Mandie's Simventures

For Mixreality -- Bianca's Face!

2009-10-16T21:35:04Z

So mixrealitykindly brought it to my attention (in a comment on this post) that none of my pictures showed Bianca's (G2 heir) face! Well, that was unintentional because I actually think she is quite pretty. So, I will post a couple here to make up for that!

Here she is as a teen. Her face still has some baby fat on it, but pretty nonetheless. As I think I mentioned in a previous post, she really looks like the character Marissa on the soap opera All My Children. See next pic:

Am I right? Gosh I love that soap! But I digress...

Here's another one of Bianca as a teen right before her young adult birthday. And the next one is somewhat of a spoiler, albeit not a very exciting one. Hee.

See? I told you she's pretty! This is Bianca as a young adult. She grew up into the exact same hair as her mother, only red. But I changed it after this pic was taken so as not to confuse anyone. These legacies can get so confusing, ya know. So Allegra (legacy founder, Bianca's mom) is on the left in the blue robe, and Bianca is on the right with the red hair. As you can see (kinda) she inherited Jared's green eyes and red hair. But her prettiness must have come from her mom, because not all of Jared's kids are pretty... See next pic for proof:

The red-headed teen there is Colette Frio, Jared's illegitimate love child with Claire Ursine in case you forgot. She is most definitely NOT pretty.

So, there ya go! A little quickie update all about Bianca!

Eyes Like a Sunset

2009-10-16T02:33:39Z

Last we left off with the Spaghetti family legacy (which admittedly has been a rather long time!) Bianca and Buddy (the generation 2 kids) became teenagers. Buddy got in trouble with the police and Allegra for staying out past curfew. Colette (Jared's illegitimate love child with Claire Ursine) finally got to spend time with her father and new family, although she is still very ugly!

Now that Buddy and Bianca were teenagers, life in the Spaghetti household became very hectic as random acquaintances of the kids used the house as their personal hangout. Two teens in particular were always more than welcome to come over and stay awhile, mainly because Buddy and Bianca had huge crushes on them. Their names were Mandi Grey and Alvin McCray.

Alvin McCray actually used to be the babysitter that Allegra and Jared hired to watch Buddy and Bianca when they were little kids. Bianca isn't quite sure how he's still a teenager, since he was a teenager when she was just a baby. But he's just so cute, so she doesn't ask any questions.

She's so in love with him. He's her very first crush. She tells him that his eyes are the color of a beautiful sunset.

And they actually are! Alvin's eyes are a beautiful golden color that we all really hope passes on to generation 3...if Bianca wants to marry him that is. Although, Allegra and Jared really hopes he gets rid of that haircut and those camoflauge pants.

Bianca decides to get a job at the local book store. She's always loved to read books; any books really. She seems to think that she wants to be a writer when she grows up and a book store seems like a great place to get inspiration and knowledge on the craft. The pay isn't that great, but at least she gets a discount on all the books.

While at the bookstore, Bianca ran into this girl. She is none other than Bella Bachelor...Bella Goth as she's known in TS2. She looks nothing like the Bella I remember in the old game, but at least she's sorta pretty in this one. I've seen some very fugly lookin' sims in this neighborhood so far, at least Bella isn't one of them!

Malcolm Landgraab IV, on the other hand, is the epitome of fugly. In fact, his nickname around town is "Fug". That's how hideous he is! Yikes! He will not be entering this legacy, that's for sure!

Around this time, Bianca who is virtuoso and artistic, finally raised her painting skill high enough to make this portrait of her mother. In the legacy challenge point system you get 1 point for creating a portrait of a family member and keeping it on display after their death. You get the point immediately after creating the portrait. I'm not happy about the portrait paintings in TS3. So far, they all look crazy...similar to this one but with different effects.

While Bianca was being productive by building her skills, excelling in school, and getting a job (and working on getting a husband!), Buddy was busy fighting with his dad. Somehow these two had a falling out, which really isn't a surprise since Jared is mean-spirited. I have no idea why they started fighting, but they absolutely do not get along anymore. They can't even be in the same room without arguing.

Bianca also spent time working on her writing skill. You can't be an Illustrious Author (her LTW) without knowing how to write! She sure is one busy legacy heiress.

We had two birthdays this time around. Jared became a very handsome and mean-spirited elder who happens to look a lot like Elvis. No idea why he's raising his hand like that. Probably answering the question "Who wants to slap their teenage son again?" with a resounding "I do! I do!". Slapping Buddy is about all he wanted to do in his golden years.

Jared also spends a lot of his time cooking. His LTW is to be a Celebrated 5-Star Chef, and he's almost there. Between Allegra (who wants to learn all the recipes) and Jared (the big chef), the Spaghetti fridge is always full of yummy and high quality food. Lucky people.

Buddy also had a birthday and became a very handsome adult. He's still the cutest pudding I've ever seen, which is no small feat. Even in his striped undies. He randomized two new traits which are Daredevil and Family-Oriented. Added to his Genius, Excitable and Hot-Headed traits, he's one fun guy!

Soon after becoming an adult, Buddy decided that he wanted to Become an Astronaut (LTW). So he jogged on down to the Military Base and enlisted. I think that's the perfect job for Buddy, since he's so adventurous.

The military has a very high fitness expectation, so Buddy joined the local gym. He began to spend a lot of time there. It was tough at first and very painful, but he finally began to get into tip top shape. And the girls at the gym were an extra bonus.

He also went jogging for hours at night time after the gym closed. He really wanted to climb the ranks quickly in the military field. And I just thought it was neat that sims can do neat things like jogging now!

And instead of taking a carpool, Buddy ran to work! Anything he could do to work on his body skill. All the neighborhood girls think he's so cute in his uniform as he jogs down the street.

His superiors really noticed the amount of effort he was putting in, and Buddy received several promotions. The pay was much better, and the bonus money he received really helped buy some things for the house; like a treadmill.

With his new fitness kick, Buddy is also trying to get the family on a fitness regiment and healthy diet. Fit people live longer, healthier lives. "It's a proven fact", he says. Poor Bianca can't even enjoy some birthday cake when he's around. "You're going to get fat and die," she hears everytime she lifts the fork to her mouth. But she is starting to put some weight on. So maybe he's right about the cake.

It was around this time that Buddy fell in love with repairwoman Joey Kaufman. Things are always breaking at the Spaghetti house. They literally have to call the repairman once a day, since none of them have the mechanical skill. Although I think Buddy is working on it for his job anyway. Either way, Buddy doesn't mind the frequent phone calls to the repairman.

Allegra doesn't like Joey, however. She informs her that her face looks like a llama's butt, quite frequently. Joey doesn't really care though. She just ignores Allegra and continues to flirt with Buddy. Their romance is progressing rather slowly which is just fine with me. He's not the heir and I need him to concentrate on his job!

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Points this Round:

Allegra's Portrait: 1

Total this Round: 1
Previous Total: 2

Total Legacy Points: 3

Spaghetti Quickie #2

2009-09-05T20:25:52Z

Hey all! I know it's been forever since my last update. I went on a two week vacation at the end of July/beginning of August and then had my finals week, so time has been short. But I have been playing the Spaghetti's here and there. I'm actually on generation 4 at the moment, even though this blog is only up to generation 2! So, while I'm putting together the next major update, here's a little quickie for you to enjoy! (And I hope photobucket doesn't ruin these pictures...)

Do you remember Buddy Spaghetti? No? I don't blame you, it's been awhile since I've updated! Buddy is the firstborn of the second generation; Allegra and Jared's (Frio) oldest child. He's not the heir because this legacy is a matriarchy, so his sister Bianca is the heir. But Buddy is still my favorite because he was the cutest pudding toddler/child ever. Well he became a teenager in the last update, and he's the first teenager I ever had in TS3.

