The Contender-Baldwin Family - Week 3

The previous week with this family is here.

Yay!! I'm finally able to play again - so far without a hitch - thanks to Twoyys4me's advice to get the Legacy Edition, which I knew about but was not aware that it was specifically made for WIN10/11 users like me. Up until now, I've been struggling with the "Ultimate Collection", and as I've mentioned in nearly every post, could not get to the bottom of the frequent crashes and other issues with my game. What a relief to find out that it's been the incompatible version of the game itself and not something I had done! 

And here we are in Belladonna Cove at 310 Bay View Drive, Carlos Contender's house, for the second time this round. Why the second time? You may or may not remember that Carlos' niece Isabel Baldwin and her family moved in with him some time ago; it just didn't make sense for them to keep renting when Carlos had a big house all to himself and was beginning to feel a bit lonely. 

Here they are, the entire family gathered in the downstairs hallway on this Saturday morning. 

Carlos is 94 and still working as a Hall of Famer with no wish to retire. His niece Isabel Baldwin is 56 and working towards becoming Captain Hero, as per her lifetime want. Her husband Benjamin Baldwin is three years older than her and aspires to become Mayor of The Cove. Their children are Sofia (behind her mother), in her mid-teens, and her little brother Marcus, in his early teens.

Isabel has to go to work today, but she still has some time left before the car pool arrives, and because the outfit she age-transitioned into is really not nice, she decides to buy new clothes. Having a former boxing champion as her uncle who is still keeping fit at 94, it is no question of how the family are going to go to I N Clothing & Apparel - on foot, of course!

Isabel is happy to finally have a good choice of suitable clothes... 

...while Marcus and Sofia are equally happy to spend Uncle Carlos' generous top-up of their pocket money at the adjacent snack bar. 

Back home, Isabel is off to work and nothing remarkable happens the rest of the day. 

Everybody talks to a friend or two on the phone, they eat, Benjamin works on his charisma skill and Marcus shows Uncle Carlos that he actually deserves more pocket money (he is a Fortune Sim) and trims the hedges around the front door. 

Sunday goes by with not much happening; since the household already consists of relatives living together, no Family Sunday needs to be arranged. Isabel has to work but uses the hour or so before work to re-gain a body skill point she lost yesterday thanks to a chance card. 

Everybody else takes advantage of the beautiful spring weather, too, and the family members alternate between jogging and swimming in the pool. 

Neither Carlos nor his niece have to work on Monday, and so they go for a swim first and then for a round of jogging. (I would have done it the other way round, but those were the wishes they both rolled, in that order.)

The kids are back from school at 1:00 pm and make sure homework is out of the way before it's fun time. 

For Marcus, that means freestyling in his big sister's room with only her as his audience. She can't help but think that her little brother really has gotten the hang of this, and she'll miss him when she leaves for college soon. 

Benjamin's purposeful stride says it all when he returns from work: Meet The Cove's latest Congressperson!

With summer fast approaching, Carlos finds he does not want to spend all day, every day in a track suit, much as he feels at home in athletic outfits. He walks to Desprit Deals and gets a few things that should serve him well with the warmer weather.

A day off is always good to brush up on one's skills, and Isabel does that today with her fingerprint scanner.

It is Sofia's last day as a teenager - time to make the phonecall for scholarships and leave for college! "My big sis... I can't believe she's really going," Marcus thinks. 

Sofia's parents wave her good-bye as she boards the taxi, Benjamin clearly wondering when his little girl turned into a young adult all of a sudden. Carlos, who has always been very close to Sofia, appears stunned to see her leaving. It will be his 100th birthday soon, and he wonders whether he'll see her again.

Wednesday is a busy day: All three adults have to work, and of course Marcus is off to school. Carlos is up early enough for a morning swim, though, and then waits for the car pool still in his swimming trunks while doing the crossword.

It is obvious what's happening here, isn't it :-) Isabel has been promoted to Lieutenant and her husband to Judge. Benjamin's colleague is Hun Cho, still something of a newcomer to The Cove. 

