Moving Day!

I know some of you might be wondering what's happened to me. Well, the big moving day has been scheduled for the 17th. I've been lugging smaller stuff on my own all this time and now it's time to get all the good stuff there. I'll officially start living there that day too. Woot! It is so much nicer than where I'm at. I can't wait. But once I'm there maybe things will settle down a bit for me to get back to fun stuff. I'll be there and can unpack bit by bit. Heh, just in time for Sims Medieval to arrive.

I've been playing Dragon Age 2 at night to unwind before bed but I'm not liking it. Not at all. I'm really trying to because I LOVE Dragon Age: Origins. Alas, I don't feel a connection, it's not a true sequel anyway, and I just don't feel like it's the same world. Yet I can't disconnect it totally and pretend it's a new game either. Ah well. It might not get played but I know I'll enjoy Sims Medieval. I love medieval stuff and I love my simmies. Match made in heaven.

Catch y'all later.

Moving

Hey all! I thought I should stop by and let you know that if you think I've been kind of scarce, I have. I got a new apartment and I'm starting to move stuff. It might take awhile since I work full time and I'm still trying to arrange some time off to hasten my efforts, and I still have all that crap to do at home like laundry and dishes and so forth. It's a drag but it will be so great once I'm settled in at my new place. I'm still taking small breaks to squeeze in some fun time so I don't go completely crazy, but not enough to really sit down and build or get serious about anything.

Just thought I'd give you all the heads up on what's keeping me away. Hopefully it will be over sooner than later.

Back with the Living

Hi all. I know I've been kind of quiet for awhile. Until the recent blizzard life was kind of blah and uneventful. I am finally over the flu. We had a blizzard here last week and my college (I work at a college) was closed for 3 1/2 days. Mother Nature and the cooties apparently met prior to the snow onslaught because I was down with a rotten string of flu the entire time! Bleh! After a week I'm finally back at work and feel like I'll live. Sheesh. Much to my dismay I didn't get around to doing anything really, except sleeping and blowing my nose, popping meds, etc.

I still plan to do a cabin for Bridgeport but since Outdoor Stuff was on the doorstep I held off until I got that going. Then I got sick, and, well, you know how it goes. I have fiddled with the new stuff a bit. I thought there would be more in this stuff pack. Like family stuff. Activities, etc. The clothes for the ladies are cute. I haven't really checked out the guys yet. So I'm a bit bummed about this stuff pack. Not that I was terribly excited to begin with, but I did think there would be more meat to it.

Let's see... what else... oh, Dragon Age 2 will be here soon. The demo comes out Feb. 22. What that means is sims will probably fall by the wayside for a bit while I decide if I like this new installation or not. Sequels tend to be really good, or really bad. I'm not holding my breath. LOL The huge disappointments and epic fails that were Final Fantasy X-2 and Xenosaga II have scarred my mind forever. Oh, Dark Cloud 2 was a let down too. And I'm sure there are many, many, many others I just can't think of at the moment but they're there, darkening the corners of my mind with their tainted, evil experiences. Many more bad sequels than good. I know it's a matter of opinion. Sims Medieval is due in March too so that will take me away from Sims 3. I'll always come back. Probably sooner than I think. Somehow I don't think I'll be playing Dragon Age 2 for a solid year straight. I actually only stopped playing Dragon Age: Origins because I know I have to let all that go for the sequel (because, you know, it's not really a sequel (just a different game with the same name, but not a true sequel), at least I don't see it that way (if it was really a sequel I'd be loading up my stud of a Grey Warden and continue on with his buttkicking and they wouldn't have mucked with the graphics and enemies and storyline and... I'll stop) to dull the disappointment. LOL I'm such a ray of sunshine.

And you guys are all sitting there laughing at me. "Whatever macgirl." I should've outgrown video games ages ago but it's really the only thing that holds my interest as a hobby. And I rate pretty cool among my son's friends since I'm a gaming Mom and kick their butts nicely on occasion. Keep them in line ya know. Old fart I am not. Although, don't put an FPS in front of me. I'll nod off in a heartbeat. You won't even get me past the lame 20 minute intro cinematic. I loathe FPS games. Just what I want to do, experience everything through tunnel vision and a... hand. Woohoo. Hold me back. I'm gonna go crazy. The realism is so... so... not real.

OK, I'll quit my prattling and hopefully in the near future I'll bring you another lot. I'm grumpy. I think I need chocolate.

Finally, A New Lot

Gosh, sorry guys. Real life sort of sidetracked me for quite awhile and this lot got put on the backburner. It's done now though and due to be out tomorrow. I called it Conobar and it was built with a particular lot in mind in Bridgeport, but since it's a standard 30x40 lot you should be able to stick it anywhere. If the layout works for you that is.

