The Reticulating Splines

Hey, everyone, welcome back! It's been a few days since our last post, and I'm happy to report that I'm not feeling the pressure I once was to do updates daily. It makes the whole blogging process a lot more fun, not to mention it prevents me from having to scrape for time to post when it's just not possible. I just got back the other day from a two day camping trip, the first this summer, and it was a nice break from the norm (despite what appeared to be a bumper crop of mosquitos this year).

In our last post, I mentioned the upcoming reintroduction of some of our sims dating back to our original posts, however, I'd prefer to spend this post taking a look at some of the families native to Pleasantview. Actually, "group" would be a more appropriate term than "family" to describe these particular sims. Today's post takes us to the Omega Ampitheater, home of local garage band, the "Reticulating Splines". Facing the camera, we have blonde lead guitarist, Christopher Spline, and mohawked (is that a word?) Rooster Spline.

Chris is a firm believer in the "shirts are for suckers" school of thought...

And then, we have Shera Spline, the group promoter, and behind her, with the afro, her brother, Fozzie Spline, the drummer. The musicians' different specialties should be fairly obvious (unless you didn't read any of the last couple sentences), they basically stand up on stage and perform, while Shera's job is find people to actually watch them perform. This involves the difficult tasks of greeting passing locals, or heading out to different public hotspots and befriending people with the intention of later calling them to come watch a performance. I know...grueling stuff...

Fozzie: "I don't know, man, 'Eat My Shorts' was kind of a bomb..."

While most of the families in the neighborhood are introduced with the intention of occasionally socializing with others, the "Reticulating Splines", or "Splines", as we will henceforth refer to them, exist for but one purpose - to make the world a better place through music. Oh, and to drink "fruit punch" from the kegs out front. Shera is the only one out of the bunch who is any kind of people person, the remaining members are only allowed on stage or backstage where they live, as they are all about as unfriendly in person as a sim can possibly be. Hey, they're musicians, they don't get paid to make friends (or at all, for that matter).

Shera: "Maybe we should put up a wall so they can't dive off of the stage..."

Of course, when I've got sims visiting public places, nothing keeps the band members from showing up to cause trouble there, but nobody ever said life was supposed to be easy. Anyway, after some heavy duty band practice, Shera decided it was time to throw a launch party of sorts for the band. Granted, it wasn't a very big party because she had to basically pull people off the street to come watch the performance (plus, it just so happened the performance took place the same day the three welcoming comittee members decided to pay a visit). Still, there was a pretty decent turnout. Here, we see Jack Johnson from two posts ago talking to Elvis, whose last name escapes me (no, it's not Presley), then to the far right, Jamal Jameson in the purple suit, talking to Jennifer Smith, who appears to have mugged a clown and stolen his clothes.

...and everyone seems to have forgotten about the band...

Everyone seems so engrossed in their own personal interactions that the band may as well have been a great big radio sitting up on stage. It's been a while since I've been to a concert, but if I remember correctly, half the reason to even attend is to actually SEE the performers, but whatevs. Shera actually seemed to be getting a little too in to the whole promoting thing, and actually let her personal interests take over. It seems Jack Johnson's overwhelming charms had worked their magic on her. Can you blame her?

Jack: "You haven't even seen my junkyard yet, babe!"

Well, it seemed like things were going okay between Jack and Shera for a while, but she eventually either came on too strong, or Jack just wasn't interested, because he started getting annoyed by her advances. I guess the promoter line of work sort of taught Shera to use "hard sell" techniques when promoting herself, and they just weren't doing it for the easy going Jack. It could be that Jack still has a thing for Natalie Jones and isn't interested in playing the field, but again, Jacks' never really expressed a big interest in the whole commitment thing.

Shera: "Well, I didn't want to see your nasty junkyard anyway!"

It's also possible that we're just reading too much in to the whole thing, and forgetting that Jack, while undeniably charming, is also a little weird. Not long after he harshly broke conversation with Shera, he was witnessed getting in to a tickle fight with his good pal, Jamal Jameson. Now, I'm all about brotherly love and hanging out with the guys and such, but a tickle fight in the middle of a rock concert seems a little...odd. Stranger yet, with all the other sims downing party punch like it was going out of style, these two had yet to hit the pineapple, so we can't blame this odd behavior on being "under the influence"...

Jack: "Tee hee! I'm alwas so tickled by you, Jamal!"

