Part 7 | Stray No More

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INTRODUCTION

Welcome to another part of my Midnight Sun Challenge blog! It's a new sim year which means that it's summer time currently. We're up to week 7 and things have been going great lately! I don't think there will be any ageing up this week by the way. Enough rambling and on with day 1 then!

WEEK 7, DAY 1

We're back to day 1 yet again. Now that Lyle's a young adult, I really want him to focus on mastering guitar so that he can complete that lifetime wish of his. The girls are working on their usual skills today and Bao is painting to get us a few thousand simoleons.

Isla's sleepy so she's going to bed. Lyle and Bao might take a little while before they decide to though.



It's a few hours later and Bao's done with his painting, which is worth 1,663 simoleons. As you can see, he needs some sleep too.

Marina's up to work on her chess. Lyle's still going.

He looks like a zombie now so I think it's a good time for him to rest up.

She just earned 913 simoleons from book royalties. This writing is starting to make some serious cash.

Some lovely sim decided to crash their boat into our houseboat.

Everyone's getting breakfast besides Lyle who's going to be sleeping for a while.

Isla's daily fishing trip is now underway.

Marina's level 7 in logic thanks to her being a Genius sim.



Bao's working on another pricey painting.



Lyle's up and it's already night time again. He's making himself useful by cleaning this bathroom up a bit.



Lyle is feeling lonely so instead of talking to himself he can go chat with Isla, which I feel like he hasn't done in quite some time.

Why are they so cute?

Here's his new painting which he's already painted like 5 times. It's valued at 1,536 simoleons. He also completed the Brushmaster skill challenge. This means that he's painted 30 paintings and will paint much faster now which is actually really useful. I'm going to test that out and have him paint something else.

All 3 of the kids are working.

That was all that happened today. Nothing massive. I'm expecting that we might gain a few more skill levels tomorrow, but we'll see.

WEEK 7, DAY 2

It's early in the morning again for my sims. Everyone's up working on their skills, including Marina who is normally asleep by this time. Today they'll all follow their daily routine.

I decided to change the exterior up a bit. It put them down to 7,000 simoleons but I think it was worth it because of how bored I was getting with the old one. It's still basically just a box (since we need to make the most of the space we have on this houseboat) but I think it looks kind of okay.



2:00 AM and Marina's just about finished up downstairs. She's eating some mac and cheese before she heads to sleep.



Bao made this new painting which I think is gorgeous. I'm also liking how these new windows look.



Isla's heading to bed too at almost 4:00 AM.



Bao's tired but he's got to fix this all-in-one bathroom which Isla broke before he gets to sleep. She just has a thing for breaking these bathrooms.



Lyle got to level 7 in the guitar skill. He's heading to sleep soon.



Looking off into the distance...

2:00 PM breakfast... She'll carry on with some chess after that.



And fishing for Isla of course.



Bao's up and painting. Lyle's going to be sleeping for a while longer though...



Isla's showing Marina some cat videos. After that they'll go back to fishing and logic.



Lyle's finally up and he's probably just going to play his guitar some more. Not much else for him to do.



Another brilliant painting made by Bao of course.



Bao's cleaning the place up a little now.



Man hug.



So I completely lost track of time! Today is well finished. We got up to 9,783 simoleons today which is pretty good seeing as we were at about 7 k earlier.

WEEK 7, DAY 3

I'm starting this day kind of late since yesterday went a bit over, but oh well. It's probably going to consist of a lot of sleeping and skill building.

Isla's enjoying a nice tofu dog before she heads to sleep like everyone else is.



They're just playing in the sand like always.



Your boat looks a little stuck there, laptop girl.



Hooray, my game crashed! I'm kind of worried that this is going to become a regular thing for my game. I'm also worried that we might have lost some gameplay...

Okay, so we really didn't lose much. Maybe just some sleeping, but nothing significant at all.

I decided to move the houseboat back to our port since I think we've been away from there for long enough. It's just helpful to be near it so that we can collect things off the island easily and such.



So here we are! It feels good to be back, but kind of weird after the time we spent away.



Bao and his son are just eating some mac and cheese together. It's about 4:00 PM now and our teenage twins shouldn't be asleep for much longer.



Marina's having her first mood swing I believe. She's definitely not half as bad as Lyle was as a Teen though.



Quick update, Bao is painting and Lyle is getting some guitar practice in for tonight. Bao is actually 89 sim days old now, which is quite impressive. Just a warning though, he won't be around forever.



Isla's up at 6:00 PM, so she's grabbing 'breakfast' and going night fishing.



Marina's solving the unsolvable. Let's hope she can solve it this time.



Marina failed of course, so she's going to try again and see how that goes.



Here's Bao's newest masterpiece worth 1,750! Hopefully the next painting he works on will also be one.



Marina solved the unsolvable! It made the family 107 simoleons which is not bad at all. She looks kind of disappointed though, for whatever reason. She can just have a chess match now on the computer since that normally cheers her up a bit.