Buddy rolled a bunch of wishes to go explore the town and find things like rocks, gems, seeds and bugs. He spent an entire Saturday just walking around picking up random objects.

He found all sorts of amazing creatures while on his walk. He was having such a great time that he didn't even notice when it started to get dark. He just kept walking.

Unfortunately, the local authorities noticed. A policewoman pulled over and flagged him down. She informed him that he was out past the town's underage curfew and that she was going to have to take him home. Buddy was such a good kid and this was the first time he had ever gotten into trouble.

Allegra came running out of the house when she saw the police car pull up. She was so worried about Buddy; she'd been calling him all day on his cell phone, but he never answered. She threw her arms around him before he'd even fully gotten out of the car. But as soon as she let go, that hot-headed trait of hers took over. Buddy got a yelling at like no other!

But he didn't care too much, because he found an awesome rock!

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This was the first time a teenager of mine has ever gotten in trouble with the police. Even in TS2, I never had runaways or sneaking out that resulted in police interference. So I thought this was cute. Since Buddy's adventure with the local law enforcement, every Spaghetti teen has had a run in with the law! Lol, way to go Buddy!

Fast Forward

2009-07-23T16:19:33Z

In the last update, Allegra and Jared got into a very silly fight about Colette (Jared's daughter with Claire Ursine) which sent Allegra into labor. The couple had a baby boy named Buddy who later turned into the cutest pudding toddler ever. Then came a bouncing baby girl, Bianca, who is the generation 2 heir. Jared turned into an adult and threw a very crowded birthday party. And their house finally has walls up! Woot!

Happy that their little family was finally complete with one boy and one girl, Allegra and Jared Spaghetti settled down into a comfortable routine. Jared spent as much time as he could teaching Buddy how to walk and talk, while Allegra focused on taking care of baby Bianca and studying cooking so she could get closer to her Lifetime Wish of learning all the cooking recipes.

I really wanted to play through a bunch of this family because I'm so anxious and determined to actually finish a legacy challenge! So, you will notice that this update spans a lot of simdays in a short amount of time! Here Bianca has already become a toddler, and a very cute one at that. I'm going to have to look around for some new hairstyles for toddlers because this is the only one that actually looks like a girl's hair cut. The others are bald or splotchy, and that just doesn't make me happy! But Bianca is cute nonetheless.

Now Allegra and Jared had their hands full with two toddlers. Things got really stinky around the house since they could only afford one toddler potty. Allegra spent most of her time potty training the kids, which I must say is way easier in TS3 than it was in TS2. In TS2 the toddlers would only sit on the potty if they really had to go. In TS3 they'll sit on it for a little while even if they don't have to, and their skill bar seems to go faster too. I just queued them up for about 4 times each and they were potty trained afterwards.

Learning to walk and talk, on the other hand, isn't as quick. Luckily, Jared had already taught Buddy how to do those things, so Allegra was able to spend all her time teaching Bianca.

Buddy became a child soon after, and I am very pleased to say that he is still the cutest pudding child I've ever seen! And he's very helpful around the house. He's always picking up after everyone, even though he doesn't have any sort of "cleanly" trait.

Colette was also a child at this time, and Claire finally let her come over and spend time at the Spaghetti household. Jared was very happy to have all of his children together, even if it was just for short amounts of time. Jared knew that Claire wasn't the best mother in the world, so he was determined to teach Colette everything she needed to know.

He also made sure that she did her homework when she came over. Claire never helped her with it, so Jared always did. And Buddy was only a grade or two under Colette, so they were able to do their homework together.

Buddy and Colette really became good friends. Colette was starting to spend quite a bit of time at the Spaghetti house and they were close enough in age that they enjoyed playing together.

Colette even started spending the night at their house quite a bit. I thought about moving her in with the Spaghetti's, but I really didn't want her to take a space in the household. And I'm not even sure if you can have kids move in. So they all settled for her staying over just about all the time!

Little Bianca had another birthday, and Colette was allowed to stay over for the celebration.

Here she is as a child. Buddy is clearly still excited that his sister is now old enough to play with him and Colette. This picture also shows how Buddy really took after Allegra in looks with that darker skintone, brown hair and brown eyes. Bianca looks just like Jared with red hair, green eyes and his lighter skin tone. And poor Colette looks just like her mother Claire! That's really sad.

Bianca didn't get along with Colette as well as Buddy did, but they were still nice to each other. They just didn't seem to have anything in common and pretty much just ignored each other unless I forced them to interact.

Buddy had another birthday and became a very handsome teenager. I rolled "daredevil" for his random trait. So now he's an excitable, genius, hot-headed, daredevil.

He's a very sweet guy, even though he's hot-headed. He's constantly hugging his sisters and helping out around the house. He'd make a great heir, but too bad he's a boy!

Colette also became a teenager, and whoah. She really does look just like her mother, Claire Ursine. She still spends most of the time over with the Spaghetti's, and continues to be Buddy's best friend.

Jared still tries to be a good father to Colette, mainly because she doesn't really get any sort of help from Claire. He even tells her that she should work out a little more so she doesn't end up being fat like her mother. Unfortunately, she's well on her way anyway. Although I really like the plumper sims, so I don't mind. But Jared always seems to talk to her about fitness, so I think he minds!

Jared also spent a lot of time with Bianca. He constantly helped her with her homework and encouraged her to build up her skills. He really is a good father, even though he's mean-spirited. The mean-spirited-ness only seems to happen towards other young adults or older. I can't remember if he was fighting with Buddy around this time, but as you'll see in later updates Buddy and Jared ended up not getting along at all. In fact, not many people get along with Jared.

Buddy was enjoying his teenage years. He met a bunch of girls his age at school, and spent the majority of his time on the phone. He didn't have any girlfriends yet, but he sure enjoyed himself.

Bianca also became a teenager, and she's very pretty. With this haircut, she reminds me of the character Marissa in the soap opera All My Children. Anyone watch it? Anyway, Bianca is now hot-headed, virtuoso, and artistic.

Thanks to her virtuoso and artistic traits, it seems Bianca only likes to talk about those two things. She's constantly telling Allegra that she wants to be an artist when she grows up, and she doesn't care if she never makes a lot of money doing it. Allegra, on the other hand, knows what it's like to scrape by and raise two children when you don't even have flooring or wallpaper. She figures she's going to have to talk some sense into Bianca if she wants her legacy to continue on!

Babies Are A'Comin!

2009-07-20T21:33:12Z

Last we left the Spaghetti family, Allegra married Jared Frio but they still don't have any walls up around their "house". Jared found out that he has a toddler daughter with his ex-lover Claire Ursine, and he takes Allegra and his brother Connor over to meet little Colette.

Like every other legacy challenge, it is imperative to get started on bringing in the next generation. So, Allegra and Jared tried for a baby almost immediately after their wedding. It didn't take long to hear that tell-tale lullabye. My sims in TS2 very seldom had morning sickness in their first trimester, but poor Allegra was sick all the time.

Being the family-oriented sim that she is, Allegra just had to try to make amends with Claire Ursine. She wanted Jared to be a part of his daughter's life, even though she couldn't stand Claire and she didn't really want to get to know their daughter either. Anyone raised by Claire was bound to be a little off. But she put her pride aside and went over to Claire's house.

Allegra told Claire how she really wanted to work things out so that Jared could be a part of Colette's life. Claire didn't really care as long as she was getting the monthly child support check. But she was curious as to Allegra's change of heart. Truth be told, Allegra thought it was important for her new baby to always be close to his or her family. And as much as she doesn't like it, Colette is part of that family.