Shera actually did have an admirer at the concert in the form of Jamal, although from what I've seen, he admires all the ladies. I swear, he reminds me more and more of Leon Jackson every day. Shera, however, showed no romantic interest in Leon whatsoever, probably because of his alarming resemblencer to her brother, Fozzie. Seriously, if you changed the clothes and darkened Fozzie's skin another shade, he would BE Jamal. Shera eventually forgot about Jack and ignored Jamal in favor of spending most of her time chatting with Jennifer Smith. Shera's job as a promoter involves just getting other sims to like her enough to come to concerts, not to form meaningful lasting relationships, but she was well on her way to doing just that with Jennifer.

Jennifer: "I think the ghost of Elvis is living in my makeup kit!"

I don't know what the deal with that teenage kid pictured above is, but all he did was gripe and moan and keep on having that little pathfinding bubble come up over his head. He was either having trouble finding buried treasure on the property, or couldn't get over the fact that he wasn't allowed backstage into the band's "private quarters". Hey, kid, deal with it. You can't always get what you want! Speaking of Elvis, Pleasantview's resident Elvis wannabe was present at the concert, apparantly for no other reason but to show how unimpressed he was with the performance. Considering his last musical efforts involved singing karaoke at the Free Time Lounge and clearing out most of the patrons, he has very little room to boast.

Don't be cruel, "Elvis"...

Since the main purpose of this whole party was for the "Splines" to get some exposure, and most folks weren't paying them proper attention, the least we can do is take a quick look at the band members in action. Here, we have Christopher, jamming away on his axe...

Christopher: "The next person to ask for 'Free Bird' gets a guitar smashed over their head!"

And then, we have Fozzie and Rooster, who must share a shot together since they lack the coolness Christopher posesses as lead guitarist. Just kidding...or am I...

Drummers and bass guitarists need love too.

Eventually, things started to get a little weird among the spectators. For a while, there was the usual babble, then some talk about flying saucers, then, things really took a turn for the bizarre when Shera mistook Jack for an alien and bit him on the nose (okay, I have no idea what's really happening in that picture, but they ain't sharing a kiss, in case you were wondering). If Jack hadn't already made up his mind about whether or not he was interested in Shera before, you can bet he has now.

Teenage Kid: "Are you sure you won't buy me beer?"

All things considered, the party was a decent success. Yes, there were only about five or six non-group related sims there at any given time, and no, the band didn't have Peter Miller to launch fireworks into the sky and almost blow up innocent observers, but the sims who came wound up staying well into the night and seemed to have fun for the most part (ignore the fact that the "Splines" never once took a break from playing, their comfort isn't really the primary concern when there's actually a crowd willing to stick around and listen to them.) The main goal was for the "Splines" to get their music "out there", and between the playing and Shera's schmoozing visitors, I'd say that job was accomplished admirably.

Jack: "Rawr, that clown over there is HOT!"

At this point, I have no idea what the "topic" of our next post is going to be, I prefer to sort of take a spontaneous approach to these things. More than likely, though, we'll check in on the "returning" sims I spoke of at the start of this post. If you haven't figured out who they are yet, well, I love you, but I can't help you. Spread the love, and I'll see you all next time!

A Sucker Every Minute

Ladies and gents, I'm pleased to announce that Monkeesims is now on Facebook. Of course, you won't find anything there that you won't see just visiting the site here, but hopefully the Facebook profile will help guide those poor lost souls who have yet to hear of MS into our fold. Anyway, today is my Friday, because I have Wednesday and Thursday off from work, and I know Tuesday night isn't a big deal for most folks, but I'm loving every minute of it. It's been a particularly long week, and not in the enjoyable way (allow me to pause so you all can pull out those violins...)

In our last post, we met Natalie Jones, and began following (in progress) her quest to acquire 20 simultaneous romances in an effort to achieve lifelong happiness. When we left off, she was getting friendly with "Junkyard" Jack Johnson, well on her way to making him her 17th romantic partner. Did she succeed? Well, only one way to find out...let's take a look at the scorecard below...

Seventeen down, three to go!

Yes, Natalie is well on her way there, and Jack just brought her that much closer. Only time (and this blog) will tell who the "lucky" final three will be. But enough about that for now. We have new business to attend to in today's post. It involves another of the families I've introduced to Pleasantview, a family whose members may or may not play a big part in the future of Monkeesims. I speak of the Schreck/Sullen family. Before we meet the actual family members, let's take a look at their home. As with Jack's place, we can learn a lot about this family just by looking at their upstairs bedrooms. Observe.

