University - some of the early lessons

Wait, where are the pics of the kids growing up?Why is this straight to University.

Well, I didn't think to take any baby/toddler/child pictures of Lydia, or Miranda in this family. Nor Gerry or Jenna Posinson. It wasn't until later that I got around to taking pics of toddlers and children.

Gerry and Jenna Posinson were the first of my Sims to go to University. Gerry only just made it, he was about to grow to adult when I got and installed the new EP. I made several mistakes when I sent Gerry and Jenna to University.

1. I didn't know to have him ring and apply for scholarships. For every skill they reached a certain level, they could earn a scholarship and there were some bonus scholarships too.
2. I didn't think to have Gerry put a few things in his inventory to make life better at University
3. I should have left his little sister Jenna home a few more days
4. I should not have sent as many other Sims as I did from the home neighborhood. The Pleasant twins and a couple other teens went. They ended up in spare dorms and it took 2 generations for the Pleasant girls to finally get out.

I didn't realise that they'd want their good friends and relatives to go to University too. Gerry wanted his best buddy, Ricky Cormier to go. Jenna wanted a townie called Sterling to go - Sterling was moved almost immediately to a spare dorm and never progressed at University.

Lydia Testing went fairly soon after Gerry but she ended up with some scholarship money. So she rented a house and converted it to a Greek house. It was interesting, in real life, I'd never step foot in a Greek house. In Sims 2, I loved that Greek house far more than the dorms and all my Sims would end up Greek after a short stay in dorms unless there was no room at all. Lydia also brought a townie with her, his name was William Cormier (no relation to Ricky).

So here's the gang at the Greek house


Lydia has brown hair, a dormie called Zoe is the blond, Ricky Cormier is in his blue PJs, the black haired guy is Gerry and the blond guy is William. In spite of being born in game, these seem to be the only pre-adult pics I have at all of Gerry. Lydia did get a few more pics at University.

Ricky Cormier ended up being the first Sim I ever had inducted into the Secret Society. When the girl arrived and handcuffed him, my first impression was "Wow, Ricky, that's a bit kinky" I think all the Sims that finished University did make the secret society before they graduated. The requirements weren't that hard.

The Testing Family - the beginnings

Vanny Testing was the first Sim I created for Sims 2 that I stayed with.


Vanny was a fortune sim and he taught me a lot about business. At first it was how not to run a business. Our first attempt was a home shop and he went broke because I couldn't set prices etc. Since his life time goal was to have 5 top ten businesses, it was a long uphill battle to get him there.

He pretty much married the first female Sim he met and got along with. She happened to be Florence Delarosa. I hadn't heard of the Legacy Challenge or I might have done the research to find that she owned a business and was considered a wealthy Sim. When she moved in, Vanny had no more money troubles.

Vanny and Florence had 4 kids. Lydia, Miranda, and the cheesecake twins Lucy and Larry. Here's a pic with the twins


Poor Florence nearly died when pregnant with Miranda. Lydia was still a toddler, Florence was very hungry and ate some bad food when I wasn't paying attention. Between the morning sickness and the bad food, she very nearly starved to death. Fortunately Vanny could make meals so all she had to do was eat when the next meal was done. Preggy Sims died easily in Sims 2, they starved quite easily.

Lessons from my first resurrection

I had University on my computer long enough that the oldest gen 2 had graduated.

Then one day I left Neo Posinson checking the family business, a venue with a hot tub.

I forgot that the game would not pause when he got there and wandered away from my computer. I got back just in time to see the family home reloading. I was pretty sure what that would mean. I had just killed Neo.

Sure enough, his wife Jean and toddler son James were completely devastated. The teenage twins Timothy and Tabatha were randomly crying. Child Harold was sad but kept his head in a book as usual.

Daughter Jenna was at University and a member of the Secret Society. She had access to a Resurrect-o-nomitron - the phone to the Grim Reaper. I had her use it and Grimmy said she didn't know anyone who was dead.

Lesson one - young adults at University can only resurrect other young adults

So she put the phone in her inventory and took it to a shop that the college students owned. I tried to have her older brother use it and he couldn't even touch it.

Lesson two - no resurrection on community lots

Finally Gerry took the bone phone home and successfully resurrected his dad

Lesson three - resurrection == instant addition to the current household
Lesson four - resurrection == reset of the Sim's age back to the start of that life stage

Neo was suddenly a few days younger than his oldest son. Plus his marriage with Jean was broken and their dates weren't going that well. Then Gerry and Chris had twin babies and having Neo around was very helpful. So Neo stayed there for awhile.

Fav stories from Gen 2 - Harold, Tessa, James and Neil

Harold and James Posinson were the 2 last children of Neo and Jean. Tessa Landgraab was the youngest daughter of Malcolm IV and Fatalia.

