I was just thinking how useful it would be to take a census pre-decimation & post-decimation - you know that thing we can achieve with that button we are never never to press

have you guys updated your SimPe yet? It was released in the last day or so and it makes the genetic section much much easier to understand.  It lists the strings under dominent and recessive then breaks it down into hair, eye etc.  Very noice

Have you tried putting in the relationships that didn't end up with kids?  I started doing that and well, I can be quite silly at some times .  On the plus side though, you must have some great stories with all of those relationships

Your avatar looks a little like my grandma especially with the tic in one eye - scary.  I'll probably end up looking like that in about 100 years or so...

On topic, I'd try what gali suggested and move your whole download folder out temporarily and give it another go.  Have you had problems uploading before?

Just as fair as the one where you spend ages crafting a dream date and then the next day you get a call saying last night was fun, lets go out again so you can spend even more time and money on me   If they drop of an expensive item then sure, no problems but if it just a lousy bouquet of flowers, no dice.

Although we don't get hit in the hip pocket with mobile phones, I reckon we 'pay' our dues with them whining about wanting one & it ringing constantly when our sims are trying to [insert any activity] 

I'll reset to be on the safe side but maybe Maxis will fix it in the new expansion pack 

Sorry JM but it wasn't invented when I started and after the four generations I sort of thought it wasn't worth starting. 

I have however started my new Pleasantview and the lot Clock is now on every occupied lot proudly displayed at the front of the house - it works like a dream.  btw I love having the ability to switch between my lots without having to wait for the neighbourhood to load and then load the new lot.

I'm an amateur genealogist so I use my genealogy program to set out the family ties/relationships etc.  In my poor Pleasantview that finally gave up the good fight about a week ago, I had gotten up to 7 generations of sims.  I couldn't do dates of birth as I had no way of tracking but I did have house listed under birth location & attendees at weddings etc just like a proper family tree.  I had more details on those sims lives than I do on my own ancestors lol.  I printed out reports 'n stuff to keep track but I wouldn't have the patience to do what you have done SaraMK - it looks really nice.

Groans loudly...I wonder if I invite the mum to all the graduation parties and then she would have it in her memory?  Never mind. I'll reroll the want as I don't want to take a chance.  Thanks for the heads up

Oh, I don't know...If you tilt your head to one side and squint...

Ok, Pleasantview update. I moved Brandi & kids into the Pleasant house after Mary-Sue kicked Daniel out for cheating on her with the maid.  NB Daniel ended up shacking up with Don & they now have a cute son called Damian - they are very affectionate.

Brandi started rolling wants to train Beau in the basic necessities and was telling jokes & stuff to Dustin (who ended up with A+ at private school).  There are more distractions at the Pleasant house than there ever were at the trailer but Brandi got into the whole Mum thing with a vengance [I, Vilia have to confess that Rainbow was right and there was more to Brandi than I initially thought:) ].  I decided to hook Mary-Sue up with a mate and as the Gypsy worked last time, I thought I would give it another go.  She ended up summoning Mr Big & they have 3 bolts for each other - noice.  Brandi ended up with a 2 bolt townie but I think he is definitely a keeper.  She ran off at the start of their date to change the nappy of new bub Justin and the date just wandered in, casually spoke the Simlish equivelant of 'good-oh' and went off to play with Beau.

Lucy Burb & Worthington III became pregnant at uni and after graduating moved back home.  John & Jennifer insisted on a wedding even though Worthington wanted to marry a rich sim.  Lucy wanted to graduate 3 kids from uni so she had 3 in quick succession.  Worthington left all of the kid rearing to Lucy, John & Jennifer and turned to a life of crime to get out of the house.

I'm the same as you Velda - always creating, destroying & starting over.  I've got a separate hood Dead Tree Canyon now where I experiment.  I make all my sims be nice & upstanding members of the community (well most of them) in the maxis hoods & get them all to permaplat but in Dead Tree Canyon anything goes.

