The Lazlo Legacy—Chance 2.4

Happy New Year! Welcome back to the Lazlo Legacy. For this first week in 2012, we are visiting the lot of Chance Lazlo. Before we get started, I wanted to cover a few housekeeping items:

1) I have converted this blog to an official Sims 3 Completion Challenge. This challenge was created by Robin of the Sims3Challenges Yahoo group. It encourages you to “try everything” the game has to offer. Since my goal for the Lazlos is to complete every lifetime wish, max every skill, and top  every career, the Completion Challenge is right up my alley. The rules even allow for using a mod to rotate houses. Please see the rules of the challenge for more details.

2) I received photo-editing software for Christmas, so I am in the process of going back through my old posts and enhancing the photos. You’ll also notice that entries will now have a “cover” photo. I just want to spiff up the blog.

3) I have been asked by more than one person about the status of my other blogs. I was hoping to make some progress on my Mega Maxis blog over the holidays, but when I sat down to play the save, my heart wasn’t in it. I enjoy my Lazlos so much that when I try to play other saves, I feel a yearning to go back to the Lazlos. With work and dealing with my mom, when I sit down to play The Sims 3, I really want to enjoy what I’m doing. So for now, I’m going to be concentrating exclusively on the Lazlos. My goal is to publish weekly on Sundays.

Ok, now on to this week’s post…

The first order of business was moving Chance and his family to a new lot. I was getting sick of how cramped their house was. The final straw was when I invited over the extended family members for Sunday night dinner and Chance couldn’t greet them because of routing errors. Good bye and good riddance. Say hello to their new home which happens to be right next door to Chance’s twin brother, Fortune. This house comes from the neighborhood Volcano Cove by LoCatus.

While I’m on the subject of where my lots come from, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge Wendy, a.k.a hillcrest1414, who built a good number of the houses I use in Harmony, including the lot where Fortune’s family lives. Wendy owned the Sims 3 Real Estate website. Sadly, she passed away last month after a valiant fight with brain cancer. I did not have the pleasure of knowing Wendy personally, but I am grateful for her work and her dedication to the Sims community. Her houses are currently being hosted at the Neighborly Sims forum. Wendy, you will be deeply missed!

Mason achieving his lifetime wish last week leaves Nichol as the only member of Generation 2 who hasn’t achieved hers. She has to achieve her LTW in order for her traits, skills, and career points to count towards the Completion Challenge goals. The only Sims who will be able to accumulate points towards the challenge are the Lazlos who are born in game, the Generation 2 spouses, Leeann, and Michael. This is because these Sims have never been under the control of Twallan’s Story Progression so they have not received an unfair boost in their skills and career advancement.

So, it’s back to our old sparring routine for Nichol and Chance.

I think Nichol is as weary from all this sparring as I am. It’s written all over her face.

She didn’t let up on Chance one bit though. She kept defeating him with the same move—a kick to the face.

Poor Chance! He looks like he’s about to hit the ground like a ton of bricks.

It paid off because Nichol got to level 10! Now she only needs to get to level 10 in Athletics to achieve her lifetime wish of Physical Perfection. She’s already at level 7, so hopefully she can accomplish it this week.

And here she is, sporting her black and gold belt.

I want to go back to China about as much as I want a hole in my head, but 17,000 is a lot of Lifetime Happiness points!

Aww… Nawwaf is about to die. He’s the townie that Phil Bumgarner “rescued” from a medical emergency in the library. I just realized I spelled his name wrong in the last entry. Sorry, Nawwaf!

Chance autonomously praised Nichol, I presume for mastering Martial Arts. He tried to get frisky with her and I was worried another baby was going to be on the way. Luckily, I was spared.

I was also distracted….very distracted. I am going to apologize in advance for what (or I should say who) is going to dominate the rest of this entry.

I heard a noise outside and found this stray dog napping on the Lazlos’ bench. My first reaction was, “Awww…..” My second reaction was, “Me wants him.” My third reaction was “Awww…..” again.

Now, I have heard people mention in other blogs that it is difficult to adopt a stray because they rarely come back. I didn’t want to risk losing this fellow, so I used Master Controller and added him to the household.

Say hello to the newest member of the Lazlo clan, Xiaobai. I wanted to honor the Lazlo’s Chinese heritage so I googled “Chinese pet names.” I found out that Xiaobai means “Little White.” Ok, he’s not little, but he is white, so I thought the name fit. I noticed Xiaobai was already an elder and his life bar was full, so I aged him back down to Adult with Master Controller.

Nichol broke herself away from Chance and came out to greet Xiaobai.

After eating his dinner, Xiaobai settled into the doggy bed that I placed in Serendipity’s room.

Wow, the womanizer and the man eater finally get together. This won’t end well.

The next day, Xiaobai discovered that his new family had a swimming pool. He autonomously jumped in.

This is the life!

From the outhouse to the penthouse! He was once a stray and now he’s living in the lap of luxury.

Chance offers to take Xiaobai for a walk.

