As for the outing, it ended up being a relative success — I guess the group really bonded over those hot dogs that Simon grilled for them. Most of the bunch left the lot, but Rebecka hung around, and Simon wanted to ask a Sim to Dine Out, so he asked her if she wanted to go on another outing. This time it was “just for fun”, so no fun-o-meter, and it was just the two of them. (They’re just friends, though — no funny stuff going on here.) I had them go to Red’s Famous ’50s Diner, which is one of my favorite of the new downtown lots.
“Hey, what do you say we put some quarters in the jukebox and do some smustling?”
As another aside, I have to say I’m really impressed with the new community lots they created for Downtown. First off, there are a TON of them — I’d say nearly 30 — so I haven’t even seen half of them yet. But so far they seem to be very well-designed — every lot has bathrooms, a grill or a restaurant, and various ways to have fun. I thought for sure I’d want to build my own downtown lots once I got Nightlife, but I haven’t felt the need yet. Maxis pretty much thought of everything (and some of them are just plain cool-looking, like the ’50s diner and Bernard’s Botanical Dining).
My only beef with the downtown lots is that they’re poorly lit, which can make for dark pictures. You can’t go into Buy Mode while your Sim is on the lot, so I’ll have to go through when I’m not playing sometime and systematically put more lights in the most-frequented buildings.
At the diner, Simon wanted to use the photobooth, so I obliged him. I had him do the “Normal” poses instead of “Goofy”.
“That’s right, I’m too cool and hip to be goofy. Except when I dance.”
Though Simon spent several hours out and about, only two hours had passed when he got home. I could be mistaken, but it seems like their needs don’t decay nearly as much as they used to on the community lots, which means they can spend a lot more time out on the town. Simon’s needs were pretty low by the time he got home, though, so I sent him to bed.
While Simon was snoozing away, Lauren returned home from work. She’s far more ambitious than Simon — besides wanting to have a baby, she wanted to earn some skill points and get promoted at her job. Here she is working out in front of the TV to raise her Body points.
“Oh yeah, feel the burn!”
After Simon woke up, something unusual happened — a feature of Nightlife that I hadn’t heard about. Benjamin Lawson, a.k.a. “Mr. Big”, called Simon out of the blue and said he had heard from Meadow Thayer that Simon was a really fun guy to hang out with, and would he mind if he came over for a bit? I had Gameplay Tips enabled, so a message popped up saying that Benjamin was now a “Contact”. In Simon’s friend window, Benjamin’s icon turned blue, and their relationship score went to 30 (I’m not sure if Benjamin was listed as one of Simon’s acquaintances before this). Apparently Contacts only stay that way for so long, so it was up to Simon to take advantage of the situation if he wanted to become friends with Mr. Big.
Simon said “yes”, so Mr. Big came on over with his pal, Sarah Ng, a.k.a. “The Diva”.
“Nice to meet you, old sport…say…could you tell me where I might find a mirror?”
Sometime before Mr. Big showed up, Simon got the mail, put the bills on the table outside, then went back and got the mail AGAIN. I couldn’t figure out why, until a message popped up saying that he had received a coupon for a free meal for him and his friends at any of the fine eating establishments in the downtown area. It was a “thank you” to him for his patronage. How cool is that? I’ll have to save it for a special occasion.
Simon needed to have another dream date with his wife, so he let Mr. Big and The Diva entertain themselves for a bit while he flirted with Lauren. Much to my surprise, The Diva goosed Mr. Big in the kitchen, and they developed a crush on each other! I had never seen townies flirt with each other of their own accord, so I wonder if that’s a new thing with Nightlife. Or maybe it’s just a Diva/Mr. Big thing? Maybe it was the power of the Ravelo Love Shack…
“How ya doin’, hot stuff?”
Simon and Lauren managed to have a successful dream date that night (and morning — those dream dates last a looong time!).
“So hon, are we having another date tonight?”
Later that morning, while Simon was chatting with his new bud Brandon Lillard, Lauren placed yet another bouquet of roses by the front door. (Nope, no other gifts yet, despite the woohooing!)
“It’s a good thing I know a cheap florist.”
