Hello again, dears! Maude here, taking up where I left off with the Kilman family. I’ll waste no time this morning and get right back into the thick of it!
After Bailey suffered her sudden attack of nausea and ran off to the bathroom, Joey sat at the table waiting for her, a pensive expression on his face. I could tell he wanted to check on her, but she had lit a spark of anger in him for the first time, and it glued him to his chair. When at last he heard her exit the bathroom and go upstairs, he rose solemnly and busied himself with the after-dinner chores.
Later that night, Bailey came down to watch television with him, but she said very little and answered most of his questions with shrugs of indifference. I recognized this behavior immediately, and I’m sure you would have, too!
That’s right, it’s a classic example of the cold shoulder routine. Bailey hadn’t gotten her way, and she wanted to punish Joey for making her suffer. (I know it all too well, dear readers, because my stubborn old sisters excelled at it!)
I felt sorry for Joey. He seemed to have forgotten his anger and merely wanted to have a nice conversation with his wife, but she was more interested in those irritating television commercials than anything he had to say.
Bailey even snubbed Tiffy that night. Tiffy was just studying in the living room when Bailey sat down at the dining room table with a late night meal. Hearing her come in, Tiffy looked up and greeted her – quite kindly, I thought – but Bailey completely ignored her. With a shrug, Tiffy turned back to her reading, while Bailey glared at her across the room.
Bailey kept up this cold shoulder routine throughout the next few weeks. Whenever she and Joey did manage to have a conversation, it would end with Joey raising his voice and Bailey running to the bathroom. It seemed like whenever she couldn’t get her way, she would feign an onrush of nausea and disappear. Sometimes she’d actually leave the house, but Joey didn’t bother to ask where she was going.
Joey was growing increasingly annoyed with her. For a time he wouldn’t even sleep upstairs in the bedroom they shared – he found the porch swing preferable (and I can’t say I blame him!).
Things came to a head one day when Bailey’s best friend Rilla cornered Joey in the kitchen. She had come over to take Bailey shopping for maternity clothes and was waiting for Bailey to come downstairs.
“So what’s going on with you and Bailey?†Rilla asked in a most accusatory tone. “She’s always crying these days, and saying you don’t love her anymore. Don’t you realize the woman is pregnant? Can’t you be a little more considerate?â€
Well, Joey was rather taken aback by this line of questioning. At first he simply stared and sputtered out a few noncomittal syllables, but then his anger seemed to take hold, and he spat out, “Maybe that’s why she’s crying – BECAUSE she’s pregnant!â€
Rilla shook her head at Joey, her gaze becoming one of utter contempt. “I’ve always thought you were spineless, Joey – but I never knew you were heartless, too.â€
She stalked out of the room, and as I followed her into the foyer, I saw her take Bailey’s hand, pat it comfortingly, and lead her outside.
As there was (and still is) a distinct lack of variety among the maternity clothes available for purchase in Mt. Geneva, Bailey returned with only one outfit, which she immediately changed into since her old clothes had become rather uncomfortable. She then joined her husband in front of the television and said the two words I never thought I’d hear Bailey Singleton say:
“I’m sorry.â€
At first Joey kept his eyes fixed on the television screen, but when she said it again with more feeling, and reached over to rest her hand on his, he finally turned and looked at her. That was all it took.
They made up, at least for the time being, and for awhile Bailey seemed like a completely different person. She spoke in much kinder tones to both Joey and Tiffy and became more active in helping out with household chores. In fact, she almost became obsessive about them – there were few moments when she wasn’t found cleaning.
No longer did she run off to the bathroom to be sick, and she almost never left the house. It seemed she had accepted her fate as the wife of a mailroom technician who lived with his sister. This acceptance was so unexpected, however, that I was deeply suspicious of it.
(continued on Page 2)
Hey Jen great story very much better then mine xD I was coming to ask you to read this when I saw this post so I had to read lol. Um so please look at my story and sorry for all the typos.
I wonder if any of her mother will rub off on Shea or if Bailey has really changed.
Hum, perhaps she´s really change her attitude and now with the birth of the daughter who knows?
I believe that people can change for better, but of course this is me.
Great job, like always.
Great job Jen! Though I must say, what a cliff hanger! I can’t wait till the next update.
Oh, I have a new update as well.
Hmmm, I think she has some evil plan in the works! She just sounds mean….and evil! Great update Jen, and I look forward to the next one!
Yay~ I was thinking all day about this blog. I felt the update! I felt it in my elbows.
Or not. But I felt it, man.
I don’t know. I doubt her changing, but if she did, great! :D If not, and she’s having an affair, then not great! Not great at all. In fact, negative not great!
I do hope Tiffy finds someone, though.
And, say… Maude’s seen a few births in life, right? And she had sisters? Does that mean that she might have some nieces, or cousins, or any family members at all?