This is how Xiaobai repays him. Xiaobai wasn’t trying to be mean. Chance just happened to be standing in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Xiaobai wants to go to the pool.

So he and Chance set out. At this point, I gave Xiaobai the “Likes Swimming” trait because he’s always jumping into the pool or thinking about the pool.

Xiaobai also rolled the wish to learn how to hunt so Chance taught him.

Serendipity tried to prank the school, but she got busted by the cops.

Chance was not happy and grounded her. It’s my own stupid fault. I shouldn’t have directed her to do it. Why should she miss out on the fun of being grounded? My goal is to get through Generation 4 without someone being grounded.

If you were surprised by that, I have no words.

Not only is this another Awww moment for me, it also reminds me of Mariah talking about how her dogs are afraid of clowns. If you haven’t read any of Mariah’s blogs, you are in for a treat!

Xiaobai and Chance bonded over that long walk to the pool.

The next morning Xiaobai embarks on a hunting expedition. I hope he finds something good!

This spot looks promising.

He’s digging!

He’s about to uncover the loot.

The “something…interesting…” turned out to be a Maple Leaf. Well, that was underwhelming. I guess he needs a higher hunting skill before he can find the gems.

He starts a new search at the Wedding Chapel. (I may have Grace get married here, I’m not sure yet.)

Just more Xiaobai cuteness. I <3 this dog so much.

He has gained more hunting skill.

This time he finds a feather. I haven’t tried removing these items from his inventory to see if they can be mounted on the wall or something.

At first, I thought this icon meant that he had fleas. What it actually means is that he has training fatigue. Once he has this moodlet, he won’t do any more hunting until the moodlet goes away. It only lasted four hours.

Twallan’s Story Progression Mod has a setting that grants Sims celebrity points when they are at the top of their career and receive a raise. Chance has earned enough points to become a 1-star celebrity.

Nichol is moving up the Journalism ranks. I won’t be upset if she doesn’t make it to the top of the career because I still need a Sim with the Star News Anchor LTW.

We interrupt this blog entry with more Xiaobai picspan. I know this has become the Xiaobai show, and I do apologize. What can I say? Dog Person is one of my traits!

Serendipity had been sulking around the house for being grounded. Nichol took pity on her and let her off the hook. Serendipity has her parents wrapped around her little finger. When she got in trouble as a child, Chance let her off the hook too.

I found this cat sleeping on the Lazlo’s doorstep, so we adopted her. Say hello to Jingjing, which means “perfect essence.”

Jingjing has dual-colored eyes! How could I say no to dual-colored eyes? Jingjing was also an elder at the end of her life bar, so I aged her down to adult. I’m wondering if the reason strays don’t come back is because they all die after leaving your lot.

You don’t know how thrilled I am that EAxis carried this toy over from The Sims 2. I could watch the cats play with this for hours.

Speaking of “play,” Chance gets some quality time in with his BFF.

Oh my goodness! I think my heart just stopped.

A man + a dog (or a baby) = Instant Hotness!

Sims that get a really high relationship with their dog unlock the “Smoochie” interaction. EA, you have blown me away!

Xiaobai licked Chance’s face while Chance brushed him. My dogs totally do that!

I have noticed a graphics glitch after installing the 1.29 patch. The reflection on these countertops is blinding. I tried deleting lights and changing the color of the countertops, but they were still too bright. I hope EAxis fixes this soon.

I’m still trying to fix Love up (yes, I know, I have a hard time letting the Sims be), so on Saturday morning, Serendipity invited her and some of the other teens over. (Charity was not invited.)

This is Bronson Beckett. He must be a Service Teen because there is no family in town named Beckett.

This is Edwardo (sic) Piper. He’s the descendant of Harmony native Peedee Piper. Edwardo has an interesting look. I wouldn’t mind if he married into the family.

Dustin Broke was invited.

As well as Beau Broke. I think both Broke brothers are cute, but Beau has that tortured look going on that makes him extra hot. It’s funny because in TS2, Dustin is supposed to be the bad boy.

There are four very available guys around, and what does Love do? She goes upstairs and hides in the spare bedroom.

It turns out she was looking for a place to do her homework. Seriously, Love, you can do your homework anytime.

Not even Dustin’s guitar playing can pry her away from the books.

Dustin’s playing does attract this stray dog. Sorry, doggie. I am looking for a mate for Xiaobai, but I’m looking for a dog with very different genetics from his.

Someone like Li Mei (“pretty rose”). She’s another stray that the Lazlos have adopted. Li Mei was originally just the solid bluish-gray color. I added the brown spots and that brown patch over her left eye. I can’t wait to see what her and Xiaobai’s puppies look like. Unfortunately, the week is up, so we’ll all have to wait.

Completion Challenge Scoring:

Unique Traits: 29

Careers: 4

LTW: 7

Skill Challenges: 15

Paranormal: 1

Miscellaneous: 4

Total Points: 60

(I’m not going to count Xiaobai and Jingjing as having a playable dog and cat since I used a cheat to get them. I’ll have another Sim adopt a dog and cat to earn the point.)