Stage one of the final plot of the PGT is almost done! This part was played out in Desiderata Valley, and after getting just a few more pictures, I'll be ready to move back to New Riverblossom and play the rest of the time there. I'm probably also going to be writing up the next two or three updates soon. I won't be posting them until I'm all done, though.  Then I'll post everything at once, one chapter after the next.

I've really had fun with this plot, and I'm so glad I came up with it as a way to end the PGT. The end is in sight! It feels odd, but good.  I can't wait to have it finished. 

I almost wish I could tell you all what I'm doing, but I'm saving it, keeping it secret, until it's over and done with.  You'll find out eventually.  :P

After being tough and hanging in there way longer than Jim or I thought he could, McDuff finally got bad enough last night and this morning that it was clear he was suffering. Jim took him to the vet this morning and put him to sleep.

( Pictures that make my cry now )
Good-bye McDuff. I love you.

I can't tell you who she is, but isn't she adorable?



Hee.  I love secret plotlines.  :P

I haven't been playing the Sims 2 this week, but for good reason!  I was so close to finally finishing the blanket I've been making for my baby niece, Natalie, that I just did a big push of work, and finally finished it last night.  Want to see?( Pics and talk ahead )

I'm reading through the livejournal legacy that Orikes linked to earlier, reading the past generations before getting to the newer stuff.  The person writing it seems to kind of play prosperity style, or at least it reminds me of that challenge.  And I miss my prosperity neighborhood! I lost it when I had computer problems a while ago (I didn't have it backed up).  I think I may need to start a new one again.  I miss playing those Sims and that whole neighborhood.

Sometimes I wish the legacy challenge was shorter, though. Do any of you who are playing one wish that sometimes?  I love my Finches so much, but to be honest, I'm kind of not getting the same kick out of writing them as I used to.  Maybe you can tell that just by how long I took away from them this summer.  I'm pretty confident that the adoption legacy is just done, although I'm not ready to say that on boolprop yet, in case I finish the PGT and change my mind.  I'll finish the PGT, but I think I need a different neighborhood to play, just for fun.  So I think I might be creating a new prosperity neighborhood for myself, to play between PGT updates.

So I just need to answer a few questions for myself.

1. What neighborhood will I play in?  Or maybe I'll choose a custom neighborhood again?  I'm not sure.  I'm missing Belladonna Cove, so since I'm probably done with the Finches who moved there (at least as far as updating goes), I may put a clean version into the game and start there.   

And okay, that's really the only question, because I'll use random dice rolls to figure out how many families to create.

And in a totally unrelated note, can I just say that I love that this game is still entertaining me, so many years after it came out, and even after the release of Sims 3?  The Sims 2 just may have my heart forever.

I don't know if anyone on my friends list even still needs one, but just in case - I have 10 invite codes for a dreamwidth page.  If anyone is interested, leave me a comment, and I'll PM it to you on boolprop or IM it to you or e-mail it to you - whatever you prefer. :)

I finally, finally got chapter 24 finished and online. Woo!  Now I can just relax and enjoy playing my rotations until I have enough for chapter 25. :D

It's been a while since I've really gotten into the fall TV season - the writer's strike kind of reminded me that I could live without TV just fine, thank you very much, so I went off it for a while.  This season, though, for some reason I have been into it!  So into it, it's kind of nuts.  I've watched a bunch of new shows already, and I think I like all of them!  Which is good, but then again, I won't be able to keep up with that many shows, I don't think.  Some may have to go away at some point.

But so far, I watched The Good Wife last night, and liked it quite a bit.  I am loving the new Melrose Place. I watched the first episode of The Vampire Diaries online last night, and uh...I kind of liked it.  I think I may be watching it online every week. (I won't watch it on TV, though, because it's opposite Bones, and Bones comes first).  Jim and I are watching Glee every week.  We're looking forward to Ed O'Neill's new show tonight, and I want to watch Eastwick and maybe Mercy.  Oh, and Cougar Town - although, for some reason I'm not expecting much from that one.

Ahh, TV makes me happy.  I have no idea what else is coming on later this week - ooh, except I know that Medium is coming back, and I like that show.  I'm enjoying checking to see what's new every night, though. :)

So what about you guys?  Any TV addicts out there?  What are you enjoying?  What should I be watching that I might have missed? 

After much time, and many delays in writing, I am happy to finally be able to present chapter 24 of the PGT! I hope you'll enjoy.

Just a quick note to say that chapter 24 of the PGT is almost done, woo! I just need to get some pictures of Trevor, and of Trevor and Jane together, to add to it, and then it'll be ready to go.  I may not get a chance to take those pictures for a couple of days, but the update is coming, and that makes me happy.