Jared was very excited to hear that he was going to be a father, again. This time he'd get to help give the baby bottles and change his or her diapers. He didn't get to do those things with Colette.

But Jared was not happy to hear about Allegra's visit with Claire. He yelled at her for awhile, and the fight ended with Allegra crying and Jared taking a walk to "cool off". Did I mention that he's "mean-spirited" and likes to yell at people for nothing in particular?

While Jared was off on his walk, the "bathroom" sink broke and started squirting water everywhere. Allegra was still very upset about their fight, and now the stupid sink had to go and break. That was sure to cost a pretty penny that the newlyweds just didn't have. All of the stress led to Allegra going into labor! Luckily, Jared returned from his walk just in time and after panicing for a few minutes, he finally called a taxi and the parents-to-be headed off to the hospital.

A few hours later, Allegra and Jared welcomed their new baby boy: Buddy Spaghetti. Both Allegra and Jared were hoping for a baby boy, so they were both thrilled. But I wasn't too happy because they need a girl for the Matriarchy optional challenge, where every generation's heir must be a girl.

When they got back home, the first thing Jared did was call his brother Connor to tell him about their new baby boy. The brothers talked about baby stuff like a couple of old women for a few hours.

Allegra enjoyed a very long maternity leave, and got to spend all of her time with Buddy. She almost didn't want to go back to work at all! But the family desperately needed money, so back to work she must go!

Around this time, Jared started a fire at work and came back extra crispy. I just thought his face in this picture is too funny, so there ya go. And actually, in the course of their lifetimes, both Jared and Allegra would come home burnt to a crisp very often.

Jared's birthday was coming up and he was going to soon become an adult. You know what that means, birthday party! He invited over all of his friends and co-workers for a roof-raising party. His brother Connor even brought over peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Jared must have been one popular dude in his old life because just about the whole town came over for his birthday. Too bad they didn't all bring him a gift. But I hope you noticed that Jared and Allegra finally put some walls up!

Soon after Jared's birthday, the couple found out that they were expecting another baby. Buddy was still a baby himself, and Allegra began to worry about how they were going to work full time jobs and take care of both kids. But Jared was just super excited and kept rolling up wants to feel/talk/listen to Allegra's tummy. This time, Jared wanted a baby girl and Allegra was hoping for another boy.

Buddy had a birthday before the second baby was born. Allegra and Jared were just so tired that they decided to have a small family party for him. Connor came over to celebrate his nephew's birthday, but Claire wouldn't let Colette come over to cheer on her baby brother. Allegra was determined to not let anything ruin her son's birthday though, not even his half-sister's stupid mother or his annoying uncle.

Allegra had to bite her tongue, however, when Connor cut into the birthday cake before Buddy had even finished turning into a toddler. Connor sure does get on her nerves!

But Buddy didn't seem to notice any of the family drama going on, and he became the cutest little toddler. I've seen a few TS3 toddlers now, and I have to say that Buddy is by far the cutest ever. In this challenge, all of the traits that your sims inherit must be random except for the "family trait" that you must give to every sim. But my family trait, "hot-headed", isn't available for babies, so Buddy got two random traits: genius and excitable. I'll have to give him "hot-headed" later on, I guess. His favorite things are custom music, cobbler, and hot pink! Hmmm, that's interesting.

The time was getting close for Allegra to have the new baby. Jared wouldn't leave her belly alone, and Allegra was having a lot of back pain (love that moodlet, btw!) towards the end. We're all hoping for a girl this time to carry on the legacy! Well, all of us except Allegra. She wants another boy.

Which will explain why she looks so upset after her daughter is born! Bianca Spaghetti is officially the Generation 2 heir. And I'm just happy the game let me have a girl without having 5 boys first! Most of my families seem to end up with all boys. Guess I got lucky this time! Bianca seems to have red hair, light skin, and green eyes like her daddy. So much for being an Italian family! Lol, darn those Irishmen! Bianca got the two random traits: artistic and virtuoso. So she should be a very cultured heir for the next generation. She loves classical music just like her mommy, dim sum, and the color spice brown.

A Spaghetti Quickie

2009-07-17T02:26:30Z

Allegra Spaghetti isn't sure why she agreed to this. It's bad enough that she has to sit here in this woman's house with her new brother-in-law. Allegra can't stand to be around Connor for more than a few minutes at a time. He's whiny and annoying, and not to mention a dead beat. He only begrudgingly got a job after Jared moved in with Allegra, leaving Connor all alone in their old house. He's a royal pain in her butt, that's for sure. She's not quite sure why Jared insisted that his brother come along anyway. Moral support, he said. Bah, Connor could barely support himself much less anyone else.

But here she is, stuck in Claire Ursine's tiny living room with Connor Frio, while her husband-of-two-days is somewhere in the house meeting the daughter he never knew he had. Just this morning she had opened the newspaper and happened to read an announcement that Claire Ursine's daughter celebrated her toddler birthday. When she mentioned it to Jared she noticed how all the color drained from his face. It didn't take long after that for the story to come out. Jared and Claire used to woohoo every now and then, until Jared broke it off when he met Allegra. To his knowledge, Claire hadn't been with anyone else. Baby Colette must be his child.

Allegra tunes Connor's annoying voice out as she thinks about how much her life has turned upside down in just one day. Her new husband has a kid already, and an ex-lover who is just as annoying as his brother. She hears Jared and Claire arguing somewhere in the house, and she can't help but feel that this kid is going to bring nothing but drama to her life.

And talk about being a red-headed step-child. Colette looks too much like her mother for her own good. The poor kid is bound to have issues when she gets older.

Jared and Claire bring their fight out into the living room. Much to Allegra's horror, Jared is trying to persuade Claire to let him have partial custody of Colette. Claire doesn't want that at all, and neither does Allegra. Claire would get more money out of the Spaghetti's if she keeps full custody, and Allegra is just fine with sending monthly checks. She wants to be a happy newlywed, not a newlywed that now has a step-kid to care for. They don't even have walls up at their "house" yet, and now Jared wants to move the rugrat in with them?!

Claire isn't about to let that happen. She does, however, agree to allow Colette to spend a day with Jared here and there. He can also take her out to the park for an hour or so on certain days, if he wants. This arrangement is fine with Allegra, the less time she has to take care of somebody else's kid the better.

But Jared isn't happy at all with the "compromise". The visit isn't a total drag though, seeing as how Allegra at least gets to see a fight. She is on the verge of attacking Connor who won't stop talking about how he doesn't want to get a job, when she sees Jared jump Claire. So at least she gets a little entertainment out of the whole ordeal.

So, here she is a bride of 2 days, sitting in her husband's ex-lover's living room, listening to her much hated brother-in-law drone on and on. All the while, she can hear the giggle of her new step-daughter that promises to keep her life full of drama. Things are not off to a good start.

The Spaghetti Legacy Begins

2009-07-16T03:35:55Z

This really took some thought on my part, but I've decided to make a new family for the new legacy challenge (rules found here). I would have used Patty and her family, but I've already cheated with her gameplay as I explored the game and I just don't like starting a challenge in which I've already cheated! So, I will still update on Patty and the Bumble family, but this new family will be my actual legacy challenge family.

That being said, meet Allegra Spaghetti, our legacy founder.

Allegra is a hot-headed little Italian who is brave, family-oriented, ambitious, a natural cook...and did I mention hot-headed? I'm choosing to play with the Family Trait rule, and I've chosen hot-headed as the trait that all future Spaghetti's will inherit. I've also decided to try for a Matriarchy, so all heirs will be female! This will be difficult seeing as how my game seems to prefer giving me baby boys ALL the time. Anyhoo, some might think Allegra's actually evil due to all of the mean faces she likes to give, but she actually is just a lovable gal who loves classical music, the color orange, and eating spaghetti!

