Keep On Keepin’ On

Good morning! Yesterday was a good day, but today will be even better. Catherine’s Lucky trait gives her the Feeling Lucky moodlet, which boosts her mood for the entire day and wards off misfortune. (Today is a good day to try repairing something or make a difficult recipe. There is a good chance nothing will go wrong during either activity.)

However, luck does not serve Catherine when she grabs the newspaper and scans it for discount classes. The only discount class for the day is Athletic. The Painting class will still be §400.

Chris has the day off, too. This is the perfect time to fulfill the requirements of the opportunity at the stadium. I sent Chris to the stadium and check him into the event, which is an option from the interactions menu.

While Chris competes in the event, Catherine works on her romance novel. Chris naturally does well at the event and scores an extra §500 for the household. Surely the boss will love this when word gets back to him on the next full day of work.

Back at home, Catherine takes some time away from the computer because she’s feeling stressed out. Her Fun need has dropped precipitously low, so I tell her to read a book, which is something a Bookworm would enjoy.

The trick, though, is I give her a cooking manual so her improves her Cooking skill while blowing off a little steam. While she reads, Chris works out. He improves his Athletic skill to level 5, which gives him the option while working out to “Push Self.” This work out option increases the effectiveness of the activity and increases the skill even faster.

But there is a catch. (There’s always a catch...) The next day, Chris will have the Sore negative moodlet. I’ll push Chris anyway because I have a secret weapon to combat this moodlet in the morning.

The next morning, Catherine loves up on Chris and offers a massage. The social negates the Sore moodlet and improves Chris’s mood right away.

And just to make sure Chris knows he is loved, I pick the Leap Into Arms social from Catherine’s Hopeless Romantic socials. This improves their relationship.

Catherine’s Feeling Lucky moodlet is definitely over because that night, the computer breaks. Neither Sim has the Handiness skill, so a Repair Technician is summoned. There’s §50 out the window...

At this point, Chris and Catherine have been together in this house for a week. They are very much in love and because they interact romatically regularly, they have a strong relationship. Because of this, each of them gets a new wish—and it’s a big one: Have First Child.

This wish will take a little time and it will send their lives in a whole new direction. But there is a significant pay-off for having this baby: 6,000 Lifetime Happiness points. That’s for each of them, too, if I promise the wish to both of them, which I do.

It’s back to the book for Catherine, and Chris hits the weights because his Athletic skill is close to level 6. When Chris crosses that threshold and hits 6, a new social opens up: Train. Now, Chris can train other Sims on exercise equipment on the same lot as he is.

This is not a paid position, but it will help Sims with a little extra weight lose it. See, this is another reason you should always be working on skill development. Almost every new skill level brings with it new social, interactions, and benefits.

This is actually kind of a weird scene—mainly because it is eerily similar to my real world life.

The toilet got clogged again. Chris calls the Repair Technician. Before the technician leaves, though, Chris chats him up outside and makes a new friend.

Catherine has been working hard on her novel, pouring hours into each new chapter. She’s getting close, but stress kicks in again. To improve her mood, I send her to the art museum to look around and unwind.

Seeing a movie at the theater is another good way to unwind. Plus, seeing a movie can result in the Saw Great Movie moodlet, which boosts Catherine’s mood by +10 for 16 hours. Not a bad deal for a §40 movie ticket.

Keeping working it, honey...

One of Catherine’s recent wishes is to improve her Cooking skill. That’s an easy one, so I promise it and then buy a new recipe from the bookstore: Cookies. Those will be fun to cook, right?

Wrong.

Fires will happen, especially with a stove. Fortunately, Chris and Catherine were home when it happened, so one of them was able to put out the fire right away via the interactions menu. Here, Chris sprayed foam all over the fire and put it out.

However, this incident underlines the use of a fire alarm, which I had installed in the kitchen anyway. Had neither Chris nor Catherine been home, this alarm would have summoned the fire department to the house to put out the flames before significant damage was done to other objects in the house besides the stove.

The fire completely ruined the stove. Insurance offered §165 to cover part of the damages. However, I just had to click on the Replace interaction to destroy the broken stove and buy a brand-new one.

Well, it’s taken about a week, but Catherine is about to put the finishing touches on her romance novel: Tender Was Her Flesh. As soon as she does, she fulfills two promised wishes: Write a Novel and Write a Romance Novel.

Each wish is worth 1,000 Lifetime Happiness points. Not only does finishing the romance novel fulfill those twin wishes, but it also completes the opportunity: It’s a Living. The romance novel is a big hit.

Catherine will receive six royalty payments over the next six weeks. Each payment is §4,494. That’s a massive payday for the household. Now Catherine can devote more time to painting and start really developing that skill.

With Chris’s career going well and Catherine’s torrid romance novel flying off the shelves, it’s now time for, well, business time. To have a baby, Catherine and Chris need to love on each other a little bit and make sure their relationship is really heated. Once they have snuggled, kisses, and nuzzled, I chose the Try for Baby social from the Romantic social menu. This social inspires the pair to make WooHoo.

What is WooHoo? Well, when a man and a woman love each other very much, the man... oh, go ask your parents.