The day is officially over. They've all turned into quite the night owls, so expect them to be sleeping through the day and waking up in the evening like vampires for a little while. I don't think any skill levels were gained today unfortunately, but that's to be expected as your sims get higher in their skills and the next skill level becomes harder to achieve each time. They have a grand total of 11,801 simoleons as of the end of today, which is pretty nice. 

WEEK 7, DAY 4

It's the start of a new day and the kids will surely be up for a few more hours. Nothing unusual will be happening today really, just the same old skill building.

On second thoughts, I might have a plan for something that Marina will probably like. I was looking around online and found that if you build a relationship up with a stray animal, you can adopt it into the family. Since Marina's an Animal Lover, she'll love that! I looked in the challenge rules and there was nothing that specified adopting stray animals was against the rules. It just said don't interact with mailman or paparazzi and don't adopt children. 
I'm not sure that the raccoon is going to be too happy about us taking his friend, but oh well.



Never painted that one before, Bao...



Marina found a lizard worth over 600 simoleons which I sold.

Well, the raccoon won't even let us get near the cat, so I either delete the raccoon or I just give up on the cat and get her a minor pet.



Well I deleted the raccoon and it still isn't letting me interact with the cat. I give up for now.



This has been a pretty disappointing time for Marina so she's just eating a tofu dog and going to bed.



Bao and Isla are eating some breakfast before they both head to bed too.



How many times has this man peed himself?



Lyle is not happy to be cleaning this up...



Lyle tried making waffles twice and burnt them both times, so he's just going to have to eat a tofu dog.



It's about 3:00 PM and Marina's up. She's going to try befriending the cat again.



She's finally talking to the stray! 



We don't know him/her very well yet but every interaction counts.



This woman has been standing here watching us the whole time... Anyway, Bao and Isla are up and after dinner they're going back to their skills.



Before Bao and Marina head back to work (Isla's already fishing) I'm having them make some food since we ran out.



Marina solved the unsolvable again for 165 simoleons! 



Lyle got up to play some more guitar.



Today is over. We made some good progress with getting our relationship up with the cat. Skill building went well like always.

WEEK 7, DAY 5

Day 5 is already here. I'm really, really hoping that we can get just a few skill levels up today and maybe get closer to adopting the cat. We'll see what happens I suppose.

Marina solved the unsolvable again and earned 144 simoleons from it. She's heading over to the little island to talk to stray cat again. 



I think having the cat in the household will break up the monotony a little. They seem to be getting along quite well so far.

Here's Bao's painting he's been working on. It's worth 1,983 simoleons which is really expensive. We're at 15,066 simoleons now.



It's Leisure Day, but every day is like Leisure Day here.

They're finally friends! I don't see an adopt option yet, so it still might be a little while before we can have the cat in our household.



Marina's really sleepy now so she can head back to the houseboat to sleep now.



Bao painted this really pretty masterpiece. It's worth 1,907 simoleons. He completed the Master Painter skill challenge which means that he's painted 5 masterpieces, which means that his paintings are worth a lot more now. I'm very satisfied with his work today so far so he can go have some rest now.



Isla's lonely so she's telling Lyle a few jokes. After that she's going to bed like Marina and Bao. Lyle's going to bed soon too.


I'm getting Marina up a bit early so that she can play with her future pet again.



They're going to play on the bridge for a couple of hours.

She's picking up the cat for the first time! This is kind of adorable...



Bao's rummaging around in the fridge to find some food. After he's eaten he's going to test out his new painting ability.



They're best friends now! I still don't see any option to adopt come up though, so we're just going to carry the cat to our house and he/she can live there.



After placing all of the pet stuff for the cat it looks like we attracted a stray dog here! I'll have Marina get to the best friend status with the dog too so that maybe it can stay here too. Let's hope that the dog and cat will get along...

I looked around online and found that the adopt option should have come up by now at the relationship we're at with the cat, so I'm going to add it to the household with testingcheatsenabled true.



It's actually the cat's birthday today! She's a female and she's going to become an elderly cat.

Lyle's just playing his guitar.

This is what our elderly cat looks like now. We'll pick a name for her tomorrow. Marina went to sleep as you can see.

Bao finished this brilliant quality painting worth 1,831 simoleons which is definitely a step up from how much his brilliant paintings were earning before. These skill challenges are actually quite helpful.

That's today done and dusted then. We got up to 18,867 simoleons today which is amazing! We'll have to do some upgrades for the house eventually with that kind of money but for now we're just going to save. I'm really happy that we have a pet for Marina to take care of now (and possibly another on the way) since she is an Animal Lover. Today was quite successful in my eyes.

WEEK 7, DAY 6

Today is our first day with the stray cat in our household since we adopted her. We're going to work on getting that stray dog in the household too today with Marina, as well doing the usual skill building for everyone else.