Allegra lives in Sunset Valley at 15 Summer Hill Court just like all other legacy founders. She's sandwiched right between the Landgraab and Alto families on a giant cul-de-sac on a huge hill overlooking town. She feels a little funny living on such a huge plot of land with just a bed, shower, and fridge when her neighbors have gorgeous mansions. But what do you expect when you only have $1,300 left after paying $14,700 for the lot itself?! At least there's no seasons in this game yet, so it's not pertinent that she have a roof.

Since Allegra doesn't have anything at her "house" to do but shower and sleep, she spends a the majority of her time out on the town. She even house to go to a store or community lot just to go potty since she doesn't have a toilet yet. And since she doesn't have any money, she's really had to find lots of free things to do in town. She found that the library has a nice selection of level 1 skill building books, so that saves her quite a bit of money. She gets to level 3 cooking in just one visit to the library. The library also has nice clean restrooms. And even a computer that she can raise her fun score on!

Allegra gets a job on her first day in town in the Culinary career track. Her lifetime wish is to learn all the culinary recipes. Since she'll be studying cooking anyway, might as well have her get promotions because of it!

Sunset Valley is a pretty town too. I like the buildings better in Riverview, but I like the layout of Sunset Valley better. I'll have to go exploring and find some good nature shots later on. But for now, feast your eyes on the beautiful view that Allegra gets to see every day on her way to work.

Allegra starts out pretty low on the Culinary totem pole, but with 3 cooking skills under her belt already she should get promoted in no time. She looks pretty excited about her first day of work. And pretty cute in her little beanie and apron.

This picture also gives me the opportunity to say how much I love the new plants in TS3! Beautiful!

After getting promoted from her first day at work, Allegra has enough money to buy a wall and a sink! I just had to get her a sink before a toilet because she had dishes piling up that she couldn't get rid of. In TS3 it seems some plates and dishes can't be thrown in the trash can, they have to be washed in a sink or dishwasher. So the "Clean Up" option is grayed out unless you have one of those two things.

She had a constant bad environment moodlet thanks to all those dirty dishes, so a sink was more important than a toilet at the time!

Allegra worked a few days and then finally had a day off. She thought it would be a good idea to get to know her boss a little better and maybe schmooze him into giving her a promotion or a raise. Or both! So she went to visit Jared Frio, who lived down in town with his brother Connor.

Allegra noticed right away that Jared was hot stuff. And she let him know immediately.

Lucky for her, he liked her too. Things looked pretty good for her promotion/raise.

Allegra and Jared's relationship grew very quickly. Before the end of the night they were a steady couple, and were heading for woohoo. They are the fastest moving relationship I've seen in TS3. Patty and Ken took forever to build a relationship which I'm now starting to believe that was because Ken had the "loner" trait.

Allegra and Jared didn't take any time at all to fall in love and seal the deal with a little woohoo.

Jared agreed to let Allegra sleep over that night and they woohoo'd for a little while longer. His brother Connor politely let them have the master bedroom that night. But after all that woohoo a girl is bound to be hungry. So, Allegra fixed herself something to eat while Jared was sleeping. Jared woke up as soon as she sat down to eat and got mad at her for acting inappropriately in his house! Did he expect her to starve to death?! Apparently visitors don't like it when you eat their food or sleep in their beds, or take a shower either. But I figured since he was letting her stay the night he might allow her to eat. Apparently not.

He threw her out of the house, and she quickly learned that one of his traits is "mean-spirited". That would explain the laughing she heard as she left.

But she was already head over heels in love with him. So the next night she was right back in his bed. But she didn't eat any of his food this time. Sheesh.

Off topic, this is the Frio's pretty backyard. I'd love to just sit in that chair with a good book and relax. Course, Jared would probably throw me out.

Allegra got over her hurt feelings of being thrown out and proposed to Jared one night after they got off work. She even changed into her formal clothes to do it. Jared accepted and they went back to Allegra's "house" for the ceremony.

They wanted to invite Jared's brother, Connor, to the wedding but they didn't have any money to spend on party items like food and cake, so they opted for a private wedding that same evening.

It was very quiet and peaceful with a gorgeous view of the distant mountains. Jared Frio officially became a Spaghetti that night. Although he wouldn't count for points until he helped produce the next generation.

Jared (Frio) Spaghetti is a natural cook, inappropriate, a party animal, a heavy sleeper, and mean spirited. He likes electronica, grilled salmon, and the color green. His lifetime wish is to become a Celebrated 5-Star Chef.

I figured he'd have a little more money than he actually had, so I was a little disappointed when he only brought $2,483. But with gifts and tax benefits for their wedding (which is new to TS3) the couple got a total of $3,809 counting his contribution. With the little bit of extra money, the newlyweds were able to buy a bigger bed, an endtable and lamp, a couch and bookcase, stove, table and chairs, and a toilet! Not too bad. They can't afford walls yet, but at least they've got all the necessary furnishings.

And since they're both great cooks, they eat pretty well! Better than most newlyweds anyway. My real life husband would be jealous! Of course, Jared does his share of cooking. There's nothing better than a man in red flame boxer briefs making you an omelet in the morning.

Now that they're married and live together, Allegra and Jared take every opportunity they have to woohoo. It looks like generation 2 isn't too far off. Hopefully they'll have walls by then.

As a side note, right before their wedding Allegra read the newspaper and saw that Claire Ursine had a new baby girl named Colette. When Jared moved in he had all these wants involving holding, snuggling, or playing with a little baby girl named Colette. I checked his family tree and sure enough, Colette is his daughter! It seems Jared and Claire Ursine are ex-lovers, and they have a new baby girl. In the next update, you'll see how Allegra takes this news!

And don't worry, Patty and the Bumble family aren't gone. I'll still be updating about them. But this legacy is going to get more attention for now. I actually want to finish a legacy challenge for once! Hope that's okay with you all. You'll learn to love Allegra and the Spaghetti's too. I promise!

For Jen & Her Shanleys

2009-07-16T01:41:26Z

This small TS2 update is for Jen of Greetings from Mt. Geneva. She graciously tracked down and uploaded her old legacy family's (the Shanleys) house for me to use! I told her I would let her know how/if it works.

So Jen, it works wonderfully! I got all giddy when I moved a sim into it. I feel like I'm re-living your Shanley legacy all over again only with court-side seats this time! It's so much fun. I found some pretty cute and funny things while exploring the house and thought you'd like to giggle along with me.

First I found that the Shanley's did not do a very good job of keeping their gardens tended. There were weeds and dead flowerbeds galore! They married a gardener into the family but couldn't pull weeds? What's up with that?! (heehee)

Weeds and dead flowerbeds weren't the only things the Shanley's left in their yard however. They also left a multitude of aspiration reward objects just lying around in a big heap in the backyard! My sims will never have to buy another energizer EVER. There's a ton of those life elixir thingies too.

I was sad to see that the graves of all the dead Shanley's didn't make the trip though. It looked like they were still there in Neighborhood View, but when I got into the lot they were gone. Ah well. So much for seeing Nia Shanley's ghost floating around in my game. I figured the character files weren't included anyway.

It wasn't until I ventured inside the house that things started to feel a little like the Twilight Zone. The house seemed to be completely untouched. Everything was in the same spot it must have been in when the Shanley's lived here. It was like they all just disappeared one day and left everything behind. *cue creepy music here*

But I found that kind of stuff to be awesome and amazing, so I hope you'll see the creepy sentimentality of it all too. First thing I noticed in the house was that the fish were still alive! I can never keep fish alive in my game, so I'm sure it won't last long. But I can just see Fiona Shanley playing with these fishies.