Curiousity strikes me, like… a match strikes on a box.
Excellent story! :D I can’t wait to see what Bailey’s planning. Woo!
Yay, an update, and WHAT a great one! It is so nice to read your stories, you always have very pretty pictures and so pretty people – AND are the best sim-story-teller I’ve come to read so far. Ok enough of that *g*. Anyhow, I think the baby is such a cutie, her name reminds me of nuts because of shea butter *g*. And I wonder about whom Tiffy will chose one day, if she will chose someone… and about Bailey really being so loving and caring as she seems. Bailey has a great hairstyle by the way, do you by chance remember where you got that from ;)? Greetings, Eva!
Ooooh what a great cliffhanger at the end “Or would it?”
I can’t wait to read more !
Isn’t it kind of strange that baby Shea has blonde hair, even though her father has black hair and black is the dominant gene? Or maybe Joey isn’t the father! Maybe Bailey was cheating on him and only wanted him for his money!
Ok Im getting ahead of myself, your stories are great, can’t wait for more!
~kath
But of course Kath is right the baby has blond hair and her father has black hair..oh my God…i ´m so silly. Duh
Great story! I can’t wait to see if Bailey really has changed or if she has something up her sleeve :)
OOOOHhhhhh *chews on all nails on both hands while looking back and forth* What will happen???!! OOOOoooo
cool update Jen! I hope Bailey turns out to have changed but I won’t hold my breath. By the way, I love the make-overs you gave them. :D Very nice!
Thanks for the comments, as always! My next update will probably be on the Royal Kingdom Challenge — I’m really excited about it.
BTW, I got a new computer and am hoping gameplay will go faster now (IF I can get Sims 2 to install on it — it keeps freezing on install because on of my discs is scratched, but I might be able to borrow another copy from someone…or see if I can polish it up with toothpaste — has anyone tried that?). One of the reasons I took a break from the Braytons is that their house was so incredibly slow, it was trying my patience, and I’m usually a very patient person! My new machine has more memory and a better video card, so we shall see…
And I love all the new blogs coming up! It’s hard to keep up with everyone (especially you folks who are way more prolific than I am) but it’s loads of fun. All the new links are in my sidebar (if yours is missing, let me know)! OK, I’m done babbling for today…see you guys later!
Oh! Eva M., I can’t recall where I got Bailey’s hairstyle at the moment but I will take a look once I get home! I think it might have been Paper Bag Princesses (which is currently inaccessible), MOTS2, or The Sims Resource. It looks like it might have been done by Lola…
Woo-hoo. Good job Jen! That update was good as always, leaving suspense for me so i can think of nothing else. Haha im sorry about you computer going stupid on you..mine does it on occasion. Congrats on you new computer and i hope the next update comes soon.
I’m so glad to see that good ol’ Maude is back in action! Maude’s category was the first that I began reading on this site, and I was sad to see it fade. I love the idea of a phantom roaming about, spying on the residents, and telling stories about them. I must also say, I love Tiffy’s looks. She has a very unique sort of beauty. Frankly, I get tired of all the cutesy, baby faced ‘babes’. She has a very mature look about her that I find appealing… What I love most about her is that she’s so independent that a mate doesn’t seem required. Of course, I want her to find someone, but it’s great to see a character that’s not desperate to enter the romance/mating race. I’ve gotten through all the Brayton posts, and I’m adoring that as well. I read them all in one sitting. That’s how absorbed I was in the story! Also, I want to thank you for your reassuring words in response to my latest post, it truly lifted my spirits.
Oh Jen, thanks alot for the tip, I was roaming around TSR and MTS2 yesterday at midnight, I did not quite find Bailey’s hairstyle, but I found another that came close to it and that looks really nice! But thanks for the tip all the same.
And thanks for having encouraged me to put up a blog of my own, and for supporting it :)
I’m almost certain Bailey’s hair is Lola’s “Fall, Fall, Fall” or “Vertigo”. I’ll look it up before I post this comment.
Anyway… meep! I wouldn’t try toothpaste. If the disc is scratched, I usually just get a damp (not too wet) paper towel, and wipe the offending side gently– from the inner part of the disc to the edge of it. Then, dry it with another paper towel (or normal towel. In fact, you can use half the towel to wet, and half to dry.)
I once charmed a PS1 disc to go from freezing at every load screen to playing perfectly, and fixed a laser disc reader on my gamecube by using this method. (Man, it was nerve-wracking doing that with the disc reader on the gamecube! Just was worried that I’d kill the whole thing.)
If that doesn’t work, you could try and see if making an ISO of the CD might let you install it better. I hear that ISOs are supposed to be good for data recovery.