Benjamin maxes his logic skill on Thursday morning before work. 

Isabel uses the hour before the car pool comes to work out; she'll needs the body skill for her next promotion.

That afternoon, Benjamin rides home in style - meet Senator Baldwin getting off the limo! 

An hour later Isabel arrives home with colleague Vivian Cho in tow. Although it looks like it here, she has not yet been promoted again, but I don't think she'll have to wait long. 

And indeed she's made SWAT Leader on Friday, the last day with this household (their week started on Saturday).

Unfortunately, her husband's decision with a chance card turned out to be the wrong one, and he was demoted to Judge. He can still make it to Mayor, unless he gets fired or dies before he achieves the necessary promotions (he is 66 now).

Isabel suggests to her uncle they go jogging together. You can tell from the look on Carlos' face that this centenarian thinks it's a great idea! 

In the early evening, Carlos rings in the first weekend of summer by flipping burger patties on the grill.

The family - minus Sofia, who's at college - enjoy Carlos' burgers together. 

What a good week it has been for them all! The Baldwins still have some work ahead of them before they will have reached their LTWs, and Marcus can't wait to go to college, too. We'll see Sofia there probably long before the round is over, depending on the teenagers from which families are going first.

I can't begin to tell you how lovely it is to play without constant crashes again, and to have the clearer graphics and detailed textures back that I remember from before 2023, when I was still using my former computer.

Now I need to think whether to go back to Capp Manor, which I was unable to play this round because of the crashes, or move on with the round and see about the Capps later.

Justin Cleveland: Freshman Year

There is no need to link to the previous post with Justin and his family, since all you have to do if you want to (re-)read that one is go back one post.

Sim State Uni, and more precisely, Pinenut Plaza Dorms is our next stop. Justin Cleveland is the first student to arrive and has free choice of the 8 rooms. 

He goes for the room in the corner at the far end from the main door, on the ground floor. 

It only contains a cheap bed and clunky dresser, but Justin sells these and replaces them with more practical and modern things, even though still on the cheap side - he is a student, after all, with no income other than the grant he received for starters. 

It looks much better now, doesn't it! The computer was a gift from his parents.

Because the only items in Justin's wardrobe are two sports outfits (the brown one and the same one in a light blue), after class his first stop are the University Way Shops. 

He makes his purchase, and just as he starts to walk back to the dorm, the game crashes... and the same thing happens after a repair run and restart :-( 

I don't want to waste more time and have Justin get a head start on his Term Paper instead. Just before he can press "send", I make him stop - who knows, he might want to wish to "Write Term Paper", and then I can easily make that happen. 

The next morning, he has breakfast at the cafeteria. It is the first time he interacts with any of the other students here at the dorm, but the girl doesn't stick around - she eats her pancake and then moves to a different table to work on an assignment.

Returning from class, Justin finds a student in his bed. He doesn't even know the bloke's name, and to avoid similar suprises from now on, he locks his door. 

Can you believe I have never actually seen a Sim putting up that sign? Normally, I don't keep the doors of my playable students locked, but with seven non-playables here, Justin will never have his bed to himself otherwise!

One of his big wishes is to lose weight, and while he is not yet quite as fit as wants to, his shape improves much after he's been jogging that evening.

After he'd been out running last night, he went straight to bed, and so Justin is VERY hungry the next morning and can hardly wait for the dorm cook to have the omelettes ready. "He's up early, this young man; not like most other students..." the cook muses.

Mail from home! (Of course it's just the bills, but I like to think there are some personal letters to the students among the stack of bills, too.)

Without anyone telling him to, Justin mops the floor at the cafeteria after the cow mascot has had "fun" with the sprinkler. The cook is impressed: This young man really isn't the typical student! 