And yes, Lauren had gotten pregnant. (I had them Try for a Baby every time they woohooed.) But she wasn’t going to just sit around meditating like those pregnant Shanleys — she was going to have a good time! I just let her do whatever she wanted (while monitoring her needs, of course), so she did a lot of dancing and playing video games.
“You know you make me wanna SHOUT!”
Throughout Lauren’s pregnancy, Simon continued to ask her on dates, the cozy homey dates they’d gotten used to. I’m glad pregnant Sims can slow dance.
“I only have eyyyyes…foooor yooouuuu…”
And the slow dancing dip kiss…isn’t it romantic? I’m a sucker for that stuff!
*smoochiewoochie*
(continued on page 3)
Wow, you sure did some playing Jen!!
Glad you found some sims who enjoy you!
Squeeee! :D
This isn’t boring at all, Jen! Actually their happiness makes the story different enough, trust me. If I had a penny for every angsty Sims story out there I’d have been able to offer you money for doing this blog by now! ;)
The kids are adorable, and I’m heading over to check out those purty grey eyes right now. =)
That was a quick update since the last one :P.
I can’t rap or do kareoke, lol :D.
MY bonus points..Haha i didnt even finish reading but i want to get my bonus points..for what? I dont know haha. Its a Kenny Loggins song titled Danger Zone..at least I think so. If not..ooh poor Eva. Haha. Ok going to read now.
Wow! What a pleasant surprise. I hinestly thought I had checked your site last night. But the last entry I’d seen was “The Year in Pictures” where you said you’d started a new Legacy family and planned on posting when you got home from work. And now I find two posts. I’m glad they’re easy to keep in platinum. And what’s wrong with a happy family? Oh and Happy Anniversary!
danger zone theme song of Top Gun… Lauren was a flight officer :)
that’s my guess
This update was fun! You must be having fun with this family because you are posting quite frequently here now. How do I know Kenny Loggins when he is like an artist from 1 BC and I am 16? Haha I like music and I listen to it everyday, I am listening to music right now actually. I want nightlife darnit. it would be so much fun to do those dates things. And thanks for explaining it more and making me love it even more, I might get it sooner than expected. (probably not) :D
And it was on Top Gun..darn you gethane haha.
I´m so happy that you update again Jen!! =D
This Legacy Challenge are so funny and cool.
Have a great weekend too!!
I freakin’ love Top Gun. XD Although now I’m going to have that song stuck in my head all day now. Ha!
Wonderful update! My 2G heiress and her husband (the vamp) are both Pleasure sims too.. and I’m having a ball with them. Although it is a bit silly for a big, scary vampire to have constant wants to take a bubble bath. I am totally loving your new Legacy family, though, and can’t wait to read more!
And hopefully Real Life will calm down enough to let me play Sims and get another update of my own out!
Great update jen! i really like ur new legacy challenge. i just wish i could play mine but my game crashes and i’m not going to be able to post any stories til i fix the problem..
Thanks so much for including Nightlife commentary, it definitely is making stuff make a lot more sense and, of course, is making us who don’t have Nightlife yet drool like crazy! :D Since your founder has custom content eyes, and dominant hair, I’m not sure if the genes in your family will vary too much. Guess we will have to wait and see! I really liked this update and am glad you found something you enjoy playing and blogging about again. :)
Oh.. and I forgot. XD I’ve never seen townies flirt and develop a crush on each other! It’s too bad it costs you a point to move them in; I’d be interested to see if the memory of knowing each other would be in their memories and such.
This family rocks the …
socks of many…
people…
namely…
your very loyal readers >)
Jen . love your new family they look so sweet and all. Mr. Big and The Diva are big flirts they flirt shamelessly so it’s a Mr Big / Diva thang :lol:
Love those eyes and thanks for the link for Lyran never been there but kie what I see. ‘
Since I took out my old downloads before installing NL I have decided not to download everything in sight but see has some nice makeup and eyes that I may get :)
Oh and Domino’s story has been updated although I’m stuck at the naming bit, what will my hubby think if I get one of those name your baby books, Oh My Gawd I just got a funny image in my head :lol:
I may just do that though and save my sanity :D
The power of the Ravelo Love shack, eh? I guess they must have dust.
