super-long lifespan that the elder stage couldn't *possibly* end that soon! Phew - going for the townie!
I felt bad for Marlena. She seemed to have it bad for chance. Yeah, I was playing a very long life span, so I was surprised when Grimmy showed up, my current lifespan is around 150 days.
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