Speaking of dear old Fiona Shanley, it must have been around her time that Jen packaged the house up because Fiona's is the last heir portrait hanging in the gallery. But it's cool to have these pictures in my game! They're staying there forever!

Anyhoo, back to the weird Twilight zone creepy things I found. Someone's homework is just lying on the floor waiting to be done before the school bus comes the next morning. Which Shanley teen does it belong to, I wonder? Could it be teenaged Patrick's or maybe his little brother Stefaan's? I guess I'll just have to wait and see when one of my sims becomes a teenager. It would be cool if it will say "Do so-and-so's homework" when I have them click on it. We shall see!

A magazine and many thinking caps were also left behind.

Looks like someone made drinks right before their disappearance. And looks like someone drank 2 of them!

Ah, the only memories left of Shanley babies. Discarded milk bottles just waiting to feed a baby (or be thrown away). And who took a piece of the carpet?

And who broke the dishwasher?

Who left the shower running?

Who was just about to eat an omelet breakfast?

I'm telling you, it really felt like a Twilight Zone episode, or maybe one of those stories you hear about the rapture at church. Everybody just disappears all of a sudden and leaves everything behind. Anyway, I am loving the house and wanted to share with you some of my funny finds. Thanks so much Jen!

Happy 4th of July

2009-07-03T18:31:36Z

Happy Fourth of July everyone! I hope you have lots of hamburgers and hot dogs tomorrow and get to go swimming at least once! And enjoy all those fireworks...gosh how I love fireworks!

And have no fear, Patty and her family will be back soon. I'm just finishing up another crazy week of school, but the weddings are over and I'll have a lot more time soon.

A Quick Note

2009-06-24T02:16:36Z

Hi there everyone. I know it's been a little while since the last update. But have no fear, Patty and I are alive and well. (As are Ken and the twins, Arthur and Henry!).

I have the good fortune (or misfortune?) of being the maid of honor in two weddings. Last weekend was the first wedding, and this weekend is the second one. I have really had my hands full with wedding plans, and I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Thank goodness I'm not a wedding planner. I'd have to strangle a bride or two....

Anyhoo, that's why an update has not been seen in a week or so. But I promise to have one up next week sometime. Hopefully Monday...that's what I'm shooting for. Hope you all are well, and see you next week!

Ooh Baby, Baby

2009-06-16T01:51:15Z

Sorry for the 4-day lapse in updates. I had a very exciting weekend with some old friends that I haven't seen in years. I also got my eyes checked and needed new glasses! So now I can actually see what I'm typing. I'm splitting this update into 2 parts because there were just a few too many pictures for one update. I like keeping updates kind of short and sweet so you don't get bored!

So, last we time we saw Patty she was getting married to Ken Flores. Ken graciously took her last name and became Ken Bumble. Patty Flores just didn't sound as good! Ken moved into Patty's cottage and began looking for a job right away. Patty's bringing in pretty good money with her culinary career, but she's ready to start having a family and would like to be able to take some time off if/when babies arrive. So Ken starts searching around town for a job.

He stops by the business building (at least I think it's the business building), but he doesn't really want a career in business. He ends up taking a writing class instead. He's always wanted to be a famous author, one who can live the high life off of royalty checks every week. He figures this is as good a start as any.

Next he stops off at the military base because he heard they were running a discount on handiness classes that day. It never hurts to be more handy around the house. He's not interested in joining the military. He's never been an active type of sim. At least he's a lot like Patty in that respect!

In TS2, I very seldom had my sims leave their houses unless it was truly pertinent to the story. But even then, I usually just built a "set" on their home lot for pictures. Mainly this was because of the huge amounts of time it would take to load the community lot, and then again to load the home lot when you're all done. That and my old computer would lag something fierce when I made them leave their homes. But with TS3's seamless town, there's no wait time and it is absolutely wonderful! They just hop in a taxi and zip off to wherever they want to go in a matter of seconds. And my new computer doesn't lag at all...ever. So my sims actually spend the majority of their time out and about the town instead of sitting at home! This is one of my favorite new things about the game.

Ken finally returns home that night with no job, and he's a little worried that Patty is going to be upset with him. He knows that she's ready to start trying to have some babies and therefore wants to cut back on her hours at the Bistro. But Ken really just wants to start writing. He'll never be a real author if he doesn't devote some time to writing a book. Any book will do. He just needs to do it. So he decides that it will help when he has to tell Patty that he wants to be an author if he already has a few chapters written. She might actually take him seriously.

But he really needn't have worried. Patty is the most understanding and loving wife in all the world. She just wants Ken to be happy, and if that means that he's going to work from home and spend all his time typing away on the computer then it's fine with her. She knows what it's like to have a dream, and she would never take that away from Ken.

In return for her understanding, Ken tells her that he's ready to start a family also. Even though they are still quite literally newly-weds, Patty and Ken are ready to be parents.

It's not long before Patty finds out that she is indeed expecting their first child. She is ecstatic at how easy it was for them to conceive, and she just can't wait to see her baby. She's always dreamed of having a big family, with five kids or so. And this one will be the beginning of that dream.

Patty was the happies little pregnant girl in the world. She just had a glow about her all the time. And Ken was the doting husband through the entire thing. He was constantly massaging her autonomously and the little thought bubble would pop up with a pregnant lady in it. Poor Patty must have been having back pain! I thought it was really cute.

Also, I like the fact there's a few more interactions with the baby bump than there was in TS2. Others can talk to the baby, listen to the baby, and rub the belly now. The animations are basically the same, but still it's cute. You can also have the pregnant lady ask others to interact with the belly. So that's neat too. I believe it is a new interaction when kids talk to the belly, however.

I was disappointed when I saw Patty pregnant though. You really can't tell that she's pregnant, other than she walks with a waddle. But pudgy sims don't really look any different when they're pregnant. At least, I didn't notice a big difference.

Anyway, Patty went into work one last time and told her boss that she was going to needs some time off. Her boss was more than happy to sign her maternity leave papers. As much as Patty loves her job, she was looking forward to the time off. She had a lot to do to get ready for the baby. There were pregnancy books to read and a nursery to build. Ken was using his new handiness skill to add a small room onto the house and Patty was busy picking out wallpaper for the walls and baby furniture.

But Patty also sneaked in some much needed relaxation time during her time off. She found that she loves swimming and visited the community pool just about every day. Floating in the water helped her aching back and feet.

(She didn't even look pregnant at all in her bathing suit....sheesh.)

So I read somewhere that there are ways you can dictate the gender of the baby while your sim is still pregnant. I decided to give it a shot. I heard that you can eat apples to have a baby boy, and watermelons to have a baby girl. So Patty went on down to the supermarket and purchased some apples. Over her pregnancy she ate 3 apples. On a side note, I was shocked at how filling the apples were. She was starving when she ate one of the apples, and it filled her hunger bar completely up. And it only took seconds to eat it. So, for a quick fix that requires no time to cook...just grab some fruit!

I also read that you can up the chances of having twins or triplets by watching the kids station on the television and listening to the kids station on the radio. You can doubly up the chance if you do both of those things at the same time. Normally I enjoy letting the game decide on its own (natural twins/triplets, if you will). But this time I wanted to experiment and see if it was true. I also gave Patty the "fertility" trait that you can buy with lifetime happiness points. That ups the chance of multiples also.

