Here's something I didn't actually know... you can chat to sims, and invite them over from your friends panel! I've always used the phone, then called sim, invite over and then selected them from the list. Not sure if this way is much quicker, but it was still a cool find!

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!

Melani, needing to clear her head last night, decided to take a bit of a job around town. It drives me nuts that not only does a sim's body bounce back to perfect as they exit the hospital after giving birth, but the fact that unless they eat copious amounts of ice cream, they stay pretty perfect. If they are going to have perfect bodies, I'm going to make it believable and punish them with hour long runs around town!

Of course, in doing that, you get to see more of the town. Have you ever found little things that kind of made you go "wow" or, "hey look at that"? I did!!

The first was a bit of a wow moment. After all I can be riding my pushbike, have a car pass through me and come out with out a single scratch. Yet, it seems not all sims are model drivers...

Thought that was kinda cool that not only has a sim driven off the road, but that the car has just been left there. I mean, have you seen so much as a dropped candy wrapper on the streets of town? And all the random picnics that pop up and not one scrap of food or wrappers is left behind? I guess cars a bit hard to poof and disappear...

On the "hey look at that factor", I actually did a double take after running past the following statue...

Pretty cool huh?

Just some sights I thought I'd share...

That's the claim Whitetigerz is making over on the official sims 3 forums. And I have to say, I doubt anyone's going to be able to beat it!

• Perfect of every fruit/veggie/special thing you can grow besides Omni plant stuff
• Perfect Mounted Robot fish and Shark
• A small meteorite
• All 10 beetles from roach to rainbow beetle
• Perfect Shark and Lobster in bowl
• Crystal and Oval cut of every gem but pink diamond
• Perfect Mounted Vampire, Swordfish, and Death fish
• 10 iron/gold/silver
• large meteorite, 3 palladium/plutonium
• Every gem cut for plummbob and brilliant cut gems except pink diamond
• All 10 butterfly's
• and the list goes on and on...

Emily's mood has been surprisingly uplifting the past few days and as a result, she's quickly rising through the ranks at the local grocery store. She earned herself a promotion last night to one of the more interesting jobs I've seen so far...

Now, I don't know how supermarkets work around the the rest of the world, but here where I live we don't have any DJ's. I've had to navigate around some really poorly thought out display stands, but no record booths...

I think my regret for not choosing the evil trait for Thomas might be justified. Although, I would never have known this without picking the Computer Whiz trait in the first place, so perhaps fate was helping out there? What I can see is the beginnings of a very interesting story Thomas is going to tell...

Rising at 4am in the morning, Thomas was the only sim awake. After polishing off some left over pancakes, he decided to jump onto the computer while it was free. Emily has been making use of it at night times in an attempt to finish her first book and get started on the next. The house hold finances are very tight (hello lack of enough beds) and she's desperately trying to hold on. It's the driving force she's been needing to move on from memories of the past.

When Thomas jumped on however, I discovered an interesting new option:

Hack? Hrm... Of course I have to click that!!

The computer screens that followed had me zooming in very quickly! The green command like box image was kinda cool, but when I noticed the image behind it, looking very government like, I kinda got a little nervous. I had these images flashing in my head of the house being bombarded with FBI like sims and little Thomas being halled away while Emily was woken from her sleep with no clue as to what was happening.

Thankfully nothing that drastic occurred, although time will tell if my images were more predictions than fears! I have to give it to the kid though - hacked in on his first attempt!!

The coolest thing (not that crime is ever cool kids!!) is that you can apparently make money as a hacker. I got a message pop up that Thomas had added $10 to the family funds. This made little dollar signs flash up in my own eyes lol, finally a second source of income. No matter how small, this was going to help out!

I can't decide if I will let Emily know of his little trick and have her play co-conspirator to his evil little ways, or if he will hide it and keep it a secret for now. I see the hiding and secret keeping as more of a teenager thing, and he's discovered this ability as a child, children can be more honest.

One thing I do know is that I will definitely have to give Thomas the evil trait next birthday. Perhaps it could be a male gene thing...?

Look at that - hacking completed all before the school bus has arrived!

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 had Max online today while I was trying (desperately) to get my daughter to take her nap. For the record she didn't and it's been a VERY long day LOL. Thankfully I had a very interesting glitch to cheer me up and make me giggle.