I don't really consider anything spectacular about this lot. I used a couple fountain water things because I never used them before. I don't know of anyone well off so if the rich have fountains, I couldn't say. The rooms are large, especially the living room and kitchen/dining. Maybe that will work well for sims. They tend to cluster. I only stuck to the house plan for the exterior look. The plan didn't have a basement and I added one. It had that funky half story upstairs thing going on and I made it a full story with more space. Lots of bedrooms if your sims have large families or plenty of roommates. I got creative with some patterns. I was shooting for modern, tasteful decor, but not boring. I used rich colors throughout like burgundy and navy blue. The upstairs rooms are all done with various personalities in mind. I guess that's what I meant. I put the study/office up there too so the nursery could be on the main floor but that can easily be switched around. There isn't a separate butler quarters like Theirin has but there are plenty of bedrooms to give one to the staff or just make a suite in the basement. Heck, stick them on the front lawn for all I care. LOL

I am glad this lot is finished. Even though I was busy with other things it was still bugging me in the back of my mind. I hate leaving things unfinished. I feel so much better.

The last Bridgeport-specific lot I have planned is a log cabin to replace that rathole excuse for living that is already there. I love the lot by the water but hate the structure. I'll just make my own cabin rather than monkey with what's there. Yuck.

Hopefully it won't be so long before my next contribution to TSR. I sort of got lost in life. Happy Simming!

Hello 2011

Finally, 2010 is over. It wasn't all that great of a year for me so I'm looking forward to what the next might bring. 2008 and 2009 were sucky too. LOL Life has just been... yuck, for me.

Good news from the creating front. My next lot is almost finished. A couple rooms upstairs to tidy up and toss some stuff in the basement and it's good to go. Well, then there's taking screenshots and Photoshop jazz, but you get the idea. I've been busy over the holidays and I'm still putting in lots of time at work. Slowly but surely it's getting done.

I don't have any tales from my boring life so this is really short. I haven't put in much game time lately.

Holiday Wishes & Warm Fuzzies

You all make me feel warm inside with your holiday wishes. We're definitely having a white Christmas here in Northern Illinois. Any of you wishing for one, well, I hope you get some. Unless, of course, you live someplace snow doesn't go. Hmmm... the thought... no snow... I could get used to that... Anyway, I send holiday greetings and well wishes out to you all. I live alone now and my son is 16 so there's no fuss and flurry for little ones any more. It's just nice to be remembered.

I also appreciate your comments and thanks on my creations. I can't believe I have over 10,000 pageviews now, more than 2500 thank yous, and beyond 75,000 downloads. It all seems big to me. I do wish I had more time to spend on creating and to be on TSR. Alas, those jobs. I get a little break over the holidays. A few extra days off. I need the break as I've been putting in overtime and wrapping up some huge projects recently at work. I just need the job to go away for awhile.

This isn't as warm has holiday greetings, but it's good news nonetheless. I've started my next lot for Bridgeport. The shell is there and the exterior looks dynamite. Now the really hard part. Interior decorating. LOL Decisions, decisions.

I just wanted to drop in to wish you all a happy holiday season and let you know that I'm still creating, just more slowly lately. It's all good.

Sick of Winter

Ugh! I'm sick of winter already and it's only December. Only 3-5 more months of it. Actually, I'm just tired of having a Winter Weather Advisory, Winter Weather Warning, Wind Chill Warning, etc every other day. Winter started here Dec. 1 with our first "real" snowfall and we haven't seen the pavement since. Yep, another dumping tonight. I'm just all a flutter. (eyeroll) I don't like the ice, the slop, the piles and piles and piles and piles of white stuff.

If anyone out there wants a white Christmas you can have some delivered to your own yard for the reasonable price of $19.99. Yes, that's right! For under $20 you, yes YOU, can have your very own white Christmas. And right now you will get this special edition pile of yellow snow! Place it anywhere you put the other snow for a realistic and disgusting wildlife effect. Yes, you get the white snow plus the yellow snow bonus and we'll also throw in some rock salt so granny doesn't slip on the front walk on Christmas Day! And that's not all! No, if you order now we'll also throw in a lame Snuggie thing (I think I "invented" this when I was 4) for each member of the family. Please, let us choose the print and colors. We'll even throw a Snuggie in for Fido. No more chilly Labradoodles! Are you excited? I bet you're excited. Think of all those warm, fuzzy family memories you'll make this year when the kids go out to make snow angels, grandpa falls asleep in the recliner watching "A Christmas Story" in his hot pink leopard Snuggie, and aunt Rotilda makes her special roadkill pie for dessert! Order now before your white Christmas melts away!