The time finally came for the baby to join the family! Patty awoke one night with painful contractions. The poor girl made some horrible faces during her contractions. Ken woke up right away like the wonderful husband that he is and rushed her off to the hospital after a few minutes of panicking.

I really like the new "labor and delivery" system. Instead of just screaming for a few seconds and spinning around with a baby, you get contractions every couple of minutes in the beginning and they gradually get closer together and more intense. You have the option to have your sim go to the hospital or to stay at home and deliver.

I had Patty go to the hospital because a pop up box told me she'd have a much more comfortable delivery there rather than at home. And I just can't stand to hurt Patty, so off to the hospital she went! They actually go inside the hospital to have the baby. Even Ken went inside. You can hear machines beeping and someone talking over the intercom. Even though you can't actually follow your sim inside the building, I thought it was cute.

Patty and Ken emerged from the hospital after a few hours with their new baby BOYS! It looks like our little experiment worked. Patty did indeed have boys, and she had twins. She named them Arthur and Henry, mainly because I'm currently reading a book about King Henry VIII of England who happened to have a brother named Arthur. So, Arthur and Henry Bumble it is!

The new happy family climbed into a taxi for a ride back home. Their lives were about to change forever...and this house is about to get harder to play! I've never been good at playing families without the "maxmotives" cheat, so this ought to be interesting.

And it seems that Riverview doesn't have a law about child carseats... Hmmm.

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I'll leave you hanging here and show you what the boys look like in the next update when they grow up! But it's already played out and the pictures are ready to go. I'll write it up in a day or two. Until then, happy simming!

Whisperwood

2009-06-11T16:53:15Z

I decided to play around with the building and decorating tools a little more, and this is what I came up with!

Whisperwood is on a 30x40 lot, and is priced at $47,905. The address of the lot in my game is 10 Hidden Grove Lane. I've heard complaints about placing downloaded lots because they have to match the lot size exactly. So hopefully that helps. The house is fully furnished with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen/dining room, living room, upstairs loft, and garage.

I really loved being able to make all the colors match, including the shutters and stones in the wallpaper/flooring. Very fun indeed!

Downstairs:

Upstairs:

This house took me forever, even though it seems little! Lol, I can spend hours just trying to coordinate patterns and colors on furniture. But the end product is well worth it! I hope you all enjoy it too.

Download Whisperwood

Here Comes the Bride

2009-06-10T13:56:40Z

I played for a really long time yesterday and took a bajillion million pictures, so I'm going to have to split it up into 2 or 3 updates! So here's the first part!

Last time we left Patty while she was on a date with Ken Flores at the Historical Museum. Remember Ken was all dressed up in a suit and Patty's favorite green shoes. Patty swears she is going to marry Ken and have lots of babies with him because he's just so darn sweet.

But Patty is having to really take this relationship slowly. Ken is a loner and very unflirty, so it takes forever just to get him to hold her hand! But she thinks he's worth the wait; he's definitely the best guy she's found so far. Billy definitely liked the hot and heavy romantic stuff, but he liked it with waaaay too many people. And that huge nose guy is married, and besides, Patty doesn't want that nose being passed on to future generations! So, she's willing to be patient with Ken and wait for him to be ready for all the mooshy romantic stuff.

It really seems like it takes forever for sims to fall in love or become romantic at all. It was almost too fast in the Sims 2, and Maxis tried to fix it or something in TS3...except now it takes forever! Sheesh.

She finally convinces Ken to come over to her house so she can cook for him. Patty's really been working on her cooking skills and she's learned some really yummy recipes. She's even been promoted a few times at work because of it. She gets busy whipping up some fruit parfait, which just so happens to be Ken's favorite food! Meanwhile, Ken sits down to read. He's a quiet kind of guy that likes simple things in life.

Patty's just hoping he'll be a little more responsive to her romantic advances if she cooks him his favorite meal.

And sure enough, the fruit parfait did the trick! Ken was beyond excited after eating his favorite treat, and Patty finally got her wish! After a long night of passionate woohoo'ing, Patty and Ken fell asleep in each other's arms.

The next morning was a little awkward for the both of them. Ken was back to being his usual shy self and busied himself with making the bed while Patty got up. Patty was very happy that they finally took their relationship to the next level, but she could tell how uneasy Ken was about the whole thing.

But she wasn't about to let Ken get away that easy. She decided to act quickly before he completely went back into his shell. After making him breakfast that morning, she decided to ask him to go steady. That way he couldn't get away! He was so surprised, but he said yes! Patty officially has a boyfriend!

Over the next few days, Patty and Ken continued to date. They went on a few outings and Patty enjoyed nothing more than cooking dinner for Ken and then spending the night together. Ken even started to really open up and Patty found out that he's actually a pretty romantic fella even though he's unflirty and prefers to be alone.

It wasn't long before she was beginning to think about asking Ken to be her husband.

Let me just say that it seems in this post like they were dating for a only a few days before they got engaged. But that's not exactly true. It took FOREVER for these two to get any more romantic than just complimenting each other and holding hands. Patty had actually spent about half of her young adult life just trying to get Ken to kiss her. Once they finally kissed and woohoo'd though, things went pretty fast. He started spending the night and finally the option to propose to him popped up. I was hoping that he could just move in first, but that option never presented itself.

So, Patty decided to pop the question. She figured Ken is so shy about such romantic things that he'd probably never build up the courage to propose to her first. So she went for it. And on a side note, it was really cute when she first knelt down and pulled out the black box. Since she has the clumsy personality trait, she actually dropped the black box! Lol, I just pictured her so nervous about asking Ken to marry her and she's usually a pretty bumbly girl anyway and she fumbled the box as she pulled it out of her pocket. It was adorable!

And look at how excited Ken was! Heehee, he had the biggest grin and he jumped up and down with glee.

Patty says, "Come on, take it. Ya know you want to!"

And Ken says, "Okay!" and then giggles as Patty slides the ring on his chubby finger.

Word travels fast in such a small town, and that night as Patty's getting off work she finds Billy Caspian waiting for her outside the bistro where she works. He's trying to act all cool and nonchalant sitting there reading a book. I swear he's stalking her!

He calls for Patty to come over and talk to him. She grudgingly stomps over to him; she really doesn't ever want to see Billy again much less talk to him. He immediately asks her if the news is true, are she and Ken really engaged? She tells him that yes it's true and that she is so unbelievably happy that she could just burst from being so full of joy. She's not usually this sappy, but she really wants Billy to feel bad and maybe a little jealous.

I think it worked! He definitely does not look happy when he hears the news.

Which reminds me, a really cool new interaction is how your sims can "announce" things to other sims. Patty was able to "Announce Engagement" to Billy, and that's the face he made when he heard that she was engaged. And as a little spoiler, I've also seen that parents can "Announce Pregnancy" to their children and to each other. This is one of my favorite new things in the game!

Pretty soon there's a line of people waiting to talk to Patty about her good news. It seems the whole town knows about her engagement, and it just happened that day! Don Lothario offers his congratulations to Patty and Ken, and Patty congratulates him on his new baby. Although really by this time that baby is probably a child.

I really am starting to want to take a look into the Maxis families now. I may have to start a new hood and take a look, since Patty's hood has the story progression enabled so the families have changed some. Maybe that will be my next project!

The Big Day finally arrives and Patty heads to The Gazebo early to set up for the wedding. After making sure everything was ready, Patty decides to do a little cardio exercise. This girl has never exercised or even thought about exercising a day in her life, and now just hours before the wedding she decides it's a good time for a little aerobics?! I can just hear her thinking that it would be nice to lose a few pounds before she walks down the aisle. Every bride wants to look beautiful on her wedding day. But both myself and Ken feel that Patty is pretty all the time just the way she is.

