Getting a Five-Star blog means constantly blogging on your smartphone until you get the “Blogged Out” negative moodlet, waiting for it to clear, and then blogging some . . . → Read More: Sims Sunday: Party time, excellent!]]> Gameplay was getting a little bit boring. Ophelia’s wish is to reach level 10 of the Social Networking skill (done) and to have a Five-Star blog.

Getting a Five-Star blog means constantly blogging on your smartphone until you get the “Blogged Out” negative moodlet, waiting for it to clear, and then blogging some more.

In the bathroom at the library…

In the bathroom at home while Raheem tries to take a dump…

After working out at the gym…

In the snow…

And at home while Raheem tries to watch television.

That last picture points out two things that bug me about the Blogging activity. You can only do it on your smartphone (not on the computer in the background), and you can’t do it while sitting down (only while standing). Let’s all be grateful that’s not the case in real life.

I got so bored waiting for her to level up her blog that I went ahead and had her Try For Baby with Raheem. My thinking was that while she was blogging, Raheem and I could at least be doing stuff with the baby.

On the day when she first turned pregnant, the Fall Festival arrived. I sent them down to the festival separately. Here’s what they did when they spotted each other.

These two are so in love, it’s a little bit revolting.

I had Ophelia tell him about the pregnancy right there in front of the haunted house.

First he looked SUPER THRILLED.

Then he gave her the “thumbs up.” I love it when they do that.

(Sorry for the poor lighting. It was the middle of the afternoon, but as you can see, it was a very cloudy, overcast day.)

Q: What time is it when the frost is on the pumpkin?

A: Time to defrost your pumpkins.

(That joke killed ‘em in the fourth grade. I think I learned it from a Garfield comic.)

Both Ophelia and Raheem had a wish to challenge the other to a pie-eating contest, so I obliged. The pie-eating contests are disgustingly hilarious. With the retching and the gobbling noises.

Raheem won the contest. After the contest was over, but before he washed the pie off his face, I had them step into the photo tent to get a souvenir photo.

Raheem found a kitty wandering the festival and played with it for a few hours.

Raheem has the Animal Lover trait. He keeps wanting to adopt various animals. There’s no room for pets in the Seinfeld apartment. I think I will have to move them out to a big suburban home soon, to make room for the kids and pets and all that stuff.

It would also be nice to have more room for parties. Ophelia wanted to throw a Feast Party, and things got pretty cramped. Although everyone seemed to agree that Jerry’s place is decorated nicely.

Raheem kept ignoring the party to dote on his massively pregnant wife.

This guy seems a bit put out by that.

Long after the party had ended and everyone had left, this guy stuck around and kept eating food off the counter. What a George!

The next day, their baby girl Peggy was born.

She is looking a lot more human than the rest of the hybrids. See how she actually has eye whites? They’re not just solid black? It’s a good sign.

I’m looking forward to a Sim that has HAIR.

When Cinnamon wants to hop up on the desk (via my lap) first she face-marks the cupboard beside me. Then she makes the tiniest of chirps. In case you missed it, the chirp happens after she rubs her face on . . . → Read More: Caturday comes early this week]]> This is something I have been wanting to capture for quite a while.

When Cinnamon wants to hop up on the desk (via my lap) first she face-marks the cupboard beside me. Then she makes the tiniest of chirps. In case you missed it, the chirp happens after she rubs her face on the cupboard six times, and just before she hops up.

It is one of only two situations in which she ever makes noise. (The second is if she is clinging to me limpet-like, and I try to remove her from my person in order to do some dumb people thing like “type” or “drink coffee.” She makes a small beep of protest.)

Please politely overlook the state of the cabin floor. It’s not really cleanable in the traditional sense. Also I don’t give a ****.

Speaking of cats, in previewing this post I noticed that one of the photos in my Instagram widget on the left looks a little bit horrible when displayed out of context. I hasten to assure you, it’s not a dead tuxedo cat playing Laura Palmer. When you click through, the caption is “By tenting my bike in plastic I basically made a solarium for Neighbor Cat.”

(That’s not counting my Twitter and . . . → Read More: A fiber ball]]> I took a really cute cat video today and gushed about it on Twitter. Then I decided to hold it over until Caturday. I feel a little bad about all the gushing already. It seems like it’s better to keep the cat stuff contained to Caturday posts.

(That’s not counting my Twitter and Instagram accounts, which are pretty much nonstop kitty. Deal with it.)

I’m almost done spinning up the first half of this fiber. I find the ball of singles to be a pleasing object in and of itself. It’s pretty, and it has a nice heft, and it bounces surprisingly well.

I love the Honey Cowl for hand-dyed yarn, it does great things with all the color changes. I also love knitting the Honey Cowl; once you get . . . → Read More: About that cowl…]]> Two weeks ago I started another Honey Cowl* by Madeline Tosh** with some yarn that my friend Dorothy had hand-dyed and given to me ages ago.

