I just got AL so reincorporating my CC may take me a few days. But the show must go on! And one of the 'old' characters (from Ch 1) will be moving into an apartment.

I just got it and will have to install a no-CD before running it.

I'll probably get it today unless Best Buy sucks.

Does anyone know if the lovely folks who did the 'Mods updated for FT' thread when Free Time came out are going to do the same for AL?

Sorry for the lines in the grass. There were some very specific poses I wanted and I forgot to put it in "..." mode (where there are no lines).

We spent an hour tailing Donovan and Josephine, finally stopping them in town. Dante hoisted Josephine off the back of the bike, dropped her in the back seat of the car, and we took off. No words were exchanged; this had gone farther than that. She went to bed immediately upon getting home, and we were happy to let her.

Teenagers, I thought. I surely hope I didn't give my mother this kind of problem.


The next morning at the Giorelli house started with a bang as Angela slipped on the top step and tumbled all the way to the bottom. Eva, who had spent the morning doing some gardening, rushed in, trying to look shocked. "Aunt Angela!"


Eva was dismayed to find her aunt still breathing, but knew that she could do nothing. She went to the phone and dialed the police, asking for an ambulance. When that was taken care of, she called her uncle's office. "Uncle Giovanni, I'm afraid I have some terrible news."

"It's all right, Eva. I'm alone."

"It's done. Come home."

Meanwhile...


Dante and I had received some interesting guests. As I served coffee, one of the men, Modesto, explained why they were here: "As you may be aware, Senator Mentoli died during his term, and we've been searching for a replacement. Unfortunately, we've not yet found a replacement and the filing deadline is tonight."


"Is everyone comfortable?" I asked as I handed out the last cup of coffee. "Is there anything else I can offer?"


"We're fine, Mrs. Moretti. Thank you," said Flavio, the other man. "As Modesto was saying, it would be an embarrassment to the party if we were to not field a candidate, and you're our only hope. No one else living in the district is willing or qualified to run."

Dante looked at me and I offered an encouraging smile. He turned back to the men. "Let me think about your offer, and talk it over with my wife. You said you needed my answer by tonight?"

"Yes, Mr. Moretti."

"Then you shall have it."

I said, "Why don't you both come over for dinner tonight?" The matter was agreed.

"Mr. Moretti, why don't you come by the office downtown today? You can have a look at the operation, see what you might be getting into."

Later that morning...


Giovanni arrived just in time to see the ambulance technicians load his wife into the ambulance. He went to Eva and said, "What happened?"

"She's alive. But the men aren't hopeful." She gestured towards the retreating ambulance. "It could go either way."


"Thank God for you, Eva," said Giovanni. He was free, finally free! He swept her into a hug. The ambulance driver, looking in the rearview mirror, was touched by the show of familial sorrow. But what he didn't know was that the gesture was one of shared triumph, not sadness.

That afternoon...



Taking advantage of the quiet day, I sat down at my typewriter and looked at the half-typed page in front of me. It was a page in a book I had been working on for years, but I never seemed to be able to finish it, as much as I was determined to do so.

But the best laid plans often go awry, and my son came in and sat down. "Can I talk to you, mom?"


"Of course," I said. "What's on your mind?"

"I got a phone call from Father Bianchi. Mrs. Giorelli has had a terrible accident. Only..."

"Only what?" I asked, instantly suspicious of why he would bring the Giorellis up to me.

"Only I don't think it was an accident. Eva told me that Mr. Giorelli was trying to hurt her and her aunt."


"My word, is she all right?" I asked, my head buzzing. For all these years, had I been unfairly painting her with the same brush with which I painted her husband? Had she been his victim, too, like my Josephine had once been?

"She's had a bad fall, but she's expected to recover."

"I must go and see her," I said, seizing upon the guilt that was like a knife in my chest. "Has your father left?"

"Not yet."


"You were right to tell me, Marco, my son. Sometimes it takes the wisdom of a boy...a young man... to correct the foolishness of an old woman." I hugged him tightly.


"You have good instincts, my boy," I told him. "Listen to them."


