The Landgraab Family: Week 5

The Landgraab mansion looks unchanged from the outside when we arrive here for the fifth week, but let's check whether really everything is as it was when Round 4 ended.

       Here is Malcolm Landgraab... whose lifetime want WAS to own 5 top level businesses. So far, he has 3 businesses at top level: his home business (an indoor swimming pool built in an annex to the mansion, where Sims pay admission), Bluewater Baths & Salons, and the Stratford Strip.But, as I said, that WAS his lifetime want! Upon entering the lot, I find it changed to "reach Golden Anniversary" - and that with only today, Monday, left until 6.00 pm before he will turn into an Elder! He does not even have a love interest!

      His son, Lance, still has the same LTW of being Celebrity Chef.

       His daughter, Lilo, still wants to become a World Class Ballet Dancer one day. Strange, isn't it, about those changed LTWs - why has it changed for Malcolm, but not for his children?

        [First of all, Malcolm sells his businesses back to the community and closes down the home business. He is now even richer than before.

      And while the butler arrives and serves yet another burnt breakfast...

       ...Malcolm invites his loyal employee and friend, Natasha Una, over. "Will you help me with my LTW, dear?" he asks her.

       Natasha agrees to marry Malcolm before the clock strikes six tonight.

       They kiss to seal the deal, so to speak, and even fall in love with each other. Phew! I didn't think Malcolm would make it in so short a time.

        All in a hurry, the dining table is moved out of the way and a wedding arch and chairs are set up instead.

        And then, Natasha and Malcolm stand under the arch... and I have a première in my game: Natasha starts to tremble when the vows are spoken, and runs away, leaving the man who had been her friend and employer for many years and was about to become her husband before the rings are exchanged!

        Poor Malcolm, he doesn't know what got into Natasha - one moment she had agreed to help him with his LTW, and even said she loved him, and the next minute, he finds himself rejected!

       It is still only about lunch time, and maybe he can convince one of his female friends who have turned up for the wedding to take Natasha's place. How about Nina Caliente, for instance?

        A quick flirt & kiss later, the two of them are in love. But... Nina can't marry Malcolm. She is already married to Lazlo Curious.

        Upstairs, I find Lola very upset for her father. The poor girl cries almost as much as if he'd died!

      Downstairs, while Lance is talking to Gerlinde Gavigan in the corner, Malcolm approaches Carla Reamon, another close friend of his. "Would you help me with my LTW?" he asks. "Honestly, I would, if it weren't for Connor..." Oh, right, Carla married Connor Wheeler a long time ago - he was the reason she left her homeland, Twikkii Island. What is poor Malcolm to do?!

        All his life, Malcolm has been rich. Very rich. All his problems were always solved with money. So he turns to his trusted problem-solver again and engages the gypsy lady to bring him a suitable candidate for quick marriage - before he'll turn into an Elder.

        He has paid the maximum sum, 5.000 Simoleons, and would have gladly paid ten times as much if it was a warranty for success. Who is summoned? Beatrice Monty, who lives with her father, her brother and her boyfriend, as far as I remember.

       And before Malcolm even gets to the stage where he can so much as flirt with Beatrice - let alone fall in love with her and ask for her hand in marriage - it is 6.00 pm, and he turns into an Elder.Sorry, Mal, but it's really not my fault that you changed your LTW so late in life!

      On Tuesday morning, the children still talk about their father's unlucky experience with the wedding that was not to be.

        Malcolm talks to his friends on the phone. "I know I won't ever make my new LTW come true, but I still want to marry - just don't know any lady who would want me now, after I have already been turned down," he sighs.

       "Don't worry, Dad, it is never too late for love; you're a great guy, and I am sure there will be a woman whose heart will be yours," Lance encourages him.

        If it wasn't for my children, I really don't know how I'd manage to go on, Malcolm thinks.

        It is Snow Day, which means the children don't have to go to school, and Malcolm is glad that he won't have to spend half the day on his own, with just the butler and the cleaner for company.

        Instead, he takes them to "Sims Gone Wired" (never too much snow on the roads for that!).

        There, Lance gets a mobile phone...

       ...and Lilo a game pad.No eligible ladies are on the lot, and so the three of them drive home soon afterwards.
        <Snapshot>

Malcolm decides to ask the gypsy lady for advice once more. She gladly takes his money, but all she can come up with are townie ladies who he only has two bolts for: Amanda Carlson (not pictured) and Sierra Andersen...

       ...and Rebecca Guevara on the the next day, Wednesday.

       Meanwhile, the children have been back to school and come home today with two of their many half-siblings in tow: Dora Dreamer...

