The Cho / Riley Family

The Rileys and the Chos have already moved twice: From Belladonna Cove to New Maximiliania, where they started out in two apartments in the same apartment building, and then to this house in New Max, where they now all live together. Who are they "all" ?

Timothy Riley, a Knowledge Sim who wants to become a Prestidigitator...

...his daughter Sally, who has the Romance aspiration and dreams of 20 simultaneous lovers...

...Etsu Cho, the youngest family member, also a Knowledge Sim; her lifetime want is to become Media Magnate...

...and Etsu's mother Vivian Riley, née Cho. Vivian and Timothy got married at the end of their first week in New Max. As you can tell from the picture, Vivian is a bit older than her husband. She is a Family Sim and hopes to spend her old age surrounded by six grandchildren, which means that Sally and Etsu will have children eventually.

Ooops... no, Vivian is not pregnant. She is beyond that, age-wise. This is just a bout of food poisoning. Luckily, she can provide the cure herself: making Grandma's Comfort Soup is one of her specialties.

The girls want to get into Private School, and so the Headmaster is invited over. Just as the first snowflakes begin to fall, his car pulls up in front of the house.

A tour of the house, a delicious meal of pork chops and 99 points later, the girls are both accepted into the school.

Very early on Tuesday morning - too early for any of the family members to be up, in fact - the head of Sue's Secret Kitchen pays a short visit and leaves a membership card for Vivian.

Etsu looks cute in her brand new Private School uniform, doesn't she!

And so does Sally, I think. She is my favourite Sim in all of New Max anyway.

I wouldn't mind having a place like that in my house, either: a nice bay window for my desk and my computer.

Timothy has been promoted to Mime (this is, of course, still his Birthday Party Mascot outfit).

It is mid-winter, and the Rileys decide to throw a New Year's bash. The big empty room on the ground floor of their house was last used for their wedding ceremony; now they borrow a karaoke machine, a bar and a disco light, and get everything ready for the party.

Before the guests arrive, Etsu receives her membership card to Sue's Secret Kitchen.

Then the guests - almost all of them teens and children, friends and school mates of Sally and Etsu - arrive, but somehow nobody seems to be having much fun.

This changes when Sally grabs one of their male guests (Benedick Monty, I believe) and the microphone and does a duet on the karaoke machine. Soon everybody is enjoying themselves.

Outside on the patio, sparklers have been provided for the guests, and Etsu is the first to light one.

Timothy is a very sensible dad and leaves the kids to their party; instead, he works upstairs on his painting skill and is rewarded with a membership card to the My Muse II - Art Studio.

But he does not miss out on Father Time's arrival when the clock strikes midnight and everybody runs out to wave the old year good-bye and welcome the new year! (I play this scenario so seldom that I really enjoyed seeing it again)

Everybody is out now, lighting fireworks or watching them, and the party turns out to be a success.

When the last guests leave (this one being Carolina Curious, daughter of Pascal Curious), the girls make sure all the dirty dishes are cleared away, before they finally go to bed.

The next morning is announced to be a Snow Day - Etsu and Sally do not have to go to school! After last night's party, an unexpected day off is very welcome :-)

Timothy goes to work in spite of the snow, now in his Mime outfit.

Vivian takes up a new hobby.

Etsu has 6 mechanical points, but somehow she still manages to get electrocuted when she tries to repair the downstairs computer.

Upstairs, Timothy's latest painting adorns the wall.

He is now promoted to Lounge Singer.

On Friday, all the snow has gone; it is spring. The girls complain that they have nothing to wear (sounds familiar, doesn't it!), and so they are allowed to go to H&M and get some new outfits.

Etsu's dress suits her very well, don't you think?

Sally invites her boyfriend Hal Capp over; she has not seen him yet all week. Until now, he was her 3-bolt-love. Suddenly - I don't know why - she has only 2 bolts for him. That does not stop her from asking him to go steady, though. It won't be for long - soon, Sally will leave for college.

Her choice of new outfit is a bit more sombre than that of her step sister.