Also, I think I tend to ignore the husbands in PGT. What the heck is my problem? I'm trying to turn that around with this generation, and having the storyline between Trevor and Remington is the perfect way to make that happen.

I'm off.  :)

Okay, let's try this again. :) I posted this earlier today, only to find out that not all of the slides had made it in, so I had to reupload. So here I am again. (Just an explanation in case you saw me show up in your friends list for two minutes, only to disappear again.)

Okay! I decided I wanted to test out this slideshare thing before I tried writing the next PGT chapter. Jake had a good number of slides that were going to focus on him, so I pulled them out of the update and created a short (very short) side story about him.

I'm hoping those of you who have uploaded chapters this way before will give me any hints or tips you have for making them as nice and as easily as possible. I created this in Power Point and saved it as a PDF, and uploaded that. I didn't really love working in Power Point, though. So, advice? If you have it, I'll take it. I specifically wondered what size to use for the original document if I decide to create it a different way. I don't want my pictures to get all distorted when people go full screen.

Please comment on the story on boolprop. I'll be posting the link there as soon as I get this post online.

Thank you for reading!

Last week when I was playing the main house through spring, I clicked on Trevor and told him to put Joseph in his crib, and noticed he didn't have the option to do anything with Danny.  I looked all over the house, searching frantically, having no idea where Danny had gone.  He wasn't anywhere in the house! But his picture was still in the icons!  Where the heck did he go?!?

( Where is Danny? )

Jane just had her baby. Her name is Genevieve, to be called Genny. :) Yay!

Thanks to an invite from Pen, I now have a dreamwidth account! I feel like one of the popular kids.  :)  There isn't anything there to see yet except for a short introductory post, but I may just use it as the new home of the PGT, so here's the link if you'd like to bookmark it for future reference.

(There just may be an update there in the next couple of weeks, if I get enough time to finish the spring rotation, organize my pictures and get writing.)

I've been playing quite in New Riverblossom quite a bit! I am almost completely through the spring rotation that I started months ago, and yesterday I made it back to the main house for the first time.  I don't know if I had written in here about Jane's twins or not, but since they were infants when I went back into the house, I'm going to assume not.  So, meet Danny and Joey!
( Twins! )

You may have noticed I'm starting to make my way back into the Sims 2 world. I'm catching up on stories, commenting - I even opened New Riverblossom and played Eugene for a little while last night!  (Eugene is Emma's brother, and the easiest house to start with in working my back into the neighborhood, since he lives alone with a roommate.)  I think I may actually be overcoming the burnout that took me out a few months ago. (I even read my last update, so I could remember where I was in the story when I stopped playing the Finches. I definitely left some story threads dangling that I need to remember to pick back up.)

But I was basically avoiding all Sims 2 stuff during the whole problem with the exchange, so I wasn't quite sure what caused all of the problems with it. I'm facing it now, though. Hurrikaty asked me for a Sim to enter into her BC, and I gladly offered her Jake - maybe Lucy can be the woman to make him settle down and stop straying to other women. But when I went in to upload him for her this morning, I got the error code - even after I downloaded the patch they put out to fix the problem.

So I'm here asking my smart Sims 2 friends if any of you can help me.  I'm actually thinking it might be a good idea to avoid the exchange, and just upload him to one of the other accounts.  Do any of you have experience doing that? Would you mind pointing me in the right direction to get me started, so I can upload Jake?

Thanks, guys!  And I really am starting to catch up on stories, so if I owe you comments, you should get them soon. It'll take me a while, though - there have been a lot of updates put out in the last three months.  :D

Oh, and to update you on McDuff (the dog in my avatar).  He's still with us. He's coughing a lot more now, because the mass is pushing on his lungs and windpipe, but he is still acting happy, he's eating like a horse, and seems to be feeling well. So for now we're still having fun just enjoying him.  Thanks for all your nice comments about him in my last post.  I'm hoping he'll stick around for at least a little while longer.

I have plans of finally catching up on all the Sims stories I'm behind on (which would be all of them). I wanted to start doing that this week. But I've been sidetracked.

Our adorable, cute, handsome little man, McDuff (as seen in my avatar) has lymphoma. We're not treating, due to his current condition and his age - we're just giving medication for the symptoms and spending as much time as we can with him before he goes too far downhill.

I find myself on the brink of tears at random moments. Thoughts of coming home to three dogs instead of four, watching the space on the floor where he would be, listening for the happy barks that won't come. He's still here, and I try to appreciate that, but my mind keeps skipping ahead to when he'll be gone. I'm starting to mourn while he's still here, breathing hard and fast from the fluid in his chest.

I relish every kiss he gives me, wish I could stop time while his head is resting on my thigh as he sleeps next to me.

