Life With The Smiths

Hey, folks. I've finally managed to go a few days without updating the site here, which is a good thing for me...it was starting to become an addiction, and I don't need anymore stuff consuming excessive amounts of my time right now. Spent this Sunday doing a bunch of physical labor for the first time in a while, and the blisters on my hands are making this typing a pain...but the show must go on! I did get the leak in my bathroom ceiling fixed this weekend, though, so it did have it's high points.

Well, there were big changes in the MonkeeSims social structure last time, as Kevin Wilson (Smith) moved out of the Wilson house, then married Kammy Wilson, effectively forming a whole new family in the neighborhood. It's a relief for me, since the Wilsons had seven people in their house when the couple still lived there, which is more than I care to manage most of the time. Now the Smiths are free to do whatever they like, and won't get neglected while I'm busy trying to send Kitty and Julie off to Studio Town to work before they get fired.

Speaking of doing what they like, Kevin realized it had been pretty much never since he and Kammy had gotten out of the house and done something fun together (I don't recall seeing them do anything fun together at the house either, but that's another story). Kevin decided to resolve this by calling up the Old Town shuttle and heading off to the pet emporium. Weird choice of place to go for a first date, but it beats doing nothing.

Kevin: "I could really go for some chow right now. Get it? Chow...?"

Kammy headed off to go look at all the exciting attractions while Kevin left her alone to go do his own thing. He had another surprise in mind, though nothing quite as spectacular as his long overdue proposal. He headed on over to the adoption center, where he took a quick glance at the pooches and cats, then hopped over to the register. It's not hard to guess where this is going...

Kevin: "I'd like one dog, please...and make that to go..."

Kevin selected a little German Shepherd pup (at least that's what it most closely resembled), and he adopted it moments later. The pair started bonding right off the bat, which is longer than it takes for most folks to take a shine to Kevin (I don't know why, though, since he's supposed to have fairly decent social attributes). Probably a pretty smart move on Kevin's part. Now that she's married, Kammy probably would have started nagging Kevin about having kids, and a pooch will probably distract her from thinking about that for the time being (at least as long as she's busy cleaning up after it).

Kevin: "I shall call him 'Buddy'...that's original..."

Well, there's no way of telling if Kammy was distracted from thinking about having kids or not, but she did take a liking to the idea of having a pup pretty quickly. She ran off to the pet supply store and immediately started picking out collars and chew toys in an effort to win Buddy's favor. He's a dog, Kammy...he doesn't care what he looks like or what he chews on...but I don't want to spoil all of her fun. Heaven knows she can use all the fun she can get.

Kammy: "Oooh...a pink collar...is pink too girly for a boy dog?"

Luckily, Kammy opted not to torture the poor pooch with an identity crisis brought on by a pink collar, and opted for a more masculine color (I can't remember which she actually chose...do you care?). Having had enough time out of the house in the whole twenty minutes it took to adopt Buddy and buy his goodies, the pair headed home. Wow, that was some date, guys...way to go, Kev! Kammy quickly put on Buddy's collar before any pesky sim fleas could start hopping aboard her furry friend. Kevin stood off to the side and looked like he was pouting...

Kevin: "Hey! I wanted to put the collar on him!"

Well, it was back to life as usual, whatever usual means for the Smiths now (they've only been married a few days, so they can't have much of a routine yet). Only a day or so after the couple brought home Buddy, the phone started ringing off the hook with people asking if the Smiths wanted to adopt a baby. Kevin made sure to do all the phone answering so Kammy wouldn't accidentally answer one of the calls and do something dumb like saying "yes".

Kevin: "A baby? Heck, no! I can't even get my dog housebroken!"

The Smiths actually slipped into a more or less normal looking lifestyle, and if you didn't know where they'd come from or all the drama they'd been through living at the Wilson house, you might think they were a normal family. Well, eventually, the honeymoon was over (that's just a figure of speech, since they never actually took a honeymoon), and the money Kevin borrowed to start this whole new lifestyle started to wear out. Kammy and Buddy had needs, and as the head of the house, it would soon be up to him to figure out how to continue fulfilling them (sounds kind of boring, eh?).

Kammy: "How can we throw big parties here if we don't have any money?"

Well, Kevin wasn't creative enough to devise an at-home money making scheme like "Moon Dawg" and his gnome stand, or Peter Miller and his paintings (still selling for about five bucks each). No, he did the unthinkable - he fired up his PC and performed an online job search. Even more unbelievable, he actually took one of the jobs, something none of the sims in the MonkeeSims neighborhood have done since the McGregors. The job he took was that of a slacker...now that I can believe.

Kevin: "A slacker? Heck, I have tons of experience doing that..."

While it was never so important when they were living at the Wilson house, Kammy decided it might be a good time for her to learn how to cook a little bit better so she and Kevin wouldn't have to eat three plates of food at every meal to get full. Meanwhile, Buddy did his part by inviting the neighborhood strays over to hang out at the house, probably in an effort to liven the place up. Well, nothing accomplished that quite like when one of Buddy's little pals peed on Kevin's shoes while he was standing in the bathroom. And we all thought he was going to use the toilet...

Kevin: "I'm not mad, I'm just a little pissed..."

Well, the next day was Kevin's first day at work, so he decided he better stop doing nothing and head off to bed so he could be well rested. Kevin does actually have some skills, so it's possible he was hoping to snag a promotion on the first day (don't we all?). Unfortunately, everything seemed to be against that. Shortly after he first hit the sack, El Bandito started banging around on the trash cans and woke Kevin up. Kammy harshly berated him...poor El Bandito.

Kammy: "Shoo! Go back to Clint's house, you mangy varmint!"

Well, that wasn't the end of it. Shortly after Kammy went to bed, something strange took place at the tombstone in the back yard (did I mention there was a tomb stone in the back yard?). The ghost of one of the former residents of the house decided he'd taken enough lying down, and decided to stretch his legs. Of course, he wasn't exactly quiet about it, and he woke up Kevin once in the process of snooping around. I tell you what...ghosts have no respect when it comes to haunting people's houses...

Ghost: "I love what you guys have done with the place!"

Yes, after such an exciting night, "morning" came much to soon. I call it morning, but from the looks of things, it's still the dead of night. Looks about like it does outside when I roll into work at 6:30 am every morning. Yes, after all of the excitement the previous night, Kevin absolutely couldn't wait to head off to his first day on the job.

Kevin: "Groan...I just can't wait to go to work...so it will be over and I can go back to bed!"

A wife...a job...a dog...wow, I think I underestimated Kevin's potential during his early days with the Wilsons. Granted he still has a long way to go before he's sitting on top of the world, but you have to take these things in baby steps. Oops...did I say baby? Sorry, Kevin...didn't mean to pressure you there. Anyway, that's enough for now. Next up, we'll see how the Wilsons are doing without Kevin around. You can pretty much bet that the family hasn't fallen apart or anything. See you next time!