This is my first time doing an actual Apple Grove post here.  Previous Apple Grove posts have just been linked to Blogger.  To see more posts on Blogger, here's the Table of Contents for Apple Grove.

Anyway, I'm finally back to Apple Grove.  Even though I played the Miguel family back in March, I'm just now getting around to blogging about it.  Maybe I'm tired of Christmas? :P  Anyway, I decided to go ahead and write it, whether or not it's a very interesting story.  And, it just isn't, trust me.  But what can I do?  The Miguels are flat broke.  They can't even afford a Christmas tree.
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My apologies for taking almost 3 months to update. It doesn't seem like it's been that long.  If you want to read the whole ugly story, here is the Table of Contents on Blogger.

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Warning: contains Don Lothario

I just have to say that Don Lothario is not my favorite, and that I really don't approve of his lifestyle choices.  Nevertheless, he is Don Lothario, and I should probably let him be himself instead of shoving his head into a ReNuYuSenso Orb and making him into a Grilled Cheese Sim - as much as I may want to.

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Well, it's something I'm trying to do.  Real life has been a little tough lately - very stressful with some family stuff, so I just haven't been in the mood to do any sim blogging.  Now I'm more in the mood, but I just don't have the time at the moment.  Very soon - like this week, I hope to have achieved some sort of balance between work and play so that I can write again.  Don Lothario's story is virtually finished - it has been for a couple of weeks.  I just have some finishing touches to add, but just haven't had the brains to do it. 

Overall, I'm feeling so much more positive.  I have a real determination to improve my physical health that I've never had before.  That's really what has been taking up the majority of my time and thought the last couple of weeks.  I feel very much like a different person - at least on the inside.  I've been exercising my butt off - literally.  On the outside, I'm sure I look exactly the same.  But I know that I lost 3 pounds from my first week's efforts, and expect to have lost more when I weigh myself again on Wednesday.  As much as I love simming, it isn't exactly slimming, LOL.  I have to find a way to do it incrementally, and not sitting for a long period of time.  But, I think it's quite possible to discipline myself better so that I can still have fun.  I hope to be back to writing, playing, and reading blogs again sometime this next week. 

This is just a teaser for the Pleasantview part of my Uberhood, which I plan to blog soon. I'm currently editing the photos of Don Lothario.

So, instead of being a good girl and working on Apple Grove or my UGG Legacy, I've started an Uberhood.  Well, I wanted to feel better after my Desires of Desiderata Vally went belly-up because Marcel Jocque became irreparably glitched.  But from playing in that style of fulfilling sims' wants, I decided I want to play all the pre-made hoods.  I downloaded all the awesome cleaned-up templates by meetme2theriver and made an Uberhood with Belladonna Cove as the main hood, and the other neighborhoods as sub-neighborhoods.  So far, I've played Don Lothario.  I've never been a Don fan, but I really enjoyed playing.  I will be trying to play the houses in the recommended order.  I'm also going to be using a more Maxis look for this project.

Poor Marcel is stuck in the ground.  I can see his plumbbob, and his wedding ring is on the ground - spinning.  I've tried everything I can think of, including killing him off with the intention of resurrecting him, but he can't even be killed.  He is invisible and stuck in the ground.  I've never had a problem stump me quite like this one.  So, unless I can find a solution, I guess this version of Desiderata Valley is over.  I may start another at some point, but right now I'm really discouraged.

So, my Sims 2 game started crashing yesterday whenever I used CAS or a mirror to change a sim's appearance.  I really don't know how to fix this.  I'm not sure what caused it.  Could it be a recent download, or could it be that I used SimPE to replace face templates?  It happens in more than one neighborhood - not just the hood that I replaced the templates in.  I'm considering taking out all my cc, and seeing if it still happens.  Then if that fixes it, I can have the fun of going through all my cc again to put back everything I really want to keep.  Joy.  I probably should have done this anyway, but it's just so much work, you know?  I'm sure in the long run it will be worth it, but still.

Cecelia Jocque - Before


Cecelia Jocque - After

I was surprised in my last DV update when Sophia and Marcel Jocque produced a toddler that looked nothing like them.  It was also funny and ironic that Marcel's eyes got stuck like this for awhile after he saw his scary daughter.  Marcel is still electrified in the second pictures after his run-in with the trash compactor. ;)  He must be a sticky sim, because if it isn't one thing, it's another.  It's a good thing that I actually find these strange effects to be amusing bonus features of the game.

Anyway, meetme2theriver let me know about the broken face templates for Sophia Jocque, as well as Violet.  I wasn't sure if I wanted to fix them, leave them alone, or just start over at that point.  Last night I decided to just go for it.  I downloaded meetme2theriver's fixed templates for Violet and Sophia as well as strange_tomato's fixed Jessica Picaso.  I'm grateful to both of these awesome simmers for taking the time to create fixed versions.  I also extracted Marcel Jocque in SimPE.  I made a new Jessica Picaso and a whole new Jocque family in CAS in a test neighborhood, and rolled the pacifier until I was happy with a new - definitely unique-looking Cecelia.  I then used SimPE to extract the face templates from the newly made test neighborhood sims and and went and replaced the face templates in their Desiderata Valley versions with the fixed versions.

This is my second Maxis makeover home from Desiderata Valley.  This is the Jocque home.



If you've ever played Desiderata Valley, then you will probably remember this house.  I really don't like how it looks.  The obvious idea would have been to use the humongous attic area for more living space, but I just really don't like that roof, and the front of the house is very plain and flat.  Then there's the other problem of the uneven lot edges which I flattened using the Lot Adjuster.

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