Check this out...

Freaky hey? That's actually two sims merged. It was at the picnic tables behind the diner there, and when I sent Max over to grab a plate as he was hungry, the guy already sitting scooched over to make room. And that was the result.

Once Max got around there the guy scooched back. And it's no wonder, check out this death glare!! OMG!

Yeah, that'd make me haul ass too. Speaking of ass...

ooooh yeah! Apparently it was worth the potential life loss to scooch back over to get a better look. Maybe Max has an admirer of a different kind...?

I've heard a few times of other players buying parts of business in town but had yet to see the option or do it myself. In fact, I didn't even know how to do it until the other night. Of course, it's as easy as selecting the option on the menu choices when it appears. I'm not sure if it appears after you reach level 10 in your career path, or perhaps how many times you visited that particular place because the first (and currently only) business that offered me part shares was the local diner - a place Max eats at every day.

I had no plans to buy into any of the businesses for Max. But when the opportunity was placed in front of him, I decided why not. After all, how many real life celebrities are involved in those Hard Rock Cafes? And ironically, this is a cafe. Also, as mentioned, Max has eaten there nearly every day of his life so far - it's only now that he's starting to eat at the more up market bistro as he's more aware of his figure and thinks that perhaps having everything deep fried or close may not the best for his figure. Because he's now the big star and no longer running around after them instead, he's not burning off as much calories. No one really likes a fat rock star...

He also feels like he knows the owners and it just felt like something he would like to be apart of. Plus... who can so no to passive income?

The only downside to buying in is that it used the last of my money (left me with $62) so I can't really get started on the house extensions that I had planned, but I figured Max can slum it for a bit longer.

I haven't decided if I'm going to buy out the other partners, although I am considering it. I just don't know if that means more work of responsibility for Max or not - like if he owns it and something goes wrong, will he be held responsible? I part hope so, but that also makes me hesitant to take that sort of responsibility on board.

I also haven't decided if I'll start buying into more business or not. I don't want to go buying up everything just because he can. I want them to have meaning in his life. I might buy into the theatre for example as he worked every day there and it seems like something he might be interested in. I could also buy into the grocery store because technically, they probably help supply the diner, so it would make sense there.

But for now, his little diner is keeping him more than happy...

*** Comment Highlight ***

Elizabeth said...

The option to become a partner comes up when your sim household has enough money. It will show up for most of the other venues once Max holds more concerts and autograph sessions ;-)

I've only had one sim household buy out the entire business. It was the bookshop. The extra options seemed to be renaming it (which I tried and it worked a charm) and hiring/firing employees, which I didn't try. It doesn't seem terribly interactive though, so I imagine there isn't too much hard work and not too many consequences.

Now, I've read somewhere (I can't remember where so I'm not sure if it's true) that when you switch active households you lose the deeds from your inventory and your sim no longer owns the business, effectively losing your money. I'm not sure if you can sell the business again to recoup your money, or put the deed somewhere on the lot so that it doesn't disappear, but watch out for that if you change households. I suppose the same thing holds true for rewards like the collection helper?

So many sim questions... I don't think I helped at all there! ;-)

Thankyou Elizabeth!!

While I am distracted all day wondering what to do about the Melani in Max's life, he's busy letting his mind wander elsewhere it seems...

The other night he was in town and, of his own accord, struck up a conversation with one of the local law enforcement. I'm used to Sims introducing themselves to one another, that happens fairly regularly. What I'm not used to however is Sims hitting it off, and I mean in a big way!

I kept seeing the little icon for this one Sim popping up, so decided to see what was going on. At the time I was busy scanning the town just to see what else was happening - you can sometimes see some really interesting interactions this way. As my camera landed back on Max, I saw this...

I've had a couple of run ins with the law in my time, and sure, I've flirted my way out of a few tickets (what woman hasn't?), but I've never been THAT obvious about it.

I watch a bit longer and it gets better...

The interesting part to all this was I was playing absolutely NO ROLE in it. Not once did I initiate any interaction! They went from introductions to caressing each others faces. That or they were squishing each others cheeks to make them do fishy faces. But looking at those shots? I'm going to think not...