So I named the cat Ginger. Here she is with her scratching post.



Lyle got to level 8 in his guitar! 



Although Bao has pretty much completed everything the painting skill has to offer, he's going to continue painting as a good way to keep our household funds going up.



It's Ginger's first night sleeping here on the houseboat. I've gotten rid of the pet house that was there since we don't really need it indoors and can't fit it outdoors. The stray dog also unfortunately left so I guess that plan is destroyed. Marina can just play with her new cat and work on logic today instead. I've been having her focus more on logic lately rather than writing but when she masters logic we'll go back to writing.



Isla mastered fishing! I had no idea that she was already that close to mastering it. Anyway, that means we just have to focus on getting perfect fish for the moment and then her lifetime wish will be complete! She's in an awesome mood so she's going to continue fishing until the sun comes up.



Theresa's visiting to congratulate her I suppose. We haven't had a ghost visit from her in ages!



We got a new raccoon I guess.



Napping on this bed again...



Bao's created another painting worth 1,796 simoleons.



Theresa, ghosts can't eat!



Marina's awake and she's ready for breakfast while Bao is just heading to bed now.



Just solving the unsolvable.



Isla got really hot outside so I might just have her cool down in here for a minute.



She failed... Back to chess then.



Next level in logic! Level 8 to be exact.



She broke yet another all-in-one bathroom. After she fixes it she can just rest up.



Ginger's playing on the rug.



He's really getting into this guitar thing.



Lyle's bed time.



I had Marina find this bird here which she decided to give to Isla to put in her room.



Marina's getting some food before she goes to sleep.



Also a little cat nap for Ginger.



Bao's the only one still awake at this point. That means everyone is getting back into a normal kind of a sleep schedule (besides him).



It looks like Bao's time has come. I wasn't expecting this to happen today, but I guess that's just how things are.



He looks pretty damn surprised too.



Here is Bao in his new ghost form.



And here comes the grim reaper for the second time.



The poor kids are watching their father finally join his wife Theresa.



And the grim reaper is off, leaving the kids absolutely devastated. 



I engraved his epitaph with Here lies Bao Collins, random Chinese painter guy.

Everyone is so sad.



I put their graves side by side and I put the random one we found on the bridge over to the right.



But yes, that concludes today. I really wasn't expecting that death today. I kind of forgot that he was going to die sometime soon. Anyway, everyone's going to be in a super terrible mood for the next 2 days so look forward to us dealing with that... Bao was a great father though and I think that it's awesome he can finally be with his wife, although this does mean that the kids are on their own now.

WEEK 7, DAY 7

After yesterday I'm not expecting my sims to get much done besides sleeping and crying. They're quite shaken up by the whole thing.

The grim reaper's using our computer... This isn't a good time grim reaper.



Isla and Lyle are hungry so they're just sharing a meal. I just sent Marina to bed and I'll do the same with these two after they're done.



First plenty of crying of course...



Isla's up and just playing with her bird for a little while.

Marina just woke up and actually looks fairly happy.


Even Ginger's mourning Bao...

The sisters are just watching some TV for today. I know they won't be able to get any work done today so they might as well. 

Lyle's joining in.



Ginger is as well.

She's dreaming about fish and lobster...



They're just dancing around to some music now. It's good for them to just have a day off every once in a while.



Just evilly laughing at her father's death...?

Marina's taking care of Ginger for a bit now while Isla and Lyle just chat on the couch. 

The cat's just taking care of her other needs while Marina watches some TV again.



Marina's eating some dinner right now, but I've decided that she's going to be the new cook of the house. The reason for that is that she needs to master 3 skills to achieve her lifetime wish, so cooking can be her third and her other two will be writing and logic obviously. Cooking is also a super useful skill, so that's my plan. She's going to start working on her cooking tonight.

Marina burnt some mac and cheese, so on that note I'll get everyone to go to bed since it's about 10:00 PM now.

That's really all for today. It was just a day for them all to talk and have a good time together. We're at 20,776 simoleons currently which will be enough to live off for quite some time, but they're still going to get back to their skills that they enjoy to continue boosting our funds.

CONCLUSION

Another week is now completely finished! I'm going to be installing a mod for my game called the Register mod which I think will get rid of all the paparazzi, tourists and animals coming to the island. It was fun for a while but now I'm just finding it frustrating having sims constantly yelling and causing havoc outside our houseboat. Since the original raccoon is gone now and we have Ginger in our household (the former stray cat), I just don't see the point of keeping all that stuff on anymore. I hope that makes sense. 

Anyway, we had another death this week and a new addition to the family (our cat) which I would say is kind of eventful. Next week I think will be far more action-packed though, so hopefully I'll see you then. Sorry for any stupid mistakes as usual and I'll be posting again soon. Bye!

EDIT:

I will be delaying the next post by 3 days because of it being about twice as long as usual. Sorry for the delay.

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