Harold was the first to land at University.  Tessa was a year behind.  They dated a bit but the attraction between them wasn't that strong.  So they split up.  Tessa started dating an SS member called Sam.  Harold started dating around quite a lot.

A year after Tessa started University, James came on the scene.  The youngest son of Neo was gay and looking for a permanent boyfriend.  He managed to get into the Secret Society and there met Neil.  Neil had been declared hot stuff by several of my girls but he wouldn't talk to them.  He fell for James when James tried chatting him up.

Harold was inspired by his baby brother to try boyfriends.  He ended up engaged to none other than Don Lothario who was bi at the time.

Now things went along this way for quite some time.  But one day when Sam wasn't around, Tessa scoped the room.  And came up with James as being the hottest Sim around.  What a Landgraab wants, a Landgraab will get.  So Tessa went after James and took him on a couple of dates.  Soon James started finding girls attractive.  Tessa dumped Sam and got engaged to James.

Now that meant Neil was again a free agent.  Harold had thought that Neil was very attractive, but wasn't about to poach his brother's boyfriend.  Harold had already found out that Don was cheating on him, so he and Don broke up.  Harold starting dating Neil. 

This would be their permanent relationships.  After University, Harold married Neil and Tessa would marry James.  Harold and Neil adopted 2 children, Neil desparately wanted to adopt the first.  Tessa and James would have 2 children of their own.  And both couples have been very happy with each other.

Ricky Cormier

Ricky is a member of gen 2 because of when he went to college.  He was best pals with Gerry as teens.  When Gerry went off to University, he wanted Ricky to come along.  Grumpy Gerry didn't have many friends so Ricky went to college as well.

To date, Ricky is the only townie teen to go to college and graduate without ever once getting engaged to one of my born in game Sims. He romanced his way along, but he studied pretty hard and graduated with a 3.9 average.



Now once in the neighborhood, he lived alone for a bit.  Then the local servo moved in, but a servo loves to clean and cook and one Sim just doesn't need that much care.  So the servo got the boot.

During this time, I found out from the forums that a Sim could be gay or bi. Ricky was an obvious choice for testing, being an unattached romance Sim. The first few dates with guys puzzled him a bit, he'd give me an odd look before doing some romance actions. But before long, he was attracted to either guys or girls.

His next roommate was "Ugly Bill" Corsillo.
Bill was another romance Sim who made the mistake of flirting with the Landgraab heir at college. He was a very sweet and good natured Sim who had helped many of gen 2 get into the Secret Society.

He and Ricky made a great couple. Very loving and affectionate at home and pursuing every Sim of an appropriate age when not at home.

Fav Stories from gen 2 - Penny and Jessie

Penny Trefalton, love child of Fatalia and Vanny, grew up to be a romance Sim.  Due to a glitch, she ended up with an LTW of 50 1st dates (only pleasure Sims are meant to get this). As a teen, she dated 2 townie teens, one called Ted and one called Jessie.

When she was about to leave for college, her mom gave her the deed to the business she had owned.  It was a two story shop.  After Penny arrived at college, she wanted both of her dates to come along.  I picked Jessie to be her company at college.

When it was time for Penny to do some serial dating, she'd go to the business her mom gave her.  She'd work the business for awhile, chatting up the customers and looking for prospective dates.  When she had several good prospective dates, she'd close the business and invite the first one over.  Upstairs at the business there was a double bed and a hot tub that Penny had installed for dating.  She'd have 1 to 3 dates in a row.  Most of those dates would end as Dream Dates though a few didn't.  A lot of the time, Penny wasn't very interested in the date herself and would slowly go into green aspiration.

In the meantime, Jessie was following Penny from the dorm to the Greek house.  He adored his lovely Penny and never really asked anything more than to be with her.

When Penny was thoroughly in green aspiration, she'd ask Jessie over for a date.  Dating Jessie would also make her happy, they'd both be platinum by the end of the date.

By the end of her University time, Penny had gold badges in the business skills.  She had all the business perks (she sold and rebought the business multiple times).  She had earned a pile of money for the Greek House.  Plus she had completed her 50 1st dates and was platinum.

So after graduation, Penny and Jessie got married.  It wasn't until old age caught up with them both that Jessie would finally find out that Penny had a few other lovers around.  Jessie forgave her very quickly, he loves her too much not to.

Family Tree - sort of

Here's a doc with all my families on it.


After gen 1, the name at the top of the cell is a child from that family.  The name underneath is their spouse if they have married/joined yet.  If the cells are coloured, that means that the same family appears in another family tree because two born in game Sims got married.

I've also been tagging my Sim pics over on photobucket so you can just click a name on the left and get pics of that Sim on the right.