1. Hello hello! Welcome back to Ruth’s (un)Officially Wacky
Boolprop Challenge! The votes are in, and our heiress is Casilda.
While I can’t promise that I’ll be using her Plot, I hope you’ll enjoy
the results anyway.
That’s not the most exciting part of the chapter, of course. Can you
guess what is?
I could just tell you, but letting you guess is much more fun.
2. See that big empty spot on the street there? That’s where the school
bus was, until nine a.m.
Olga still missed it.
3. That doesn’t mean that she gets a free day off, though. Not when
you have a) a grandfather who still wouldn’t mind being Education
Minister and b) a magic bookshelf. The Skill of the Day was
Mechanical, and Olga gained ten points.
Oddly enough, the marathon study session didn’t tank any of her
motives. Now if only I could figure out why not…
4. Due to the galloping incompetence of someone whose initials may
or may not be e.i., there were some fairly serious bills on the lot at
the start of the rotation.
5. Fortunately, Glen was on top of things, and put rather a lot of
envelopes out for the mail carrier.
With checks in them, of course. There’s no point otherwise.
6. It’s not as though the family doesn’t have any money. Olga is fond
of playing the Official Gamer Career Reward, which pays out $5
every five game minutes.
8. The reporter came around yet again, and this time she actually went
to talk to Adam.
REPORTER: Mr. Shankel, I just wanted to let you know that I’ve
been keeping an eye on your business for a while now, and I think
you deserve the Best of the Best Award! Congratulations!
OLD ADAM: Thank you. We try to please our clientele. However,
I must confess that I am not sure why you felt you needed to follow
me into the, ah, necessary to tell me the news.
9. REPORTER: Well, it’s the only place on the lot that has any
privacy. You see, Mr. Shankel, you’re a very good-looking man…
10. OLD ADAM: Madam, I think you forget yourself! I am a married
man -- and happily so!
11. REPORTER: Oh. Sorry. I’ll, uh, just go now…
OLD ADAM: Yes, I think that would be best.
12. Using FatD’s UpShift and snapobjectstogrid false, I put the Best of
the Best Award on the front of the Bandatron, where I think it
looks very nice, don’t you?
Certainly the customers think so… although they’ve never really
needed much encouragement to buy tickets.
13. Lisa is not having a lot of luck in the reward-poaching business
just now. To be fair, it’s a lot harder when you only need one
career reward. She spends a lot of time cleaning, repairing things,
and not going to work in the jobs that I keep forgetting to have her
quit.
14. Myrna has taken up baking again. She is skilling as slowly in
Cooking as Olga skilled quickly in Mechanical. (If that sentence
made any sense…)
I find it amusing that the pie Myrna has made matches her dress.
Maybe that’s just me, though.
15. Glen has been plugging away at the robot bench for a good long
while, still without a Gold badge. He has, however, lost enough
aspiration that he wasn’t able to use the Energizer before
stargazing with the expensive telescope.
16. I don’t know why he thought I would care that he had to go potty.
17. I mean, the aliens didn’t care, so why should I?
This would be the point in the proceedings where I did some
shrieking, and some joyous swearing, and possibly also the happy
dance although I am not admitting to anything.
18. LISA: Frammit, Glen! When I said if you wanted more babies, you
could have them yourself, I didn’t think you’d take me up on it!
19. While obtaining the spawnlet might have been traumatic, Glen
couldn’t be happier about the result.
GLEN: It kicked! Lisa, girls, come feel! It kicked!
He had no morning sickness, and his motives didn’t drain as
rapidly as they do with most pregnancies. Let’s hope that keeps up,
yes?
20. I’m sure that Family Sim Glen is extra glad of a new baby now that
his girls are growing up. After some coaxing, Casilda aged up -- as
it turns out, babies really don’t want to Grow Up when they are
tired and in need of a new diaper. Even though I’d just given her a
clean diaper moments before the aging-up time!
Casilda looks an awful lot like her father, although the eye orbits
don’t seem to look quite right to me. A little too high, perhaps, or
too far back? We’ll just have to see how she comes out once she
hits Uni, really…
21. Pitti-Sing has aged up as well, and she is now following the
“kinda-sorta-Japanese” theme suggested by her name. The outfit is
a harajuku outfit from the EA store, and the hair is an anime hair,
and that’s about as Japanese as I can get right now. Old Adam’s
“Victorian” and Lisa’s “soubrette” themes were no more carefully
researched and no more carefully fleshed out.
