Very rarely do I loiter around the local graveyard, I just don't possess the Buffy ninja skills to fight anyone off. But recently, while trying to locate the Mysterious Mr. Gnome, I have been scanning past at night time to queue up the request to explore the catacombs for Thomas. I had forgotten that the Ghosts come out to play at night, and zoomed in a little closer when I noticed one wandering around.

This wasn't just any ghost however...

Yup, that right there is the ghost of Adrian Waters! I got really excited when I saw who it was haha. I had intended for Emily to try to find him back when he died, but then I got distracted with her emotional melt-down and all the drama that followed. And then I just plain forgot. I considered waking Emily up and bring her down there now, but who wants to be dragged out of bed in the middle of the night to be reminded of who isn't in your life anymore? No no, I let her sleep lol.

I was glad I did too! I didn't realise what ghosts get up to!! Oh my goodness! Not long after I found Adrian, he had the bed icon appear above his head - I didn't realise ghosts needed sleep lol.

As he started walking off I was going to leave, I assumed he was just going back to his grave to get some shut eye. I'm glad my curiosity to see him jump back into his grave made me hang around a bit longer and watch him, for my assumption of asleep was wrong! Oh he jumped into a grave alright, but it wasn't his!

At first I thought that perhaps it didn't matter what grave they jumped into, that the game might not make them jump into their actual grave. But that didn't really sit right with me. And the fact that the headstone was jumping around also had me confused. I REALLY wish I had of hit record, but I was too stunned when I realised what was going on. The headstone... was jumping... liiiiike the pillows in a bed being woo hoo'd in does...

Yeeees, now you're with me. Mr Adrian Waters was having a ghostly good time with Kiko Kimora there. Apart from the fact she sounds like a girl ready for a good time, this cracked me right up. I didn't even think ghosts could woo hoo haha!! I guess Adrian can't be too upset that Emily is off doing the hanky panky with other sims then LOL!

After a few seconds (yes sorry Adrian, you really weren't in there that long), he popped back up and started having a conversation with another fellow. I did take note of his name when I saw it him, but didn't think to write it down.

Previously, Max ran into a little girl who dripped water when she walked. Ghost sims reflect how they have died, and dripping water would be drowning. I noticed Adrian had periodic sparks flow through his body (electricity) and this guy, who glowed red, has obviously died in a fire of some sort.

I watched Adrian and this guy chat away for a good 10 minutes which was amusing. I shouldn't have been surprised given what I had just witnessed not a few minutes earlier, but I found it kinda cool that ghosts can appear to raise their reputation with other ghosts.

After their conversation ended, the fire man wandered off. I found it cool that perhaps Adrian could find the friends in death he never could in real life. Then again, maybe not...

I realise that the smell of burnt skin and hair probably isn't that tolerable for too long, but do you even have the use of your lungs to breath, let alone nostrils to smell when your dead? Then again, maybe the other guy farted? That'd be really bad if your ass is constantly on fire still...

Adrian just stood there for a while before wandering off with the following sim in his thoughts...

I can't quite make out if he's thinking about himself or not, it doesn't exactly look like Adrian. Who ever it is though, they look bloody scary!! And evil... which is why I wondered if he was thinking of himself.

As the night was ending and I noticed it was getting lighter, I watched Adrian walk over to the concrete bench in front of the catacomb entrance to lie down and fall asleep. No idea why he didn't go back to his grave, I'm sure his casket would be more comfy. You can also see his electricity sparks here which is cool. Took me ages to get that image as it happens really quickly - just like his passing lol.

I noticed by this time that Thomas was already out of bed and on his bike on the way to the graveyard. I got really excited at the thought that he might see Adrian given where he was lying! Unfortunately, it was not to happen as moments before Thomas arrived, Adrian... well... poofed!

Another day perhaps. Then again, I'd hate to have Thomas see his dad doing the horizontal tango with another ghost. That'd really mess you up!

