Heather Huffington - Week 2

Heather Huffington's second week in New Maximiliania (after her graduation) starts just where her first week ended: in this small but nice yellow house by the Sea.

      

Here she is, Heather, the aspiring Rock Goddess! Maybe you remember her from the chapter about the Grunt family. She is Ripp's True Love but won't settle with him until he is ready (i.e. until he has had woohoo with 20 different Sims). In the meantime, she will focus on her career.

      

On Monday, Erik Swain walks by and is invited in. The two of them have known each other for a long time, probably since their university days, although Erik is much older than Heather, as you can tell.

       

On Tuesday, Heather rings Ripp. "You're still not quite ready for a 'two people only' relationship, are you?" she asks her 3-bolt-love.

        Indeed he isn't, but that does not stop this couple from loving each other. Heather invites him over, and as soon as Ripp appears on her doorstep, she is all over him.

       He tells Heather how fun it is to have a public woohoo. Not sure she really wanted to know that! Later, she leaves for work. The right decision with a chance card means a sudden influx of money to her account: 15.000 Simoleons!

       On Wednesday morning, she returns from work with a promotion to concert pianist. Phew! I won't have to see this particularly horrid outfit any longer.

      One of her wishes has been to buy a car, and now there is certainly enough money for that.

        Lilo Landgraab (Malcolm's daughter) is her guest for the day.

      On Thursday, Heather invites 8 of her 11 friends over. Most of them have known her and each other from university. Here come Erik Swain, Jasmine Rai, Ophelia Nigmos and Brittany Upsnott.

       From the other side of the road, Gary Greenman, Castor Nova, Kevin O'Feefe (formerly Beare) and Tiffany Sampson approach the house.

        While everyone says hello to everyone else, Heather gives the shrubs in her front yard a quick trim.

       Of course, her electric guitar is very popular with her party guests, and Brittany gets a huge amount of tips from everyone. In spite of Heather deciding she wants a hot bubble bath in the middle of the party, it is a success, and her friendships are maintained in a nice and easy way.

        On Friday morning, Heather wakes up with a) the flu, b) a cold and c) a mysterious desease. How annoying! She can't make Comfort Soup and has no choice but to get as much rest as possible.

        While she is at work, another good decision with a chance card earns her 32.000 Simoleons - not bad for someone who started the week with a mere 500 to their name!

More importantly, she is promoted to Symphony Conductor.

        What she needs now to get that final promotion is two Charisma skill points. Thankfully, she has Saturday off and spends most of the time skilling.

        And her having invested her time off in skilling is rewarded when she returns from work on Sunday night as New Maximiliania's latest Rock Goddess! (Still in her Symphony Conductor's dress here.)

Heather has reached Permanent Platinum 15 days from Elderhood.

Now all that's missing is Ripp Grunt reaching his LTW, so that the two of them can finally be together properly.

PS: This will be the last update for about a week. I won't have time to play this weekend, and on Sunday night will be travelling to another town where I'll be staying all of next week for a work-related course. No internet access there except for my mobile phone, which means I can't even read your updates! I hope you'll have plenty ready for me when I come back :-)

The Hart Family: Week 5

To read about Week 4 with this family, simply click on the "Hart" label.

The Hart family still lives in this Maxis-made house in New Maximiliania, actually not far from the farmhouse on Mountain Road where my previous post was set.

Upon entering the lot, the first thing I do is check everybody's lifetime wants, but here, nothing has changed.
      

This is Hailey, Matthew's half-Alien daughter. She still wants 20 lovers, but right now, she does not even have a romantic interest; there are few teenage boys she knows, and so far, she has not shown a particular liking for anyone.
After having spent the first part of her teenage "years" not worrying about her puppy fat, she suddenly wants to get fit and takes up Yoga.
      

Her little half-sister, Fenya, was adopted by the Harts after her own family - Phineaus Furley, his wife Allegra (née Gorey) and her twin sister Frida - all died in a tragic home fire on Christmas. Fenya has no recollection of her former life; her first memory is of the day when she came home with her first A+ report from school, two days after she moved in with the Harts. She is, as you can see, a little neat freak and truly enjoys doing nearly all the cleaning around the house.
       

