With Justin off to college and Jason and Marissa starting to feel their age weigh on them, they moved out of their apartment which required an uncomfortable number of stairs to reach for something much more elder-appropriate. If Justin ever wants to visit he'll have his room (with a private bathroom!) upstairs, while the parents can live their lives without ever again going up a flight of stairs.

Editor's note: I hate the Cleveland's apartment and I always wanted to move them out. I'm tempted to just bulldoze that stupid lot, it's hideous.

I finished the others over the weekend. I didn't do one for all 12 majors because some majors don't have a lot of sims and also how do I make an entire (usable) building about philosophy. Also they got more detailed as I moved to majors with more related objects and decor, like sciences and art.

-Science (biology, physics)
-Mathematics
-Liberal Arts (history, psychology, philosophy)
-Drama
-Art

My most recent graduating class had 8 members, who I'm now moving back to the hood and getting them set up with jobs and decent outfits. Twins William and Josephine Carrington aged up into a lab coat, and a croptop, shorts and fishnet tights combo respectively.

Since my old Strangetown hood has kinda gone off the rails over the years, I wanted to go back to the original residents, but as a prequel of sorts this time with a small twist. Using Ezlla's Strangetown, only bigger map, I have it split between a government/research housing section and a small middle of nowhere town dubbed "Pladdervale" that is heavily based on the dark comedy horror video game "Harvester"

A.P. Vandermorgan is a weapons manufacturing mogul. The Salamis and Beaker families are immigrants that somewhat recently moved in due to their research careers. Glarn Curious's more progressive views on extraterrestrial life creates a rift between him and General Chip Grunt's family.


Glabe Curious (somewhat estranged twin sister of Glarn in this timeline) takes care of Lola and Chloe, and later the Nigmos family will end up living here.

Dina Goth gave birth to twins, Morgan and Proserpina. The children are clearly Mortimer's, both have his skintone. As such, Mortimer decided to try and patch things up with Dina after catching her with Don. After all, he hasn't got long left to live, so he wants to make sure the twins are well looked after. Since the birth, Cassandra and daughter Isabella moved in with Don so that their bedroom could be turned into a nursery for the twins. She has been rolling wants for Don (whom she is divorced from) but Don is rolling wants to play with his daughter, and to flirt with Brandi Broke, whom he met that morning.

Nina also gave birth today, to Lucina Lothario. She hasn't told Don yet, but she's hoping that Don will finally realise he loves her and wants to be a family. I'm not sure that will happen though.

Darren married Florence. She moved in, selling her flower business but opening up a small flower shop in BV with the money from selling her house.

Brandi gave birth to her fourth boy, Buddy Broke. The father is Gordon King. She's finally out of aspiration failure for the first time since I started playing her, though still isn't rolling any wants towards her sons. She invited John Burb around, things between him and Jennifer have been rocky since they moved to Pleasantview. I'm going to divorce them next rotation... which is probably for the best because Brandi autonomously kissed John, woohooed him and is now pregnant.

I resurrected Tango Caliente last rotation. The way I'm playing; he faked his own death years ago due to some drama (lots of cheating etc) but has since moved to Pleasantview to be closer to his nieces now he's getting old. I'm not really sure what to do with him, but I'm thinking of stirring up some drama somehow.

College is so crazy.

Sam Thomas invited her fiancée Loren to move into the dorm, I figured instead of playing 2 separate dorms, I'd move in Loren's 5 siblings too. Well. Throughout the 2 semesters I played, Sam made out with both Orion and Patrick Teens. I ended up sending Patrick to a Greek House just to get them away from each other. Kestrel and Swan are my favourites, they didn't exist in my megahood - I only remade Orion, as he was my favourite. Kinda worried though that 5 of 6 Tricou teens want to become criminal masterminds. Loren wants 6 grandchildren for some reason.

Similar to Sam Thomas, I made the mistake of moving Angela in with 3 male roommates. I kinda left them to their own thing while I was tidying my bedroom. Came back periodically to maxmotives, remind them to study or double check noone missed any final exams (sorry Jared Starchild). By the end of her freshman year, all 3 of Angela's roommates (including 1 that was engaged and another with a girlfriend) were in love. I swear my college sims are just bored.

The only household not focused on love and affairs is the sorority house. Heather has been trying to hide her pregnancy from her sorority sisters but.. that got kinda difficult when she gave birth to twin boys just as she was suppose to be going to her final exam. She of course failed her exam and got put on academic probation. Elijah and Mason are pretty cute though. Heather's had to move out of the sorority to raise them. She's only got her Senior year left at least. The father is Joshua Ruben. Which I had no idea about until my "choose a last name" mod told me. I was actually expecting Martin Ruben.