Patty finishes getting ready just as the guests begin to arrive. Unfortunately, she broke the stereo during her morning workout so everyone just stands around staring at each other with nothing to do. You'd think they'd at least talk to each other or something. But it seems that the only thing to do at a wedding is to dance. Oh well.

One of the guests decides to take matters into her own hands, and she whips out her guitar. It looks like they'll have music and dancing after all!

And boy, was there dancing! I'm not really sure if this girl is dancing or trying to drop a hint for Don Lothario. But he seems to enjoy it either way!

Ken even makes friends with Patty's old boyfriend, Mr. Big Nose. They spend some time chatting and even end up dancing together. Billy came to the wedding too, uninvited I might add. You can kind of see him standing behind Mr. Big Nose in that picture. I told ya, he's stalking Patty. At least he didn't cause any trouble at their wedding though.

It's finally time to say their vows. I was kind of disappointed to see that the wedding animations are the exact same as in TS2, except now instead of flower petals magically falling from the sky, the guests throw petals or rice or something on the couple as their getting married. That part is kinda cool.

But Patty and Ken have a beautiful ceremony, and even some pedestrians stop by to witness the nuptials. They even helped themself to the buffet after the ceremony. Hmph. And they didn't even leave a gift. Come to think of it, none of Patty and Ken's friends left a gift! Now that would be a cool thing to add to the game. Friends and family of the bride and groom should give wedding gifts; either money or actual objects would be neat.

So, my dear Patty is now a married woman! And I am very happy that she chose Ken to be her husband. He's really sweet to her and I hope he will give her lots of cute babies! But you'll just have to wait for the next update to see!

----------------------

I've really been seeing some neat looking sims from other simmers, and it's making me want to experiment with the different personalities and appearances. I love Patty and how absent-minded and clumsy she is, so I'll definitely continue with her. But you might start to see some other sims from me too in the near future. We'll see how it goes. I'm also trying to build some other houses too. So I'll post another one of those when I finish it!

Pea Cottage

2009-06-09T01:26:43Z

I think I've figured out how to share Patty's house without using the Sims Launcher. And for some reason, I'm not able to load it to the exchange because it's not recognizing my login information over there.

This is Patty's house, named Pea Cottage. It's the first house I've built with the Sims 3. It's a cute little cottage with one bedroom, one bathroom, living room, kitchen, and breakfast nook. It's a perfect little starter home for your new simmies. It comes fully furnished with no CC, obviously! Here's the inside:

You'll want to download the file and place it in your my documents/electronicarts/thesims3/downloads folder. The house should then show up in your empty houses bin in the game. Let me know if there's any problems with it. And thanks to beatdoc16for helping me figure out how to do this! Enjoy!

Download Pea Cottage

A Big Day for Patty

2009-06-09T00:12:04Z

I'm back from the beach, and what a wonderful weekend it was! I have to admit that I missed Patty though! Hehe, let's see what she's been up to, shall we?

Patty has been working hard to move up the Culinary career ladder, so on her day off she wanted to have a little fun. She heard a rumor that you can check the newspaper to see what events are going on around town for the day. So Patty began her morning by reading the newspaper while drinking a cup of mint julep tea. (Ok, so you can't really have mint julep tea in the game, but if you could, that's what she'd be drinking!). Now there's a reason to actually read the newspaper every day! You can find out what events are going on around town, and you can find out which stores are offering discounts including which classes are being discounted. Very worthwhile, if you ask me.

That morning a few events were going on around town. The Llama Memorial Stadium was hosting the Amateur Olympics. Seeing as how Patty hasn't worked out a day in her life and has the muscle mass of a five-year old, Olympics aren't really her cup of tea. There was also a Chess Tournament being held at The Gazebo, however Patty is awfully absent-minded and logic isn't really her strong point. And finally, the Gastronomy Club was holding an eating contest at the Little Corsican Bistro. Now that's right up her alley!

So Patty calls up her kind-of-boyfriend, Billy Caspian, and tells him to meet her at the Bistro. I followed her cab on this trip and fell in love with the town hall. The green lawns and statue in front of the building is so cute, and the building itself reminds me of town halls you read about in story-books and see in movies like Back to the Future. Such a pretty place to live.

Anyway, Patty introduces herself to some of the other eating contest contestants while waiting for Billy to show up. She meets a really cute guy named Ken Flores and they start to chat. By the time Billy gets there, Patty is surrounded by men! It seems Patty has a way with men...who knew? Billy didn't seem too happy about all of the attention Patty was getting. He stalked off soon after showing up, and didn't come back.

It was just as well that Billy left, because while Patty was chatting with Ken she learned a few things. Besides learning that Ken shared her fondness for classical music and that his favorite color is spice berry, she also learned that Don Lothario has a new baby. A boy named Sebastian Lothario. We're not sure who the mother is...but still interesting.

She also learned that Ken has seen Billy "getting cozy" with some chick named Latoya Sherrod. This upsets Patty because she thought Billy was her boyfried! It seems Billy didn't think so. What a jerk! Ken agrees that Billy is worse than the slime that gets stuck between your toes after fishing barefoot-ed in a lake.

But Patty isn't going to let this news ruin her chances at the eating contest. She heads inside to get started, and she is even more determined to win. Luckily, she was pretty much starving by the time the contest started. Although I will say that she looked a bit sheepish as she walked into the building. She's never really been self-conscious about her weight, but there's just something a tad bit embarrasing about entering an eating contest when you're chubby.

But she gets over it, because she's so hungry and mad at Billy that she inhales plate after plate of food and wins first place! The prize is $1,000!! Totally worth the initial embarrassment. And boy, the food sure was good.

When she walks out of the bistro she looks around for Ken. She finds him sitting at a table with some girl. Patty finds out that the girl is none other than Latoya Sherrod and it looks as if she's hitting on Ken. Patty is pretty convinced now that Latoya is a hussy, and she'll be darned if she lets Latoya take Ken too!

So Patty walks right over there and tells Ken how she feels. She tells him that even though she just met him this afternoon, she really likes him. She thinks his personality is wonderful, and she thinks he's very cute too. She is very happy to find out that although Ken is really shy and usually tends to be a loner, he thinks she's really pretty and wants to get to know her better. Meanwhile, Latoya stands by obviously unhappy about this.

As Patty and Ken continue to flirt and begin to get a little affectionate with each other, Latoya just stands there glaring at them. It seems that Latoya is a bit of a loosey-goosey in this town. But who cares, because Patty has a new boyfriend!

A few days later, Patty asks Ken out on a date to the art museum. She's waiting out front when she sees Ken walking up. And she can't believe what she's seeing...

Ken wore a suit to their date! What an awesome guy! She didn't ask him to dress up, but he says she's so pretty that he felt he needed to wear a suit. Patty could just die. Ken is definitely the sweetest guy she's ever dated, and Patty is pretty sure he's the one she wants to marry and have a family with. Who cares if he's a loner...he's her loner now!

He even wore green shoes for her, since green is her favorite color. Who cares that they don't match his tie? I told you he's a sweet guy.

The next night after work, I caught Patty autonomously going to the book store. When I caught up with her, she was dressed in her formal wear. I thought for sure she was there to go on another date, and I was hoping it was going to be with Ken.

But no, she wasn't there for a date. She just stood around in her formal dress, doing nothing. Not wanting her entire night to be a waste, I sent her inside to buy a cooking book! So she spent some time all dressed up, sitting on a bench by the book store, reading a cooking book. Patty is such a silly girl.

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This post was a little shorter because I actually played this out last Thursday before I left for the beach. I'm going to play some more tonight and will have another update for you all tomorrow.

