After leaving Melani a few days ago to work out what to do about Hal after discovering more about him seconds after his furniture was placed, I decided it would be a good idea to stick my head back in and see how she was coping. I'm very happy to report that it all appears to be smooth sailing at the moment. Yay.

A house of 6 is quite a handful I must say. By the time I get through queueing up all the tasks for one sim and work my way down the list, it's time to go back up to the top and start again. The good thing is that both Seth and Ricky are at school, and Hal has a job (that's at least one plus), so during the middle of the days it's just Audrey (grandma) and new addition Muhammad at home. So really, not unlike when grandma was at home with baby Ricky. Nice and easy.

For a child that could have been made to feel neglected and unwanted, the entire family have shown their just how wonderful they can be and embraced him as one of their own. The boys happily include him in any suitable games they play, and although Melani has been preoccupied, she hasn't forgotten his arrival and makes time to get to know him. Audrey, as warm and loving as any grandma could be, happy takes care of him during the day, and even spends some time sitting down and watching his favourite cartoons on TV... naaaw.

The poor bugger though, a single day after he moved in, I had the message pop up that it was his birthday and he had already aged up. Normally you get a warning message a day or two before hand so you can organise a party, but because he wasn't part of my family until the day of his birthday, Melani got no such warning. Instead, I was just presented with the following:

My heart did break a little when I saw that due to his difficult upbringing his traits could not be chosen. While Melani refuses to take any blame as it was up to Hal to do the right thing, she can't help but look at the happy childhood her own children have had so far and feel it's unfair that Muhammad didn't experience the same. In that moment, she decided that she would throw a belated birthday party for Muhammad!!

I have a funny feeling he's going to have a very good life regardless of what's happened so far. Apart from the fact he's in a loving family now, he's a really good looking kid! He's going to drive the ladies wild!!

I did notice that there was no interaction between Hal and Muhammad when he aged. I thought that was a little odd for a father and child. I checked his relationship status and noticed that Muhammad in fact dislikes Hal. How sad!! I'll have to work at fixing that I think - Melani will nag Hal until he rectifies his relationship with him lol.

I also had to laugh when I noticed that Hal doesn't like Jebidiah haha!!

He has to be feeling pretty happy that he got the girl in the end though. And he appears to be openly showing his affections towards Melani as well as both Seth and Ricky, which makes me really pleased. Especially as he's never really spent any time with his two older boys before.

The entire family decided to take a trip into town as there was a cook-off happening and it sounded like a fun family outing. I'm not too sure how they all fit into Melani's Prias, but doesn't it make for a cute family shot?

The cook-off lasted well into the night, which was no problem as it was a weekend. Melani and Hal took some time to get close and comfy while the children ran around and played. I like the image of flowers above Hal's head!

And I had to laugh when I saw the thought bubble during one of their many kisses - it appears everything tastes like chicken... lol!

Muhammad also appears to be very accepting of Melani's impending pregnancy. Yes, the toilet bowl party was pregnancy related as I expected. Upon announcing it to Hal, he was very pleased, and of course both Seth and Ricky are excited at the possibility of having a little sister... with three boys already, I think everyone is hoping for a girl this time.

Then again, take a look at Muhammad's eyes in this shot. I didn't even realise he was standing in it when I captured it...

Maybe he's not so accepting of it all? Or maybe he's just turning evil with all that's happened so far in his life. What ever it is, it's creepy as hell!

Outside of that minor issue however, I'm VERY pleased to report that it's all happy families over at the Banks residence! Melani and Hal are getting along marvelously, while Grandma is still going strong and painting up a storm. Seth, Ricky and now Muhammad all appear to be coping at school, with Seth and Ricky excelling. And at the end of the day, while Melani cooks dinner and Hal makes his way home from work, the three kids sit down together and do what all good kids should do - their homework!

Although Melani has some weird pull towards Hal, she also can't seem to get past the cheating. She wants to give him another go, but she can't get the fact he has kids with other women out of her head. I think it's the muscles personally, clearly Hal knows what the inside of the Gym looks like...

It was not long after Seth was born than she met Jebidiah, a very handsome, respected Doctor. I'd hardly call him the Sims version of McDreamy, but he's certainly on the green side of the fugly meter. Now, Melani's been trying for months to win over Jebidiah's affections, with little result. Sure, he'll give her a bit of a pash, but as soon as she asks for anything more, the poor little Dr is "having a bad day"...

I'm sorry, but what man out there is having "too had a day" for a bit of woo hooing? Coz I don't know any myself...