And a final unexpected pregnancy, which didn't happen in uni but I forgot about it until now. DENISE JACQUET(!) got pregnant with Tango Caliente's baby. I completely forgot I had a "pregnancy" mod for elders (they get the baby chime, but the pregnancy doesn't progress at all so I have to use the "Create baby with X" mod). I wasn't going to let her have the baby, but then I decided to anyway because I wanna refill the adoption pool since the Tinker's want to marry off 6 children and in my game they're infertile. So off popped Maria Jacquet into the adoption pool after a cuddle from Denise. She's only got a few days left of life so it's for the best.

The youngest Appleby kid made a muffin and I had to go to the local shop to get myself one (they are even bigger than the one the kids make, and absolutely delicious ).

Toddlers in the hood growing up fast now, and some of the kids are on the verge of becoming teens. It always makes me a bit sad when they grow up - but they are going to make a bunch of awesome teens! There is the sloppy one, just leaving the food plate on the table. The neat one, who started cleaning the bathroom with bubbles everywhere the moment she became a child. The outgoing one who already has 7 friends. The active one, who can't sit still. The fat little one who likes to eat. The one who loves her little brother and the one who does not like her little sister.

4 toddlers left for now, 23 kids in total, who have learned to talk and walk and sing nursery rhymes (no wonder I am exhausted). The next generation is alive and well .

Liana Caliente died of old age the same day her best friend Nayru's Love Ramirez, who lives on the retirement lot with his dad Link, grew up to an adult. The father and son then spent the evening having a drink or four in honour of their friend.


Egoraptor Schwissenbaum proposed to Joakim Picaso, who said yes.

He also had his aunt Sal-Lee and sister Mycaruba over after work. Egoraptor and Mycaruba didn't grow up together, so they'd just meet once in a while when their father had her over, or he visited her and brought Egoraptor with her. But now as adults they've started hanging out on their own accord and have become friends, which I really like.


Neighbours/roomies and best friends Anni-Frid Picaso and Stellan Tinker took their relationship to the next level when Anni-Frid suddenly decided to go and kiss Stellan, causing them to instantly fall in love with each other.

Fun times at La Fiesta Tech, now that ACR is reinstalled! At Middleton dorm, Oliver West and Daniel Reeves were both crushing on Fiona Britton and begging her for a First Kiss, and she kept turning them both down because she's engaged to Dax Cantrell and very much a one-man woman. Eventually she Friend-Zoned Oliver, who went off on a marathon piano-playing jag (something he often does anyway), while Daniel gave up and transferred his attentions to Mamie Garrett, and finally got his First Kiss. (Note: Oliver, Daniel and Mamie are Dormies, Fiona and Dax are Playables.)

At La Choya, Gilda Stokes Booty-called Tycho Curious, but they couldn't get any privacy, so had to settle for some fairly heavy making out.

At Oresha-Hoh-Var, Lucien Cole had rather better luck, because the frat house has a "private room" for the frat brothers' use. He called up LaQueen Holmes (she's a full adult and several years older than he is), and she came and obliged him. It was his first time, but I don't think it was hers. (LaQueen is BiCurious with a bias toward men.)

At Oasis, rather unexpectedly, Leejah Curious developed a mutual crush with dormmate Ciro Garcia, but they also have a privacy problem and it hasn't really gone anywhere - yet.

I continue to play my want-based Pleasantview, where everyone just seems to be doing random things and it just kinda is what it is.

Cassandra and her daughter Isabella moved in with Don last rotation since Dina had twins and there wasn't much room. What I expected to happen this rotation? Don to start dating Kaylynn and for Cassandra to kinda just do Cassandra things (I kinda have no ideas at the moment for her). Instead, Kaylynn was at work, Don kept rolling wants to befriend Brandi. So I invited them over and they became best friends, never an ACR moment or a want to flirt, he literally just wanted to befriend her, it was kinda cute. Malcolm IV also visited, and him and Cassandra flirted a few times and became friends. My plan is that eventually they'll date, but not yet. Malcolm is still married. Also Cassandra randomly rolled the want to get engaged to Darren. Then randomly her and Don, who have like 0 relationship and low chemistry, woohooed and now she's pregnant with their second child. So. OK then?

While playing Ashley Pitt's, the welcome wagon arrived including Jennifer Burb! They instantly woohooed. Which. I mean. I had literally just decided to keep her and John together (despite John impregnating Brandi last rotation) because both rolled wants to kiss each other after I lowered their relationship. So I dunno what's going on now lol.