Okay! As for the hair, I found out the name of it. It’s “Alice” by Lola. I’m having a little trouble finding it, though– it’s probably on her website. Drat that site, being down! x_@;
Hey there Blu, thanks for looking up that name! Yeah, I downloaded the fall fall fall hair yesterday, I guess I’ll be fine with that for the time being – if I could get the Alice one some day though that wouldn’t be too bad anyhow :) Thx, you’re all so kind!
Oh what a nice update again on the Killmans. I’m curious if Bailey will be changed for good now that she has a child. And I like Tiffy, I hope she will find someone nice.
BTW, I’m curious to see your RK stories too :-D
Jen, I had that problem too on my old computer but it turned out not to be a problem with the disk itself but the cd drive wasn’t spinning fast enough. I thought I would have to send the disc in for replacement but when I got this new pc, just because I was curious, I put the disc in and tried to install it and it worked fine. However, since your computer is brand new I can’t imagin it would be the CD drive. I hope you get it fixed though.
Well, it’s strange, because Disc 1 worked perfectly fine, but when I put in Disc 2 it sputtered and clicked and eventually stopped spinning altogether. I’m embarrassed to say I tried the toothpaste method, but it only scratched it up worse (so Blu is right, don’t use toothpaste!). I wouldn’t have even bothered with that, but I was impatient to get TS2 on my new machine, and a few internet sites had said to try toothpaste on the scratched disc.
Then I tried Pledge (which is a furniture cleaner) — that seemed to shine up the disc nicely, but it still wouldn’t work. Finally my sister’s boyfriend bought a CD repair contraption which also buffed it up to a glistening — and weirdly rippled — sheen, but alas, it continued to sputter and click. I think I’m going to end up buying TS2 again. I’ve always wanted it on DVD (the dvd player on my old machine was broken), so this time I can buy it in that format. Anyway, I’ve learned my lesson!
Blu, thanks for finding Lola’s hairstyle; I had a feeling it was hers but I wasn’t sure, and last night I was so preoccupied with my disc-repair follies that I forgot to look for it!
Also wanted to add, have all you new bloggers joined SimScribes yet? It has been a little quiet there, but maybe some new activity could energize it! Anyway, if you haven’t joined up, head on over!
Jen, if you didn’t want to pay full price you may be able to get a replacement from maxis by sending in the scratched copy along with 7 bucks or something like that. That is what I was going to do when I thought I had to get a new disc. Although, if you are going to by the DVD there probably is no point. Anyway, sorry to hear your troubles.
I was just going to say what Amanda said. My kids broke my first Sims 1 disk by stepping on it and I mailed it to them with 7-10 bucks, something like that, and they mailed me back a new disk. (which is why I always install the game, install a cd crack, and PUT THE DISK AWAY, tough if that pisses off EAGAMES that I DARE to use a game I’ve legally paid for the way I choose. I have 4 kids. CD disks aren’t safe.)
So even if you don’t want to do that, because you want a dvd anyway, or don’t want to because of the time it takes, maybe someone else reading will someday find it useful.
Thanks, Amanda and Gethane. Since I’m an incredibly impatient person, I just went ahead and got the darned DVD. I know, I’m nuts. ;-) I’m thinking I might still try to get the scratched disc replaced and give the CDs to my sisters or something. But yeah, CDs scratch way too easily.
Hehe, I wonder when games will be sold the size (or exactl like) an MP3 player. No scratching then!
I also wanted to let everyone know I updated again (I do so about every-other day). Cheerio!
0.o
Yeah, I’ve taken to using a homemade ISO of the first disc, myself. Not because I was worried about the disc, but because I was tired of putting it in and taking it out. >_>;
I was looking at SimScribes the other day. Meeb, I hadn’t realized how quiet it was over there. x_x But since so many more people are starting blogs, hopefully it’ll perk back up again. :D
Woo! I hope the DVD treats you well. :D
Hrm. It’s odd how disc 2 was being so weird. Maybe it was the wrong… shape.
… ^^;
Jen I had the same problem when I used the CD version of the game on this here pc so I ended up getting the DVD version. My 15 yrold dd really wanted to try and see if the CD version worked on her pc upstairs and sure enuf it did. That CD version was just plain fickle for me. I hope it all works out for you.
My dh can’t play sims at all on his computer, even after a new hard drive and new install. He can get the game to install but no matter what he does, it always says, “Please insert correct disk.” when trying to play the game. I’ve tried putting in a different cd rom and dvd rom in his computer and neither worked. I even spent 20 minutes on a worthless long distance call to EA phone support with an idiot that couldn’t do anything other than read me questions fromthe stupid help forum that I had already tried.
He has this issue on another game, and it turns out its the SafeDisk copy protection on the cd. LOTS of people have problems with this copy protection scheme. It’s too bad they try to punish the legitimate customers, but those that are going to get around it with cracks, DO IT ANYWAY.
So what did I have to do to get it to run? Do the cd crack.