Was someone coffin upstairs?

Yes, you guessed it - the Schreck/Sullen house doubles as a funeral home! Okay, no it doesn't, if you guessed that they are a family of vampires, give yourself some points (but not too many). The head of the household is a charming chap by the name of Max Schreck, complete with fangs, bald head, and pointy ears, features not to be found on any of my previous vampires (although they should have been). Schreck has but one love in life, his books, which he spends every moment of every waking hour reading.

Yes, ladies, he's single! Rawr!

Yes, Max is a real charmer, it's a wonder some lucky lady hasn't scooped him up already. I guess there's no accounting for taste. Part of it might be the fact that he has never once left the house since he first came to town, and the only woman he ever sees is his "daughter", Alice Sullen. She's only his daughter in the sense that he turned her into a vampire and he's twice her age, no blood relationship though (aside from their mutual love of blood). Alice is a little bit of a cold fish herself, although she's fortunate enough to have hair and non-pointy ears.

Alice: "I could use a bite! Maybe I'll order a pizza delivery guy!"

Alice has a social life every bit as active as Max, which is to say none at all. Heck, the family rarely if ever takes the time to speak to one another, content to keep their noses stuck in their books. At least, that's the case with Max and Alice. There is a third member of the family, Alice's brother, Edward Sullen. I know what you're thinking, but no, I did NOT model Edward after Leslie Nielsen from "Dracula: Dead and Loving It"...

Real men don't sparkle...

Unlike the others, Edward isn't content to just sit on his vampiric keister and watch the world go by. He prefers to live life (or undeath, or whatever in his case) to the fullest. He's got nice threads, a sweet ride, and nothing but time on his hands. The only thing he doesn't have currently is someone to share it all with. Okay, so he has Max and Alice, but that's missing the point.

Edward: "I know flying places as a bat is more fuel efficient, but it's so hard to care!"

This seems like the perfect time to introduce everyone to the number one watering hole in Pleasantview, the Free Time Lounge (and karaoke bar). It's nothing special, just a humble little shack with a dance floor, a bar, and some couches. It originally featured a live DJ, switched to having a juke box, then eventually wound up replacing it with a karaoke machine. Here, we see one of the locals, rap sensation, Bodacious "Z", gracing the lounge patrons with his vocal stylings.

Even heavy cream makeup can't disguise real talent...

For a "professional" singer, "Z" was bad. Very, very bad. Thank goodness there was nobody there paying attention to him. Shortly after "Z" finished torturing the microphone, our very own Edward Sullen came waltzing (not literally, thank goodness) into the bar and pulled up a stool, quietly taking in his fellow patrons. It didn't take much time, since there were only two people there presently besides himself, and it didn't take long before Edward was engaged in conversation with Angela Baker, one of the locals.

Angela: "I'm totally into Muay Thai right now...!"

Things went okay with Edward and Angela. Not life changingly fantastic or anything, but not bad either. She did have a tendency to keep bringing up the topic of sports, something Edward had zero interest in (when you're already dead, the need to utilize athletics to stay in shape is somewhat diminished). Eventually, it was just time to move on, and it just so happened at that moment that our very own Natalie Jones wandered into the Free Time Lounge, in search of either love or liquor (or maybe a little of both). She immediately took an interest in Edward.

Edward: "No, I'm not a vampire, I'm a...a...genie! That's it!"

Despite the fact that I had no control over Natalie (really, who does?), she persisted in interacting with Edward repeatedly. Just when I thought she'd grown tired of telling jokes or making small talk, she'd come back for more. Luckily, she didn't do anything offensive like admire him, like so many AI sims are prone to do. I don't know why, but very few sims seem to actually appreciate admiration from anyone but their dearest friends (yet a backrub is still okay for some reason - go figure). The pair seemed to have pretty similar interests overall, and generally hit it off pretty well. Probably because she never mentioned her desire to have 20 simultaneous partners. Some folks don't want to be just another feather in someone's cap...

Edward: "...and I was like, OMG, lady, who cuts your hair, Leatherface?"

