Hey all, thanks again for all of the encouraging comments and technical advice. I’ve tried a few more things but am sadly no farther along than I was before. :-/ I even bought new University disks, but I’m running into the same problem during installation as I was with my other disks. If you want a full update, read on! There is some good news at the end, too.

I have a feeling something may be wrong with my CD-ROM drive. I don’t know why everything installs fine up to that last point. I’ve uninstalled and re-installed Sims 2 + University so many times I’ve lost count! But I’m going to try buying an external hard drive, if I can find a good inexpensive one (thank you to Brandy for suggesting it and to Amy for advising me on a good one to buy) and see if I can’t install from that. I wanted to buy one of those anyway, so I can make periodic back-ups of my game and not have this madness happen all over again. But it might be a few days before I receive it, so in the meantime, I’m still trying the ISO Image thing suggested by t-sims and Blu. I made some images last night before bed — tonight I’ll see if I can get them to install.

Anyway, I’m sincerely sorry to keep posting these updates on my Sims 2 technical issues and not some real live stories. I know this isn’t the most exciting stuff to read! But you know me — I hate to let the blog go dormant while I wrestle with my game, so that’s why I’m posting this. As for the Pleasantview stories, I want to get something going, but while I’m uninstalling and re-installing, it’s hard to get much playing in. I did have some fun for awhile, but it’s not enough for a decent story…yet. After all of your feedback and advice, and after much searching of the web for solutions to my problem, if I still can’t get this game to work, I’ll probably forget the expansion packs and dive heavily into the Pleasantview stuff, or maybe create my own neighborhood, because I really really miss this.

Enough of my sob story — I do have some good news amongst all of this boo-hooing. Back in March I applied to be a Sims 2 Architect at Parsimonious, and they’ve asked me to join their staff. Woohoo! So in the coming weeks, if I can get anything up and running game-wise, you will be able to download my houses over there. New houses. Magical houses! OK, not magical, but they will be playable and hopefully aesthetically pleasing! My screen name over there is “Maude”, so if you see me, make sure you say “hello”. :-)

Thanks again for your support, everyone! Hopefully the next time I post, it’ll be a STORY. What a concept, eh? Happy Simming!