My poor Pollards really are on the back burner. I’ve lost interest in them, in part because the save is still throwing back weird glitches at me, and I think I’ve done enough to salvage it already. I’m ending it with Marion’s 18th birthday.

I’ll save them to the bin and perhaps continue as a random legacy, or just let Marion rest for a bit. I like her face, so I’d like to use her for something. Maybe even – gasp! – write a story. But I’m not making any promises.

Here she is with her bluebird.

Remember Raven Black, the vampire Marion tried to woo? She was too filthy for him to take an interest last time we saw them together.

“I’ve taken a bath today, you can kiss me now!”

Done and done.

“So are you a nice young man, besides being a blood sucking freak?”

“Of course, Mr. Pollard! And I mostly eat plasma fruit. Mostly.”

Someone just maxed their career!

Portrait of Marion.

Seems to be missing a part. Maybe we’ll give it another go.

Gnome fest.

The witch gnome has an oddly sweet little face.

Am I the only one who lets their sims read the paper? Not daily but often enough. I just like how it looks.

Moonlighting is supremely dull.

I don’t blame the bartender for giving up her place behind the counter so easily.

Marion & her bestie.

Spring festival moves

I saw this sweet cat by chance, she’ll be the mother of Lirim’s kittens for sure. Lirim means Freedom in Albanian. Random, I know.

With her sibling.

Riley is being really annoying and picks fights with everyone (inappropriate trait).

Oops-a-daisy

She looks like she has a bad tooth ache.

Amazing dress sense, as per sim usual.

For a babysitter, you have a cute face.

Ghostface killah

Self-portrait is nearly done.

Hi Fred!

yep yep

Time to grow up!

Cake time!

Should be no big surprises here.

Nope, still gorgeous.

And that’s it for Pollard. It was a lot of fun until I had to leave Rugged Harbour.

Oh, and this is Lirim’s son, Bondi. After the beach. Again, random.

Thanks for following Pollard! I’m still active on Absolutely Cuckoo. See you there. 🙂

Aherm, sorry for disappearing on Pollard for a month and a half, buuuut..

Actually I have no excuse.

Last time, the only generation 5 baby was born, Marion, and since this legacy would be fast paced – if I remembered to update – she also grew into a child. Mischa died for the umpteenth time but this time he stayed dead. He fulfilled his generation’s goal of bringing electricity and indoor plumbing to the household. He did not succeed in mastering potions however, because he was always singed. Always.

Stephanie didn’t have to max out her career as a musician (symphonic) but she did anyway. I’m not counting points for skills, just generation goals. And maybe gnomes. Because gnomes count.

They just do.

Now where were we? Right, Funny Face found a friend.

And Wolf found a relative.

Hartigan is working on his goal of maxing mixology, and earning the ability to moonlight at all bars, clubs, and lounges, as well as level 10 of nectar making.

There’s just a technicality left from that goal since he maxed nectar a while ago, he’s sooo close to maxing mixology, and should be able to moonlight everywhere now, I just don’t have the shot from the lounge yet. In all honesty I don’t have all the bar types in Eltham’s Drift because it’s a small town and all those lots slow down the game, so there’s a dive bar, a local hangout, a poolside club and a vampire lounge. In any case, the lounge is supposed to have the pickiest staff, so if he can moonlight there, I win by default.

Awkwarrrrd.

Not the hippest crowd, but I can’t help loving scientist man, having fun all on his own in a corner. Also, this club is so bright it looks like a hotel lobby.

Stephanie bragging about her mad conductor skillz.

Aw noes! Stephanie goes.

She had a long, good life – extra long because my save failed so many times.

And poof, a new witch gnome emerged from thin air, just like that! I never got one before so I was a teensy little bit excited, even if Stephanie died. Rest in peace.

Marion rescued a bluebird from one of the cats.

Awkwardest shoulder hug everrr.

Newspaper – who has the time for it?

I think they bought Napoleon gnome from the consignment shop.

One of the club guests went into labour, so Hartigan took her to the hospital. She drove her own taxi because why not.

“Take” to the hospital means following stranger around like a little puppy.

She managed very well on her own, thank you very much, and Hartigan got the “it’s a baby!” moodlet. I don’t recall the gender.

Wifey Riley is aiming for life in outer space. She really doesn’t deal with people well.

Funny Face

Some party or other. Riley needed to invite her boss over for.. tofu dogs.

Hartigan hits middle age. And why yes, Riley is inappropriate.. their relationship isn’t all that great actually. If I don’t watch her like a hawk she picks fights with everyone.

And Marion becomes a teen.

Still not sure what her traits are, sorry. I’ll get back to you. Genius and something.