Well, despite her best efforts not to jump the gun, Natalie did eventually bring up the topic of romance, but if she was trying to send a hint, Edward wasn't biting (har, har). It's not that he's not interested in women, because Edward is all about the ladies, nor did he find Natalie repulsive. No, Edward is just one of those rare kinds of guy who likes to take a step back and takes things slowly, preferring to avoid haste at cost of waste. You know, the kind of guy who usually winds up spending Saturday night alone watching reruns of CSI...

Natalie: "You sure you don't want to make out just a tiny bit?"

Yes, ladies and gents, we've got an honest to goodness gentleman on our hands here. Way to go, Ed! Tough luck, Natalie, but guess it's time to keep looking for those "final three". So anyway, that basically wraps up this installment of Monkeesims for the evening. Coming up in a near future post, we find ourselves face to face with a couple who we haven't heard from in almost 80 posts. I won't say who, but I'll give you a hint - the guy's name sounds like a food, and his (dull) courtship posts marked some of our very first entries here at Monkeesims. Stay tuned!

A New Beginning

What a fantastic day! Not only did I get out of work early, but...well, do I really need another reason? That alone is enough, and now, the icing on the proverbial cake is that I'm here once again to grace the long abandoned Monkeesims blog with...what else...Sims! My son is currently busy chugging down a bottle and hopefully napping soon, so hopefully he'll see fit to grant me time to do this post before a diaper or other sort of emergency comes up. =D

Well, it's been an hour since I typed that last paragraph...no sooner did I finish the last line than my son started fussing and I had to put him to sleep. Guess I jinxed myself. Anyway, on to the Sims! As I mentioned previously, the original Monkeesim neighborhoods are no longer on my computer, but their residents live on in our previous posts here (and in the case of a select few sims, they live in the new neighborhood now). While there was something very familiar about spending so much time with the original families, there comes a point when things start to get stale, when they've "grown up" and done everything, and it just seems time for a change. Our new sim adventures take place in Pleasantview, one of the pre-existing cities in TS2. Let's meet our first family, the creatively named Jones family...

Natalie, Harrison, and Carrie

I know. Try to contain your excitement. Harrison and Carrie were the first adult sims I introduced into Pleasantview, along with their teenage daughter, Natalie. Harrison started a semi-successful career in the medical profession, until he got fired on his very first "chance card". Carrie spent the majority of her time keeping the house in order, cooking, and doing all the other fun tasks that basically keep a house running. Natalie reminded me of why I don't usually like having teens in a family - they generally take a lot to keep happy, have school work to do, and don't contribute much of anything to the household...just like in real life (okay, I don't really mean that...or do I?)

Well, Harrison managed to save up a decent amount of money before getting fired, so he didn't immediately go looking for another job, opting instead to spend his time hanging out at home with his family and pursuing his various interests. That may sound like fun for him, but I got pretty bored watching it, and I was forced to resort to extreme measures to make things a bit more interesting, namely, sending Natalie to college (because we all know that going to college just to escape a boring home life always winds up having GREAT results!). I won't bore you with the details of her college career, though, instead, we're going to jump forward post-graduation, and see how Natalie is faring as a grown-up in her own home. Oh, and you can forget you ever saw Harrison or Carrie for now, because they've yet to be seen since Natalie moved out (although the neighbors have yet to report a strange smell coming from their home).

Natalie: "Mom and dad who??"

While Natalie managed to graduate at the top of her class and all that good stuff, very little of her actual time spent at college had anything to do with studying...at least, not school work anyway. You see, Natalie has the bad fortune of being a "romance aspiration sim", my least favorite breed of them all (emphasis on the word "breed"). Being sort of a serial monogomist myself, I've always found myself trying to pair my sims with one other significant other at any given time (although we all know there have been plenty of exceptions to that rule here in the past). Romance sims aren't happy with monogomy, though, and even if their in a happy relationship with one other sim, they are constantly aspiring to "make out" or "woo-hoo" with multiple other sims, which can of course create problems.

Natalie: "I wonder who I'll make out with today?"

I've tried keeping romance sims before, but it's so hard to keep them happy without them having to "cheat" or having them come off as kind of slutty (I don't know what else you can say about someone who aspires to have 20 simultaneous lovers as their life-long aspiration). However, I do love a good challenge, so I decided to let Natalie stay single and pursue her "romantic" ambitions. Her parents would be so proud. One thing I failed to anticipate though prior to pursuing Natalie's "20 simultaneous lovers" ambition was the fact that there weren't a whole lot of eligible sims in Pleasantview to begin with, and about half of the sims I'd added to the town were women. Not to be one to stand in the way of Natalie's dream, though, I decided to let her "expand her options", and allow some hens into her henhouse as well as co...roosters, if you know what I mean (and I think you do). It was for the greater good, after all.