Melani has the wish to woo hoo with him almost daily. It's driving me nuts. I understand a Dr's life can be stressful and full on, but even on his off days he's always in too bad a mood for it. If it wasn't for the fact he's right in there for a good game of tonsil hockey I'd put him in the gay category and move on. Regardless of his gender preference though, I've had enough of a man that doesn't know the word yes when it comes to the bedroom. I'm moving on and I'm dragging Melani kicking and screaming with me.

Of course, she's not coming quietly it seems. She brought Jebidiah home with her after work the other night. Or, looking at the photo below, did he just invite himself to be around another member of the household?

Now I know why he's not giving it up for Melani. She's too young!! *shudder*

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...

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...

Maybe I'm just a very understanding personal-space orientated person, but if I was to see someone serenading another, I would keep my distance. Sure, I'd probably have a little watch, I am human after all. But I'd watch from a distance, I wouldn't be trying to smell their breath.

Sims on the other hand, not so much. They want to make sure you're serenading properly and without the smell of your lunch on your words. Max was trying to woo Ayesha, who by the way REALLY needs to hitch up her pants, and in comes some granny...

Ok so fine, he is in central park, but that's where Ayesha happened to be and it kinda ruins the spontaneity of it all if you have to call up and ask "would you mind coming over so I can try to use my sexy sexy voice and woo you with you guitar leetness?"

And yes, it is a granny that intruded, and I understand that not all of the elderly have held onto all their marbles. Even in The Sims they must drop a few here or there - hell even more so in game because of the insane and inappropriate traits.

But sadly, it wasn't just the old bag who thought it was ok to get in nice and close. Others joined.

I mean really people, c'mon now! Give the guy some space to try and get into Ayesha's pants. Then again, they are already pulled almost half way down so maybe they don't think he needs that much effort... lol!

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...?

At first I was hesitant at having Grandpa sim around after Adrian's departure. Of course, I was happy to still have my live in babysitter, but the two aren't exactly the best of friends. Then again, death can change people, and it appears to be changing Grandpa.

Those are his current wishes. They all popped up around the same time (as he got out of bed), so I decided to take him up on his offer to help clean and dropped "be mean to Emily"and "yell at Emily". What a change huh?

And while I was replacing his wishes, he went and did this!

That's a plate of pancakes he cooked for breakfast. Not just pancakes for himself, but for Emily as well. Maybe he's decided to be nice after she lost her husband? Or maybe he just realised he's living arrangement may not be as safe with Adrian gone and he doesn't want to find out if the rumours about the food at the Aged Care home are true...

After playing the nutso Waters family, I realised one thing... well, a few things, but one thing in particular - having an Elder around comes in very handy! With Melani being a single mum, and no plans for changing that any time soon, it can be hard work with two kids - especially a baby and a toddler. And let's face it, the babysitters may be slightly better than TS2 nannies, but not by any long shot.

So, I decided that Melani's grandma would come and move in. I can have a live in babysitter for one, someone to help with the housework for another, and, since she is creative, I plan on raising her painting to help contribute to the family funds.

Which by the way, reminds me - how annoying is that Elders can have absolutely NO skills?! How in the hell did they survive this long with no skills? I seriously think we should get a certain amount of skill points depending on the age of the Sim we make. Say, 5 points for every age bracket? Ignoring toddlers, that gives us teens, young and normal adult and then elder. So I should have 20 skill points to spend. That's not hugely unlikely given the life span of our Sims.

Things like that make me wonder did EA just choose not to do it? Or did they not think of it? So many obvious stuff to me is not in game it's frustrating.

Anyway, back to Melani. Her grandma (Audrey) has come to stay. And with her, brought some extra $$$$ into the house - yipee!! First thing I had to do was tack on a room for her, nothing special:

Of course, the majority of the money went into the new kitchen. I didn't actually plan it that way, initially only going to replace the fridge, it kinda grew from there. I do like it though...


Of course, by the time I was finished the remodelling, it was time for bed. So I'll have to wait until tonight to see how grandma works out...

The elderly are so impractical. For some reason, Grandpa is the only one who wishes to exercise, and he does so constantly, but check out his attire. Jeans, shirt and leather jacket. Right...

So, I'm curious if I am alone in my feelings of Elders. Max throws a lot of parties. When ever I am looking over the guest list, I don't invite Elders. Ever. Even if yesterday, they were Max's best friend, once they become an Elder, I see them as boring and not who you invite to a bitchin party.

Am i alone in this? Does any one else view Elders as, well, elderly?