Chatting to Umi and Alter the other day, I learnt that there is a Mysterious Mr. Gnome in game - and he moves around! Umi, or Alter (I wasn't sure who I was talking to) have two of these little guys and shared an image of them frolicking in the garden. After seeing that image, I just had to get me one of these guys.

I did some investigating and discovered that the Mysterious Mr.Gnome is nameable which is kinda cool. He is dressed in a very trendy orange hat that has a yellow star shaped flower on it with a brown center. He also sports a long gray beard, blue button down shirt, red pants and shoes of an odd brown-tan colour. Clearly a trend setter this guy.

The Mysterious Mr.Gnome is kickable (lol!), like any good gnome should be. But unlike the regular garden gnome you can purchase, he cannot be cloned with the eyedropper tool. He also has the habit of sneaking around your house. How cool! Unnerving, but then aren't all garden gnomes?

Apparnetly you will never see the gnome sneaking around, instead, he just pops up in all sorts of places that you never put him in. If kicked, he falls in odd positions that you would never expect from a gnome and sometimes ends up with a plaster across the bridge of his nose (har har). When picked up, he is known to float on air, do hand stands and assume other theatrical positions.

With all the luck the Waters family have had repairing broken electrical items themselves, I had an uneasy panic set in when I realised they didn't have enough money to call the repairman to fix the broken computer. The computer is the lifeblood of the house - Emily uses it to write her books, Thomas hacks other people's computers and Susie recently discovered the joys of trolling forums. I couldn't leave it broken.

I weighed up the household members to see who I would be willing to risk the most. All three of them had the exact same skill level when it comes to repairs - zero, so there was no weight with that. It basically came down to who I was willing to lose if the unthinkable occurred.

Emily was too large a risk. I had no idea if the kids would be able to continue without both parents given the eldest is only a teen and I don't believe you can begin a family with anything younger than a young adult. If Emily did follow in her husbands footsteps, the kids would most likely be shipped off to an orphanage. That could potentially end the Waters family as we know it and leave me unable to continue playing them. Too big a risk.

I considered making Thomas do it as he's the one that got it broken in the first place (due to his hacking), but he's also the only family member to not have had anything really major happen to him. I realise that loosing both your father and grandfather is traumatic, but he's not lost his life partner, and hasn't age-leaped ahead 10 or so years.

Which brings me to Susie, the other option. There wasn't really a lot going for her in the 'save' column which must have made her nervous. Then again, the poor girl's been through enough already, did we really want to inflict more pain and suffering on top of that?

My husband solved my dilemma pretty quickly, "Susie's already f#@ked as it is, use her." LOL! Thanks hunny. The poor girls lost her father, her grandfather, competely missed her childhood and because the only older-younger sister I know of. Yeah, the poor girl was pretty screwed up lol

So I chose Susie. I watched and waiting with baited breath to see if this would be the 3rd family member to die by electrocution while repairing a household item. You know they say everything happens in 3's right? Well...

Death is in the air around Max's town and sims are dropping like flies! I mentioned recently that my town sims are aging way too fast - faster than Max is that's for sure. Still in the prime of his life as a young sim (although teetering on the brink of having to grow up into a adult), his recent encounters with Blair seem to have been too little too late. Blair is now an elder! :( I got quite annoyed at this as Melani, who I'm trying to move away from, appears to be aging at the same rate as Max, yet everyone else is not. I need to track her down when she's around Eric (her husband remember...) and see if he's the same age as her, or if he's an Elder too.

This really is quite annoying that everyone is aging so quick. Not only does it make relationships outside Max's household nearly impossible for any length of time, I'm continuously coming into contact with sims I've never even heard of before. I feel like every adventure into town is like his first. So many new faces...

Of course, in with the new can only mean one thing - out with the old. I'm not seeing any new houses popping up, and the younger sims need somewhere to live. Tonight, in the space of about 3 hours playing time, I witnessed two sims passing. Ironic since I got given this opportunity not five minutes into playing...