In the condo next door, Nina Caliente is settling into being a Mum. Her daughter Lucina became a toddler. She's super cute. Nina rolled a want to become best friends with Joshua Ruben so I invited him over. They also woohooed and got pregnant. So. That kinda ruined my storyline for Nina being completely devoted to Don and my plan was for her to eventually move on whilst raising her daughter alone. Think Gilmore Girls Lorelai/Christopher situation. But damn girl she moved on fast

Then there's Brandi, who completely ignored her son J.D (Jack Daniel), causing him to grow up badly. The same day, her other son (with Gordon King) became a toddler and she rolled all the wants for him. Dunno what everyone has against J.D, but I noticed Beau has a -5 relationship with him too. Poor boy lol.

I got back into my Strangetown inspired by Kristen Loste Grunt, who had the best set of wants for an elder I've seen. I tried to fulfill as many of them as possible, but she passed away awfully fast, so I think she must have grown up with bad aspiration. Maybe General Buzz died just before she became an elder, I can't remember. Anyhoo, she left a lot of money to her daughter Suze and Suze's new husband Blair, who was very fond of Kristen and terribly sad to see her pass.

Suze and Blair decided to move with their son to my new shopping district to start up a business there and get the new town rolling, and since they were able to afford a house with a nice mother-in-law suite, they invited Tank and Almeric to move out there with them. (Tank and Almeric, plus all the other original teens, are now elders.) A bunch of younger Sims followed them out, including the two Grunt boys: Magnus with his wife Clara and new baby, and Turner, who is living with his best friend Jonah Loner for now and attempting to get into politics. I decided to call the new area Middletown, for the very silly reason that when I choose to go to a community lot, it's listed in the middle between Strangetown and Downtown, so I see it as being on the highway between those two places.

Loki became a mad scientist and got to Permaplat status before he finally passed away, and I think Circe will follow him quickly next round, leaving the house to their son's family. I don't see them leaving Strangetown, as Luna works at the military base and the Beakers are not a family that mixes well with others. Pascal also died of old age, so the Curious house went to Lazlo and his wife, Marion, who really couldn't afford their large Downtown house any longer. Vidcund, who is very wealthy and happy to remain Downtown, got to Permaplat status by becoming a Mad Scientist. He and his girlfriend Holly, who's in the Paranormal career, decided to run some experiments and managed to resurrect two Sims who had died a while ago: Matthew Hart, who was one of the Beakers' test subjects and died of a mysterious disease, and Klara Vonderstein, who died in a fire. Those two joined all the others moving to Middletown.

Ophelia and Johnny threw a golden anniversary party, which got Ophelia to Permaplat status. They will stay Downtown as long as Johnny is attempting to top the Show Business career. Chloe also got Permaplat status by becoming a Professional Party Guest. Buck and Jill, who stayed in the Smith house, got themselves a dog, which they are now obsessed with.

I also decided to pay homage to my previous Pleasantview-Strangetown save, which I think fell victim to the Mac file limit curse or possibly just some bad CC (I cleaned out my CC folder afterward), by moving some of my favorite Pleasantview characters into this Strangetown. (I just downloaded the Sims instead of trying to add PV as a subhood this time.) I moved Cassandra and Alexander Goth into Strangetown on the premise that they went there searching for Bella, who is still a townie in this Strangetown, after Mortimer died. I moved Dustin Broke and Lilith Pleasant as teen runaways into Downtown. And Nina Caliente also moved Downtown, where she promptly got involved with Ripp Grunt. Ripp fell for her totally, dumped his long-time girlfriend Fatima, and moved Nina into the big party house he shares with Chloe and Aldric.

More news out of La Fiesta Tech: Tycho Curious and Gilda Stokes finally got it on when he invited her over and they WooHoed in the hot tub (Lemon Plaza is the posh dorm with al sorts of conveniences). Ezilie Crawford became infatuated with August Patterson (and he old enough to be her grandfather!), but it didn't last. Amber Adamo and Beau Boyes - separately - went into the hot tub during a thunderstorm and got singed (you'd think Sims would have enough sense not to do that, but they don't). Lots of lightning rods up on the roof now, we'll see if that does any good.

Having kind of a narrative lull in my game, so I decided to throw 11 long-overdue weddings. Most of these couples have children together already and I was just waiting for a convenient moment (graduated from university/not pregnant/days off from work coincided etc.), but also trying to figure out what kind of semi-unique vibe I wanted for their wedding. It was successful- I ended up having 11 different wedding venues and 11 different bridal outfits!



Biggest wedding: Charlie Hart and Saylor Hernandez with 48 guests. Both are the youngest of large families and their siblings have a lot of children as well.