As mentioned earlier, she looks just like Riley but with Stephanie’s hair and dad’s pointy ears. Also dad’s eye colour.

Romance with a babysitter isn’t happening, however.

And Riley is middle-aged as well.

YAY FOR FOURTIES!

This proposal is seriously overdue. He proposed so many times and the save crashed and crashed, and then I forgot that they STILL aren’t married yet.

Spoiler: she said yes. Again. But they still aren’t married. Just engaged.

So this is Fred. I’m so proud I remember which cat is which.

So this is the…eer.. Squadron Leader Uniform. I had to look that up. It’s level 8.

They key to successful army life is a really comfortable bed. And a hot tub.

Look at Marion! Isn’t she precious?

I may have to spam a little bit.

For an only offspring I think I hit the genetic jackpot.

She’s even prettier than Riley.

“WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?”

Oh nothing much.

general cat spam

because snout in snow

raccoon is stealthy

It’s Christmas time in Eltham’s drift, and Hartigan invited the alien he met in the garden, LOL. I never thought he’d come.

Not sure why everyone looks toward the door in shock and befuddlement.

All these face one people, where do they come from?

I’m guessing Riley’s co-workers.

LOL that alien though

I don’t know why I think that’s so funny, but I somehow never could picture an alien sitting cross-legged on the floor.

Someone needs a drink. Christmas parties tend to do that to you.

LTW done & done! Maxed mixology & owns a bar (The Chalk and Gown)

Marion will have to choose between criminal & law enforcement/P.I career and whatever she chooses, logic is a good skill to have.

So this is where Hartigan fulfills the goal of the generation.

Impressed yet? (Btw this looks like a gay old school lounge, hence dancing men in the background)

Well how about now?

Nailed it.

Still no burglar alarm *sigh*

So stealthy, sneaking around with a huge umbrella in bright porch light. Because why use the back door, where it’s dark?

DON’T TOUCH MY GNOME HEADSTONE! Don’t you dare!

THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!

CAT! ATTACK HER! CLAW HER EYES OUT!

The time machine? Really? Mischa worked hard on that.

YEP.

And then the cop came ( by phone call), and wasn’t completely useless!  Le gasp!

Marion tries to persuade hot vampire guy to go with her to the prom, but she’s too late and mid flirting he’s off to the prom by himself.

Well, at least he was still single afterwards.

Marion! Really? This might decide your future path.

Baked angel food cake, don’t you just love your guests when they bring that?

Wolf passed on, but he lived two full lives, if you remember, he was given an elixir of youth at one point. So he was at least 70 years old combined – he was born while Thyra was still alive.

Here he is as a kitten (lying down) with his sister Molly & mum Maggie. RIP

Pregnant woman who is no longer pregnant threw a party, and Hartigan was obviously invited since he tagged along to the hospital.

So this is the object of Marion’s affections, Raven Black. YES GAME CHOSE THAT NAME, and it’s hilarious. He has terrible vampire clothes, just terrible.

And he rejects my baby!! Wait till I get my hands around his sorry little neck.

OK so she’s surrounded by green cloud, so what? Stink is only skin deep!

She tries all her tricks but what she really needs is a bath.

Prom photo before I forget.

Fred is old. 😦

And we have an abundance of gnomes. The latest addition is the troglodyte gnome.

Marion has a BFF, Selina. 🙂

I don’t know when that happened exactly.

*giggle* RAVEN BLACK! Can’t get over it.

She also got a job and a promotion. Good girl.

So I guess now they can get cellphones & a TV! Also a video camera, but I’ve never used those, and workout machines and arcade games which I will probably not use either.

Generation 4 is ALL DONE!

So last time I guided you through all of my fails trying to get Hartigan & Riley married and have a baby. They tried several times and finally moved to Blue Bayou, but I wasn’t really happy with that either.

So I reloaded the buggy Rugged Harbour save to start over from there, and then THIS happened:

I was about to let Mischa fix the broken teleporter and I forgot he was already singed from the stupid chemistry set.

REALLY?

Aw man.

Shittiest watcher ever.

“Dad!?”

OK, OK, I get it, you don’t have to rub it in, I fucked up alright?

Now is not the time or place to lament the broken teleportation pad, Hartigan!

It was a very fitting death for a scientist, and he was old after all, so I was about to go with it, but then that save crashed.

Next time, I didn’t let him fix the broken teleporter.

So he had some fun with sparklers instead, celebrating life!

They fed the omniplant robot toys. Pretty cute.

I was unsure what to do next. I really wanted to take the chance to start afresh in a world I hadn’t played in before, but I’m picky, and I want something that could last for the rest of the challenge.

And I really wanted Rugged Harbour to work out after all.