Although technically a clone of Olga, Pitti-Sing doesn’t act like it.
If I can’t find her, she’s either tub pirating or jumping on
somebody’s bed.
22. Olga, on the other hand, is looking through the telescope or
burping into the microphone of the teleprompter.
The telescope replaced the pinball machine as her favorite activity
after Glen’s abduction. I wonder if the two things are related at all?
23. Myrna is a competent painter -- witness her completion of the latest
family portrait -- but it’s not her favorite activity. That would be
spending time with her granddaughters.
24. And if her granddaughters are not available, then it’s baking.
Because even if you skill slowly, you’ll get there eventually, and
the results of trying are half the fun.
Unless they burn, I suppose.
25. Glen and Adam are not as finicky as I am, though.
GLEN: I am excited about the baby, but… it won’t be a true
Shankel, not like the girls. It will only be my child, not Lisa’s. I’m
introducing a cuckoo into the nest.
OLD ADAM: Don’t be ridiculous! I myself would gladly have
welcomed an alien child when I was your age, and so would my
dear Myrna. But if it troubles you so, think no more of it: your
child shall marry Leila’s eldest.
GLEN: Leila’s expecting?
OLD ADAM: Not so far as I am aware. Arranging an engagement
now is simply efficient. Both your child and hers shall be born with
their futures assured.
26. LISA: Poppa, what’s this Glen’s telling me about you arranging a
marriage between his baby and Leila’s? Leila’s not even pregnant!
And if she were, she’d be fired.
OLD ADAM: I am aware. However, undoubtedly at some point in
her life, Leila will have a child, and that child can marry Glen’s
child.
LISA: But what if she doesn’t?
OLD ADAM: I have given that some thought, and I have
concluded that by the time it becomes clear that Leila will not bear
any children, Glen will likely be reconciled to the idea of his own
child as a true Shankel. Indeed, you and I and the girls must do all
in our power to bring about such an outcome.
27. LISA: Or what if she does have a child, but the gender preferences
are wrong?
OLD ADAM: They will have plenty of time to negotiate a happy
relationship based on mutual trust and regard. The person is more
important than the gender, I should think.
LISA: Poppa! You mean you’d have been happy to marry some…
some random guy if Grandma picked him out for you?!
OLD ADAM: I very much doubt that I could have been happy with
anyone other than your dearest Mama. However, if she had
happened to have been born male, then I should not have hesitated
for a moment.
28. At Adam’s sister’s house, Jo and Phoenix are still a happy couple,
although I have no photographic proof of that this rotation. The
two kids left at home are busily making friends. In Skye’s case, this
is her last rotation at home, since she will be off to Uni next time
around.
Does Penelope’s friend look familiar to anyone?
29. Skye picked up tai chi from her Far Eastern friend, and I am
deliberately spreading it to as many Sims as possible. Albert has
mastered it by now, and earns Body points from doing it, but
Buttercup and Penelope aren’t quite there yet.
30. At the Couderc house, Phoebe hasn’t yet managed to get her Gold
gardening badge (that last badge in any track takes ages!), but at
least Nicholas has Grown Up Well. He’s definitely Chant’s son,
isn’t he? Just look at those ears! Such a cutie-pie! (pinches cheeks)
31. Of course, Phoebe’s not the only sibling with a child who aged up:
Alexander Shankel also turned Toddler. Now that he’s old enough
to get his father’s eyes (via cc contacts), he has them. And I think
that flannel shirt looks just darling on him.
32. Which brings us up to date with all the happenings for this family.
Until next time, Happy Simming!
33. Notes, disclaimers, and other trivia
This chapter’s title comes from HMS Pinafore. I’ve been waiting
for an abduction forever, and just before starting to play this
rotation, I decided that if I got an abduction-with-pregnancy I
would use that song for the chapter title. Lo and behold, it
happened that same game-night! If I’d known it was that easy to
make it happen, I’d’ve decided on a chapter title years ago!