A few moments later, I was down in the driveway. "Dante, wait!" He had been about to climb into the car to go to his appointment with the politicians downtown. "Can you drop me at the hospital on the way to your appointment?"

"Of course, it's just across the road. What happened?"

"It's Mrs. Giorelli. I'm afraid I've been wrong about her all along."

Downtown...


"What do you think?" breathed Flavio. "I think it really catches the youth and vigor of your campaign."

"It's-- I haven't agreed to run yet, Flav--"


"Imagine!" said Modesto. "Just picture this everywhere in the district."


Dante cocked his head to the side and examined the poster. "Well... I like it, generally. But my wife and I still have to talk about this."

"Of course," said Flavio generously. "But first, get behind the podium. See how you feel."


Dante stood behind the podium and read the remarks that were there, trying to sound authoritative and charismatic. The two consultants watched, nodding. "With the right polish..." said Flavio. "The wardrobe needs work, but..."

"And he'll need a better speech than that, but that's for the policy shop--you'll meet Castelli later," said Modesto.

Meanwhile...


"Mrs. Giorelli, you have a visitor."

Angela looked up with some effort to see me standing in the doorway. She neither smiled nor denied my entry, so the doctor left us alone.


"I, uh, thought you might like these," I said, showing her the bouquet I had purchased at the florist near the hospital. "I was so sorry to hear about your, ah, accident."

"I doubt that," Angela said coldly, her voice strained and brittle. "We've lived nearby for fifteen years, and I've never even spoken to you more than a handful of times. Why would you care now?"


"I've been terribly foolish about you," I admitted, feeling the color rise in my cheeks. "And unchristian. I had hoped that it wouldn't be too late to make amends."

Angela considered this for a moment, then said, "You know, I never even knew about my husband's crime until after he was caught. He never brought your daughter to my home; how would I have known anything?"

I sighed. "I don't know, Angela. I honestly don't. I'm very sorry for the way I treated you. It was wrong, and I want to make things right." I sighed and took her hand; she let me. "Angela, do you know what happened?"

"I must've slipped," she said. "The doctor said so."

"My son, Marco, was looking in on your niece. He said that she was afraid that your husband was trying to do you in."

Angela looked at me, and I saw pieces fall into place behind her eyes. "Giovanni?"


Just then the door burst open and the doctor rushed in. "Ma'am, was yours the red sedan?"

"Yes, why?"

"It's...well, it's on fire!"

"Oh my God!" I shouted. "Angela, I'm sorry, I--"

"Go," she said, looking concerned.


As I watched the car burn, Dante came up to me. "Thank God, I saw it from the window. What happened!"

I didn't know. All I knew as I watched paint crackle under the heat, and heard the squeal of tires on the street, was that there would always be people who suffered misfortune...


...just as there would always be people who brought misfortune on others.

Zuperbuu, I'm 99% positive that they've included SecuRom, but there are ways of getting around it if you're concerned that it's going to rip your computer apart.

Wow am I stupid. Thanks, that worked perfectly.

My sim, who I just created and whose house I just built, can't make group meals beyond lunch meat sandwiches, gelatin, and chef's salad. Her cooking skill is maxed out, her fridge is base game, she has plenty of food. I can't understand what's wrong. The options are just missing.

I used a technique to edit the config file with Free Time and everything works perfectly, except I can't fulfill get-a-pet wants (Obtain a Kitten, Obtain a Puppy, etc.). Regular pet wants (buy a birdcage, buy a food bowl) are just fine. Does anyone else have this problem with Free Time and is there a way to fix it?

Wow. That's really all I can say. She looks really great!

I liked Unleashed, too, but I found Pets to be a really underwhelming reincarnation of it. I would recommend Seasons; almost everyone I've heard from was impressed with Seasons.

Well, I did it again. You might say I've become a serial Sim killer. I made a new character in Desiderata Valley and wanted to move her into one of the premade homes. I chose the Bell house. But then I didn't want those pesky Bells ruining everything, so I bought my sim the crate of axes and the incendiary bomb.

Long story short: RIP Hannah, Motoko, Daniel, etc. etc. The little kid took the longest to die; he was dancing in flames for about ten minutes.