If you hadn’t noticed, my writer’s block has finally left my head. Which leaves me SUPER happy, and writing furiously to take advantage of the inspiration. Which means two things: One, that you will be seeing more story posts in the near future, and Two, that I’m feeling brave enough to try to actually plan ahead for a blog schedule.

The next week passed by in a miserable blur. Kado never did come back. I picked myself up by my bootstraps, as they say, and decided I’d better start actually looking for a real partner. Charlie, however, was taking it the hardest. I finally had to sit down and explain that Kado has other kids, and a wife.. a real family, and that was probably where he had gone. She cried herself to sleep in my bed that night, and I felt even worse for having told her the truth. Perhaps I shouldn’t have?? …. But I’d sworn I’d raise her right, and lying to her had just seemed.. worse than breaking her heart, somehow.

Sims 3 is another high point of the Sims Franchise for me. It was when I really started discovering and playing challenges, and – once I found out about challenges – it completely changed the way I played the game. It also marks the beginning of my Blogging “career.” This blog was actually established during the Sims 3 era, and if you’re looking hard enough, some of my old stories from back then (the ones I actually published) are still linked into this site (under retired or completed stories). It also marked the beginning of my love/hate affair with game modifications. I literally could not play Sims 3 without mods. To me, the game was unplayable without it – so while waiting for a mod to update or be fixed, I couldn’t play the game. (Which plays a huge part of my lack of mods and CC in Sims 4 – I just don’t want to come to a point that I cannot play the game without a mod). The game is still installed on my computer, and I *could* play it.. I just don’t. The memories of all the games lost to corrupted files, the long load times from back then, and all the bugs… *shiver*.. just don’t make me want to go back. Maybe someday.

I’ll be back to full streaming schedule this coming week, and since the Medieval Dynasty Week challenge was fully funded last week, that’s what’s on the schedule this week! Also of note: this week’s “game awards” game is going to take me jumping through a few “hoops” to stream. I will be without my camera and overlays for it, and sitting on the couch so I can play hubby’s Xbox – but I’m REALLY looking forward to playing this game on stream, so we will just have to deal with it. Super looking forward to next week!

I would be very remiss if I didn’t mention the classic game “Minesweeper” at least once in this year’s game retrospective. As I’ve mentioned, my early history with games was very limited. Tetris and Minesweeper, (and to a lesser extent Solitaire and Freecell) however, were part of my early game education. I very much remember competing with my dad for high score on the family’s computer. I could never beat him in solitaire or freecell, and rarely in Tetris, but for some reason, I COULD beat him in Minesweeper. So I did. repeatedly. I usually played on “Expert” and he had the worst time trying to keep up with me on times. (Which was a big thing, because he usually won at EVERYTHING!)

This was an early build for the full save file, and I really liked the way it turned out. It uses only Eco, Tiny Living, and Base Game, so it’s super easy to fit into any game save. It’s a two bedroom one bath home, with all the living areas downstairs, and the cutest little kitchen ever. Enjoy!

When Sims 2 came out, I was more than ready for it. I ditched Sims 1 without barely a look back, and was immediately in love with Sims 2. Someday, I want to get it re-installed on my computer, and mess around with my favorite town, Strangetown, some more. I wasn’t really into building back then, nor did I make my own characters very often, but man did the storylines behind Strangetown and Pleasantville pulled me in and I spent so much time playing the sims that came with those towns. I still have all of the original discs from all of the expansions for Sims 2 (and somehow I missed getting the Ultimate Edition).. so I’d need to literally get those discs to work on my PC to re-install it. Last time I tried, I ran into some disc errors, and lost my patience, so I never finished it… hence why this game is NOT on the list of games I will be playing this year. It did still need to be mentioned, though.

I finally got around to buying a television. Granted, it was because work was requiring me to watch some for research, but still, I bought a TV.

Work seems to take up so much of my time. I try to do as much from home as possible, but trips to the city on the bus were time-consuming and necessary. I hated leaving poor Charlie in daycare, but progressing in my career was definitely a priority for me. Things were going really well on that front, at least. Promotions were coming regularly, and so were the raises – which really helped, because I knew I was going to need to upgrade the house eventually. Charlie wasn’t going to remain tiny forever.

I’m taking a break this week. I have a lot of stuff I want to catch up with, and that are starting to stress me out, so I’m taking some time to hopefully get some work done on them. Then, to “make up” for missing three days, I’ll be doing a long stream on Saturday to celebrate 500 followers. I haven’t been able to pick the game on my own, though, so I’m asking for your help to pick with a Twitter Poll!

One last thing to do before I actually start writing: introduce you to the families and lots I added to my game for this save. (Also, make sure you check the Challenge Home Page link below if you’re interested in game details like the ageing scheme I’m using.) All of the below lots and families are pulled off the gallery by searching hashtags, and I’m including item names and EA ids of each piece, so if you are interested in them, you can grab them, too.