At first I thought I would take a trip up to the graveyard and borrow Ayesha. However now I'm thinking I'll just wait around a bit and pick up the remains of the next one to drop...

I managed to capture videos of the two sims that passed tonight, and I'm glad I did as I found the first one quite amusing. I've never seen a ghost beg for his life before hehe. That amusement was quickly replaced by surprise as a picnic rug was placed before the poor guys remains had settled lol!

I kinda hit the video key automatically as soon as I saw the poor guy sparkling. I knew something interesting was about to happen and, sadistically, assumed it was death lol. That same reaction came in very handy when townie number 2 passed away as it allowed me to discover and record that the Grim Reaper is apparently, not a fan. I'm surprised he's not into the rock n roll. I thought he would have been right into the hard rock, head banging, heavy metal scene. Perhaps he likes the calming sounds of classical instead? Who knows...

Tonight was also the first time I got to interact with the Grim Reaper which was cool. Poor Emily tried when Adrian died, hoping she could bargain (or beg) to have him brought back to life, but no such luck. Funny enough, she didn't try too hard when Grandpa sim died LOL. I tried with Max when the guy in the park died and got nothing, but this time I got one option - scare. How ironic that you can scare death.

Did I? Well you have to watch and see...

I LOVED the two thumbs down the Grim Reaper gives Max when he sees him lol (right before the scare), I thought that was hilarious. It also helped me justify scaring him haha. I got the option to scare twice (which you can see I did), and then I wasn't able to interact with him anymore. Interesting that I got those interaction options and then nothing. The chatting between the two was not controlled by me, I was simply a spectator. I had to laugh at the uncomfortable silence after haha, that was awesome!

So there you have it, the Grim Reaper doesn't think much of Max. That does not bode well for when it's his time to cross over...

The other night when Max visited the graveyard to pay his respects to Ayesha, I couldn't find her grave. This was the first time I've ever had a town sim die that I cared about enough to visit, so I wasn't real sure on how it all worked. Last night though - I found her grave!

Apparently it's up to me to maintain the graveyard, there are no groundskeeper Willies in The Sims. Which means if you've have any sims die in your neighbourhood, then it's up to YOU to plant the headstones and manage your town graveyard. I kinda stumbled upon this by accident.

See, Max had a wish to visit the graveyard, which, being the loving caring person I am, happily fulfilled - during the day time this time lol. I did a quick visual sweep of the lots and once again, couldn't find Ayesha. I figured there must be a way to locate her, so clicked on the catacomb in the middle. Doing so gave me the an option to Manage the Dead. I had no idea what this might mean so clicked it.

Max disappeared inside and I swallowed a little lump in my throat. I'm not really ready to lose him to some life altering scare, so wasn't sure what to expect. Thankfully nothing that drastic happened - after a few seconds this is what popped open.

That's the headstones of every town sim that's died so far. Apparently the loving family members simply drop the deceased off at the front gates like the kids did in Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead. It's up to us to put them in a good spot. Nice.

It gets better though - it's apparently also up to me to engrave everyone's headstones. Even the sims who were already dead and buried before I came to town! What sort of uncaring, heartless people bury their dead without so much as a "you will be missed..." ?

Then again, maybe not are all so loved? I left all headstones as the default message that popped up - this was one of them.

I chose a very nice spot for Ayesha to be placed, and engraved her stone with something a little more personal to Max. I then stepped away from the monitor for a moment so Max could say his goodbye's and have one last good cry without feeling emasculated in front of me. I did quickly sneak a couple of shots though as my hubby has commented on how detailed their facial expressions can be so wanted to show these beauties.

Poor guy, he's really greaving over Ayesha. Or maybe he's just upset he never managed to lure her into bed before she passed LOL. Oooh, I'm bad. Ok, leaving the poor sooky man alone for now...

I'm not sure if it's a current bug or an intentional mismatch on EA's behalf, but the sims you're playing, and the town folk you're not, age at different rates. While I have Max's lifespan set to epic, the other sims in town still run on normal time. Which means they're becoming elders while Max is still a young adult. Or worse, as I am currently experiencing, they're all dying!!