I had to accept that it didn’t. So then I stumbled over the world Forever the Fifties, which I chose not so much for the chance of playing gnubb with Doris Day but more that the houses, the layout and landscape looked really pretty.

 It had a nice big lot overlooking the sea, so that was a good start. I just plopped down the old house there.

I was so happy with how the town looked that I ignored the obvious lag. And I started downsizing again. Away with all metro stations, killed off some townies, deleted all the celebrity ropes and unnecessary cash registers. Away with all tourists, animals and most traffic.

So I played for a while in Forever Fifties – they really should have given the town a more blog friendly name, by the by.

Why would I even keep the pictures from my failed saves? I guess because of all the hours I put in. I rebuilt several community lots and built some from scratch that weren’t there. Never got around to take screenshots of them, sadly. One was actually really cute. *wistful sigh*

I played there for at least a sim week.

The family tree between Funny Face and Fred was broken when they moved, so I let them have kittens together. They are cousins really.

The kittens didn’t survive the next move.

Nor did the 7th or so baby.

Every single time he was born with the traits Hates the outdoors locked in. Weird.

I called him Mandrake, because why not. He grew up looking like the spitting image of Rylie, but with Mischa’s colours and ears.

So why couldn’t they make it work in Forever the Fifties?

Well… because of this, for one:

If it were only once, but the errors kept coming, every day, several times every day. Not even glitchy old Rugged Harbour threw that many errors, not even after 4 generations. So that was a bad omen.

Stephanie grew old and offered sandwiches to her carpool. *facepalm*

Mischa died a second time.

Right outside his workplace.

But he had a surprise for Grim..

I honestly forgot about that death flower he was carrying.

Funny every time.

He was pretty stressed out after that, naturally.

I really wanted to make this town work. It was really, really pretty.

Mandrake grew up there, even.

But what’s one sim week, after all. The town was laggy as molasses. I had to move. Again.

My trusted old friend Eltham’s Drift by neuroticrobotic, I have played so many saves in this town, it never lags and it’s just all around a beautiful place with a few premades (which I always keep, I’m more attached to them than some players are to the Goths probably).

I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get to play in something new and shiny (or old but untried) but I had zero energy to encounter lag again, so I chose Eltham’s Drift because I know it works and it has a lot by the sea.

Still no bathroom in the house.

And then.. Mandrake got buggy. It sucked, but I had to make Hartigan and Rylie have their baby an umpteenth time.

So much poop!

Bye, pretty face.

I had to move them to Eltham’s drift AGAIN, this time without a kid and earlier in the save AGAIN. Also without the old house, because I’m afraid it was buggy too, and it didn’t really fit the new lot either.

So I built them this beaut of a giant cottage. Yes, I’m a great builder I know. *takes a bow* At least it’s decent on the inside.

Gnomes ready to invade the new garden.

New house has four rooms, as per the rules, one for each member of the family. Hartigan, Riley, Mischa, Stephanie. Cats: Wolf, Funny Face & Fred.

I didn’t bring the kittens, or rather, they weren’t born yet.

You can start paying attention now, because it was the last move, WOOHOOO! Fourth time is the charm!

Love the ninja music box. There should be a pirate as well.

Stephanie: “It’s nice to be young again, at least.”

Mischa is done with his generation goals, except discovering all the potions, which I’m working on, but since it almost always ends with an explosion and being singed for 24 hours or so, I’m not sure he has the time for it.

Rylie is doing pretty good in her military career, and I guess Hartigan is about level 6-7 mixology and nectarology respectively.

Stephanie is closing in on promotion to Conductor. Again…

With only four rooms I didn’t want to use one of them as a bathroom only. Besides, I’m used to having a tub in the bedroom now.

The only thing I’m not crazy about in Eltham’s Drift is the custom weather. The sky is almost always overcast, which in combination with actual Seasons weather sometimes makes it dark as night in the daytime.

It hurt a bit to leave all those money trees and omni plants behind, but planting a new garden is fine, it’s not like they need the money.

Eltham’s Drift has four bars, I think. One lounge, one club, a dive bar and a hangout. No sports bars, thank cod. I don’t like sports bars.

EA really could have made good nectar recipes easier to discover. I use a cheat list all the time, because making “terrible” nectar with premium ingredients gets old fast. I’m not very good at maths, admittedly, but with 16 possible ingredients or so, 10 fruits to add and 50/50 almost never resulting in a good nectar, it’s just too tedious to try all the combinations. A very exact number, I know, “too tedious”. 😛

FINALLY A NON-GLITCHY PREGNANCY.

Still not married though, so that kid will be born with the surname Gross. Poor child.

Stay tuned! Next chapter will be an actual chapter where time isn’t all wibbly wobbly.