The Tuckers: Round 5 / Martin Marries & More

I lost my satellite internet since my last update due to some crazy lightning that defied surge protectors. After some scary moments of crackling inside my house, I'm just thankful to still have my computer, which happened to be on. Anyway, we could have paid for replacement of the fried equipment (not really keen on exact technological terms for what fried - the box with the flashy blue lights, lol). But anyway, we have been so unhappy with Hughes.net for so long, that this seemed like a sign to get out and save ourselves some money. Dial-up is cheap, although slower and less reliable. Blogger hates my dial-up more than it hated Hughes.net. But, I will just deal with it. The good news is that DSL may be coming to my area sometime this year.

So, Apple Grove updates may have to get a little smaller for now. I cut out half the pictures this time, which actually is probably better anyway. You don't really have to see every promotion and aging spin, do you? LOL These type pictures are boring, but I'm in the habit of taking them. I can still take them as reminders to myself, but the updates might be more interesting without some of the more typical event photos.

Here we are at the beginning of Round 5! I'm always glad to see the Tuckers again.



The Todds, Martin's mother, stepfather and baby brother, moved into this farmhouse at the beginning of Round 5 with his Aunt Aloe and cousin Belladonna. See all the mortgage shrubs? Yeah, that's how they were able to afford such a nice place. The general consensus was that if there wasn't room in the house, Martin would have no reason to ever look for the love of his life, get married and have babies. Yes, just call me General Consensus. ;)

Mark Bigfoot remained at the original house despite Martin's inappropriate behavior toward him in the last update. Hopefully, it was an isolated incident.



During the first day of our visit back with Martin, his now ghostly parents Sam and Natalya both made an appearance - probably because there was a new resident. Sadly, there was no scaring and after this strange falling down display by Sam who died in platinum of old age (which makes the falling down thing kind of melodramatic), they just respectfully floated around upstairs.



This is Jill Natale. She is the future Mrs. Tucker. She has really bad taste in hairstyles, but we can fix that for less than her $1.



Jill wants to be friends with all of Apple Grove, or at least literally half of them.



Today was the first time I am trying a new "Monday Madness," a.k.a Jar Challenge. I just rounded up a whole bunch of ideas, printed them off, and put them in a large ziploc bag. I figure every Monday the current family should get a surprise or challenge. If I'm feeling especially "generous," an individual sim may get an additional reward/penalty from the jar that week. The Tuckers Monday Madness said they had to adopt a cat or kitten. I decided Cyan was a good choice, although later realized she's an old kitteh, and may not be with them very long. Oh well, at least she will have a good-ish home for her remaining years. I'll try to make sure we don't let her starve. I'll admit that unless I'm getting actual points for the pets like at the Hamilton's house, I'm going to use the automatic pet feeder and self-cleaning litter box.



It's that special day, so I thought some shopping and a hairstyle change would be good. Jill hates her hairstyle for the wedding, but that's just too bad.



Here are some of the wedding photos taken on January 1, 2014. Yes, it was New Year's Day which seems to be a strange day for a wedding, but the time reckoning must be trusted, LOL. Surprisingly, Martin's family showed up in the a.m. on time without hangovers.



He does, she does... yada, yada, yada...



Man and wife...



And lots of toasting. You know the story - same old, same old...



And they are off to Twikkii Island for their honeymoon. I love how Martin goes in the french fries costume. He had to call in sick at the last minute in order to get the time off work.



Jill takes the opportunity to practice the hula.



I put this picture in here to give you an idea of where they are in the next picture.



And so they got right down to business... I wish I could say fixing the appliances. I really was surprised, and a little disgusted with them. It just seemed they could have gotten a room - you know, like the one at their vacation home. ACR is an adjustment for me. Sims do not have the best judgment, as you will see throughout this update. I guess that makes them seem somewhat more human. Well, some humans, anyway.



Once the fooling around was over and the appliances were fixed, the Witch Doctor still seemed to be having the same meltdown as he was when Rose and Violet Hamilton were there recently.



Martin told the Witch doctor that he didn't care about his aspiration crisis, and that he'd better hand over the voodoo doll. He told him that he had mastered the art of ax-throwing while on vacation at Three Lakes, and would be glad to take the doctor out back and let him be the target for a demonstration. His threat worked and got his voodoo doll, and then the witch doctor said he was going home and left the lot. Weird. I wonder if he will even be there the next time someone vacations in Twikkii Island.



Martin discovered that after a very short fire-dancing lesson that he could perform for tips even though he hadn't completed the lesson. Unfortunately, he repeatedly set himself on fire when attempting it. He did still get some tips, though, even though there was some booing involved.

The good thing to know is that your sims can get the memory of learning fire dancing before they actually finish all the lesson. I haven't playtested this, but it's possible that if you quit the lesson and then check your vacation memories, the memory will be there. I noticed that happened with Martin and Jill. The only problem with that is that they have to pay again if they want to continue the lesson until it's finished. It's good to know, though, because if you have a large group of sims it will be almost impossible to get them all fully trained in fire dancing. If you're just after the memory like me, it may be worth experimenting with this idea.



Tours are a great way to ruin your sims' moods, and I always seem to choose the wrong answer on the chance cards. I usually wait to send them on a tour until they're already tired and miserable since they're going to be when the tour is over. I missed reading what happened this time, but whatever happened made them take turns barfing.



When they got back from vacation, things weren't much better for Jill. She just wasn't feeling that well, and her job as a law firm receptionist got to be too much for her that day - that and setting down the same vase of flowers OCD that sims seem to have made her finally pass out.

Even though Charlie moved out with his wife Catherine to the farmhouse, he seems to have forgotten where she lives.