I was so surprised (in a good way) to see Max take control like that!! Either fame has shot to his head and blown his brains out, or he's REALLY liking this sim. I know there's been a person or two I've gone simply ga-ga over in my time, so why can't sims experience the same jelly knee, word tripping sensations?

While I was busy zoomed right in, eyes bugging out of my head and silently clapping at what was unfolding in front of me, I hadn't realised what was happening just behind Max. Michelle Roberts is another sim Max has spent a bit of time chatting to in intimate ways. Michelle is actually a member of the very first household I created when I got the game. She was one of three females living together and, I think, looks really funky. I love her hair.

When Max caught up with her in town one day, they got along really well. She's also into music so I thought it would be good to see if I could get them to hook up. Plus, I wouldn't mind playing her again lol. I had a brief idea that they could end up together (a fan and her music idol mentor) and make very pretty kids. That was until I saw...

I have no idea what was happening, but there was some lengthy conversations, some touching and some very close encounters. The only thing I could gather was that Mc Fugly there was confessing his undying attraction and love for Michelle and she was shooting him down. I mean really, look at her and then look at him - they aint going to end up together. He might as well just accept it now and familiarise himself with the Gym and a Hair Stylist.

Still, even if Max and Michelle don't end up together, he's got other options right?

I discovered a cool and very deserving bonus to being a rock star - autograph sessions! If the limo Max is now chauffeured around in isn't enough of a give away to his fame, the ability to get mobbed outside a venue with Sims clamouring for his signature and a touch of his hand certainly is. And the best part? I actually get to be INVOLVED!!

One of the biggest issues a lot of simmers have is that most of the work place community buildings are nothing more than rabbit holes. Your sim disappears into them leaving us standing outside just waiting for the end of the day with not much else to do. I think nearly everyone had high hopes that we'd actually be able to go inside with our Sims and see what they did in there. Even Max's recent investigation of the graveyard catacombs left me standing outside twiddling my thumbs...

Thankfully, autograph sessions are interactive. And bloody hectic LOL!

Ok, so unlike real life rock stars, Max has yet to be randomly approached for his autograph. Instead, in the Sims, you organise sessions at various venues around town. So far, the venues I can see that you can hold sessions at are:

1. Little Corsican Bistro
2. Hogan's Deep-Fried Diner
3. Ever Fresh Delights Supermarket
4. Divisadero Budget Books
5. and Sharma Day Spa

I don't actually remember hiring a publicist lol, but if they're going to take care of all the organisation I've got no problem with that. My limo arrived straight away and took me to my location, dropping me out the front. I chose the community theatre since that's where Max worked his way through the ranks and I kinda figured I owed it to them to have my first session there...

This is where it got confusing for me because there was NO message on what exactly I had to do. I just assumed Max would disappear inside and then reappear once it was all over. Wrong. It's up to YOU the player to actually sign the autographs. What you'll see is something similar to this:

While you're standing out the front, you have sims practically mob you - I don't remember seeing so many Sims in one place at one time before. To make it trickier, some fans bring friends along, so not everyone there is after your autograph. What you need to look for is the book symbol that appears above some of their heads. For those sims, you can left click and chose to either sign autograph or interestingly enough, refuse autograph. I guess even rock stars can get picky...

Once you get a few lined up the franticness of it all dies down. There was no time counter or any visual indication of how long I had left to sign, so I just aimed for as many as possible. (I didn't pay attention to what time I started, so didn't know when the 4 hours was up...) Adding to the difficulty of trying to click the right sims in amongst the crowd, is the option to end the session early. For everyone you click, you have the option to end the session, so if you're not paying attention, you can accidentally click that instead of sign.

I assume I must have clicked it without realising as the session ended very quickly and a few sims didn't appear to be too happy with it. But, overall, I still did quite well out of it. I certainly didn't expect to earn money from it... ok, well I was hoping I would, but wasn't banking on it lol.

Once you have held a session you have to wait (not sure how long yet) before you can do another. I guess with that much money involved, they don't want you to holding them too often. I'll be looking to hold these fairly regularly if that's the sort of money you can make - it's time Max upgraded his house from a little shack to something more 'rock starish'...

I realise Max has the Daredevil trait, but this really is a bizarre wish to have...