Phew! I think I got it out of my system. Can ya tell I work in marketing? I hate marketing. It's just a bunch a lies piled on top of lies with visual aides. Don't believe a nugget of it. I do the visual aide part, not the lying. If that makes you feel better. I do have morals ya know. LOL

OK, so maybe you're wondering what I'm up to with sims. Or, perhaps you want something new for your sims. Well, work has been nuts. I've been working overtime and been in a bad mood for months and the holidays aren't making it any better. But I have started a new lot for Bridgeport and I've placed a clean copy of my Ayesleigh lot in a new hood to make it over. I promised a makeover of it ages ago. I might get to it someday. It'll be better than before so it will be worth having if you like the original.

I did something for the first time the other night. I woohoo'd in a sarcophagus! Well, I didn't woohoo. My sims did. It never occurred to me that sims could woohoo in... that. I don't usually take couples into tombs either so the option was never there. So just because I can and the option was there and I'll likely never do a duo tomb again, I had my sims check it out. Talk about morbid. That's just... wrong. So very wrong. Ahem, anyway, the couple I took were in Egypt. The girl had the want and they both have the get married want so I figured it was time to propose first. They're getting ahead of me. Darn sims. I rarely go to Egypt so off they went and after he got done proposing in the Market they went for a dip in the Market's fountain, in the buff. Honestly people, there were sims shopping and gawking. I suppose being proposed to is a good enough reason to strip down and do something stupid, but really, in the fountain? I know it's hot, but... is that really necessary? I'm such a prude. Of course I have pictures of all this but don't have them posted. I'm so bad about sharing.

So... anyway... maybe I'll get a snow day from work tomorrow (I work at a college. It's a nice perk.) and make some progress on lots, but... Mother Nature hasn't favored me yet this season so I won't hold my breath. Hope you enjoyed my story and I'm sure I'll be back with more.

Aw, don't be like that...

Another weekend gone. Lately I've been feeling like I haven't had weekends. I think I have just had my fill of family gatherings and performances. My kid has another concert tomorrow night. And the snow dumping we got Friday night/Saturday isn't helping my mood any either. I don't mind the cold at all. I LOVE wearing snuggly clothes and lighting candles and curling up in blankets. It's the heaps of dirty snow everywhere that bum me out. Freshly fallen, untouched snow is pretty. But that lasts for about 5 seconds. Then you have kids tromping through it, dogs peeing in it, trucks shoving it around along with last year's sodding attempt, and just anything and everything to make it dirty, ugly, and rock hard. And anything you don't get cleared freezes and becomes your next hospital visit.

OK, enough whining about my crummy mood and winter. I didn't get to starting a new lot this weekend. I was too busy. I do have the build bug though so I plan to start one tonight, if I have time. Three loads of laundry and a sink full of dirty dishes are calling my name. Ugh. What little time I did spend with the game was loading families and figuring out what the update fixed and what it broke. Well, the only thing I can find that it fixed was the opportunities finally getting linked to the right spots and not some place in Sunset Valley. (for Bridgeport opportunities that is) The butler still leaves the dang car on the road. One of my families is missing their butler but her car is there. Oi. Another family has the butler right where I left her and the car is still there. Oh, wait, something else is fixed. The puking. I started a new Bridgeport to get a new vampire to play. So far no puking at all. I am relieved. I hope my hood stays puke-free.

So you might be wondering why I need a new vampire when I already have a vampire family going. Just because. My first vampire ended up married and now has 6 kids so I never really got to be a baddie of the night with him. He's perfectly happy to stay home with the kids, skinny dip, and woohoo whenever the wife walks by. LOL But their lot has always been buggy. New stuff pops up every time I play it seems. And now that the update deleted their butler yet left her car and the game still thinks she's there, I can't fire her and hire a new one. I'm stuck in butlerless limbo and have a useless vehicle on my lot. So I think it's time to move them out and into a fresh lot and see if that helps. The oldest is a young adult now and my vamp's wife just had a set of twin girls. Oh lucky me. So they have a total of 6 kids all under one roof and plenty of glitches. And, by the way, out of those 6 kids and a normal/vampire sim breed mix, all the kids are vampires. I'm pretty sure the twins are. They're still babies but they have the odd shading that all the other kids had. For a couple that isn't family-oriented at all they sure wanted a lot of kids. They only got a kid when they both had the want. The house is full now but I know if I moved a few out they'd want even more. Thankfully the kids aren't fugly so it's not a bad thing to populate Bridgeport with young vampires. Bridgeport just really isn't a family neighborhood. There isn't room to expand and most of the lots are small. The apartment buildings are annoying. But, whatever, I made a family anyway. So there. Anyway, I'll move this family to a fresh lot and see if their glitches go. If not, they'll probably meet the trash bin. I'll work on keeping my new vampire (have to get him turned first) single for a bit longer and play the darker side of things. I do love my vampires. They're a lot of fun.

