For the previous week with Gesine Gavigan after graduation, click here.
For Lance's first week after graduation, click here.
For the previous week with the Gavigan family, click here.
We are now going to spend a week at this apartment building, mainly at the apartment with the telescope on the balcony. Who lives here?
Gesine Gavigan (Gerlinde's twin sister) - but not on her own.
She has long been an item with Lance Landgraab, one of Malcolm Landgraab's half-Alien twins.
Gesine studied Biology and graduated Summa Cum Laude. She wants to become Space Pirate but did not find a job in the Adventurer career during last round.
Lance, on the other hand, is doing well in the Culinary career; he wants to be Celebrity Chef, and we see him on this Monday morning on his way to work as Executive Chef.
The other man in the picture is Prezioso Landgraab, the man who married Lance's twin sister Lilo last round.
Lilo and Lance live in the adjacent flat, and the two ladies spend part of the day Hula-dancing together.
Lance brings colleague Matthew Cho home from work, and of course Matthew stays for dinner.
In the early hours of Tuesday, Lance is stargazing. Gesine has gone to bed after checking the job adverts online, but once again to no avail.
Once she is up, she wants to work out, and work out she does.
Then it is time for this week's visit to a community lot - and you can guess why I decided to send Lance and Gesine to St. Simius, can't you!
They both rolled the wish to get married last round, and it was locked. Here they are in church, waiting for the ceremony to begin.
A mix of friends, family and random visitors (such as the Unsavoury Charlatan, sitting next to the groom's sister, Lilo Landgraab) make up the congregation.
The new Mrs. and Mr. Landgraab have just cut the cake. Lance is commenting on a subject that Gerlinde obviously finds embarrassing - she looks firmly down at her plate.
But never mind her earlier embarrassment - the two of them are very much in love, as is evident to anyone who watches them dancing.
Later, the dancing becomes more lively. Gesine dances with her twin sister Gerlinde and Lance with Lilo. The wedding will be a wonderful memory for everyone who attended.
The new Mrs. Landgraab is again unsuccessful with her job search on Wednesday morning. "Will I ever even get started on my lifetime want?" Gesine muses.
"Will we ever move out of this slightly glitchy rented apartment and live in the Landgraab Mansion again, the house I was born in?" her husband muses while making lunch.
It is nice that he has today and the next day off; quite by coincidence, but good for settling into married life.
At the wedding, Gesine did not have much chance to talk to her Dad. She invites Nathan over in the afternoon.
Thursday is rather uneventful. Although the Landgraabs invite their next door neighbours over - Lilo is, as you know, Lance's twin and now Gesine's sister-in-law; she is married to Prezioso Landgraab - they never manage to eat together.
The glitches on this lot make every one "jump" out of their current action repeatedly, so that they simply do not sit at the table at the same time. I really hope to move them to the Landgraab Mansion soon, but for now, it is still occupied by Castanea, the widow of their father Malcolm. The young Landgraabs hardly know the woman who is not much older than themselves; she married their Dad while they were at uni.
By Friday morning Gesine still has not found a job in her coveted career. Lance cheers her up by jumping into her arms on his own initiative. "Why don't you ask your sister and her husband over to spend the day with you, darling?" he suggests, knowing that he won't be home from work until late afternoon.
And so Gesine asks Gerlinde and Sirius over. The sisters have a hot drink at the bar in the aparment building's court and catch up with what's been going on in their lives since the wedding.
Lance returns home with a promotion to Restauranteur. He needs a few more skill points but is not far off from reaching his LTW. If only Gesine would finally get a chance to start on hers!
A winter BBQ is held to celebrate Lance's promotion and the visit from Gerlinde and Sirius.
It is Saturday morning, and the young Landgraabs finally make a wish come true they have both been harbouring for good part of the week: to woohoo in their car.
Lance is already off to work by the time the customary Saturday afternoon pizza ordered by the landlord for everyone in the block of flats is delivered. The idea is to have the tenants meet each other - but Gesine ends up being the only one to sit down in the courtyard for a slice.
She invites her older brother Isaiah over. He married into the Capp clan and brings along his wife Ariel and their sons Cataldo and Calogero.
When it gets dark outside, Gesine prepares dinner.
Lance is glad to see his father-in-law and other members of his wife's family are there when he comes home from work. It is good to see Gesine sharing a lively meal with them instead of grabbing a bite all on her own.
