Life and Times of Sandi French - Part 8 - Catching Up with the Butlers.

 I took a month-long hiatus from Sandi and her family to play the Bloodstons throughout the month of October, so it's probably best to have a short recap. (I know I need it.)

Sandi French, originally from Sunset Valley is all grown up with a family of her own. She met her husband Bernie Butler while she was attending college. They have one biological child, but after her mother Molly French passed away, Sandi took in her teenage brother Thor and his imaginary friend turned real, Lucky French. Once Thor and Lucky French became adults, they took Thor's part of his inheritance from his mother and moved to their own house down the road.

Sandi is a scientist and her lifetime wish is to be a scientific specialist, reaching level 10 of the science career and level 10 of the science skill. She's almost there - when I rejoined her she was level 9 of her career and level 8 of the science skill. 

Her traits are slob, dramatic, excitable, loves the heat, and sailor. She used to have the dislikes children trait which is why she only had one child and he spent some time in boarding school. That trait disappeared when she earned a new trait (loves the heat) and instead of it being added to her list, it replaced the dislikes children trait - just in time for her son to become a teen. 

According to her relationship panel, she's well-liked, having 10 friends and no enemies, though her ex-boyfriend Arlo Bunch and her brother's father Jared Frio are in the red. 

When we left off, she wanted to spend her inheritance on a boat due to her sailor trait.

As mentioned, Bernie was a student at the university when he and Sandi met. Shortly after they married, he took a job as a cop in Barnacle Bay. They had a rough start making friends, but he seems to have won the town over as he now has 12 friends and no enemies. His lifetime wish is to become a DNA profiler with the local law enforcement agency. This entails reaching level 10 of his career branch (he's level 9 now,) 

Bernie is a born salesman, neat, brave, charismatic, and loves the outdoors. 

Austin is the only begotten son of Bernie and Sandi. He apparently went out and took a part-time job while I was away. As a child he showed a keen interest in becoming an author and has the lifetime wish to become an "illustrious author" gaining level 10 in writing and in painting. He's a B student at the time I rejoined the family. He has a girlfriend named Kathy Le Mer, and he's friends with her, his parents, and his imaginary friend Lucky Butler. 

Austin entered his teen years having written two novels so far: Double Lucky: An Imaginary Friend Story, and To the Moon and Back Again. Austin is excitable, loves the cold, never nude, and a computer whiz. 

Shortly after rejoining the family, I had Austin turn his imaginary friend Lucky Butler real since we already had the potion in the family inventory. 

This is Lucky Butler. One of the first things he wanted to do was learn gardening. His traits are couch potato, loves to swim, loves the heat, and perceptive. He seems rather ambitious, wanting to learn new skills and is always attentive to his homework.

Lucky and Austin are best friends for now, but I don't know if that's going to last. Lucky went home with Austin's girlfriend while Austin was at work, and they really hit it off.

A few days later, Austin invited Kathy over to the house. He wanted to ask her to the prom but she got upset and took off home before he could do so. I'm thinking she was upset about seeing Lucky there, as he was showing the "lost a friend" moodlet, and Kathy was no longer showing as his friend. She called him later, and he asked her if she was mad at him for some reason.

Prom is supposed to be coming up. I wonder who, if anyone, is taking Kathy to the dance. Poor Austin even skipped work hoping to pin Kathy down as a prom date. 

Bernie was not happy about Austin's skipping work, feeling it was irresponsible. Austin said there were worse things he could have done. It wasn't like he was secretly growing pot or anything. In the end, Austin felt too stressed out having school and a part-time job. He quit his job, hoping to have more time for his girlfriend. 

I forgot to mention that the Butlers acquired a puppy while I was gone. Her name is Sadie.

She's supposed to be lazy, clueless and quiet, but she seems pretty yippy to me. She just had a birthday,

so maybe she can be trained to hunt.

Austin was there to celebrate with her, but Bernie and Sandi were in the other room.

I'm glad to see their marriage is still strong. Sandi is also enjoying Austin's company more now that he's older.

She also got that boat she has been dreaming of.

It's been a really cold spring, and her poor garden is still dormant, and her gardening skill is suffering. Hopefully it will warm up soon. There was finally a mild day, and Sandi had the day off, so she made the most of it.

Bernie didn't go with her because he needed to question some people and type up some reports to improve his job performance. 

Austin has been wanting to meet a supernatural and lucky for him, we spotted Terrence hanging out downtown. I think Juliet Verona is trying to steal him away from Kristen. 

Terrence was flattered and accepted the flowers she offered, but he let her down easy, explaining it wouldn't be proper to have a romantic relationship with her when is is married to Kristen. 

Austin approached Terrence and told him that he always wanted to meet a real vampire.

Terrence said Austin must be mistaken because he wasn't a vampire. He was an ordinary citizen of Barnacle Bay. 

"Oh, that's too bad," Austin said. "I always thought of vampires as superheroes. They can do such cool stuff!"

"Like this?" Terrence exclaimed while attempting to put Austin into a trance.

"What are you doing, man? You're kind of freaking me out!" Austin responded. Lucky for him, Terrence's powers weren't up to snuff this particular night. 

"You are such a loser, man!"

Terrence decided not to dignify the comment with a response. Maybe the reason Terrence couldn't entrance Austin was because he was weak from hunger.

Kid Goldbeard was getting his jollies from seeing this altercation and was anticipating a calamity.

If Terrence doesn't get you, Kizzy might. You'd best get on home, Austin!

Little did Austin know, he might have gotten some ideas for his next science fiction novel if he'd just stayed home and watched the goings on outside his own house. They had an extraterrestrial visitor, who seemed puzzled as to why humans cut down plants and the tie them up in bundles.

It looks like she has adopted a human style wardrobe in order to not call so much attention to herself.

"It seems they like to stack them on top of each other. Are they building a house?"

"I think I learned something new today. Better go report it to the commander!"

There's nothing like eating spaghetti of horrifying quality at 7:50 am then having to go to work. 

Have a good day, guys. While everyone was at work or school, I spotted Dina Caliente. Her sister Nina had moved in with their former roommate and her husband, so I was wondering what happened between them. 

Dina didn't look very happy. She's a celebrity chef, but life hasn't been going her way. She's a single mother with two boys, and it doesn't seem that the father is in the picture, or at least isn't living with them.

While Buzz Malifa is her "partner," he doesn't live with her and he's not father to either of the children. Juan Inkbeard Jr. is the father, (I checked the kids' family trees.) Furthermore, she's living in squalor and the kids don't have beds or toys. 

She had some money in her bank account, so I fixed up her house a little bit and added a room for the boys (the second story.)

The boys now have beds and toys. I also upgraded some of the furniture, giving Dina a more comfortable bed to sleep in and enough room around the table for the whole family. I adjusted the colors to fit Dina's personality a little better as well. You're welcome. Back to the Butlers.

I've never understood the phone calls from other sims saying "Do you want to hang out?" and you get the option of "At your place" or "No thanks." I usually say "No thanks" because I either can't find out where they live or they aren't home. I've even tried "At your place" and staying home just in case it means at the home lot, but they never show up. However, I noticed that there was a party a Thor's house, and Lucky French called Bernie and asked him if he wanted to hang out, so I sent Bernie to Thor's party. Lucky wasn't there, however, - just Thor and his friends in swimsuits when there isn't even a pool.

"Hey Lucky, I'm at your house. Where are you?" 

Bernie stuck around a while, but was getting tired, so he went home early. Thor tends to have some strange people hanging around anyway.

We'll leave the Butlers to enjoy some good family bonding. More to come.