Enjoy! Which uni are you playing? I always ended up with Sim State. I had to completely re-install my game - you could probably have seen the fiery ball from your place lol and I tried La Fiesta Tech for the first time. I love it.  My only quibble is that I would like to put more of the same houses in that the rich kid live in & the singles but they aren't available.

Don't forget to try the cow-plant, join the secret society and make your sims try for scholarships.

I had one graduation party that finished in the boys bathroom for some reason - don't ask - anyway in the photo it has the showers in the background he he he.  Uni - good times, good times

Whoa, settle down rainbow, I've obviously hit a raw nerve.  You're much nicer and fairer with your sims than I am.  I do like family sims and play them quite a bit but most of my family sims roll wants such as potty training, teaching to walk & talk - my Brandi didn't roll any of those wants.  I guess I expected Maxis to have created Brandi in such a way that she rolled stacks of wants re her kids.  I thought it was sad that Dustin actually spent more time with Beau than she did.  I had left the pinball machine in as that is how Maxis shipped her lot and I wanted to see how it played out - and as you could tell from my previous post I wasn't too impressed. 

In case I have been unduly unfair, I'll give the Broke's family another shot today & perhaps I'll try moving her into Mary Sue's place as agcons did.  Maybe with more support things will turn out differently.  I don't like playing more than 4 sims at once so I'm thinking I might have Mary Sue & Dan break up and Dan can move in with Don - the D brothers, lovin' & leavin' all the townies.

I've never played the maxis families before but after reading this I thought I would give it a whirl...Dina married Morty & they became pregnant with Helen pretty quickly - way to go you gold-digger! Thus ensuring that when Morty shuffles off this mortal coil she will get not one but two inheritances (as the bub will be too young to know any better).  She pretty much ignores Alexander except when Morty's around and then she is laughing and chatting etc.  Poor Alexander is understandably a little confused.

As for Nina - I changed her to knowledge straight away.  Her heart just wasn't into those public displays of affection.  She called the matchmaker, paid top dollar and suprise suprise it actually worked.  She got a waiter as a date and they have...wait for it...3 bolts of attraction for each other (without messing around with turn on/offs).  His name is Gary, they moved in and have just had a kid called Bruce.  I forgot to download the reindeer from Maxis so they are running with scissors a lot but no 'accidents' yet.  They both want to get saved from death, shrugs...As for her and Don - well 3 bolts beat 2 and Gary is a knowledge with no intention of cheating on her so he won the day.  Don still rings up but the she's not too interested. Don will have to make do with the maid. Funnily enough Nina & Dina are now best friends - they must be swapping baby stories or something.  Whenever I am playing one of their households, the other is always ringing up to chat.

Cassy was left at the alter by Don but fortuitously the phone rang about 2 mins after and it was Darren.  She ended the call but her social was still low so I got her to ring him and invite him over.  Turns out they have 2 bolts for each other and so they were engaged & married within the hour.  Noice rebound!  Dirk was a bit surprised when Cassy rocked up but as he spent most of his time snogging Lillith he doesn't seem too upset.  Don & Cassy have a kid now - Daisy.  Cassy wants another but stiff bickies, I play by China rules.

I tried playing the Pleasants and have pretty much given up - too disfunctional.  Angela gets on my nerves and so does Daniel. Mary Sue is bland and the only one I really like is Lillith.  As punishment I have left Mary Sue & Daniel married (let them be miserable together) and sent the two ferals off to uni.  Lillith's body skill myseriously shot up and so she wins all of the fights with Angela. I got their relationship with their parents up just long enough to have their parents teach them how to study - I need that for when they are at uni.  After that, I just sat back and watched them brawl.

I've resurected the Tricou family and they are doing ok.  I had to change the aspirations of the 6 downtownies as they were all pleasure - one is ok, two getting a little much but 6 is unacceptable.  I might have to try and find some goth skins though for young adults as it was quite sad to see Fricaroth go through uni without a proper goth look.  The two daughters of Jon Smith & Jennicor had another kid each, both girls so since the rest of the families names were so bizarre, I had fun choosing theirs.  One became Jessenet & the other Cyrinet.