Exactly how far should this wish be taken? Is it just a wish to see a fire and stick your hand in quickly. You know, like you do over a candle when you're young, stupid and are positive you're invincible? Or is this more of a walk over the hot coals, stand in the fire and feel the cleansing spirits of release flow over? Perhaps this is actually a bit of hari kari and he'd like to die while famous and... you know... go out in flames of glory. Yuckle Yuckle, I crack myself up.

Who knows, but it's not a wish I was expecting to see pop up. Not too sure how I'm going to fulfill that one either...

Have the lifetime Wishes in The Sims 3 seemed too random for your tastes? You seem to never be able to get the Lifetime Wish you want? The Lifetime Wishes suggested in Create a Sim are selected based on the personality traits of your sim, and some wishes are more rare than others.

Gee that sounds like a sales add at the beginning doesn't it? I was browsing around for an image version of all the Sims lifetime wishes when I chose Seth's as I wanted to include it in the blog. Still haven't found what I was after. But what I did find was a handy little table that aligns all the lifetime wishes with the best personality traits which was kinda cool.

Over at the wikihow (never been there until recently, how many "wiki" websites are there?) someone put together the information in two tables. First one is sorted via traits - so you can chose traits you like and see what lifetime wishes it will offer you. And the second one is sorted by lifetime wish, so if you have that as your primary goal, you can then see which traits you need to pick.

Apparently this information was gathered from observation alone, and not some data mining in the game files or from EA inside information. It may be wrong for some trait combinations, as not all of them were tested. Still, pretty cool huh?

A week ago I wrote a post that You need to be able to designate beds... because my Sims were sleeping all over the place. Well I found out, beds to get designated sort of.

As I posted, Melani's Grandma moved in the other day, and with her brought some money. That, coupled with Melani's new career as a Dr, the family funds have been doing ok. I decided to use some of that to purchase a better bed for Melani as she's not getting as much time to sleep so needs to use that time as best as possible.

Grandma was a bit tired while Melani was at work and I thought I might let her sleep in the new bed to get a bit of rest. That's when I noticed the options...

Notice the bottom one? Sleep in Melani's bed? Looks like the game does recognise whose bed is whose after a while. I'm not sure if it's because grandma moved in later, or it happens when Sims sleep in the same bed regularly enough.

Either way... cool!

As I discover more and more things you can do for your Sims, I thought it might be cool to share. I'm going to compile a list of all the different things you can do without your Sims interaction. Things you can do while your Sim is asleep or at work to kill those few, normally wasted minutes.

When throwing a Party, you can:

• Drag food from the fridge onto the benches to serve - if you have left overs. Simply open the fridge, select the items and drag.
• Turn the sterio on or off, change it's volume or choice of music.
• Same goes for the TV...

• Drag books from anywhere around the house and place them back to your bookshelf.
• Drag any newspapers on your lot over the trash can to dispose
• Place any, still edible food from your counters into the fridge to be stored as left overs
• Place any non-edible food into your trash can, either inside or out.
• Clean out any bad food from your fridge. Simply select 'open fridge' and drag any bad food into the bin.
  

• Remove any food you have purchased and place it in your fridge
• Same goes for any books you have purchased, you can drag onto your bookshelf
• Place your sterio (boom box) into your inventory
  

So I learnt something pretty cool the other night. YOU, as in you the person, can clean out your Sims fridge! This comes in really handy when you can see the familiar green waft of bad food emanating from our fridge. And the best part, is you can do this while your Sim is asleep!

When you click on your fridge, simply select the open fridge option. This then opens up the fridge on your screen and allows you to pull food out of the fridge and put it on the bench, which is handy if you have left overs that you want to serve at a party.



The best part though, is you can clean out any bad food as well! When you mouse over the different items in the fridge, it will tell you the quality. And any bad food can be dragged directly into the trash can outside. Or inside if you enjoy the wantant stench of food gone bad. You can also sell the bad food, but you get $0 for it, and it requires an extra click...

But yes, I thought this was an excellent feature and awesome time saver. Max is becoming very well known for his parties and his house is getting flooded by guests when he throws one. I just let him have a good time, and then when he's sleeping and I've got a few minutes to kill, I tidy up.