At last count, Natalie had 16 lovers on the hook, none of whom had discovered each other, and it was getting exhausting. It got to the point where she was needing to spend almost an entire day on the phone keeping existing relationship levels high, while having less and less time to devote to finding new "conquests". It got to where it was feeling a lot more like work than fun, and just reading about it now is even tiring me out a little. Luckily, there's more to this story than Natalie, so let's move on, shall we? Ladies and gentlemen, meet Jack Johnson!

Who says an old car hood can't make an attractive dining surface?

I'm not talking about the singer, obviously, I don't care for him that much and really have no idea what he looks like. No, this is Jack Johnson, the most easy going sim in Pleasantview, Archduke of doing nothing, Lord of the listless. He arrived in the neighborhood around the same time I was getting tired of keeping up with the work involved in realizing Natalie's dream. He represents the opposite of hard work and ambition, spending his days pursuing fun and whatever "goal" happens to tickle his fancy. It's impossible to talk about Jack though without first discussing his living conditions. Remember our post from way back when that featured my sim, Shaggy Rogers, who lived at the abandoned public pool? Well, Jack lives at an abandoned park/playground, which isn't that much better. Observe...

Jack is a collector of sorts. And by "sorts", we mean junk.

It's hard to truly capture the majesty of Jack's home in such a small picture, but you get the general idea. His yard has the look of a post-apocalyptic wasteland, minus the radioactive mutant survivors. The former bathroom now serves as the actual "house" on the lot, complete with all of the comforts of prison.

It's a gross place to visit, but you wouldn't want to live there.

The truly strange thing about Jack's property is this: while to your average human observer, the place looks like a dump, Jack and visitors to the property consider the place an aesthetic paradise. I guess the game only pays attention to the overall value of the various "decorations" on the lot, and takes no notice of the questionable arrangement or use of them. Aside from a few random items just put there for looks (like the cars), most of the litter in Jack's yard actually serves a useful purpose at one point or another, despite the fact that it looks like a tornado was responsible for the layout. As night begins to fall, Jack's humble domain is transformed from private junkyard into Pleasantview party central...

So much better than partying at the actual dump!

Yes, despite a selection of much nicer places to hang out in town (not by much, I'll admit), the majority of the "in" crowd sims were always too happy to accept the nightly invite to come hang out at Jack's place. This probably shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, I've known plenty of people who would sit smack dab in the middle of a giant pile of elephant dung if it meant free booze, and Jack always had plenty of "party punch" on hand. The way people suck the stuff down, it's a good thing none of Jack's friends ever drive to these parties (come to think of it, I believe there is only one actual sim-owned car in the entire neighborhood, so most sims don't have much of a choice). The punch was only one of the major attractions, the other being the "bubble blowing" machine.

"This party totally blows...bubbles!"

The two guys on the right side of the bubble machine there are Jesse and Elvis, and on the left, we have Jack, and a fella who bears an uncanny resemblence to Leon Jackson (that's not his name, though, I honestly don't remember who he is, not that it matters at Jack's place). Despite my inability to remember his name, the Leon looking guy is actually one of the more frequent visitors to Jack's pad, not just during the evening parties, but during the more subdued daylight hours as well, during which he and Jack would sit across from one another and discuss the state of the economy and exchange nuggets of philosophical wisdom (okay, that last part is total crap, but he does stop by). Another of Jack's actual friends is his good pal, Butto Cooper, pictured below eating rotten pizza by candlelight...

Butto: "Some call it rotten...I call it extra flavorful!"

Jack doesn't pick his friends based on their eating habits, as you can probably tell, although he has very little room to poke fun at anyone else for anything based on...well, everything about him. Now, when Jack throws his parties, he doesn't do it as one might expect with the "throw party" action, because then everyone leaves after only a few minutes. No, sir, Jack places each call individually, extending his invite personally, and if someone he invites wants to bring along a friend, well, all the better. One of his friends, Dale Cooper, did just that, and the friend he brought along was none other than our own Natalie Jones. Funny thing too, because I don't recall her and Dale ever meeting while I was playing her, seeing as how he's one of the few remaining sims in town she hasn't bedded.

