Dear Mom and Dad,
Whatever Marlee told you in her last letter, don’t believe any of it. It’s all lies. Especially the bits about me. Unless she said I’m well-behaved and studying hard — then it’s true. Sophomore year was especially difficult for us, since we weren’t in the dorms anymore and didn’t have other students around all the time to write our term papers help us out. Sometimes I stayed up all night in the townhouse just studying away while Marlee and Trent dozed upstairs.
Dear Mom,
We’re finally done with our freshman year at Académie La Tour. Woohoo! I mean…um…yippee? It was a tough year, full of homework, video games, homework, macaroni and cheese, and homework, but we all pulled through with a 4.0 and made the Dean’s List, just so you could be proud of us (though the scholarship money doesn’t hurt). I’m sorry I didn’t write to you more often — the year went by so fast. And since at ALT freshman year rolls right into sophomore year without so much as a cappucino break in between, I thought I’d better write you before the homework piles up again.
I’m sure you remember from my last letter that things started out pretty slowly here. We didn’t know anyone except each other, and there were so many new faces…it overwhelmed me sometimes.
After I decided to have Lauren Ravelo go for the “Have 10 Kids” want, things changed drastically in my Nightlife Legacy household. Suddenly it wasn’t so easy to keep Simon and Lauren in platinum — they didn’t have as much time for dream dates or fulfilling their wants. Instead, their lives were taken up with the feeding and care of children, and in Simon’s case, skill-building and working as much as possible to bring in money. Since Pleasure Sims aren’t really into building skills or going to work, I was lucky if I could keep Simon in the green, let alone plat.
They were still a happy family for the most part; I had them eat meals together whenever I could to save money and keep their Social scores up…
“She gets that from you, right?”
Over on SimScribes, Yicke asked if anyone would like to make her some Victorian houses, and Bitsy seconded the request, so I thought I’d create one and make it available for upload. I didn’t want to redistribute any custom content, so I used Maxis-only items. I’ve checked the lot with the Sims 2 Clean Installer, so it should be completely clean, containing no hacks or custom objects. It is fully furnished, and though you may see a Victorian lady in the pictures, she does not come with the house. :-)
Belldon
The lot is available for download from the Sims 2 Exchange:
Bedrooms: 4 (two with double beds, one with two singles, and one with one single)
Bathrooms: 4
Cost: §158,272.
NOTE: Even though it says it requires Nightlife, I tried to keep any Nightlife objects/wallpapers/floors out of the house, so that those without Nightlife could use it. It does require University, however. Hopefully you won’t have any trouble with it!
Here are some more preview pics of the house:
Here in Minnesota the leaves are slowly turning gold and orange, so I was inspired to do a Ravelo family portrait with an autumn feel to it. Marlee has a goofy expression, but I had a tough time trying to get everyone to look right (I wish I had the camera reward!), so I decided it was good enough. ;-) Following the portrait (and a few outtakes) are some pictures of “Smustling”, for those of you who were wondering what the heck it is. I think the word “smustle” is probably a combination of “Sim” and “hustle”; the hustle was a song and a line-dance from the disco era. I remember my mom doing the hustle!
Anyway, here’s the portrait:
Simon, Lauren, Marlee, and Ethan Ravelo
Happy First Day of October, everyone! I played the Ravelos for a good chunk of time last night and thought I might as well post an update. I’m going to do this one commentary-style and let the pictures and captions tell the “story”. This allows me to explain some of the gameplay and include the weird little Nightlife bits that you can’t really take pictures of. Just to warn you, this update is a bit long and wordy. Hope you enjoy it anyway. ;-)
After our fine young couple got married, Lauren, who is a Family Sim, wanted to Woohoo and Have a Baby right away. That girl wanted to get down to business! Simon didn’t mind, since he could just ask her on a “date” and let the subsequent flirting and woohoo run the date-o-meter up to Dream Date. His Lifetime Want is to have 50 of those, so I try for one every opportunity I get. Yep, this house is gonna be Woohoo Central.
“I told you I like men who live on concrete slabs!”
Simon Ravelo was energized. After drifting from town to town for a few years, he was finally settling down in his favorite city, Rosebrook. It was the center of the universe to him, full of hip crowds swirling beneath the dancelights, shops and boutiques that catered to his every whim, and best of all, half a dozen places where he could find the world’s greatest espresso.
“Is this Xtreme enough for you?”
To celebrate the one-year anniversary of Greetings from Mt. Geneva, I decided to do two things:
First, I began a new Legacy family, the Ravelos of Rosebrook. I played them for several hours last night and am really enjoying it so far (the Xtreme Start for the Nightlife Legacy Challenge is hard, but not as hard as I thought it would be, thank goodness). I plan on posting the first update tonight when I get home from work. Huzzah!
Second, I wanted to take a little stroll down memory lane. It’s been an incredibly fun year sharing my Sims stories with you guys and receiving such generous feedback in return. And to all you other Sims 2 bloggers (including those who are no longer blogging), thank you for inspiring, enlightening, and entertaining me. You guys rule.
Without further ado, here are 12 pictures from this blog, one for each month of the past year.