The Sims 2 Presents: Foster's Valley!

[Cassini90125]

The best part about Sim cars is that even the cheapest ones require no gas. It wobbles a bit but it has an alarm (cost an extra $100.00), which will come in handy on the inevitable day when the Burglar shows up.

Day Five at the Never Forgotten house, either Wednesday or Friday depending on how you look at it (the game thinks it's Wednesday), started off pretty low-key. xxxClaire took her turn at the easel:



Linestra, not hungry enough for a full breakfast, dug into a bag of chips:



Imaginary Light, not hungry at all for some reason, killed time in front of the upstairs TV:



In truth I think she wasn't hungry because she was nervous about the arrival of the Foster's Valley private school Headmaster later that day; she had more riding on getting into private school than anyone else in the house. Jekylljuice and x_dummkoff_x, on the other hand, didn't care in the slightest about private school one way or another; after waking up and refusing to make their beds yet again, they headed directly for the kitchen and began making breakfast:



x_dummkoff_x was quite hungry and opted to take a crack at making pancakes; Jekylljuice, not so hungry, opted for cereal. Yeah, they keep their cereal in the refridgerator, dunno why. My guess is to keep the milk company. Lynnie and Sparky slept in and didn't get up until everyone else had left for class. Sparky also had the day off from the hot dog place, which is why today was the best day to wine and dine the Headmaster. Might've been a great day for a trip to the park, too, but I didn't want to run her and Lynnie down; too much to do at home that day. Anyway, at 1:00 PM the school bus arrived and the gang returned home:



Two of these three do not have homework today; I'll leave it to y'all to guess which one wasn't so lucky. Normally all child and teen Sims get homework, and they hate it; the latest addition to my arsenal of game modifications changes that. The "Homework Hack" makes homework assignments dependent on grades and adds a random element to the mix, plus some Sims now think homework is fun. Stars, I wish someone had hacked my life when I was in school. Some of the returnees were hungry, as was Sparky, so she got out the greens and got to work:



Chef salad again. No chance of a fire with that. Sparky was joined at the table by Linestra, who was distracted by something else entirely:



It's always a little unnerving when they act like they know I'm there. Here it's just a random turn of the head, and in other cases it's me repositioning the camera, but with one of them in another neighborhood I'm not so sure. Long story. A little after 5:00 PM the Headmaster arrived and Lynnie went out to greet him:



And then something went wrong; specifically, it turned out that the salads, pancakes, and cereal earlier in the day had depleted the refridgerator. Definitely not a good thing. There was still some cleaning to be done, too, and of course the Headmaster must be entertained. So, what do the responsible adults do about all this? What they always do at every opportunity:



Play with the Bubble Blower.

(Continued in the next post, which I'll write in a few minutes...)

[Lynnie]

Hahaha!! Looks like fun. Especially being able to float off the ground. No wonder the Sims like it so much. Yeah, I'd be addicted to it too I bet if it were real. Who wants to clean and prepare when you can play with the bubble blower?

[Cassini90125]

Dang Sims will play with that weird thing until their stomachs are empty, their bladders are full, and they're about to pass out from exhaustion. Eh, it keeps them out of trouble, more or less.

With the adults busy getting buzzed on the bubble blower, everyone else had to take care of things themselves. The first order of business was to get the refridgerator restocked as fast as possible, so Linestra called one of the local grocery stores:



I think it was the one at the mall but I suppose it doesn't matter much. The order was placed, and several hundred dollars worth of groceries were on the way, hopefully in time to get dinner on the table before the scenario played out. In the meantime the Headmaster must be schmoozed and amused. Based on past experience, the person best suited to that particular job is the one who's personality is closest to the Headmaster's. Common interests help, too, but those are harder to guess. As for personality, that was fairly easy to figure out, and the best match went out to have a chat with him:



It worked out rather well, overall. Schmoozing nets the fewest points of any activity in the Headmaster Scenario but every point counts, and you don't want to leave anything to chance. Night fell while they were chatting and Imaginary Light went into the bubble blower room to kickstart Lynnie and Sparky. Lynnie roused herself in time to accept delivery of the groceries:



And from there she was off to the kitchen to stuff a bird and get it into the oven as fast as possible:



Hopefully the oven won't explode like it did earlier in the week. X_dummkoff_x eventually tired of dealing with the Headmaster, so Sparky took over the job of keeping him occupied:



While this was going on the rest of the residents were busy cleaning and scrubbing everything in site; the scenario includes a home inspection by the Headmaster, so everything has to be spotless. It was quite chaotic inside, with everybody getting in everybody else's way and generally being hard to keep track of, but in the end the house was spotless and got a dang good tour score. That, plus more schmooze points from Sparky's efforts and dinner conversation, had everything going very well:



79/90. Not bad at all, and there's virtually no way that Lynnie's turkey will score less than eleven points. X_dummkoff_x and Jekylljuice were not at dinner when I took this pic; the former wasn't very hungry and was more interested in the bubble blower than anything else (yeah, big surprise), while the latter was at work, pumping gas. Jekylljuice ate at work as well, and when she got home she headed straight for the easel:



xxxClaire had finished her own painting just before dinner so the easel was free to use. Dinner wound down at that point, the final score was calculated, and Sparky got the good news:



Seems that the Headmaster was impressed by the Never Forgotten household:



I have yet to meet a Headmaster that didn't love a turkey. Thus ended an exhausting day, exhausting both for the residents and a slightly frazzled Simmaster who played the scenario from start to finish without a break. As midnight approached it was time to head for bed, except for xxxClaire, who decided that she was too tired to walk that far:



Fortunately, it's a very comfortable couch. (Insert smiling Mac smilie here.)

Up next... I dunno. Probably a quick look in the Cassiman house. Then the Foster's cast visits the Forum house. Stay tuned...

[Fomalhaut]

Ah, xxxClaire sleeping on the couch is waaay too familiar... not only in The Sims 2, even in real life, just like I did today when I came back from University...
Oh, and that's right about the headmaster - turkey is the best choice, and serving also a dessert helps a lot. And walking around in formalwear

[xxxClaire]

I love the pic of me sleeping on the couch... I do that all the time.

[Lynnie]

Yay, I'm glad everything went well with the Headmaster. Oooh, turkey. Ok, I'm officially hungry now. I'm greatly looking forward to the next installments. I wonder what Mac and Bloo have been up to lately. And of course I want to see what goes down when the whole Foster's house gets together with the NF house.

I like the pic of Claire sleeping, too. I hope it's a warm day, otherwise I'm wishing she had a throw of some sort. I just slept on my couch yesterday wrapped in my afghan. Yeah, it's a relaxing thing to do when you're not actually wanting to go to bed yet.

[Cassini90125]

One thing I accidentally left out was the reason that Imaginary Light had more riding on the Headmaster Scenario than anyone else. Success meant a bonus of 3500 Aspiration points; failure would've cost her that many. She got 'em. Spend them wisely.

Originally Posted by Lynnie

I'm greatly looking forward to the next installments. I wonder what Mac and Bloo have been up to lately.

Well, I'll tell you...

Foster's Valley - More Bloo For You

Yeah, lame title. I'm tired.

Rhonda had the day off from work and decided to do a little damage control:



She's calling Madame Foster. "Hi, Martha? It's me, Rhonda. Listen, I thought I'd better let you know that I, um, well-"
Madame Foster interrupted. "Get to the point, dear. My lunch is getting cold."
Rhonda continued. "I let something slip the other day to whatshername, that Read woman. She knows we did something with Bloo-"
What Madame Foster said in response would've made Carmel Delicious proud, which is why I'm not repeating it here. "Suspended" is a title I don't want. Rhonda continued. "Hey, I didn't give her any details, okay? I was caught off guard. Look, at least I'm giving you a heads-up about it. Oh, I got a letter from the town offices today; you, me, and Mr. Herriman got stuck with Welcome Wagon duty at the Burnell place tommorrow. Bye!" Rhonda hung up; what Madame Foster said next is best left to your imaginations. Carmel Delicious would've been very proud. Mac and Bloo got home from school a few minutes later:



Mac got homework; Bloo did not. Bloo's last homework assignment was to do a book report on Charlotte's Web; he handed in a sheet of paper with the word "Lame" written on it. He seldom gets homework anymore because his teachers don't see the point. I'll give him credit for creativity, though; earlier in the week for a science report he handed in a photocopy of a recipe for borstch. No homework for Terrence, either, who went upstairs to play videogames:



He's not too bad at it, either. Victoria thought he was pretty dang good:



Victoria came with the game and followed Mac home from school this day. Seems she liked Terrence's company better. Mac also brought home a pet:



Womrats are fun. They don't do much other than eat and run around their cages but they're cute, amusing, and low maintenance. Reaction from the family to the little furball, which Mac named "Issac", was mixed. Rhonda told Mac to keep it clean, odor-free, and quiet; Bloo looked at it suspiciously and wondered it he'd have to compete with it for Mac's attention; Terrence laughed at Mac, said that womrats are lametarded, and teased him for a half an hour. While that was happening, Victoria joined Bloo at the dopwnstairs TV:



As it turned out, there wasn't anything good on other than a rerun of Space Gnome, so the two found something else to do, and I have to say I found this next scene to be absolutely enchanting:



Just a game of Mary Mack, but... I don't know. The game throws things like this at me and I get all warm and smiley. Yeah, I'm a sap. Sue me. The clock struck 6:00 PM a moment later and Victoria went home. Time for dinner; spaghetti again, a favorite at the Cassiman house. Of course, even dinner can be unpredictable when Bloo is at the table; you never know what he's going to do or say next:



"Bloo! You know better than to do that at the table!"
I leave the details to your imaginations.