       ...and Sirius Swain.

        While Dora and Sirius entertain themselves elsewhere in the house, the Landgraab twins diligently do their homework first. Their poor Dad has gone through enough already, they don't want him to think he has to remind them of doing their homework.

       The next day, Thursday, is the first day of spring, but it snows so heavily again that another Snow Day is announced, and the children stay home from school once more.

        Lilo makes lunch meat sandwiches for herself, her brother and her Dad.

        Malcolm is busy with more blind dates with the help of the Matchmaker, but as unsuccessful as before: Elizabeth Royce...

        ..Tosha Landry...

       ...and Sarah McCarthy all do not qualify for a suitable wife for Malcolm. They are  townies, and he would make an exception with three bolts, but they are all two-bolters. That's another 15.000 Simoleons gone (he can easily afford it) and nothing achieved.

       Something else I have not observed in my game before: Teenagers (probably adults, too?) can "drink from bottle" when there is a bar nearby.

        On Friday, Pablo Picaso comes home from school with Lilo. He is quite the teenage heartthrob, I think :-)

        The three teens take full advantage of the indoor swimming pool this afternoon.

        Malcolm has not yet given up on his idea of finding a wife through the Matchmaker, and, for a change, she does not summon a townie this time. Still, Georgia Newson is just as unsuitable: she is still at university, and in a relationship with Justin Kim. So he politely ends the date before it really starts.

       Next are Brittany Wendland...

        ...and Brooke McGaw, two townies. Malcolm's case seems to be hopeless.

       On Saturday morning, he wakes up feeling great. "This is my lucky day, I know it, I just KNOW it," he says to himself.

        And before the sun rises, he has already summoned the Matchmaker, paid his 5.000 Simoleons and eagerly awaits his latest blind date.
      

And it is Castanea Capp, one of Tybalt Capp's six plant children. She is, to my knowledge, unattached, and therefore a suitable candidate for Malcolm's marriage plans.

        He quickly buys a bottle of love potion from the Matchmaker and then sets to "work" on Castanea.

       While the love potion is active, Castanea and Malcolm have three bolts for each other, and it does not take long at all for the two of them to fall in love.

      On the same day, the rather ugly facade of the mansion is renovated, and flowers now adorn the front porch and balcony.

       Lilo and Lance have changed into more spring-like outfits, too.

        After a highly successful dream date, Malcolm proposes to Castanea. Her answer is "YES!"

       On Sunday morning, Malcolm is up long before his children. He can't wait for the day to begin properly, and is angry when he discovers a hole in the front garden dug up by a stray dog. "Today of all days!" he thinks.

        Today is going to be his second attempt at getting married. Will it work out this time? He strives to do everything as different as possible from his first attempt - this time, the ceremony is to take place outside, and even the wedding arch is a different one.

       Oh no! Does it HAVE to rain now?!

       Never mind. The rain stops just in time for the ceremony to begin. When Castanea stands in front of him underneath the wedding arch, poor Malcolm can't help but think of Natasha for a moment.

        But Castanea is not Natasha - she does not go back on her promise at the last moment, and becomes Mrs. Landgraab, applauded heartily by the Landgraab's butler and gardener, Malcolms' children and one of Castanea's siblings, Calendula and her husband Pleasant Servo.

(The rest of Castanea's family is there, too, but they preferred smustling away to the music from the stereo instead of watching the ceremony! By the way, Castanea's father, Tybalt Capp, has the LTW to marry off six children. She is the second one, her sister Calendula was the first one to get married.)

        "What a difference to what we thought was going to be a wedding party on Monday," Lilo says when they sit down to eat the wedding cake. That was maybe not the most tactful thing to say, but she meant well.

        Later, Malcolm gives his young wife a present. You can guess what it is, can't you?

        Exactly, it was a bottle of Plantocillin, and now Castanea is 100 % "human"! She will not win a beauty contest any time soon, but she's much easier to play in this state, and looks aren't everything. Her LTW, by the way, is to become Hall of Famer.

        She is a Fortune Sim, and it looks like she knows to appreciate the advantage of having married a rich Sim.

        Most of the wedding guests have gone home by now, but Malcolm's children are still very much in party mood :-) (Lance did this on his own accord, while Johnny Smith was dancing away like mad.)

      

The week ends with a look at Malcolm's photo collection in the bedroom. He is now 60, while his wife has only just started her adult life. The children have 3 or 4 days left until they will go to college. Malcolm will never make his LTW come true now, but at least he got a very nice aspiration boost when he married Castaneda, and I hope he will get full aspiration points soon.