Vacation

Hey Folks,

I'll be on vacation until December 8th with extremely limited (if any) internet access. The original 5 lots plus a little of university is played for Round 9 and the pictures are edited (for the most part) so I'll be updating when I get back. Until then... BonVoyage!

~Liz

University G4

Here we are for our final University Lot and the official end of Round 8. This entry we'll check on Emmett and Marty Hoppes and how they are doing at university.

Emmett and Marty got settled into their rental but they ended up spending a lot of time across the street at the rental of Angelica, Flora and Seirra. When things started to go south with Angelica and Sierra, the boys started to spend more time at their own place

Here are the boys after their college transitions

Emmett Hoppes - Scorpio
Pleasure (LTW: Become a Game Designer)

Marty Hoppes - Gemini
Family (LTW: Graduate 3 Children from College)

Soon after getting settled, the twins declared their majors. Emmett chose a Physics major because that's what his mom had done and she had achieved her want of being a Game Designer

Marty, not having a career goal chose to study something he enjoyed, Philsophy

Marty and Emmett spent a lot of time at the student center meeting their peers. They quickly made friends with lots of people on campus

Emmett, not content to sit around and wait for Victoria to get to college, decided that there was no harm in going on a few dates with the lovely college ladies prowling around campus

Emmett was perplexed when a limo showed up one night at the rental

the driver handcuffed and blindfolded him and stuffed him in the back of the limo. Needless to say, Emmett was a little frightened

Emmett was happy to learn that it was just an elaborate initiation ritual to the campus Secret Society and laughed when he saw his friends there

They made him promise not to ruin the surprise for Marty... So the next night when the limo showed up, Emmett tried to show genuine concern for his brother's abduction

For the brothers getting inducted into the Secret Society was a treat. They had learned that their dad had also been a member when he attended Sim State.

Marty continued to see Sierra regularly, it was a lot more convenient for her to come over to his rental than for her to invite him over and be victim to Angelica's evil stares. Another benefit to visiting Marty at his place was the double bed

Emmett, being supremely jealous of Marty having his girlfriend at college with him, called the matchmaker to spend some of his scholarship dollars on trying to meet more eligible ladies. He didn't want word to spread around the Secret Society that he was a womanizer, he was far from it

Despite his best efforts, the matchmaker summoned a teen for him to date! He quickly ended the date and hoped that Elizabeth wouldn't tell Victoria about the incident in school the next day.

Life went on as usual, the twins mostly went to class, hung out with friends, and played games. Life was hard for two bachelors though since they actually had to fend for themselves. Marty eventually got so good at cooking though that he earned a recognition plaque from the local Culinary club

Scoring: 1 point for Marty's Cuisine Hobby Plaque

((Round 8 is officially done! I'm torn about breaking university into so many households. On the plus side, it's a lot more manageable with only a few sims in each house. On the other hand, cramming 6-8 sims in a house makes for less time actually spent playing univerisity and pushing them through faster. I might try another household of 6 sims next round again. This round was a pretty straightforward round. The guys did their own thing. Admittedly, I have started killing off Fug townies. You may have noticed the Cow Plant at the Secret Society in the background of Emmett's induction pic. Well here's a close-up of the cow plant's midnight snack:

We'll start Round 9 with a visit to the Pushard house))

Cormier (R8)

Ricky and Janet, recent graduates of Sim State University, have recently moved back to Silvervale with their daughter, Vinaya. With degrees in hand how will Ricky and Janet fare in their adult lives? How will Vinaya grow up considering her unconventional upbringing?

Cormier (Lot 12) Monday-Saturday
Jar Card #182: Go on a Cheap Matchmaker Date

Ricky managed to find a small bungalow style house in Silvervale. The previous owners had installed some pretty strange looking wall-paper but other than that the house was very livable, especially after a quick trip to Ikea for some furnishings. Janet and Ricky were just happy to finally be in their own home and not in some college rental.

After getting settled in, Ricky asked Janet something that he had been wanting to ask her for a long time, he dropped down to one knee and pulled out a little black box

Janet wasn't very surprised by the proposal considering they had a daughter together. She was, however, surprised at how beautiful of a ring he could afford after buying a house.