Jane Hart, née Stacks, still dreams of being surrounded by six loving grandchildren in her old age. Right now, though, she is suffering a bout of flu.
       

Her husband Matthew shares her lifetime want. He learned White Magic from his old friend Herbert Goodie, who left his cauldron and book of spells to him when he peacefully died of old age years ago.
       

Jane and Matthew are a 3-bolt-couple and often initiate romantic interactions between them.
       

On the Monday of their fifth week, their oldest daughter Helena moves back in. Helena is Jane's only child; Hailey has Matthew and an Alien pollination technician as her father, and Fenya's biological human father was Phineaus Furley, but this is a patchwork family that is as close as you could wish for.
Helena (her surname is still Stacks, because she was born before Jane and Matthew got married) has the LTW of being Rock God, and has already spent a week on her own after graduation. She currently works as a Summer Camp Music Teacher and will be the only family member to bring in any money; her parents don't work but were able to buy and furnish their house entirely with the money saved from their college grants. Right now, the family funds amount to a modest 4.659 Simoleons.
      

In the afternoon, Matthew invites his closest friends over, and everybody gathers in the open plan kitchen/dining area where Matthew is ready to blow out the candles on his birthday cake.
       

Welcome to Elderhood, Matthew! (The warlock outfit will have to go. I really don't like it, and it does not fit Matthew's way of life at all.)
      

Jane follows in her husband's footsteps while the party is still in full swing.
      

Somehow, everybody seems to prefer the berry cake that was in Matthew's inventory (obviously bought at one of the two bakeries my Sims are currently running elsewhere in the neighbourhood) to the birthday cake. "Look at the two of us," Jane says, "now we're old and... more or less grey!"
(I have given Matthew his custom hair again, since it is one of Jane's turn-ons. They are now down to 2 bolts, and because I can not give Jane red hair like she used to have, they can not get back to 3 bolts.)
       

Hailey, Fenya and Helena do the smustle while some of the guests - Jonah Powers, Mickey Dosser and Guy Wrightley here - talk about food.
      

On Tuesday morning, Fenya is happy to see that her big sis is still here! She was not entirely convinced that Helena had come home to stay. But of course, it won't do to have the three "girls" still share the nursery; Helena's working hours in the music business and her being an adult woman mean she'll need her own space. How to achieve that, though?
      

The room on the top floor that used to be Matthew's "magic" room is redecorated and furnished for Helena. The third bed from the girls' room is sold, and the wardrobe that used to be on the landing is moved back in.
      

Matthew's magic equipment is moved downstairs to a corner of his and Jane's bedroom.
       

Hailey is diligently doing her Yoga exercises nearly every day now.
      

Jane can't wait for her first grandchild! Helena is in love with Xander Roth and tries to ring him three times on that Tuesday, but every time, she is told by his sister Sandra that he is not home. She wonders what's wrong; at college, the two of them fell in love autonomously, if I remember correctly, but now it seems like they do not have a future together.
       

Helena returns from work at the same time as Fenya comes home from school, who is happy to see that her big sis is STILL there! Today, Helena was promoted to Battle of the Bands Judge.
       

Fenya brings Stephen Riley home from school.
       

The two of them spend good part of the afternoon playing cops and robbers in Helena's bedroom.
      

At 6.00 pm, just when she is ready to sit down to do her homework, Fenya grows up into a teenager. The lot decides on her aspiration to be Family - rather fittingly, given her history -, and she wants nothing more than to reach her Golden Anniversary.
      

Since Helena was not able to reach Xander, she spends a long time talking on the phone to her next closest male friend, Cedric Cooke. Eventually, they agree for Cedric to come over and talk about matters face to face. They discover that they have feelings for each other they had been unaware of until now.
       

Those feelings lead to actions :-)
       

And on Wednesday morning, Helena is pretty sure that she has done her part to make her parents' LTW come true.
      

Today, Glenda Greenman comes home from school with the girls.
      

And Helena has her pregnancy confirmed in the evening.
       

Thursday sees Matthew up early. He makes reagents in his cauldron for all the healing spells he needs, what with himself and his family members constantly battling flus and colds.
      

Jane repairs the broken trash compactor.
       

I really am not happy with every Sim girl and boy always being given the same default hairstyle when they grow up, and so I have Fenya change her hair colour to blonde (it was her biological father Phineaus' colour) and the style to waves. She seems to like it!
       

