Emerald Valley #9 - The Harman, Foreman, and Moeller households

 It's been awhile since I visited Emerald Valley. When I left off we were with the Harman family: Joaquin, Dolores, and baby Silvia. I guess Dolores wasn't that much younger than her husband. She had a birthday party while I was there.

There are a lot of gray heads all around town as the original inhabitants are aging up to elder and dying off. My game crashed, which I think was a result of so many aging up at the same time. I spotted Spring, the wannabe witch flirting with this poor woman's husband.

But back to the party: a couple guests stayed late and one of them, (Abdul, whom we learned in the previous episode has a household that is a den of evilness, hotheadedness, and grumpiness, including aggressive cats)  had the nerve to steal candy from baby Silvia! Joaquin was not happy!

He escorted the culprit to the next room and gave him a piece of his mind.

Then he sent the guy home. Joey Emerson-Trujillo, (a widower as Grim's pet sea monster drowned his wife), stayed a bit longer and played with Silvia's toys, but didn't steal from her.

The next morning, Dolores helped herself to a breakfast treat - someone had brought her chocolate gnomes for her birthday. The breakfast of champions.

This is a large house and has a nearly empty basement. It had a bathroom and an inventing table, but nothing else. Joaquin's lifetime wish is to master painting and writing, but he had no skills in either. At his advanced age, I doubt he'll make it. Nevertheless, I set him to working on these skills and gave him an office in the basement where he set to writing his first Sci-fi novel. He finished it, but the game crashed about that time.

I also removed the inventing table and built a rec room in the basement including a pool table, dominos table, and juice bar. Both Joaquin and Dolores were excited about the dominos table and wanted to play some games. Dolores invited one of her friends over. (I had Dolores dye her hair back to it's original color, but it's still gray at the roots.) 

Also, before the game crashed, Dolores received a rather odd opportunity. Keep in mind she works in the business career, but has an interest in music and just happens to have a bass in her inventory:

Whoever thought that opportunity up definitely had a random bout of silliness. Unfortunately, Dolores was not able to complete this opportunity because that is where the game crashed. 

I realized that the Harmans didn't know their next-door neighbors, so I sent Dolores, since she had some days off from work, over to become acquainted. This is the Foreman household, which includes Leif Foreman, an elder and a fisherman whose traits are inappropriate, excitable, good sense of humor, dislikes children, and angler. His wife Marlene is a retired firefighter who is unflirty, brave, artistic, charismatic, and a couch potato. They have a teenage son, Kendall, who is brave, can't stand art, excitable, and eccentric. His lifetime wish is to be a monster maker. There are also two cats - Gumbo Abraham, whom I assume must have originally been someone else's cat as he has a different last name from the family, and Kalliopie Cattiwaller, who used to be old lady Cattiwaller's cat, but they must have adopted her when the old lady died. 

This is Leif hanging out with Kalliopie. 

Dolores enjoyed a rousing game of chess with Marlene when she went to introduce herself. Kendall has a girlfriend, Toya Bartley, and the prom was coming up, so he asked her out to the arcade where he asked her to the prom. She said yes. 

Then they played some games - separately . . . 

because someone thought it was a good idea to set up a portable piano and block the chairs to the games.

They decided this arcade was too crowded and instead went to the arcade with the bowling alley.

Meanwhile, back at home, Grim came to claim Kalliopie Cattiwaller. Marlene was really bummed out.

Kendall got home just in time to witness the death.  As for Gumbo Abraham, he was traveling across town, and it was indicated that he was going to "sleep here," but I didn't know where "here" was, so I followed him. I assumed he was going to the Bloodstone house as his "wife" CC lived there, and he was heading in that general direction.

As he crossed the bridge to the island, I spied a couple having a picnic at the festival grounds late at night, in 20 degree weather (-6.6 Celsius) with a full moon. It was Locke Reardon and Latesha Combs.

Maybe you guys should head home? You look tired. 

It turns out, Gumbo didn't go all the way to the Bloodstone house, but stopped here at this house a block away. This house may not look like much, but it's dear to my heart because it's my attempt to replicate a place I lived when I was a college student and college graduate. This house had a name: George, and it was a converted one-car garage. It was owned by and on a lot next-door to Esther, who was once married to one of my great-uncles. Also living with Esther was Shirley, my mom's cousin. They would invite me over to watch Matlock with them. The place was furnished with cast-off furniture. Of course I had to have Gumbo scratch the door and see who was living here.

Here is an overview of what George looked like (somewhat) when I lived there in real life. There wasn't wallpaper, just dingy, off-white walls, but this gives the same vibe. 