Our dogs are our kids. This one started as Jim's, but he's ours now. I love his little white face. He looks like a polar bear cub, I tell Jim - all bright white fur and dark black eyes and nose. He's our fuzzy little boy. I'm going to miss him when he's gone.

And while he's still here, I'm petting as much as he'll let me, trying not to think ahead. But unable to stop myself.

Losing pets never gets easier. And yet we keep adopting new ones to fill the holes the old ones have left, only to have our hearts broken all over again.

I'll catch up on Sims stories soon. For now, it's me, Jim and McDuff.  

Saturday morning I got up and turned on my desktop, to play the Sims 3 for a while.  I was getting bored with my test family (a badly made version of me and my fiance), so I decided to try my hand at the new Create a Sim again, and this time I decided to bring a couple of my Finches into the game.  I'm so used to playing that family, it doesn't feel right to play anyone else for too long.

I went in to create Addie, and did a pretty good job of it, I think.  But I just couldn't put her in game alone - how can I play Addie without Amelia? 

( Addie and Amelia in Riverview )  

I know some of you have mixed feelings about Sims 3, but I am SUPER excited about it for some reason. I wasn't going to be able to buy it until Friday, when I get paid, which was kind of killing me, frankly. But then Jim called me this morning, and asked me if I had ordered it yet.  I told him no, and he said "maybe" we could talk about getting it for me tonight as an early birthday present.  Woo!  I am very excited right now.

I don't think this will make me stop wanting to play the Sims 2, but for a while, at least, I think I'll be solely concentrating on Sims 3.  Not that I'm playing much Sims 2 right now, anyway.  But still.  :)

I can't wait to make a Sim Me and a Sim Jim and move them into town. So excited!  Yay!

Okay, I have a stupid question that probably everyone knows the answer to but me - but then, I had never played Pleasantview before now.

The other night I went into the Caliente sisters' house for the first time.  I was having fun figuring them out.  Dina (the blonde, right?) invited Mortimer over, and I sent them to consummate their relationship.  ACR had them trying for baby, and it worked. Hee.  So now Dina is going to be able to con Morty into marrying her to give the little bastard baby a name.  It's fun.  Nina tried the same thing with Daniel Pleasant (all on her own), but she didn't get pregnant, so she'll have to try again.  You guys are right - Pleasantview is fun.

But then I was checking out their house when I first went in there to play, and saw an urn in the living room, and the name on it was Michael Bachelor.  I just happened to read online that Michael is Bella's brother.  What is the background story here?  How did he die, and why is his urn in the Caliente's living room?  Their memories didn't tell any stories, so I'm stumped here.  

I realize that I haven't really been anywhere in our Sims community recently, so I thought I better just pop to say I'm not dead - still just sort of out of the Sims.  For the first time ever, though, this time I'm not just avoiding playing the game, I'm also kind of avoiding all Sims stuff altogether.  So I'm not in livejournal much, and I'm not reading updates, and I apologize - I always loved getting comments on my stories, so I apologize for not commenting on all of the updates you guys have put out recently.

I'm still not sure what's up with this absence from all things Sims 2.  I am playing sometimes, but only in Pleasantview.  I've gone into New Riverblossom twice, and once I even managed to stay long enough to install a recent high school grad into college (he had been sitting in the Sim bin at Sim State U).  But that's all I've done there.  I guess I'm avoiding the neighborhood until I see if this is a temporary lull in my Sims 2 obsession, and if it comes back full force or not.  If it does, I'll continue with the two legacies.  If not, I don't know.  So, the town sits there, untouched.  

In the meantime, I've finished one baby blanket, that I made for my new great-nephew, Eli.  I'm working on a second one, that I'm making for my new niece, Natalie.  I'm watching TV a little, but since the season is about over for everthing I watch, when I watch anything, it's usually DVDs.  Most of all, I'm rediscovering my love of reading - I'm going through more library books than I have in years.  Seriously, I haven't read this much since I went back to college in 1996 and stopped having time for it, what with the classes, homework and working.  It's a nice change of pace, and I'm loving finding more and more books to enjoy.  Recently I've been concentrating on reading some of the Pulitzer Prize winning novels, both recent and past. I think I'd like to read all of them, actually.  In fact, if I had the money, I'd love to own first editions of all of them.  But can you imagine how much a first edition of To Kill a Mockingbird, for example, would cost?  They started awarding the Pulitzer to novels (or fiction, as they list it now) in 1918.  I would have to win the lottery, pretty much, to be able to afford first editions of that many books (even though there are years when they haven't awarded a Pulitzer in this category at all).

So.  That's what's up with me.  What about you all?  Is anyone getting the Sims 3 this week?