Helena is now VERY pregnant :-) I wonder if it's twins...?
      

The girls get off the school bus today with two of their many half-siblings, Dora Dreamer (front) and Martina Martin (back).
       

All four spend the afternoon upstairs in the girls' room.
       

Matthew wants to have the girls to have something special and conjures up some food by magic. What is it going to be? (I don't think there is a way to influence what dish it is.)
       

Baked Alaska!
       

After having shared the Baked Alaska, the girls and their guests do what they seem to like best: smustle away to the music from the stereo. Matthew and Jane love seeing their girls so happy.
      

On Friday morning, Helena wakes up even MORE pregnant than before :-)
       

The snow is gone, spring is here, and after he has changed the Christmas decoration to spring flowers on the porch, Matthew enjoys a sunny morning flying the kite.
       

After the girls are home from school, Jane takes them to Town Center Groceries.
      

While she stocks up on groceries, Fenya has a look around and manages to find a sink she can clean :-)
      

Meanwhile, Hailey, who has really developed into a little fitness fanatic, does some rope-skipping outside.
       

Later, Jane prepares ribs on the public grill next to the shop.
       

Of course, I was hoping the girls - particularly Fenya, who has been showing the want of Going Steady nearly from the moment she grew up into a teenager - would meet nice teenage boys here, but the only one their age is this townie, Alvin Futa (I think).
       

It is 1.08 am on Saturday, when Helena goes into labour in her parents' bedroom.
       

She somehow still manages to climb the stairs to the girls' room, where first Stephanie...
      

...and then Stacy are born. How nice to see that there is one of each of their parents' skin colours! Stephanie is in fact the first green-skinned baby born in my game not from a man as a result of Alien abduction, but by a woman the "natural" way.
       

Matthew and Jane are delighted!
      

"Oh Helena, my darling daughter, this means so much to me!" Jane hugs Helena tenderly. (They did this on their own, and I found it very sweet.)
       

Hailey's new fitness regime of Yoga exercises and rope-skipping pays off when she finally is pronounced fit a few hours after the birth of her little nieces.
      

Matthew, still full of the good news, greets one of his best friends, Mickey Dosser, who has come to congratulate.
       

Helena invites Cedric over to see his baby daughters for the first time.
During their date earlier this week, suddenly Cedric had shown the want of being engaged to Helena, and moments later, Helena showed the same wish. So, today, they quietly exchange rings during Cedric's visit, and of course I expect Helena now to want to marry Cedric - but the wish does not appear for the rest of the week.
       

Cedric with Stephanie, his firstborn. He looks rather serious there, and so he should; he needs to think about how he wants to go on from there. Marry Helena and move in with her and her parents? Or have her and the little ones move in with him? Marry at all, or just live together?
Matthew is, if he can help it, never far from his first grandchildren. It is not as if he didn't trust Cedric to be able to handle the little ones, but still... :-)
       

With the things needed for the babies, the Tuesday and Thursday bills to pay, the groceries bought on Friday and Helena not having worked while she was on maternity leave, the family funds have gone down to 252 Simoleons.
Therefore, Helena's promotion to Roadie and the bonus that entails are very welcome.
      

On Sunday morning, proud grandmother Jane feeds Stacy.
      

Helena, although working on her career, makes sure to look after her daughters whenever she can.
       

Hailey and Fenya still have not met any boys their age they are interested in, and today, Hailey suggests they go roller-skating.
       

Now that she is fit she is quite good at that! Fenya, always the householdy type, makes hotdogs for everyone.
Unfortunately, no teenage boys whatsoever turn up while the girls are there; only one teenage townie girl puts in an appearance, and so after a while, they head back home.
       

Helena is promoted to Studio Musician.
      

She now needs a creativity point and sets up an easel in her bedroom.
       

In the evening, Hailey leaves for college. Fenya, who is quite a bit younger, may or may not follow her eventually; she does not need college for her LTW. Neither does Hailey, but college will offer her good opportunities to meet candidates for her list of 20 lovers :-)

Is Helena going to want to marry Cedric, or will she raise the twins as a single parent? How long until Hailey will make her parents happy grandparents again? Will Fenya find a boyfriend?