The next morning, a fellow student joins him in the cafeteria. Her name is Nancy Fancey (I'm not kidding!), and I've seen her at the clothes shop wearing a Secret Society jacket. It looks like she's trying to recruit Justin :-) 

He is off to his end-of-term exam, though, and returns a few hours later with an A+, his name on the Dean's List and the full grant - and all that without ever having completed his Term Paper! 

Autumn chill is in the air, and I am glad that Justin has the sense to don something warmer now for his way to class - I still haven't managed to send him to the clothes shop on Campus without the game crashing on his way back. 

He finally decides on Drama as his Major. Although I was glad when he wore something else than the boring old sports outfit all the time, I didn't mean he should now remain in his winter clothes even while indoors! 

A different community lot turns out to be the solution - when I send Justin to "Cold Issue Clothing" in downtown Belladonna Cove, he is finally able to buy clothes and return with them to the dorm without the game crashing. 

I would have liked him to do all his shopping on campus while he's at uni, but my game had other ideas. 

The next day, Justin invites NPC student Kenya Kim over. They have become friends through several phone conversations, and friends they shall remain - there is negative attraction between them, but she's eligible to become playable because of her surname. 

Justin looks as puzzled as I am when, after she has asked if she can bring along a friend, Kenya turns up with Armand De Bateau in tow - I didn't know the two know each other! 

He could have just as easily sat at Nancy Fancey's table that evening in the cafeteria, but apparently it is more fun to have a conversation across the floor with your neck twisted round like Justin is demonstrating here. 

Exam Day is here, and Justin gets up with several hours to spare, so he won't have to rush.

When he returns at noon, his smile says it all: Justin has just finished his Freshman Year with an A+, his name on the Dean's List and the full grant transferred to his account. 

In spite of the crashes when I tried to have him shop for clothes on campus, I enjoyed the "year" with Justin, and although at the moment he is the only playable student at this dorm, time passed quickly. No doubt other kids from Belladonna Cove will soon join him; there are several teenagers waiting in the wings. 

For now, though, we'll move on to the next name on the list, which is Contender.

The Cleveland Family: Week 2

Week 1 with this family is here.

We're back in Belladonna Cove to spend the second week with the Clevelands, who are renting a flat spanning the two top floors in the left part of this building.

Here are Jason and his son Justin. As a Fortune Sim, it suits Jason that he dreams of earning 100,000 Simoleons in his lifetime. Justin's aspiration is Popularity, and one day he wants to wear a military uniform with a general's five stars. For now, he's diligently doing his duty at the Cove's Private School. 

Marissa's aspiration matches her husband's, but her means of earning money are dubious: She hopes to take over the town's underworld as their Criminal Mastermind one day.

And she has steadily been rising the ranks in the Criminal carrer; on this Monday, she is promoted to Getaway Driver.

It is an important day for the family, as you can see from the birthday cake waiting on the kitchen counter.

Justin's beloved Uncle Geoff (his Mum's brother) is one of the first guests to arrive. Timothy Riley is also here...

...as are his daughter Sally and stepdaughter Etsu. 

At 6:00 pm sharply, Jason turns into an Elder, and the cake is cut.

While the party is in full swing, Christian Love appears. He has not been invited, and for some unknown reason, Jason can't stand the man, but he is friends with Marissa. I make sure she sends him away quickly, so that no nasty scenes will occur. 

Jason has the day off on Tuesday, and after pottering about all morning, he enjoys his afternoon nap - a privilege that comes with elderhood.

His nap makes him miss his wife's age transition; Marissa is now a Senior Sim, too. Unfortunately, her wardrobe is neither nice nor practical now that it is winter. 

Justin has missed that big moment in his Mum's life, too; he was busy doing homework.

The family gather in the kitchen a little later, although it is for the last time in this precise set-up: Justin has made the phone call to college and will leave as soon as the taxi is here to take him to campus. "My little boy... not little anymore..." Jason sighs.

Marissa walks to Freya's Raiments to remedy her wardrobe issue. Money is no problem, and she can pick and choose whatever takes her fancy. 

She meets and greets Isabel Baldwin. 