More from the Cassiman residence coming up shortly...

[Lynnie]

Ah, so that's what Mac and Blooregard have been up to lately. Doesn't seem fair that Mac gets homework and Bloo doesn't, when Mac's the good one. But I guess it does kind of make sense, his teachers are wanting to nourish his mind and help him expand it, when it would be totally useless to do so with Bloo, so why waste time and energy? I like that shot of Bloo and Victoria on the floor. So they're clapping their hands together and rhyming? I hope he was nice to her. Looks like he was, though. And as for that last picture, yes I used my imagination and I'm amused that Mac appears to be amused at it and Terrence has a look of shock on his face.

Blooregard, behave!

[Fomalhaut]

That Bloo outfit is still just too weird! I prefer a human-looking Bloo, this one confuses me.

Nice work, btw! I especially like the shot of Terrence playing with the video game

[Cassini90125]

Originally Posted by Fomalhaut

That Bloo outfit is still just too weird! I prefer a human-looking Bloo, this one confuses me.

He'll grow out of it, eventually; the outfit is only available for children.

The next morning Rhonda was out of bed bright and early, and talking to herself in a mirror:



Specifically, she's practicing being charismatic and building Charisma skill. In other words, becoming a better liar, which is a very useful ability when you're assigned to the Welcome Wagon and about to get dumped in some forsaken shack in the woods for the entire day and you have to say "My, what a lovely home you have!" to the owners, who make the gang from The Dukes Of Hazzard look positively sophisticated. At least there's free food involved. The carpool arrived just after the schoolbus and off she went:



Bloo, surprisingly, is already on the bus; I think he likes having a crowd around him, sort of like an entourage. Egomaniac. Mac held the bus up for a bit, cleaning up the breakfast dishes:



As you might expect, he does this quite a lot, whereas Bloo hardly does it at all and tends to complain if I make him tidy up anything. Rhonda and Terrence are somewhere in between. Terrence held up the bus as well, getting in a last minute phone call:



He's calling one of the Bandrowsky girls. Not a group you want to get mixed up with; the one he knows, Christine, thinks of him as a hassock but tolerates him well. The other two would probably think of him as a lab rat. Christine had already left for school when he called and he was loudly informed by her mother that he ought to be heading for class as well. Not a great start to the day. Rhonda wasn't having much fun either; once she arrived at the Burnell residence, fellow Welcome Wagoner Mr. Herriman started giving her grief:



Yep, that's exactly what it looks like; he's giving her make-up tips. She wasn't too happy about that, and was even less happy when Madame Foster joined in:



I love the expression on her face, kind of a "What did I do to deserve this?" look. She and Madame Foster barely spoke to each other that afternoon; both of them know what they did, and they're worried that they're about to get caught. There's going to be repercussions if the full story gets out. There's also going to be repercussions for this:



Back from school, Terrence spent the afternoon desperately trying to amuse himself. The videogames weren't enough, and picking on Mac and Bloo is only fun until Bloo turns the tables on you, which he did; while chasing Mac, Terrence slipped on a pre-placed banana peel and landed on his backside right beneath Bloo's bedroom window, where Bloo was waiting with a garbage pail full of water that he'd bathed in earlier. Yick. Terrence, after drying himself off, opted to spend time spying on the neighbors. Unfortunately one of them spotted him and right after sunset Terrence felt the wrath of an angry blue angel:



Of course he just had to mouth off to Amanda, and things got worse:



If the game allowed it she would have pulverized him on the spot. Fortunately for Terrence, teens and adults can't fight. Hopefully she'll have calmed down before his age transition, otherwise... well, it won't be pretty. Terrence needed some comforting at that point but he was pretty much out of luck; Mac and Bloo were laughing at him and Rhonda wasn't very sympathetic, reminding him that he'd brought it on himself. So he ended up turning to the one member of the family that he hadn't managed to frack off:



Terrence: "You's my buddy, right, Issac? Yes you is, yes you is! Who's a good widdle womwat?"
Issac: "Feed me."

(Insert a couple of laughing Bloo smilies here, and one of the smiling Mac ones, too.)

More fun on the way soon.