On Sunday morning, Gesine unclogs the toilet. She could just as well ask the Landlord to do it, but she wants to feel useful - and still no job has appeared for her on the Simternet.
The lot is getting more and more glitchy. This graphics bug - blinking blue strips on the bed, and the duvet looking as if someone were still in bed when really there is nobody there - is the latest in a series of bugs/glitches/hiccups, whatever you want to call them.
When it is the other Landgraab couple's turn to be played (Lilo and Prezioso live next door in the same block of flats), I shall move them elsewhere and bulldoze this lot.
The day passes uneventfully. While Lance is at work, Gesine talks to friends and family members on the phone, plays computer games and dances a little to the music from the stereo placed in the communal hallway.
When her husband comes home, she sits down with him while he has a bowl of leftover chili, and tells him that she is bored to death with no job and nobody and nothing to really focus on.
Lance kindly suggests they move elsewhere, which could give Gesine the chance to finally find a job. Yes, that sounds like a plan.
I truly felt sorry for Gesine. Day after day, she looked for a job that would allow her to become Space Pirate, and day after day, the adventurer career simply would not show up.
She filled her time as best as she could by inviting family over most days, but it was frustrating to see Lance advancing towards his lifetime want with big steps while she did not even start.
The couple are cute together, I think, and the family gatherings were nice to play. And of course I loved the wedding!
Click here for Week 9 with this family, if you like.
The Gavigan-Swain family still live in the rented semi where Sirius Swain was born and grew up. Together, Gerlinde and Sirius have four children, two sets of twins: Helen and Clarence, now in their teens, and Gary and Gavin.
Gerlinde is on Permanent Platinum but will still occasionally be controlled by me, to maintain friendships mainly. She works as a World Class Ballet Dancer.
Sirius is currently working as Restauranteur and will be on Permanent Platinum, too, once he'll have reached the top of the culinary career.
Neither Sirius nor Gerlinde have ever shown the wish to get married, although they love each other and their children very much.
Last round, I sent the family on holiday. Their trip to Twikii Island was great, and they now proudly display the souvenirs they have bought and the clam one of the boys found on the beach.
Their week begins on a Saturday, as it is the day they return from the trip.
I stupidly missed the opportunity to get Clarence started on his lifetime want of 50 first dates while he was on holiday. But now I am not going to waste more time and have him ask Debbie Hutchins, a townie girl, on his first date EVER.
As he is still very new to this whole dating business (and I do not plan on having him fall in love with a townie anytime soon), the date ends after some chatting and telling jokes. Not a good date, but a start on his LTW.
Later, he asks Meadow Thayer, another townie girl, but she does not feel like dating Clarence... just yet.
On Sunday morning, Sirius maximises his cooking skill. Now he needs two creativity points before he can expect another promotion.
Helen makes her own breakfast, because everybody else is still asleep. One day she wants to follow in her Dad's footsteps and also take up the culinary career, so it won't harm to gain some experience in the kitchen.
Today, Meadow Thayer says "yes" when Clarence rings her and asks her over for a date. She becomes his 1st Date # 2 - and unfortunately, although they have no chemistry between them, when Clarence ends the date after some playing and talking, they kiss good-bye and end up with a crush on each other.
Sundays are often the best time to gather the family around, and although Gerlinde is being picked up by the limousine to work just as they arrive, she has invited her father, Nathan Gavigan, her sister Gesine with Lance Landgraab, and their elder brother Isaiah with his wife Ariel Capp and their sons Cataldo and Calogero.
Clarence has made hot dogs on the grill, as it is still nice and mild outside on this early autumn evening. His sister Helen is joined at the table on the patio by their Granddad Nathan, Uncle Isaiah and "Uncle" Lance.
The younger boys wake up very early on Monday morning. Gavin scares his twin brother with a story about a BIIIIG black wolf lurking in the neighbourhood.
Monday is the first day back to school after the summer holidays. Helen and Gary find enough time for a round of Red Hands before the school bus arrives.
Gerlinde slept in after last night's performance and the family visit. Once the kids are at school, she gets up and discovers that the toy robot is broken. This is one thing she can not request from the Landlord, so she repairs it herself.
Sirius has the day off and manages to maximise his creativity skill.