Outside, the Human Statue is striking a pose I don't think I have seen before, and the townies seem to be impressed enough to tip him. Unfortunately, when I tell Marissa to walk home, my game crashes :-( 

Back in the game, the day proceeds without any further incident. Marrissa goes to work and returns with a promotion to Bank Robber. 

On Wednesday, Jason is promoted to Lieutenant. Although his lifetime want does not involve a specific career, the promotion bonus nicely adds to his dream of earning 100,000 Simoleons. 

When I try to have him walk to a community lot to buy clothes for his wife, the game crashes again. That's it - the decision is made to move them out of the rented flat. They can easily afford to buy their own property, which should be less inclined to crashing the game than those buggy apartment lots. 

No. 322 Bay View Drive is the Clevelands' new address. 

The house is large for just the two of them, but they want to be ready for the future, when hopefully their son will graduate from college, move back in with his parents (if they are around long enough) and start his own family. 

The place comes partly furnished, and on the ground floor the couple only replace the cheap kitchen appliances with better ones and have a toilet installed in the tiny room off the front room. 

Upstairs, the cheap double bed and bathroom installations are also replaced by much better things, as you will see in the course of the rest of the week.

Speaking of which, the move means that their timeline has shifted back to Monday and the end of summer; I am still going to play them for seven days, so that Friday will be their last day before we'll check on Justin at college. 

Finally, Marissa is able to walk to Desprit Deals for some new clothes without a hitch. (The shop's name is appropriate, since she's really been "desprit" for something else to wear!)

Vivian Riley is browsing the racks, and the friends are pleased to stop for a chat after Marissa has paid for the earrings she's chosen. >

Back home, her new outfit is modest but looks much better than what she age-transitioned into.

Better still is her new hairstyle, showing off the earrings (a wish of hers) - not sure you can see them in the picture; they are the green pendant ones. 

Their new bed is really comfortable, and with no noise from other tenants, Jason has slept well and wakes up feeling really good on Tuesday. 

This must have helped him take the right decision with a chance card, and he returns from work with a promotion to SWAT Leader. Interestingly, the chance card involved apprehending the Cove's current Criminal Mastermind - unwittingly opening the way for his wife who secretly aspires to that position. 

It is skilling time for the Clevelands that evening.

The only thing worth reporting on Wednesday is Marissa's latest promotion to Cat Burglar. According to the chance card, she promoted herself while acting as a look-out during a heist and realising how much easier it is to steal stuff directly than robbing a bank. >

Jason takes advantage of the good weather on Thursday late afternoon and rakes the leaves in the back garden before he even changes out of his work clothes. 

Friday is here - the last day of the week with the Clevelands. 

Marissa has works the night, and Jason won't have to leave until 10:00 am today, and so she decides to try and make pancakes for their breakfast, something she has not done before.

They turn out a bit on the dark side, and Jason jokes that he certainly did not marry Marissa for her cooking skill (she has barely two points, while he is at four)... 

...but who cares when you can have champagne for breakfast! Indeed, who cares :-) 

Justin has not yet seen the new house comes over from campus. 

"This will all be yours one day, Justin... and your children's, if you'll have any," she explains. 

I really wanted this last day of their week to be the Clevelands' Family Day and had Marissa try and invite over her brother, Geoff Rutherford (Justin's beloved uncle), but he was at work until 10:00 pm, by which time Marissa was at work and Justin had left. Oh well, they'll just have to try again next time I play them - or maybe Justin will invite his parents and uncle to visit him on Campus. 

It was such a relief that the game didn't crash again after the move to their own property, and I hope Justin's Freshman Year at college will go just as smoothly.

With Marissa now being elderly, I very much hope she won't get fired due to a chance card - it will then be impossible for her to get back into the Criminal career, and the chance to reach her lifetime want will be gone. Jason has not had a wish to earn a specific amount of Simoleons all of this week, which is strange for a Sim with his LTW.

I quite liked playing the family, and although I will never be a fan of Marissa's, she has begun to grow on me a little.