I lasted about 15 mins playing Brandi before she irritated me too much.  She is supposed to be a loving mother right? One who adores her kids and presumably struggles to give them the best she can?  Sunshine spent her entire time playing the pinball machine while Beau, starved for affection and attention developed deep seated psychological problems that would only be identified later in life with the help of a good shrink. Bleh! I even tried reserrecting Skip and neither of them liked each other so I exited without saving.

Verdict: juries still out but it has been interesting to play sims with a back story - even if I have ended up completely ruining it.

I always got the Ceramic Chicken Cookie Jar with my reward points & then the penguin.  It was ugly but there was just something about it...

I don't even send real presents anymore. I buy stuff at http://www.oxfamunwrapped.com.au/ - they get an e-card telling them that I have sent money on their behalf to buy a goat or something. hehe - great way to get some of my stingy relatives to give.

So the last time I sent any something needing stamps...hmm...maybe 2002??

That site's really noice. 

I just thought of another thing I loved about TS1 - having your sims go fishing or scavanger hunting.  My sims were never very lucky though and I got stacks and stacks of old boots but they seemed to enjoy themselves.

Nope, I work for Health - which is why I take care to hide my ID.  you wouldn't believe the down right hostile looks I & some of my fellow co-workers were getting last year.  My contract is up on Friday too - I have been found and I quote my supervisor "surplus to requirements" lol. I have also been told to organise my own farewell party because everyone in my old team is either a deployee or moved on to a new job 

Way to go flower power!  you think they could at least use an Aussie plant - Terrorism: Lilly Pilly Alert has a much nicer ring to it.

Funnily enough I work for Qld Government too, although I take care to hide my ID badge when I leave the building so the general public won't know .  I'm leaving though and Friday is my last day!!! 

Our pop up message in our department warns us not to access porn etc - I guess we have slightly different priorities - yours tries to keep its staff alive, ours tries to ensure they are behaving responsibly. 

Have you seen the great bomb alert notices next to phones?  They give you a set of questions to ask bombers e.g. what kind of bomb is it, when will it go off, how can I difuse it, what is your name and address?...and yes some people have been stupid enough to give their name & address.

You could try & mod the default face templates - Motoki has posted a tutorial under peasantry & AllenABQ has put up the base templates here http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?p=864943#post864943

The problem was they didn't let you eat the rabbits or gophers.  Your pets got skills and you got a ball of fluff that you had to dispose of.  Roasting vermin on a spit and letting you givie the leftovers to the pet would have been noice.

I don't think we have a colour coded system in Australia but I do remember the 'stay alert but not alarmed' ads that were everywhere.  Unfortunately they didn't work and they had to put a stop to the anonymous 1800 number as people were dobbing in others they didn't like for 'suspicious' behaviour.  There was also a story circulating about a woman reporting a white panel van across the road from her house as suspicious...it turned out to be a plumber out on a call.

I think Makin Magic was actually one of my favourite expansion packs - I too loved matching the ingredients and actually creating a dish as opposed to just clicking on the fridge.  Loved the wine vat & also the stage where your sims would perform magic tricks. 

I didn't like unleashed too much - it got really old really quick especially the rabbits & gophers - yuck!!!  I never grew carrots & stuff on my lots as the animals would drive me positively batty. 

Ah, good days, good times...

Obviously none of the people who designed this system had ever heard of the phrase "blue and green should never be seen without something in between" or a variation "blue and green should never be seen except in the washing machine".  If they had, they would have realised that by putting blue and green together they were creating a massive faux pas.  I can't really get worried or worked up over a scale that ignores basic fashion lol.

Seriously though, maybe blue is the next stage up because the sea can become turbulent?

Check out Reggikko's place http://www.laverwinklesims.com/ Reggikko's houses are stunning and the starter homes seem so spacious I probably won't end up moving my sims on up in the world.

I dropped in for 5 minutes and spent over 2 hours downloading stuff.  Witch has stuff there as well - the starter homes rock as does the caravan lot.