Finally Marie had her second child, a sweet little girl I named Vesta (courtesy of Mary). I was relieved that she’s not a clone of Tristan — she shares his blue eyes (inherited from their mother) but has blond hair and her mother’s lighter skin tone.

“OK, I’m done having babies…time for some romancing!”

Marie didn’t suffer aspiration failure with the birth of Vesta, but her meter was in low green, so I had her meet someone new, an elder I created name Kent McEllers. Marie ensnared him as he was strolling by the house one day, and a romance blossomed. As they were chatting out in the front yard, I finally witnessed someone kicking over the garbage can! It’s happened a few times before, but I was never able to catch who did it. The culprit was another Sim I created, Johnny Shack. Anyway, he seemed to really enjoy his petty misdoing. Since I saw it happen this time, I was able to send someone out to clean it up before the roach brigade could appear. Thank goodness.

“Oooh, garbage! Pretty!

After the garbage was dealt with, Marie and Kent spent some quality time in the hot tub. Patrick was sleeping up on third floor, so he had no idea what was going on. The nanny was taking care of baby Vesta. Everyone else was at work or school. You really do have to be sneaky with those Romance Sims!

“Of course I’m not married! Why do you ask?” *hides wedding ring*

Between her dalliances with her various beaux, Marie got a job in the Culinary career track. I’m still working on getting that career reward, as well as those from the Criminal track and the Slacker track. Patrick should have earned the Criminal career reward ages ago but must have gotten promoted two levels at a time or something, because the reward was never made available to him. So it looks like I’ll have to have another criminal in the family at some point. Anyway, Marie’s a good fit for the Culinary track since she delivered pizza in her former life and she has a Cooking score of 10. I just hope she doesn’t get promoted too quickly and skip over the reward object.

“I hope no one I know sees me in this uniform.”

In the meantime, the oldsters of the family have been enjoying what time they have left. Robi needed a new friend in order to get promoted to the top of his career level (Medical), so I had him chat with his acquaintance, Luke Stafford. I discovered that if I directed Robi and Luke to just sit on the bench out front for a little while and let them chat, their relationship score would increase rapidly without me having to line up endless interactions. I don’t know why I didn’t figure that out earlier. It makes developing friendships much easier.

“No — MY wife’s Chili Con Carne is the best!”

Both Robi and Fiona were eating too much good food and getting flabby, so for fun I had them run the obstacle course together. I just never get enough of watching that. Even with a Body score of 10, Robi would regularly trip and fall down. He did better than his wife, though (her Body score is around 7).

“Ahh, feel the burn!”

Once Robi reached the top of his career track, I had him retire. He was fairly close to passing away, so I figured he might as well enjoy his last days without having to worry about work. He seemed to enjoy calling his employer and telling them the news.

“Guess what? I’M not coming in tomorrow!”

I don’t know why I took this next picture. There was something just so…domestic about it. The yard was looking abominable, so I had Patrick trim the shrubbery. Autonomously, his son Tristan went out and started watering the flowers (crazy kid). It’s father and son gardening day!

“Son, please try not to step on the flowers while you water them.”

I must have breezed through Vesta’s toddlerhood, because I didn’t take any pictures of it. I think she learned how to walk, talk, and go potty (mostly thanks to her grandparents, since her mom was off romancing and her dad was on stargazing duty) before her birthday. I like the fact that she resembles her brother Tristan but isn’t an exact replica of him. That’s how it should be! Vive la difference!

“This piece of cake is bigger than I am.”

Speaking of la difference, Vesta’s stats are also completely different from her brother’s. Tristan’s are 10-1-4-6-4, giving him a grand total of 25 personality points. Vesta is 6-9-4-4-9, giving her 32 points. So I think she is going to be the heir, even though she’s younger. I’ve never had a Shanley kid with a Niceness above 5, so I like that Vesta has a 9. Tristan might be a more interesting Sim in the long run, just because of his extremes, but I think Vesta will make the better heir.

Well, here’s where my happy little Legacy story took a tragic turn. Stefaan and some friends were watching TV in the den when they suddenly stood up and started going upstairs. Patrick had been up on the roof stargazing with the telescope, so my first thought was “He’s finally been abducted!” I clicked on roof level to take a look and couldn’t see him anywhere. I double-clicked on his icon to see where he was, but it wasn’t selectable, which meant only one thing — he was dying. (continued on Page 3)