My last post was about Max trying to serenade Ayesha right? A nice young Ayesha - clearly young by the 'hipster' jeans she's wearing. Granted these images were taken a little while ago for me (I found them while clearing out Max's folder of images on my laptop), but we're not talking months here. If I can still remember what I was doing, then it's recent enough. Unfortunately... they were long enough for Ayesha to no longer be a possible pursuit for Max.

I was shocked when I saw this as I didn't even realise she was an elder! I hadn't seen her around for a while, but it quickly occurred to me that if she'd aged into her white haired, grandma clothes of retirement, I probably just didn't recognise her. I mean after all, this is Michelle Roberts now, another one of Max's romantic interests:

Michelle walked out of the theatre while Max was inside and my eyes just about bugged out of my head. I blogged just this past Sunday about Max's new lady friend, and in there managed to capture a shot of Michelle. That was only two days ago! And now she's an elder?

*Sudden thought* I better go check on the Melani in this town, she's probably sporting the fashionable white hair as well now...

What made Ayesha's death more confusing however, is this moodlet that Max received as soon as Ayesha died.

That moodlet clearly states "From Witnessing Death". Um... Max was in the middle of a concert at the time. OMG what if his rock n roll moves and deafening guitar solo's caused poor Ayesha's ticker to give out?! What if... Max killed her?! I mean obviously he didn't whack her over the head with his guitar, but still, if he wasn't having a concert she might have seen another day or two...

Poor Max has been so traumatised by this death he keeps bursting into tears every three feet. I think a lot of it might be guilt that he had not actually caught up with Ayesha for a while now. He's been throwing a lot of parties recently what with all his free time, but he's been purposely not inviting Ayesha as there's been... other female interests there and he was avoiding confrontation. And now, it's too late.

Max felt it best to at least go and pay his respects after the concert was over. Even thought it was 11pm at night, he would brave the trauma of the graveyard to do the right thing. I was secretly hoping he might run into her ghost there and be able to see her one last time. Unfortunately, not only was Ayesha not there, I couldn't locate her gravestone either. I remembered when poor Emily Waters lost half her family that it took her a couple of days to get down and plant the headstone, so I assume Ayesha's family (if she has any) might not be down there burying her the same night she died.

I really wish the game would take more initiative for me and invite Max to the funeral... I'd really like him to go and pay his respects to any remaining relatives. Sadly, I can't see that happening. I am a little upset I didn't get to see her die (that sounds WAY worse than how I mean it to sound). Previously when a Sim has passed in close proximity to Max, my screen has moved to where it's happening and I've watched. I thought given it was a romantic interest I might of got shown at least. I could have grieved a little myself lol.

Although we didn't see Ayesha at the Graveyard, we did meet this lovely little girl.

It made me a little sad to see a child ghost. I guess even sims can die of all ages. What was really interesting though was watching her walk around and the droplets of water coming off her. I guess that means she drowned? How sad...

The one good thing that came out of it was the happy smiley face beside Max's face in her thought bubble. Maybe the dead still get a kick out of meeting a celebrity...?

Max and her chatted for bit - mostly Max telling funny stories. I wonder if he felt similar to me at seeing the ghost of a child and wanted to cheer her up a bit?

The only other interesting thing we saw up there was the four headstones of the Landgrab family. I've not had any interactions with them on Max, so haven't been paying attention to what they are doing either. From the looks of it though, they've been dying...

I didn't get a chance to play last night as I had some work I needed to do, and while I normally let one of my families run on their own for a bit, I really wanted distraction free time. It was a good move as I got what I wanted done, which means I will be able to play tonight without the guilts! Yipee!

I figured, I might use this down time to make sure no one's missed any blog posts over the past few days. There sure has been a lot of them!! Two days I did 5 blog posts per day!! That's how much has been happening in my Sims lives recently. And oddly enough, all in the Waters household, which I find very ironic given they were a family I had no intention of actually "playing" as such.