Natalie: "I'm sleepy. Wanna' go to bed?"

I joke about Natalie, but despite her unsavory aspirations and less than stellar local reputation in Pleasantview, she's one of my favorite sims. Despite Dale constantly cheering on Natalie while she played pinball, it actually wasn't enough to convince her to start up a romance with him. Wow, if that doesn't do it, what WILL? Natalie actually went home before a lot of the party goers, due to the late hour, and the fact that with 14 other people there, it was impossible to get to the bathroom without it being occupied. The next morning, however, while Jack was outside looking at the monumental mess of cups and half eaten pizza in his "yard", Natalie happened to walk by, and was greeted by Jack. There was a bit of casual conversation, then that's when the magic happened...

Jack: "Hey, there's something on your butt...my hand!"

Charming, eh? It's like something out of Romeo and Juliet. I expected Natalie to give Jack "Summer teeth" for the little @$$ grab maneuver (you know..."summer" over here and "summer" over there...), but apparently, one of the many ways to Natalie's heart is through her butt. That sounds bad, but you know what I mean. Now, while Natalie has been in (and technically is still in) many relationships in Pleasantview, she initiated the majority of them, and for the most part, they were instigated with the intention of getting closer to that "20 lovers" goal. Jack was the first to actually initiate things with her, and the results were fast and undeniable.

Jack: "So wadda' you say, do I get to be number 17?"

Yes, even on Jack's grass free, dusty, trash strewn yard, where nothing else can grow, love is capable of blooming. The question is, is it the real deal, or is Natalie just smitten by the fact that for once, someone has put the moves on her instead of the other way around? Will she forgo her mission to achieve her life-long dream of having 20 simultaneous partners, or will she settle down and make something of what she has with Jack? Am I reading way too much in to this, considering they only met one day prior to Jack putting the moves on her? Only time will tell!

Well, it feels good to have posted again here, and I plan to do it again soon, though not necessarily on a daily basis. Next time, we'll look at some of the other locals I've added to Pleasantview, and see how their paths unexpectedly intertwine...or something like that. Until then, peace and simminess to all!

A Future for Monkeesims?

Well, it's been quite some time since I put fingers to keyboard and graced these pages with anything new, and for fairly good reasons. The biggest reason, of course, is that the Sims 2 was accidentally erased from my computer some time ago, and I lacked the necessary discs to get it up and going again *sniff*. The second reason is that I have a one year old now, who's occupied a lot of my time when I'm not at work these days, time I'd have normally spent playing computer games back in the day (such as our beloved Sims 2). Well, things change, right? =)

My much younger brother came to visit a few months ago and stayed with us for quite some time (an adventure that would have made a great Sims post if only it had happened to his sim likeness rather than the real him). He brought his Sims 2 discs with him, and got me interested in playing again. There's something about the game I really love that just never gets old. Maybe it's the simulated human drama. Maybe it's the triumph of the simulated struggle for survival. Or maybe I just really enjoy mercilessly manipulating the lives of tiny simulated people. Whatever the reason (I'm going with the latter), there's something that keeps bringing me back.

"But Majik", you say, with a look of disbelief, "people are playing the Sims 3 now, Sims 2 is old news, baby!" Well, old it may be, but I've yet to move on to the Sims 3, mainly due to hardware issues (aka ancient sucky computer) and lack of funds to purchase the new base game and a bunch of expansions. Yes, TS2 is good enough for yours truly, and it's been good enough for the majority of the existing Monkeesims posts, so why mess with a good thing?

Anyway, I'm pleased to announce that I've currently begun populating Pleasantview with my own "unique" residents, and the drama is beginning to unfold, to the point where I've been feeling the sim blogging bug rearing it's head to bite me. As of now, the only Sims from my originally featured neighborhoods are Marty and Kitty Wilson, everyone else is brand new. But don't worry, new doesn't necessarily have to mean boring (my Sims all know I demand a certain level of drama from each of them, otherwise they get "the bin").

So, look for Monkeesims to hopefully start getting updates very soon here again. My son still takes up a good deal of my time, and my wife uses our PC quite a bit these days for her photo related blogging and business, but despite those things, I should still be able to find time to get a post up here and there, after all, doing this is what I love (and hopefully there are others who still feel the same way who will stumble across these hallowed pages and get something out of it). =D