Ah... what happened here, do you reckon?

No, not this. Timothy's age transition happened when he returned from work. He has just been promoted to Ventriloquist and is now an Elder like his wife.

Yes, that's why I showed you the night-time shot of the back of the house with the lone telescope on the balcony: Sally has been kidnapped by Aliens! While her father is, typically for a Knowledge Sim, most pleased about this, she is a lot less happy about the whole experience.

In fact, she is so traumatized that she wakes up on Sunday morning two hours before her normal wake-up time and can't stop thinking about what has happened to her for a while. Hopefully, moving to college will confront her with so many new impressions that the bad memory will fade.

Etsu sees Tommy Ottomas walking past their house and greets him.

When he comes in and Sally starts talking to him, she turns out to have 3 bolts for him! Well, Sally, you won't be doing anything about this right now - it is time for you to say good-bye to the family and move to college!

Her father will miss her a lot, I think. We will probably meet her again soon and see how she's getting on at college. Will you join me there? I hope so :-)

- - - Update 29.8.2010 - - - Back with the Rileys, minus Sally, we find Timothy here, preparing himself an early breakfast...

..while his stepdaughter Etsu Cho is just waking up to her second to last day at school before she will leave for university...

...and his beloved wife Vivian, nee Cho, is indulging herself in her newfound hobby of flower arranging.

The painting we saw Timothy work on at the end of the previous update is now finished and looks very good on the living room wall. Of course the flower arrangement below the painting is from Vivian. She has just received her Silver Talent Badge for that.

On this day, though, not all is well - Timothy takes the wrong decision with a chance card and is demoted to Ventriloquist (he was Round Table Knight before that). At least he was not fired - that would have meant for him that his lifetime want of becoming prestidigitator would be completely out of reach at is age!).

Just a snapshot of the house, without the snow this time.

Etsu is thinking more and more often about her aspiration and reaching her lifetime want. A university degree will help her to reach that goal earlier.

Just in time before she leaves, her stepfather manages to finish a portrait of her in her private school uniform.

After having applied for scholarships, it is time for Etsu on Wednesday morning to get into the taxi for college, where we will follow her through her first year, as this update was not even three days long. Eventually, we will return to the Riley household when it is their turn on the alphabetical list again.

- - - Update 22.2.2012 - - - Sally and Etsu have both finsihed college; their "years" there are documented in a different chapter. Now, after both having graduated Summa Cum Laude (Sally in psychology and Etsu in Mathematics), they return to live with Sally's Dad and Etsu's Mum, Vivian and Timothy, who are now 68 and 57 years old.

Etsu knows her mother's lifetime want requires her to have children, and she also knows who she wants to have those children with: Hal Capp, her college sweetheart, who is promptly invited over... to stay! Hal is a Romance Sim who wants to be Celebrity Chef. (When they were teenagers, for a while Hal was not Etsu's boyfriend, but going steady with her step-sister Sally. That does not present a problem to anyone, though; moving to college meant for each of them to leave their old feelings behind... I think.)

Sally hates the clothes she has age-transitioned into and goes to Freyia's Rayments.

Etsu and Hal have only one bolt between them (while Sally and Hal have 3 bolts for each other...!), but they manage to get to two bolts when Etsu puts on her formal dress for him.

What used to be the party room is converted into a bedroom for Etsu and Hal, complete with an en-suite bathroom for the young couple. And then, Etsu sets to work on helping her mother towards fulfilling her lifetime want, that of having six grandchildren :-)

Sally brought new outfits from town not just for herself, but also for her step sister. As always, Etsu's colour is pink, and Sally goes for the same dress in blue.

For Sally, the room that used to be the girls' bedroom before they both went to college is redecorated and equipped with a double bed. Well, she is a Romance Sim and wants to have 20 simultaneous loves - her need for some privacy from the rest of the household is obvious! Here, she is making Brent Broke part of those select 20 Sims.