Yikes! Cyan has claws that will shred solid marble, so try not to upset her, OK?



Watch out, Charity! Don't anger teh kitteh!



Swift was born running, literally. Swift is the offspring of the Tuckers' two adopted mutts, Pooka and Izzie.



While Charity was there for a visit, Martin realized he had an extra law career podium in the basement and figured the Bowdens might be able to use one. Thank you, Martin! ;)



Mark Bigfoot built what he calls Metalfoot - basically a metallic version of himself. Looks like he got the head on backwards on the first try, though.



And here was have the source of Jill's sickness, little Artists. Yes, Artists is her name.



Cute. Births generally get announced with a nice birth announcement in Apple Grove, but I'll just blame it on the Martin and Jill. They are incompetent. Yeah, that's the ticket. ;) That's also why there was no wedding invitation. Her birthday was March 24, 2017, BTW.



The Tuckers are now running a sweat shop in their basement for the purpose of soon opening a business.



On Friday night, Martin and Jill went on a date. They were gaining some vacation memories locally at the mini vacation lots. Jill loves to wear her pajamas everywhere.



Jill, you weren't supposed to carve Jill + Martin on the tree rings display. That's supposed to be an educational and historical display. Hey, what happened to your pajamas? I'm thinking that after log-rolling she got confused and accidentally put on her everyday clothes. :P



Uh, Devan... this is not Charles. I thought you and Charles were getting pretty serious. This seems like cheating. I guess ACR does keep things interesting.



Awww, Martin loves his little girl.



I love the bouncy seat. Artists pretty much lived in it throughout her infancy. Too bad toddlers are too big to use it.



Here is the business Martin opened. It's just a tiny store across from his house. I love how there can now be random cars in the parking lot.



Here is the inside of the store. So far they are only selling a few crafted and found objects. Notice Jill is still in the pajamas.

Good, because this reporter-ette named Lisa Pons showed up and started making trouble from the moment they opened the doors for business at Tucker Toys & More. She was irritating the other customers and causing them to lose loyalty stars, so I was really surprised to see her with a pen and paper taking notes. If she had given a bad review after sabotaging the business, I may have had to direct her to the nearest cowplant. It's a good thing I didn't have Daniel Brown marry her, as he had dated her before he married the countess. Despite a 3 bolt attraction, dating her had been such a chore for Daniel. It took forever to get a dream date from what should have been great chemistry. I'm so glad I encouraged him to move on. What a horrible woman.



What do you want, Metalfoot? Peace of Mind? I like that you are now platinum. Now back to the basement with you to make more toys!



Martin invites his next door neighbor and best friend Charles over. He's going to make him an offer he can't refuse.

Yes, please. Take the puppy.



Jill doesn't need to wish for woohoo now that there is ACR. Silly girl. She and Martin are constantly getting plenty of that.



I made sure Jill changed into actual clothes before heading to church, but I forgot to check Martin. *sigh* They're like children. You can't take them anywhere.



When it comes to sims and hugs, it is almost always more blessed to give than to receive. They don't believe in the golden rule of "Do unto other as you would have them do unto you." If they did, there would be no hugging, because they don't want to receive hugs, only give them away - like kittens.



I searched the lot for a sim that looked the part, and sadly this guy came the closest to looking like he could give a sermon. Maybe I should have taken him to a barber first to get rid of the old guy emo hair.

"And it came to pass that when the creator was five years old, she crashed into her house while learning to ride her bicycle. Her father had failed to teach her the meaning of brakes, and so the words "pedal backwards" were given no heed when she thought her arms would surely stop her."



"And it came to pass, that the creator had from a young age had an interest in playing the violin. And it came to pass that when the creator was four and ten years, practicing the violin had become exceedingly vexing onto her. It was at this time that she was given to make a choice between art and violin, not having the available credit hours to study both in the grade of 9 due to a physical education requirement. And it came to pass that she chose art."

Wow, this sermon is painfully boring.



"...thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife..." Ok, well these two are out of earshot over in the reception hall so maybe they can claim ignorance. Cassandra isn't married yet, but she is supposed to marry Morgan, not this Jimu Outhouse guy that she just met.



This was a lot of work, but finally for a brief time I was able to encourage (i.e. force) all the sims to sit down in the meeting thanks to using the debug made. The church members of Apple Grove Church still didn't appear to be paying attention to the sermon or refraining from talking, but at least they were seated.



Sunday is now a day of rest for the servants. Poor things can take a break from the sweatshop in the basement, only now they have to take care of the baby. Apple Grove has not yet progressed to having civil rights for creatures that are not actually counted in the neighborhood census. For now they must be useful servants to their masters.



Awww, Artists is a really cute toddler.



Oops, risky woohoo is risky. Well, actually it's ACR, which means if you have room for any more sims in your house and you don't watch carefully, they could try for a baby at any time, and you might be too late to intervene. ;)



I cleaned up the place a bit to get a good picture before we move on. As you can see to the right, a greenhouse was added to the property during this time. The graves of Sam and Natalya have been relocated behind the greenhouse. Because of the new chapel and the upcoming city hall, and well - the town graveyard where Sophie Fletcher was married, all the wedding decorations from Catherine's wedding to Charlie Todd have been sold. Future weddings in Apple Grove will generally not be held at homes, but at one of those three community lots.

Scoring: 2 points for adding Jill and Artists to the neighborhood, 1 point for Charlie earning all his Lifetime Aspiration Benefits, 1 point for Jill's Fitness hobby plaque (she had it in her inventory when she moved in - wow!), and progress was made toward having all the creatures bonus by adding Metalfoot - only a werewolf and a zombie between me and that 5 points. The total population of Apple Grove is 45. The current population is 43.