My new Bridgeport is coming along. My to-be vampire has a nice place and is seeking a willing vamp to turn him. He's already had a couple romances though and I've only played him for less than a sim week. The game keeps stealing his women on him. Just when I get the relationship to max and am ready to invite them over for the move in opportunity the game assigns them a partner. Seriously. I had this girl prepped and called her over so I could move her in. She says she'll be over in a bit and then another message pops up immediately saying something suddenly came up and she can't come. I check her profile and now she has Alexy as a partner (I checked before I called and she was still single). WHAT? This was the first sim day I played the guy. I took him out on the first day to buy stuff and meet people. He hit it off with her really well. He took her to dinner and dancing. I asked the questions, she was single and unemployed. The NEXT morning I invited her over and got the stupid message. Was that really necessary? The game needs to stop meddling with my relationships. It does this a lot. What? I just wasn't moving fast enough for it? I should just pop the question after greeting someone? What?! Ridiculous. She didn't even have a chance to meet anyone else. She was with my sim the whole first day. He snagged her when she got out of a taxi in the morning. They talked all day on the sidewalk and then went to dinner and both went home in the red for sleep. They never ever met anyone named Alexy the whole time. In fact, she never talked to another sim the whole time. So unfair! Stupid game!

I haven't really explained my title yet. LOL Another one of this sim's romances is with Sugar Bijou. Usually she's dancing on tables with him. They hit it off outside the diner and then the next morning I called her over. Considered moving her in. He wanted to cuddle in the hot tub with her, skinny dip with her, hug her, what not. So since she's a party animal I figured I try the skinny dip thing for fun. Sims are so cute when they skinny dip. They get so excited. The pixelation must tickle. LOL Anyway, he asked her to go skinny dipping and she was all fine, well, and good with it. Just before she enters the house she turns around and leaves with a message of "someone in this group has some unresolved issues to deal with" and then she goes on to tell him how much she really, really, really likes hanging out with him and would he please, please call her again. What? Issues? You get invited to skinny dip with your main squeeze and get cold feet? My sim got the rude guest negative moodlet from it. I'd say so. How rude! Fine, just leave. I didn't want to move you in anyway. Why don't you go find Alexy while you're dealing with your issues! It was just... weird. I guess I'll just get on with his life and go find that vampire to bite him. Sheesh.

I've had this relationship stealing happen with all my sims. I'm getting quite tired of the game's meddling. It's especially annoying when you know that sim hasn't met anyone else and you've got a max relationship with the little heart and everything. Then it just assigns them some random yahoo? Jerks. I've actually started seeding my hoods with 6 or more singles so my sims have a bigger chance of finding someone before the game steals them. They usually give them someone they never even met before too, which is just BS.

Bah, I'm still grumpy.

Weather Advisory

Good grief. It's only December 3rd and we've already got a Winter Weathery Advisory here. Yep. We're supposed to get dumped on tomorrow. From midnight tonight til midnight tomorrow. Some 18 hour storm or what not. Oh yea rah. I live in Northern Illinois, North Central Illinois if you really want to be picky. Believe me, we are around here. LOL The weather here absolutely sucks all the time. We go from 110 in the shade to -40 in the sun. And don't forget the ceaseless wind. We all walk sideways here to compensate for the wind. And of course it's worse in winter. Schools get snow days and heat days here. Sometimes it's 20 in the morning and then 80 by lunchtime. How many seasons do you want in one day? OK, enough whining about the weather.

Anyway, the reason I moaned was maybe I'll get snowed in this weekend and be able to work on a lot. LOL IF I keep power. That's a fat IF. I hope to relocate in the next few years. I'm saving up. I was born here so I've been stuck here all my life. I hope to see that change.

So I updated my game and loaded a house to see what all got screwed up. Yep, just as I thought. The butler's car is still there and the butler is deleted. Nice guys. Totally expected it. But I can't cancel the service or hire a new one. The game still thinks she's there even though she went poof. I said screw it and hired a maid to do the cleaning. My family can do the rest. I'm so anal about making my sims responsible my butlers never have much to do anyway, but they sure are nice when there's a baby around and you want to focus on someone else for a change. Just a thought.

My cc still works so no biggie there. I wasn't having half the problems mentioned as fixed so there really wasn't anything to notice as being different.