How's the game going for you guys? Any comments/thoughts/updates? I'd love to hear what you all think!

A Long Beach Weekend

2009-06-05T12:52:34Z

My hubby and I are taking our son to the beach for the first time! So I'll be gone through Monday. Another update will be ready on Tuesday! And thank you all for the wonderful comments on my first post!

Patty says, "See ya Tuesday!"

Me & Patty explore the world

2009-06-04T21:11:01Z

Hello everyone, welcome to my new journal! I decided to start a new blog to chronicle my adventures in The Sims 3. It's a new game and therefore it is deserving of a new home! I finally got the game up and running, and I am really happy to say that I am enjoying the game immensely. It's not anything like the Sims 2, but that's okay with me because I didn't expect it to be. As a game of its own, I enjoy it. I've only played a little bit, but if you read on you can see what I've been up to. And the first step is to meet my first sim of Sims 3. Everyone, meet Patty Bumble!

I thought I wanted to make an insane/neurotic/etc.. sim when I first got the game, but after reading that it's more difficult to get those kinds of sims to have some fun and be happy, I decided to start with a more balanced and easy-going personality. Thus, Patty has a good sense of humor, she can be absent-minded at times, she can also be rather clumsy, she's a natural cook, and she's extremely friendly. She loves classical music and hamburgers, and her favorite color is lime green because she thinks it looks so pretty with her blond hair and green eyes. Patty's Lifetime Wish is to be Surrounded by Family, which means she wants to raise 5 babies to the teen age group. I'm a family sim at heart, so I had to make Patty want lots of babies. Eventually I want to see how the whole baby thing works in this game.

You will also notice that Patty is a little on the plump side. Okay, she's about as plump as a sim can be! Must be all those hamburgers that she loves to eat. I was really excited about this new feature in the Sims 3 and just had to try it out. I think Patty is too cute, even with a few extra pounds on her.

I had Patty move into an empty lot so I could check out the building tools. She has a nice view of a water tower right across the street... But look at the detail of that hot air balloon and that flock of birds! The graphics in this game make me very giddy.

Patty's house does have a good view of the town if you look down the street though. She lives in Riverview which is a very cute town with an industrial area, commercial area, and lots of rolling hills and rivers. I think Patty will be very happy here.

Here's what I came up with for Patty's house. I love all of the new plants and rocks this game has. And the terrain paints are miles ahead of what the Sims 2 came with. I really like the roof textures a lot better, also. And you can move the mailbox and trash can without causing any issues! I love it. Let's have a look around the inside of Patty's little cottage.

Here's her living room. I love the new design tools. There are endless possibilities for colors and even though there are a set number of patterns, they can look different just by changing the color scheme. And I love the shapes of the new couches and other pieces of furniture that aren't clones of Sims 2 furniture. There are some cute new things, although there's a lot of old things too.

Here's her kitchen and breakfast nook. My husband bought the collector's edition of the game for me for Mother's Day, and therefore I got 1000 free points to spend at the store. So those cabinets/counters/fridge/stove are some of the things I got with them. So is Patty's shirt, by the way. It's just as well that I got those points, because I probably won't spend any money for points on my own!

This is her bedroom. Very green, just the way she likes it.

And lastly, her bathroom. I love how you can change the wallpaper colors too. So her house is pretty small, but it's the perfect size for us right now. Easy to manage and learn how to play the game in!

Since Patty's a natural cook, her very first wish was to learn the cooking skill. She already had a Cooking Volume 1 book in her inventory, so she got right to work on learning how to cook. One thing I do like about the game, is the new way the bookcase and skills work. I like having to learn recipes and buy books from the bookstore. I guess it just adds realism for me.

The thing I don't like is that skilling takes much more time. However, I like the new time control called "Ultra Speed through Current Action". It speeds the game to top speed until your sim finishes their current action, then it slows back down. That's super neat if ya ask me.

Next item on Patty's agenda is to go get a job! Her next wish came up that she wanted to get a job in the cooking field, so she grabbed a taxi down to a little bistro and applied for a job. Maxis actually did a great job on the community buildings, if you ask me. They all look so pretty and quaint. It makes for some very pretty scenery, even though you can't enter some of them.

Patty thinks it's pretty, too.

Since Patty's a friendly gal with a good sense of humor, she just can't resist talking to just about everyone she passes by. One of her special interactions for having a good sense of humor is to "Impersonate a Celebrity". I'm not really sure which celebrity she was impersonating, but just about everyone thought it was hilarious. Patty seems very proud of herself.

Then Patty met this handsome fella. She learned that he's single, which is a major plus since Patty is lookin' for a man to have at least 5 kids with! She also learns that he's a slob, which I'm not too thrilled about. But at least we met a single guy, and he's not hideously ugly like some of the other fellas we've seen around town.

I find it cute and funny when Patty's absent-minded trait shows itself. Sometimes she'll just look baffled or confused. She'll drop actions in her queue and putz around for a second until she decides to do something else. Here she is telling the cute guy that she's "pretty sure" she's new to the neighborhood, she thinks.

Yep, she's definitely baffled.

It's time for Patty to go to work! I don't remember what her job is in the cooking track, but she looks like a dishwasher or something like that in this outfit. And how did she get her hair so short to fit in that hat?

Another thing I really really really like about the Sims 3 is how the lighting changes for the different times of day. Instead of just going from super bright to super dark at 6:00 or 7:00, it actually gets progressively lighter/darker throughout the day. That's a really neat feature and makes for some very pretty dusk and dawn hours.

Anyway, Patty comes home from work and she's starving. It gave me a good opportunity to look at the way sims prepare food now. It's basically the same animations, but I think the food looks a lot better. It's colorful and more realistic in my opinion and I enjoy checking out what each dish looks like!

Also, when Patty got the food out of the fridge, the fridge door didn't close all the way so she kicked it to close it! How neat is that?!

After dinner, Patty met the cute guy at a Juice Bar for some juice and foosball fun. I like the foosball table and animations. Very cute.

There's no bartender at the Juice Bar, just a bunch of bars where you can make your own juice. But Patty didn't seem to mind. She had a hankering for some juice and didn't care how she got it!

After a long day of work and flirting with the cute guy, Patty's plum tuckered out. She falls asleep in her semi-comfy bed to get a good night's sleep before work tomorrow.

But it seems sims like to get midnight snacks too! She raids the refrigerator autonomously (kicking it shut again) and helps herself to some bread and jam. The quick meals in the Sims 3 are way more than just a can of insta-meal like in the Sims 2. They can have soup, bread and jam, ice cream and other stuff too. After scarfing down her midnight snack, Patty goes back to bed.

After work the next day (from which she returned with a promotion!), Patty autonomously went to dinner with a random guy that she had never met before. When I finally found her, she was dressed in her formalwear and chatting it up with this guy. Check out the massive honker on this dude. It almost makes his ears look tiny! And he's married to top it all off. What a catch, Patty....what a catch.

Here's a better look of Patty looking pretty in her formalwear. She looks like she might be re-thinking her date with Mr. Big Nose. Thank goodness. I don't want her to have babies with that guy!

Patty proceeds to tell this random lady, "Did you see that guy? His nose was bigger than the rest of his face!"

With no luck in the love department yet, it looks like Patty will just have to get her romance from the trashy romance novels that she's so fond of. Maybe next time we'll find love and make some babies!

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Well, my initial feelings about the game are much better than I expected. I love the town and the seamless neighborhood. I love the lighting and the scenery. Even the sims dough-y appearances are growing on me. It's nothing like the Sims 2, but it's a fun game in its own right. I'm gonna stick with it and see where it goes! I hope you'll come back and join me in my Sims 3 adventures!