I love the Honey Cowl for hand-dyed yarn, it does great things with all the color changes. I also love knitting the Honey Cowl; once you get used to the rhythm of the stitch pattern, you can easily churn it out without paying attention.

And finally, I have been wearing the heck out of the last Honey Cowl I knit (the red one in Madeline Tosh*** Merino Light). In fact, I’m wearing it right now.

Fast forward two weeks to last night. I was knitting it on a particularly short pair of circular needles. Thus, it wasn’t until it was nearly 8 inches deep that the whole thing was un-bunched enough for me to realize that it was way too narrow.

The pattern calls for it to be 22 inches long. (Just right for an “under the jacket” cowl, but not so tight that I get claustrophobic.) Mine was only 17 inches long. Gak. Picture me clawing frantically at my neckline at the thought of it.

So I ripped the whole thing back and started again. Sigh.

Incidentally, anyone want to take a guess at what’s been pulling the dirt out of my plants at night?

Here are the facts:

Baffled shrug!

* Excuse me, “honey cowl,” two words, all lower-case.

** Excuse me, “M A D E L I N E T O S H,” all caps, with a space between each letter.

*** Excuse me, “madelinetosh,” all one word, all lower-case.

It took a while to find the yarn (Cascade Lana . . . → Read More: Two quick cowls]]> After using up that super-bulky Lion Brand stuff last week, I thought, “Hmm… that sure went fast! Don’t I have some more of that stuff somewhere?” I vaguely remembered having bought some super-bulky yarn on sale in order to make a Perpetually Persistent Cowl.

It took a while to find the yarn (Cascade Lana Grande). It had been so long since I bought it that it had sunk to the bottom of the storage bin.

This started out being a Perpetually Persistent Cowl. But I was really comfortable on the couch and I couldn’t be bothered to get up and find the pattern. So I just went with a simple cable (traveling stitch?) pattern off the top of my head.

I like the height (a full 12″) but it fits snugly around the neck. Which, in a cowl this bulky, makes me a little claustrophobic. Finding myself with an entire leftover ball of yarn, I knit the second cowl a little bit longer.

It’s in seed stitch as a nod to the famous GAP-Tastic Cowl. Which I probably could have made if I hadn’t started with that cabled cowl first. Oh well!

Here’s the guy that I personally was smitten with. Ophelia liked him, too. He works at the coffee shop. He is in the Nerd social class. His name is… Garrison Fort. (Yes, . . . → Read More: Sims Sunday: Homeward Bound]]> This week, Ophelia finished out her time at university. Which is good, because I was getting a little bored of it.

Here’s the guy that I personally was smitten with. Ophelia liked him, too. He works at the coffee shop. He is in the Nerd social class. His name is… Garrison Fort. (Yes, really.)

She also ran into this random townie Sim who happens to look uncannily like someone I used to know in real life. Seriously, the only difference is that the hair should be just a touch lighter. Weird.

Fall came, bringing with it some wonderfully dreary weather. Here is the university campus on a stormy weekday afternoon.

Ophelia spent some time playing with this thing, although nothing came of it.

And playing video games.

And flirting with one of her roommates in particular.

(Good cheekbones; bad ponytail.)

And did more than her fair share of sleeping in class.

When she returned from university, it was to Bridgeport – the urban city with its many tall apartment buildings (all of which house one and only one apartment). I had moved her to Bridgeport in an attempt to fix her brokenness, because Bridgeport is the town I have played the least.

Going with the “urban apartment” theme, and because I have been watching a lot of Seinfeld reruns lately, I decided to recreate Jerry Seinfeld’s apartment for her. I used the RestrictBuyBuildInBuildings False cheat and this floor plan of Jerry’s apartment.

I was able to get pretty close, although there are still a few details that need to be buffed up. For example, the green bike can’t be hung from the ceiling.

And I’m still looking for cabinets without doors (or with open faces).

Not to mention trying to get the color of the couch just right.

But overall, I’m pretty happy with it.

Once she was in Bridgeport, I discovered that Ophelia couldn’t call, text, or invite Garrison Fort over. A glitch, I guess. Anyway, I started looking for local singles in her area.

The new dating program recommended a fellow named Mars Champion. Kind of a hipster-looking guy. They have a lot of attraction, but they also bicker a lot.

She threw a destination party at a nearby dance club, and he enjoyed himself.

She invited him over, and he went straight for her computer.

Then he stood in her living room and did… this.

I had her take a risk and go in for a “Heat of the Moment” kiss.

It didn’t go over well.

I guess it’s time to keep looking, but I have trouble letting go of a guy with a great name like “Mars Champion.”