Of course Janet accepted Ricky's proposal

Knowing that they would not be able to afford a honeymoon, they had a preemptive celebration before Vinaya came home from school

Vinaya wasn't having any trouble adjusting to her new surrounings, she frequently brought friends home from school to play

After Vinaya had said goodbye to her friend, the small family headed to the arboretum for a small marriage ceremony overlooking the lake. There was no sense in having a huge wedding when it was just a formality anyway

Ricky and Janet exchanged vows and were quickly pronounced husband and wife

The next day, both Janet and Ricky tried to find jobs. Janet was able to find a position in her desired field, Gamer career track, probably because her aunt Serena was had already made it to the top

Unfortunately for Ricky, there were no open positions in the Law Enforcement career, so he took what he considered to be the next best thing, a job in Politics

Janet had been feeling a little strange ever since their move, she figured the stress was catching up with her. Despite trying to do her best on her first day of the job, she made a poor decision and cost the team some money

Ricky, on the other hand, got off to a great start in his new career by refusing the cater to special interest groups

Ricky also made it a habit of inviting colleagues over after work in order to help schmooze his way to the top

With all the people coming and going at the house, Vinaya was curious what her father did, Ricky was all too happy to explain his work to her

While Ricky was schmoozing fellow politicians, Janet got a big surprise, and an answer as to why she was feeling ill

Janet's pregnancy lead to very strange cravings for Grilled Cheese, something she didn't experience during her pregnancy with Vinaya

Despite her new cravings, Janet couldn't forget her Pleasure alignment, with Ricky out schmoozing the politicians across the aisle and Vinaya in school all day, Janet got a little stir crazy. She decided to call over the matchmaker to see if she could meet some new people, in a strictly platonic way of course

The couple didn't have a lot of money, and Janet didn't want Ricky to get angry at her for spending money to meet people, so Janet gave the matchmaker the only cash she had in her pockets

Needless to say, the Matchmaker was not pleased with the sum

Despite her displeasure, she summoned a blind date for Janet who wasn't quite as bad as she warned might be possible with such a low amount paid

Justice was a nice guy, but he and Janet didn't really have much in common. He was also puzzled as to why a married, pregnant woman would be calling for a blind date

Janet talked Justice into playing some catch in the backyard, she was just so bored sitting in the house

The date turned out OK despite Janet and Justice not having much in common, Janet hoped that she was able to make a friend

That evening it was time for Vinaya's birthday, Janet and Ricky couldn't believe how quickly she had grown up

Vinaya grew out the candles and matured into a beautiful, intelligent teen

With growing up in an academic environment, it was no surprise when Vinaya chose to pursue a path of knowledge for her life

Vinaya Devivio - Libra
Knowledge (LTW: Become head of the SCIA )

Vinaya still delighted in inviting friends over from school. She thought it was funny that her Aunt Eddie was actually younger than she was

Being a teenager, Vinaya also spent a lot of time on the phone calling up her many friends

In the rare occasion that she didn't have a friend over, Vinaya just delighted in the small things around the house, like raking up the leaves then playing in the large pile

Janet and Ricky were overjoyed at Vinaya's pleasant demeanor and attitude and hoped that the new baby would have a similar personality.

Soon after Vinaya's birthday, Janet's water broke

She gave birth to a baby boy that they named Mahran

Mahran had the same features as his sister, dark skin, dark hair, and light green eyes. There was definitely no denying that Mahran and Vinaya were siblings

Mahran Cormier

Vinaya was so excited to have a little brother, she helped out with the baby so much that Janet was able to go back to work soon after giving birth

Janet's boss was so impressed with her speedy return to work that he granted her a promotion

Scoring: 1 Point for Mahran

Household Net-Worth: 30,688

((I'm so sad that this is the last "official" lot on my playlist because I absolutely adore these sims. Vinaya has to be the most pleasant sim I have ever played. She's just so friendly and beautiful. I hope that Mahran has similar looks and personality. Janet and Ricky despite dropping down to 1 bolt are all over each other, almost like a 3 bolt couple. The matchmaker date was quite amusing, neither Janet nor her date rolled up any wants relating to each other. Janet had the "Play Catch" want, so I indulged hoping to nudge the date score up a little bit. Also -- the absolute funniest thing happened this round. I was checking on Mahran when I noticed Vinaya shuffling around on a small area rug that's in the kitchen. I was like "wtf is she doing" so I quickly zoomed over to her and she had the most evil look on her face:

I noticed her action queue had Janet's date Justice with the tooltip "shock." She waited patiently in this position for him to get up off the couch then went over and:

ZAP!!!

Keep in mind this is my 10 nice point sim! I just laughed and laughed and laughed... I'm actually laughing now as I post it. Vinaya's face while she's patiently waiting to shock Justice is too damn funny! Anyway, we're off to the last University lot of the round to check on Marty and Emmett Hoppes))