Biggest PITA wedding: Also Charlie and Saylor. I was trying to select everyone to get them into formal wear and seated, but because it was a wedding party at home, guests' work carpools kept trying to show up so I had to unselect everyone. Also instead of walking around the house to the backyard, they all decided to walk through the house and out of the back patio. It was a routing nightmare; I ended up giving up and just letting the guests do whatever.

Smallest wedding: Logan Mayer and Georgiana Carrington with 16 guests. Immediate family and plus ones only, no children. Georgiana's twin sister Katherine had just had a big wedding, so I figured she would want something completely different.

Wedding I wish I got more pics of: Lamar and Ana, who started to get pink soup during the reception so I had to send them home sooner than intended.

Wedding I'd most like to have IRL: Either Gavin and Dahlia or Logan and Georgiana, they were both small and lowkey and that seems more fun than a big church wedding or a fancy downtown hotel.

Weddings I realized midway through I'd accidentally forgotten to turn Large view distance on for pics: 3

Weddings I'd done before I realized turning showheadlines off made a huge difference for both pictures and computer performance: 4

Sims who attended the most weddings: Gavin & Dahlia, who were guests of Nathan & Paloma, Cooper & Mariana, Joey & Lola, and then finally had their own wedding.

Carpools still come for people when they aren't on their home lot?

That is a very strange thing to happen and would wreck most parties, and most dates. It is definitely not vanilla.

It happens when you make everyone selectable, IME. Because as far as the game is concerned, if they're controllable on a home lot, they're at home.

It was because I made them selectable to change into formalwear and get seated at the wedding. Not technically vanilla, but just testingcheats.

They should change into formal and seat themselves automatically when the couple go to the wedding arch.

Yes, unless you want to seat them in a specific order for pictures like I do.

Terra and Gaia Spectre grew up to toddlers. Their parents, best friends Supernova Spectre and Honeybunch Caliente, invited over a bunch of friends to celebrate, mostly friends of Honeybunch, really, as Supernova is incredibly shy. Of course, uncle Sugarpie, a family sim, quickly got to work taking care of the then babies before they aged up. Terra has eight outgoing points while Gaia has nine, other than that they have exactly the same personality.

Link Larsen passed away from old age. His son, Nayru's Love Ramirez, shared an apartment with him on the same lot as a retirement home, so Nayru's Love's best bud Tank Grunt took over the spare bedroom, which came with a painting of his former lover Bella Goth.

Fern and Garland Curious grew up to children so their family came over, and later that evening, their parents Rosalina Curious and Andreas Tinker, now Andreas Curious, got married. Andreas' sister Tyra and niece Temperance absolutely despise each other now for some reason. I suspect Tyra started it because she can be very prickly, but at this point it's mostly Temperance going after her to slap her whenever she gets the chance. Anyway, Rosalina and Andreas are both family sims and Rosalina rolled the want for another baby. It was her last chance for another biological one, as she's just a few days away from elderhood, so I gave them one try, which succeeded, so now they're expecting their third and probably final child.

Kit Neighbour also grew up to a child, so his dad, Froggy Neighbour, invited over a bunch of friends, as well as Anni-Frid Picaso who he had a want to become friends with. The father and son, plus Froggy's own dad, Batty, spent a last day in the house that was now a bit too small for the three of them, including a trip to the library which Batty owns to unload the new novels they'd gotten from Hector Nigmos who'd finally fulfilled his want of writing a bestseller. Now they've moved out, and I'm considering moving them into the house where Honeybunch & co. live. Honeybunch is bff with both Batty and Froggy, and one of Froggy's loves, Mycaruba Ulakroy, is also friends with Batty, Honeybunch and Supernova, so that should work out well.

Finally starting to go through and actually play with my prequel Strangetown hood

Erin Beaker and Vidcund Curious became close friends almost instantly


Circe Salamis and Loki Beaker naturally get along.

but we'll see what happens when they age up, although I have a feeling Erin already has her eyes set


The Vandermorgans are a welcoming household; maintaining their relations with the Grunts and even inviting a passing Jenny Curious in for dinner, because of course she'd want to stop by and check in on one of the youngsters

I'm playing a dorm made up of the Students household, the four bin students (Terrano, Biggs, Swain, and Phoenix), an aged-down Chester Gieke, and my self-Sim. There's also a bunch of dormies of no note except the two that keep getting into cafeteria brawls.

In less than 24 hours, Emily Lee and Erik Swain found the double-bed in the main hallway. (I love ACR.) They shooed everyone else into a nearby bathroom. While in there, Chester Gieke and Marla Biggs had their first kiss while my self-Sim played with an adopted kitten.