Thanks Pescado.  Now I just have to redo all my businesses.  I curse my own stupidity.

   Is it possible to make my own family, start them in a business, and then turn them into NPCs so that I can visit the lot using other sims?

   I want every business owner in my new neighbourhood to be made by me, but it turns out you can't play another sim and visit their business, because the game says that the lot is already being played. 

   I tried using Simlogical's cat teleporter to turn the business owners into townies, but it just crashed my game.

   Ye Gods, this is working my last nerve.  I've installed the second patch for Freetime, and I still can't catch that damn last butterfly.  I've rolled back my sim's age so many times, just to keep him searching day and night, and ...zip.  Anyone care to comment?

  Does anyone know of a way to get rid of all the maxis crap?  I mean all of it - the crappy wallcoverings and floors, the hideous furniture, the sinful hairs and the heinous clothes.  Getting it out of my game entirely would be great, it would probably load a lot faster, but just getting it not to show up in any of the catalogues would be nice too.  I know there are some hacks on MTS2 for clothes and hairs, but what about the other stuff I never use.

Ok, I figured out 'the not being able to work on things in Simpe' thing (see post before last for my weird rambling rant).  For some reason, I can't work on a package in Simpe if I open it in Object Workshop, but I can if I scan folders and then open it up from there.  Weird huh?  And now all my computers, stereos and bookcases work like Lord Darcy's dreams.
   Anyway, I was now wondering if anyone can tell me exactly what bits to replace if I want to update my CC showers so I can tinker with them?  Oh, and phones 

I must be being really dense, but I can't change my CC bookcases.  I open the package in Simpe, change the 'interaction table ID' to 3, but when I commit and save, nothing happens, and when I try to close, I get a message asking me if I want to save, when I've already done that.  And the text in the resource list is in italics from the moment I open the file, before I've done anything, which definitely suggests it's not working right
   So, as the easy way isn't working, can anyone tell me how to find out which Maxis bookcase my CC ones are cloned from?  I read earlier in this thread that you can use the 'open by GUID' button in Object workshop, but I can't see that button. 
   Someone help! I feel dim.