Romantic dust. That is a WEIRD look on The Diva’s face. My Sims get it a lot when they dance. I wonder why?
Maybe they saw something odd.
Like a… window?
What, exactly, is Smustling, anyway? It’s kind of confusing me.
Aww! Smoochiewoochie! It’s so adorable~
Marlee reminds me of Marle. From Chrono Trigger. I just hope Marlee doesn’t run around in her underwear (well, they were bloomers, so…) all day like Marle did. Or go time-travelling.
It’s less fun than it sounds, time-travelling is.
Anyway, I love Lyran’s eyes, too! I remember going there and downloading all of the ones they had after you mentioned where you got some eyes that someone in the RKC (is that it?) had.
Custom eyes seem to have a higher genetic dominance (you know, of course. Brown over dark blue, dark blue over light blue, green and light blue I-don’t-know, whichever last one over grey. Etc.) than any of the default eyes, so, don’t be surprised if the Cloudy eye gene lasts for generations upon generations. :D
Man, all of these Nightlife additions sound great! The friends pulling strings… The people asking to come over… The outings… the things-I-can’t-remember…
So great.
Oh, she looks adorable. Marlee. Both as an infant, and toddler. Man, though… those babies, with their toilet-plunging. x_X; I love the bathroom, though! Mine are usually so boring. Blue, white, black, black and white, and beige. Seriously. Those are all of them. So, I think the one that you have there looks really nice!
Hmm. Maybe Calista set fires to things often. Or had seen fires often. Generally, just enough to know that “eh. Loud beep. Fireman comes. Fire is out. Burnt food. Ew.”
Man, Brandon Lillard’s nose is flat. With my graphic card/settings/whatever is determining this, his nose looks flat, but not THAT flat. Maan.
You know, the happiness isn’t bad… it’s just… I can’t even think of the “it’s just”. So, it’s super great! (On a scale of one to awesome. Strong Bad.)
I remember the schoolbus pictures! I take them, with my Sims, sometimes.
I hope you do go for the Have 10 Kids want… that one always seemed so fun, to me! I have yet to do it in a Challenge, though I have a couple teen Family Sims who are going to get married, in my Prosperity challenge… they are /so/ going to have ten kids.
Anyway, yeah, sorry, I rambled. Here’s to more good luck for the Ravelos! (Maybe Lauren can make an influential friend, too. Who knows? WhoOooO knoOoOOws. Yes, I’m a ghost. For October.)
Awww, what a cute family! I like how Simon and his wife are crazy about each other. It is just too cute! And the kiddies are adorable too! Great job Jen and I can’t wait to read more about this family!
I love reasing about happy families!! It’s so much more pleasing to read about how a family have lots of kids and grow up happy, than a family with death and affairs lol.
Nice story, I shall be checking it out again sooon!!!
lol cool. nice and easy update, I like the warm fun loving family you got here. feels good to read abt such a nice family sometimes :) also I myself was surprised with some of the new changes (such as free coupons) that NL brought along when I was testing it out a few days ago! Can’t wait to get my teeth into the game, checking out its other cool features. So it’s cool that you’re revealing these tidbits :D oh about the townies falling in love thing, thats so cool, at least now its mroe realistic :)
Well, I’m glad you guys like my happy Legacy family. I was just worried they’d be so happy all the time that nothing interesting would happen and everyone would get bored, including myself. ;-) But now that I’m going for the 10 Kids want, there’s no chance of THAT happening.
You guys are right about the genes — I’m sure all of the kids will have black hair and Simon’s cloudy eyes, but I’m hoping they’ll have different personalities and perhaps slightly different facial features *crosses fingers*. Out of 4 kids so far, they all have very different personalities, so I’m thrilled about that. Down with clones!
Hey Jen, What a treat to come back after a weekend and see two updates here for me to enjoy! I’m so happy you are updating again and I like the commentary-style. Even though I always love the way you write your stories the commentary gives me more insite to the game that I can’t play yet (although my mother has finally purchased it so I’ll hopefully be getting it soon! :D ). I really like seeing the cool things like the townies flirting, the presents in the mail and the fun group outings. It’s so interesting. Not to mention the great pictures you can take now with the view of the surrounding areas. Awesome! Well, I’m off to read the next update.