It's also a little annoying as they were the family I was going to let run free and decide their own lives. To help with the "they are their own Sims" mentality, I also decided not to have any say in what they looked like, or how they dressed. (Which explains why Adrian used to wear a Tuxedo to bed...) I wanted them to really be their own selves, and as such, went with the default settings for everything. So now, my most interesting family is also the one that I can't stand looking at LOL!

I have a thought about that though. Since the family has moved away from autonomous play slightly, and become a family I am now controlling to a certain degree, coupled with all the recent tragedies, I'm thinking I can tweak looks a bit and incorporate it into the story line.

I'm of two minds. I could...

1. Take the recent events and have them make Emily stronger. Sort of like the "I am a survivor" kinda attitude and as a result, have Emily stand up, take control of her life and get it all fixed. Which could also include some plastic surgery (my excuse to change facial features) and get a new wardrobe. I mean really, she's not the prettiest Sim in town.
   
   or
   
   
2. I could leave her as is, deal with the fact not all Sims are born beautiful and continue playing the family as I have been. That is, letting Emily continue choosing her own life pattern and following what ever path she chooses. Even if that path leads right into the gutter.

• Bye Bye Adrian...
• Adrian's Funeral...
• Adrian's Burial Plot
• Thomas has a birthday...
• Bye Bye Grandpa...
• Susie Waters has her Birthday...
• Grandpa Waters gets buried...

It is with great shock that I have to announce, Grandpa Sim is... dead. In the space of 24 hours for me, and less than a week for the Waters family, we have lost two members. Ironically, both the INSANE members of the house hold, so what does that tell you? It doesn't pay to talk to yourself too much...

Wanting to help out Emily as much as he could since the loss of Adrian, Grandpa Sim jumped in to fix the dishwasher that had just broken. As mentioned earlier, Grandpa has been wanting to help a lot since Adrian's passing, constantly wanting to clean up around the house. And of course, he was always wanting to fix the TV when that broke, so I felt it was the best thing to let him have a go at the dishwasher. I felt like he needed to do this.

Perhaps I should have paid closer attention to that gut feeling however. While off putting Susie back into her crib for the night, I heard a very loud crackle come through my headphones. I immediately slammed down on the pause key, the thought of "OMG I know that sound!!!" came rushing into my head the same time my stomach flip flopped. Right clicking on Grandpa Sim's icon, my eyes nearly popped out of my head when I saw this:

Oh... my... gawd!! This can't be happening!! Not again?! What sort of electrical wiring does this house HAVE?! As I took off the pause, I immediately started recording. Adrian had been taken so quickly, and Grandpa was an older Sim, but Melani back in Sunset Valley had poked her laptop three times and lived to tell the tale. Unfortunately, Grandpa would follow in the footsteps of his son...

Did you notice the same things in that video as me? There's the OBVIOUS cackle that came from Tom Shallow, a guest of Emily's. Emily met him at Adrian's funeral of all places, and immediately after had a wish pop up to chat to him. Because she was a bit low on the fun meter after spending all day working on her novel (she so needs the money), I thought I would invite him over so she could have some fun. I had planned to see what would happen between the two of them, but after that evil display of hysteria at Grandpa's death... I'm not so sure.

Then again, if you watch closely right after Emily comes into the kitchen, you will notice she too laughs!! She has a the icon of the broken dishwasher above her head, so I can't tell if she's just happy she'll get to wash all the dishes by hand from now one (she is a neat freak), or if her plans to let Grandpa Sim fix the broken dishwasher turned out. Like, mwahaha it worked! The dishwasher got him!

It soon hits her however that she's just lost her live in babysitter and the tears begin. What WILL she do now?! Nothing like a good nights sleep to make you feel better though, so she puts Thomas back into his crib and falls crawls into bed herself.