I remember getting asked that question all the time when I was pregnant. My reply was along the lines of 'either is fine' or 'oh god, I don't know, which you think is better?' depending on if I was feeling nasty or nice. Some people wish they could chose, however most are happy so long as it's healthy.

But of course in the Sims world, we control everything. And this apparently includes the sex of any children you want to have. Want the perfect boy then girl senario? Or maybe you'd like a football team of all boys? No problem, just watch what you eat!

According to this thread over at the Sims 3 official forums, it's no longer a case of apples and oranges, but in fact, apples and watermelons. If you would like a girl, start stuffing the watery sweetness down the hatched, and if you would like a boy, well you know the saying - an apple a day...

There are some catches you have to be aware of. It's not a simple case of simply eating either fruit raw, you also have to watch for any meals you cook. I know I've cooked a batch of Grape Pancakes with my chef sim, but apparently more common is the apple pancake. Also worth noting is that the fruit parfait contains apples as well. You need to stick WELL clear of anything even containing apples to concrete your change of having a girl.

Have you ever visited the graveyard at night time? I mean real night time, in the middle of it, like 2am? If you've not had the pleasure of doing this, wake your Sim up and check it out. It's really cool.

Kat, my latest Sim (the gardener, wanna be chef) had an assignment from work to catch some Alley Catfish, which I thought would be easy given her existing fishing skill level. Of course, I didn't realise that certain fish can only be caught in certain locations, and wasted majority of the allotted time catching everything but the Alley Catfish.

Frustrated at the approached deadline and not having the fish I needed, I ventured up to the Graveyard late one night as I remembered there was water there. No idea if it was fishable water, but I was going to test it out. No catfish was found, however an experience was had.

Between the ghosts walking around, muttering to them selves and chatting, there was the shaving, levitating statue and many another amusing things. I won't list them all as really, you have to check it out for your self. One thing I will mention, because I found it hilarious, is the frustrations of Sims in your way doesn't exist only for the living... they may be able to walk through walls when dead, but they still can't pass through each other. Hysterical.



Oh yes, by the way, I did eventully find my Alley Catfish and complete my task. Apparently they have to be fished from the sea. I caught it, and then 5 of it's friends as soon as I arrived. I also discovered that you can actually see the schools of fish in the water if you look for them, and if you inspect the water, it will tell you what fish can be caught there. Not sure if that requires a certain level of fishing or not, but very handy non the less.

I also found a good fishing guide that tells you what bait, and where abouts you can catch all the fish. Sims 3 Fishing Guide

I loved it when I discovered you could have a toilet roll and towels hanging in your bathroom - for some odd reason it's something as small as that, that really makes The Sims 3 much better than previous versions. Makes the rooms much more complete, which in turn, makes the game feel so much more 'real'. Well, real in the sense that it's more believable my Sims are living a proper life lol.

Apparently, if you go to the store where you buy groceries and look under household items, You can get a lil ducky for your Sims to play with in the bath, and also buy bubble bath! All you then need to do is place either of those on the bathtub to be used. I thought that was rather nifty.

Last night I found you can also get a small fish bowl under the entertainment section. Not exactly cool, but still nifty...

Melani was tinkering with her Microwave last night and raised a skill point in Handiness. With three points now in this skill, I got an awesome new ability that allowed me to upgrade my household objects to self cleaning! SELF cleaning! ie cleaning without my needing to do it.

As soon as this skill hit, I practically dropped Seth and bolted for the shower. No more was I going to clean that sucker. It takes a while to upgrade appliances (or at least the shower) and the point was driven home by the wailing coming from the loungroom by Mr I need socialing...

I think this is a fanastic improvement for the game. Apart from the fact hello? Self cleaning appliances, it really makes me feel like it's worth it to raise my skill. This is awesome.

No idea what I can make self cleaning yet. I've only touched the shower so far. I may live in a trailor, but hot damn it's going to be the best trailer in the lot! And that said, Melani is feeling very squeemish at the moment, so I'm wondering if I'm going to have a need to move into a proper house soon... O.o

Apparently at level 4 Handiness you can upgrade your Stoves, to make it fireproof, which is something I think I really need as I've had two kitchen fires because of the stupid thing.