The afternoon is spent doing homework and other things. In the evening, Clarence, desperate for another first date, asks the Matchmaker for help.
Amy Jones is his 1st Date # 3 - short, and "okay".
Finally wanting a date of her own but not knowing any boys her age who are not relatives, Helen also asks the Matchmaker to find someone for her. Charles Capp appears. Their date does not last very long, but is good enough for Helen to later roll the wish to be friends with Charles.
On Tuesday morning, Gerlinde and Sirius share a tender, quiet moment before the children are up.
Later, Camryn Lee is invited over. She and Gerlinde are now best friends, and Sirius tentatively asks her over lunch whether she would maybe consider moving to the neighbourhood for good, to live among friends.
The same evening, first Gavin...
...and then Gary grow up to teens.
Gavin rolls the Popularity Aspiration and now dreams of becoming Rock God, while his twin brother Gary turns out to be a Family Sim who wants to graduate three children from college.
Clarence once again asks the Matchmaker for help with his lifetime want. She provides him with his 1st Date # 4 in the shape of Catherine Capp.
However, what is off to a promising start turns out to be the most horrible date EVER - only because Clarence's Dad set the kitchen stove on fire when trying to make spaghetti! One should expect someone who is almost at the top of the Culinary career to do better, but there you go.
Wednesday goes by mostly uneventful. Gerlinde and Sirius have the day off and spend time doing household chores (Gerlinde, as usual, without anyone asking her to), talking to friends on the phone and with each other. The four teenagers come home from school at 1:00 pm, and once everybody has done their homework, they are pretty much allowed to spend the rest of the afternoon and the evening as they please.
Clarence has his 5th 1st date with Opal Raymond, his shortest so far - he ends the date after one single joke, and of course the result is "lame", but that does not matter; he has no intentions towards Opal other than that she helps him towards his LTW.
One of the first things Gavin does on Thursday morning is repair the broken bath tub. The landlord could also be called to do that, but he tends to overstay his welcome, and so the family try to do such jobs themselves now.
As is so often the case, Thursday turns out to be a very eventful day for the Gavigan-Swains.
As soon as the children are off to school (Sirius is still asleep - his shift at the restaurants starts only at 2:00 pm), Gerlinde invites Camryn Lee over. Seeing as her guest seems to feel rather at home here anyway, picking up the remote and flicking through the TV channels, she asks her to move in - and Camryn accepts.
Finally, there is once more a Sim with the Lee family name in New Max!
Camryn is a Popularity Sim with the aspiration of having 20 best friends - Gerlinde is her first and only one so far. She currently holds the job of Inventor and has 19,000 Simoleons.
Her backpack is filled with items worth 19,000 Simoleons - that is HER money, after all - and then she moves out to find her own place in the neighbourhood. Bye-bye, Camryn, we will check on you later this round.
The children return from school with Lexie Monif in tow. She is a townie teen but is allowed to stay as a potential candidate for a first date for Clarence.
In spite of the wintry temperatures, the young people insist on grilling hot dogs and eating them on the patio. Only Gary sits inside with his mother.
Sirius comes home from work with his last promotion - he is now a Celebrity Chef and has reached his LTW, four days before Elderhood.
Colleague Calendula Capp gets off the car with him.
Upstairs, Clarence has indeed made Lexie Monif his 1st Date # 6, but as he won't ever date her again, he ends things after a cheerful pillow fight, and one by one the family retreat to their beds.
Friday is the last day at this household, as it was Saturday when I entered the lot. Gerlinde begins the morning in a contemplative mood, it seems.
The kids come back from school with Marsha Sell in tow. She could be a 1st date for Clarence - eventually. Right now, although the two of them get along well enough, she refuses every time he asks her on a date, plunging his aspiration points to a precarious low.
Gavin seems to be taking after his mother's example, what with Gerlinde being a World Class Ballet Dancer. That evening, he trains so long and hard almost all his needs are red.
The week ends with mixed levels of achievement for the family members: Sirius and Gerlinde are on Permanent Platinum and three days from Elderhood. Helen still yearns for another date but has not had one since the one arranged by the Matchmaker. Clarence has had 6 of his 50 1st dates. Gary has been the "overlooked" boy with no particular wishes or needs fulfilled. Gavin has discovered his love for all things dance.
And we have a new resident added to the 'hood: Camryn Lee.