Tom Shallow decides it might be a good idea to stick around. For what I'm not sure. Either to make sure poor Emily is ok being somewhat alone in a house that three adults resided in not this time last week. Or perhaps he's more evil than I give him credit for and he's seeing an easy, pre-made family ready for the picking...?

I'm very thankful to say that I've never had to experience the pain that comes from finding photographs of loved ones passed. Tonight however, I was going through the screenshots of the Waters family sorting them into "already posted" blog shots, and general interest photos. And in the pile, I found this...

That was taken just a few nights ago when Emily was trying to test the waters with Adrian's feelings. They had both been relaxing on the bed earlier, so when Adrian got up to go to the bathroom, I tested the waters by inviting him back to cuddle. As you can see from the shot, it was not happening.

Still, it was just a little bit wierd seeing that shot tonight. I had a momentary "Adrian's really gone..." feeling before I mentally slapped myself and remember it's just a game LOL.

After the Funeral, Emily decided to collect Adrian's ashes and place him in the town graveyard. She loved him dearly, but she didn't want his ghost loitering around the house scaring the children. Before she took his ashes down, she was given the option to engrave the headstone.

I ummed and aahed over this for a moment or two because I wasn't sure I was happy with the default text displayed above. I was torn between wanting to show a little of Emily's distress at the sudden marriage end, and wanting to do the "right" thing. Because Emily always does the right thing (too good for her own boots that one), and thinking of the children viewing it later on in life, she decided to leave the default message as is.

Because she is currently not thinking straight (the sudden job quitting helps back that up), she decided to go and pick a burial plot that night... ie in the dark, when ghosts come out. Perhaps she wanted the chance to see Adrian one last time? Who knows...

I chose a nice shady spot under a big tree as Adrian did love his garden. I figured he'd be happy being close to nature. Emily also seemed happy after she had buried him, walking away with a smiley face next to a thought of Adrian. Maybe he was in a better place now?

I found out tonight, that after someone has died, you get another option show when you wish to throw a party....

It makes sense, I just didn't think of it myself. I was actually wanting to throw a party for Thomas' birthday as it was today. Poor little mite, not his fault his father passed away the day before. Which of course, poor Adrian for not being able to see his babies age up into toddler hood and dying less than 24 hours earlier.

So Emily threw a funeral. It really didn't go as I expected either. Adrian didn't have a lot of friends, so she just invited everyone she knew, which wasn't a lot. Apparently Adrian really wasn't friendly with many of them as no one hugged or consoled Emily - I know this because I was following her around trying to capture a picture of it to include in the post. Nothing. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Not even a "you'll be ok dear" mandatory pat on the shoulders.

Emily actually spent most of her time standing outside looking in the windows. I kinda felt sorry for her because it's not her fault she had no friends. Of course, the people that were there were a bit nuts themselves because they all had the thought bubble of balloons over their head.

Now, I've not been to many funerals myself, but remembering back on the ones I have been to, I don't ever remember having to fight my way through masses of BALLOONS!! Crying people, wads of tissues but no, no balloons. That just brings a whole new meaning to 'celebrating their life' doesn't it?

Even sans the balloons, the party just scraped through as acceptable. Because that's your biggest concern when mourning the loss of a loved one right? That everyone has a good time.

Apparently it's all just too much for Emily to take. The marriage ending, Adrian's death, being stuck with an insane Elder who she doesn't even like and being left as a single mother to raise two young children. Without a single prompt from me, Emily quit her job!! I didn't even know Sims could make such big changes without our influence. All I noticed was the mobile phone icon and I wondered who she was calling. When I moused over it, I saw...

Given it was her wish, I clicked ok. Who am I to stand in the way of a life falling apart?

So now, Emily is not only without husband, she is also without job. Hopefully these two factors won't also make her without children!! There is now no income coming in for the house bar the few fruits and vegetables Grandpa will harvest and sell. Emily did take a writing class a week ago (she was looking for a hobby to replace the together time with Adrian) and had made a start on a fiction novel a few days ago, so perhaps she can take all these life experiences and write a best seller...?