And I'm afraid to say she can't resist acting on the 3 bolts she has for Hal... going out to him on the balcony in just her lacy undies while he is stargazing certainly worked. Well, it may be some consolation for Etsu (who has no clue of her step sister's feelings for her live-in boyfriend and father of her unborn child) that nothing "worse" than a kiss happens between the two of them.

Mickey Dosser is one of the 20 on the next day.

Vivian is very much looking forward to becoming a grandmother!

"So good to have you as an addition to the family," Sally says to Hal over breakfast. Still Etsu does not get it; she is just glad that everybody is getting along so well. If she knew how well...!

It is Thursday, and Timothy is promoted to Juggler.

Sally's Lover # 14 is Benedick Monty.

Etsu is happy to have her pregnancy confirmed and can't wait to tell her mum... and Hal, of course.

Timothy went back to work right after his promotion and comes home with yet another one: this time he is made Master of Ceremonies (still wearing his Juggler outfit here).

Sally is again found on the balcony, where she can be close to Hal. He is really more interested in what he can see through the telescope, though, and the only exciting thing happening that night is him becoming a member of the Aspirational Laboratories.

Peter Ottomas is happily married and the head of a numerous family, but that does not stop him from becoming part of Sally's special club. These two are, by the way, another 3-bolt-couple.

Benvenuto Broke does not know that his twin brother Brent did pretty much the same a few days ago.

Sally is rather desperate to reach the magic number of loves and therefore is not choosy about the gender of her sweethearts; today, it is Angela Pleasant...

...Jules O'Mackey...

...Lilith Pleasant...

...and Sandra Roth.

Meanwhile, Vivian is constantly busying herself with her flower arrangements and reaches maximum enthusiasm in arts & crafts.

With Sandra, Sally has fulfilled her lifetime want of 20 simultaneous loves - 26 days before reaching elderhood. That is quite young for Permanent Platinum, isn't it! And it finally means Sally can decide on ONE man (or woman) to be with; it won't be difficult anymore for her or her partner, and she has several 3-bolters among her friends. The relief on her face is obvious!+

She celebrates her permanent platinum status by preparing stuffed turkey for dinner.

Timothy is promoted to Headliner.

The next morning, Saturday, Sally wakes up feeling less than brilliant; she has a bad cold. But with plenty of Grandma's Comfort Soup around (prepared by Vivian), she is as right as rain in no time.

Etsu learns lifelong happiness. This girl is just always smiling, it seems!

With a content sigh she goes to bed early; with a huge belly like hers in the last stages of pregnancy, she gets tired easily and is happy to retreat long before Hal will join her. She finally managed to find a job in the Journalism career and will start next week as a Horoscope Writer; her lifetime want is to become Media Magnate.

Good job she went to sleep early, because at a quarter to ten, she wakes up with labour pain setting in, and moments later, she holds little Charlie Cho in her arms, cheered on by her step sister.

Vivian is over the moon - her first grandchild!

It is a day full of joy at the Riley/Cho household: Timothy has reached his lifetime want, the top of the Entertainment career, and is now a Prestidigitator at 61 years.

Sunday morning dawns, and Sally and Hal find each other on their own in the kitchen. Sally can't resist grabbing Hal and smooching him - he knows what she feels for him, and it seems like he is not going to ask her to restrain herself.

By the time Etsu appears, very prettily dressed and smiling as usual, the steamy moment has passed and they quickly pretend to be talking about someone else.

Vivian has now mastered the art of flower arranging and receives her golden talent badge.

This beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon calls for a family reunion, and Hal asks his whole family over, his parents Albany and Goneril and his sisters Miranda, Desdemona and Ariel. The week at the Riley/Cho household ends here, and we'll probably see the answer to the following questions during the next round: - Is Sally going to truly act on her 3-bolt-feelings for Hal, and he on his? - How will Etsu deal with it if they do? - Is she going to have five more children just to make her mother happy? - What will Charlie be like as a toddler? - How long is Vivian going to live? (She is 73 now) - Will Hal find a job in the culinary career and start working towards his lifetime want?