As you can tell I'm in a rather foul mood today. At least I'm going out with friends tonight and plan to gorge myself with really good food. I can tell I'll hit Dragon Age running again tonight. I can't seem to get my frustration and anger out of my system but I am holding back the urge to build. LOL I've had it for a couple days but I still want to play Dragon Age. I'll stop when I get to one of the sucky parts. And there are many. Some stupid stuff I just don't have the patience to tolerate any more. I've got my save file for Dragon Age II already so I don't care how I play now. It's just a stress release. If I don't want to save the dwarves in Orzammar because it reminds me of Ironforge in World of Warcraft, and is just as ugly, I don't have to. Mwhahahahahahahaha. Dragon Age has way better mages... rogues... and warriors than WoW. WAY better warriors. LOL WoW over complicates everything and it totally kills any ounce of fun one may have had playing. I don't play well with others though. I hate group work. And I'll be damned if I'll trust my life in the hands of some snot-nosed 9 year old brat that thinks they can heal. And then again, I don't HAVE to heal you either. *evil grin* If you're not the tank, my priest pretends you don't exist. At least I'm good at what I do, er, did. I always hated the players that claim to have picked the priest class because "I want to help people". It's not about helping people boy! It's about making complete losers feel like they're way better than they really are and winning, without getting credit for any of it. LOL Right, you be bad man. You didn't lose an ounce of health during that 3 hour dungeon. *cough* thank the priest *cough* Oh don't mind me. I'll take the rear. I can see you better when you die from doing something stupid before I resurrect your sorry butt, again.

Sorry, I'm bitter. The things I do for my kid. Yeah, I played with my kid, and ended up being a foster mother to every teen boy with a headset. I... I... don't want to talk about it.

So, back to sims. I plan to get back to playing again. I might have to start over for some since the patch caused major borkage, but eh, whatever. I like starting over. But I'll go back to dreaming about Cabana Charlie's now... yum...

Checking In

Bummer. The DDS plug-in for Photoshop only works for Windows. So... you won't be seeing anything from me that requires that. My copy of Photoshop is on my Mac. No tatoo for you. LOL Ah well. Guess I'll stick to lots and sims and maybe I'll get a decent pattern made with the pattern tool someday.

My weekend wasn't so great so I had to dig out Dragon Age again. But you know what that means. Another lot will be born. That whole connection still baffles me. I can only kill stuff so long. Once I calm down then I can be creative. You really don't want to see what I make when I'm angry. I haven't simmed in days. T'aint safe.

I see there's an update out for sims. I read the much too long list of fixes and noticed puking was in there. It's been adjusted so they vomit at acceptable levels. What? Is vomiting ever acceptable? I'm hoping this means sims won't dribble puke when I'm having conversations with them and my sims won't have to dodge puke puddles every time they go downtown. I DID get one of my sims to do it though. I had him order a Big Mistake drink. He hurled a couple times after drinking it. That doesn't explain why newly generated sims, just walking down the street or standing around are constantly puking. And the list included a fix for butlers autonomously dismissing themselves to follow a celebrity. Huh. I wonder if that's what my butler did. She never did come back. I had to hire another one. I'm glad they tweaked the butler car thing too. That annoys me. I can't wait for that to be gone. What does a butler need a car for anyway? They never leave. Oh wait, to run off to follow celebrities, because they're all really stalkers in a mild mannered butler disguise. Oh that game is shifty.

I see a Mac only fix in there too. Nobody cares about that. It would be nice if EA would fix their code so it stops disabling all their cc, requiring them to reinstall it all every time they want to play. It's been a long time problem. My son has it and he stops playing for long periods of time because of it (he's addicted to custom hair LOL). So EA fixes stuff that isn't an issue and ignores the real issues. I'm sure that makes perfect sense if you're an idiot. Nothing I can do about it except pat my son on his shoulder and hug him when he cries. LOL The life of a Mac gamer. Been there, done that, gave up.

*sigh* As for future endeavors, my monstrous Bridgeport lot has been really well received so I think I will go ahead with my plans to build a lot for that other empty lot on the snobby side of the river and I'd also like to make a nicer cabin to replace the ghetto cabin on the lot by the water. I really like that lot and I don't see why the view is mentioned in the description. The view doesn't suck. Sheesh. Guess it depends what you WANT to look at. Not everyone sees the glass as half empty. There's also that Ayesleigh revamp on the backburner. Anyway, I gots me some plans. Now I just need some time.

Sorry I didn't have better news for y'all. But you know it's coming... eventually. And hey, I'm over 75,000 downloads now. Wowzers. I appreciate all those comments so keep 'em comin'!