The bathroom is slightly bigger than that of the real George. The real George had a door like this to clear the toilet.

Old George has since been torn down and both Esther and Shirley have passed away, but my memories live on. But I digress . . . .

SimGeorge is inhabited by an elderly couple who never took the time to have children: Allan and Dianna Moeller. 

In his early years, Allan worked in the food service industry, but always wanted to be a CEO of a big corporation. He always felt that dream was out of reach until one fateful visit to the circus that was passing through his home town. It was there he met and fell in love with a fetching young acrobat named Dianna. Dianna was a fairly proficient acrobat, having reached level 3 in the career, but she became drawn to the old fortuneteller who travelled with the circus. She spent many hours of her free time with the fortuneteller who was getting on in years and looking for someone young to pass her mystic knowledge on to. The night Allan ad Dianna met was the night Grim came to take the old fortuneteller home. Dianna soon learned that the fortuneteller had left her fortunetelling trailer and costume trailer to her in her will. 

Allan quit his job at the restaurant and followed the circus the entire season, wooing Dianna. She encouraged him to follow his dream to rule the business world. They were soon married and decided to settle down in Emerald Valley so both could have a permanent home and focus on their careers. Their home is very small and modest, but Dianna is accustomed small living spaces having grown up as one of the circus folk and travelling from town to town in small trailers. Allan has always been frugal, so he's just happy to have found such inexpensive housing in such a beautiful area. The views from their lot are some of the best in the town. 

With the permission of the elixir store next-door, Dianna parked her trailers on their lot as she felt it would draw more people interested in the mystical realm. (While she could walk to work, for some reason the carpool still comes by to pick her up. Maybe she has a bad hip or something.)

I gave them some wall decor to reflect their personalities. Allan is a vehicle enthusiast, hydrophobic, frugal, an angler, and a workaholic. Dianna, coming from a long line of circus folk, is adventurous, a schmoozer, charismatic, a light sleeper, and has a green thumb. (I helped her start a garden.)

Both have the lifetime wish to reach the tops of their careers but they are elders now. I'm curious to see if they can do it. Dianna was level 4 when I found her, and Allan was level 3, but he's a workaholic, so I think there's hope. I might just stick with them and see if I can help them do it before they pass away. Both have gained one more level since I've been playing them. 

Gumbo was being a naughty kitty, so I sent him home.

The first thing Dianna needed to do to advance in her career was to perform some private readings. On her day off, she hung out at the elixir store looking for some clients. She found a couple.

Vinny Winnibego thought she was hot.

Latesha Combs thought it was a little spooky how spot-on she was in her knowledge.  Dianna also wanted to visit the cemetery for some reason. There she performed a reading for old lady Cattiwaller who was also impressed by her abilities.

The cemetery was a hoppin' place, and Dianna decided to entertain the ghosts with her bass playing. (What is it with these old women and their basses?) It seemed there was something else other-worldly going on that night if you look in the distant night sky. (below)

Obviously, Dianna is no stranger to ghosts and death. In fact, she has witnessed a few deaths when she went to Goth Haven Pub to wind down after a stressful day at work.

Grim lives in a not-quite-secret basement beneath the pub, and paparazzi are always plaguing him. Luckily, his pet sea monster keeps them at bay.

The spectacle is just too much for some sims. One old lady fainted. Time for a drink and a game of darts before heading home.

In addition to her skills as an acrobat and fortuneteller, Dianna is also a level 10 mixologist. I wonder who taught her that? Probably Uncle Ernie the juggler.

As for Allan, he had the angler trait but no fishing skills when I first met him, so I sent him out to fish.

He has since graduated from catching anchovies to catching tuna. He can now use bait. He also has an interest in the fairy arboretum and wanted to explore it. After that, he cooked up some hot dogs for everyone in the park  . . .

He's been putting in some overtime at the office, which has helped him advance a level in his career. He was invited to
a party, so he went, mostly so I could see who else was around and what they were up to. It appears that Joaquin was flirting with Sonya Sw0rd, but she was having none of it.

"You realize you are just embarrassing yourself, right? What would Dolores think?" 

Meanwhile it looks like Allan is giving out cooking tips. Aspen Winnibego attended, but being a loner, she didn't socialize. She just took advantage of the Wiles' theater room.

I had Allan enjoy the hot tub, but then remembered that he's hydrophobic. Whoops!

I think that is fair Juliet on the keyboard.

Allan and Dianna are a very loving couple, autonomously flirting and making romantic overtures to each other.

They went out to the Seaside Lounge and Casino to celebrate their promotions while I upgraded their bed.

That's it for now. More to come later.