The Journal of Phillip Grant - March 21

The Grim Reaper has been exceptionally busy around town lately. He's been claiming many elders around the city, some we don't know, like this guy that died at the pub.

Others we do know. Malia, my oldest brother's wife, died yesterday. Then my sister's husband Malcolm died early this morning. I think my siblings will be following their spouses soon.

An advantage to owning a pub is that you get to see people a bit more often. Like my nephew, The Shrimp. He has taken to muttering "Jerod, damnit," if I actually say Shrimp to him. Needless to say, Shrimp he is and Shrimp he'll always be.

It's not surprising to see him here, he always has been a bit of a party boy. Give him a drink and a dance floor and he's very happy.

My teenage daughter, a teenage boy and a hot tub. Should I be worried here?

No, I shouldn't. It will be fine. Penny and Nick are both good kids and the hot tub is too close to the house for them to get up to too much mischief.

Apparently life with Kari is driving Vincent to distraction. Honestly, playing for tips in a park way out of town in the middle of the night? He must be doing it to stay out of the house, surely Vincent knows you'll never get many tips at that place and time.

I've mastered painting but I'm still not happy. I want to create a few masterpieces. So far, I've managed to create some brilliant works of art. However they don't quite cross the line to masterpiece.

Someday, I will get there.

Stephen worries all the time about every little thing. Just home and he's already fretting about homework and about all the sinks in the house.

It's hard to say if the breakup with Abbey was a good or bad thing. She's just the same about worrying, if they lived together, would anything but sink and stove checking ever be finished or even started? They would understand each other on those worries though.

Stephen is gaining a lot of confidence at mixing drinks. His party drink are usually just fine to drink now but we've learned to check carefully before drinking the skill or romance ones. Drinking the badly mad ones is very hazardous to your health.

We do pay for a lot of broken glassware. Stephen has mastered the toss up but not the catch on the way back down.

Penny is a bit of a socialite. One day she brings a boy home from school. Today she went home with a boy called Dustin.

She practices her charm on all of them, at least a bit. Still the only one who has ever been around the house more than once is Nick.

Stephen and Abbey worked through their issues and are now BFFs. I'm glad that they are friends again, Abbey is a lovely girl.

Brad and I have decided to have a joint birthday party for them tomorrow, they are pretty much the same age.

Brad and Em are nearly down to one teen in the house. James had his birthday recently.

He's still Ronnie's official boyfriend but they don't have much chance to see each other. James has a job and Ronnie takes her school work very seriously.

A beautiful view and a gorgeous wife to share it with. What more could any man ask for?

Penny went looking all over town for Nicolas and finally found him outside the hospital. She arrived in time to see Kari and Vincent headed in.

While she was chatting to Nicolas, Kari came out with our first grandchild, Miriam Grant.

Penny told us the news about Miriam the moment she got home.

Much later, she had a chat to Vanessa.

Mum, I have a problem. Can I talk to you?

Of course, sweetie. Do you want me to wake your dad?

No, it's about a boy and you know Dad gets a bit weird about us and boys.

Ok. What's the problem?

It's Nicolas. He's fallen in love with another girl and it's like he's forgotten I exist.

Sweetie, it can't be that bad.

No, really Mum, we're not even friends any more. He's just cut me out of his life. The other day he was here like everything was normal and today, it's like we're meeting for the first time.

Well, Penny, your dad didn't really think you were that serious about Nicolas.

I'm not sure if he's the one but we've been friends since forever. He is the only boy I've ever wanted to kiss. Why did he forget me?

Penny, it's that first glow of a new love. If you really want him, you'll have to prove that to both of you. Your dad proved to me that I was his one and only back when I was only a little bit older than you.

Another brilliant painting - sigh - will I never get to masterpiece?

Very early the next day, Vanessa and I went over to visit Vincent and our new granddaughter.

I managed to claim the baby first. Isn't Miriam just the cutest little mite?

Vanessa had a nice long talk with Vincent.

While I got to cuddle the cutest baby in town.

Then it was my turn to talk to our oldest.

While Vanessa took her turn to meet Miriam.

I think we've agreed, this is the most beautiful baby in town. Our first grandchild. I'm hoping we have lots more. The grandparent gig is good. You do the fun stuff then hand the baby over to a parent for anything else.

We didn't realise at first that Kari was actually home. She'd rather stand outside and play guitar then come in and talk to her in-laws.

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Bonus pics

In this game, I tend to be so focused on the family, I forget to look around town from time to time.

I was waiting for Veronica to finish watching a movie and suddenly noticed how many Sims were in front of the bookstore. Obviously the place to be that night. There were at least three more just out of camera range.

Most of these Sims do have a family history that I know, the only ones that really matter to the blog are the blue-skinned white haired male, Jeffery Grant Hill and his red haired husband Elmer Grant Hill. I was happy to see them flirting away. Elmer is one of Phillip's nephews, one of Eric Grant's twins (younger brother of Jerod the Shrimp).

Speaking of Shrimp, he and his wife and son were part of the crowd outside the Bistro. As is Travis Kane. Kaleeko may be pleased to hear that Travis rushed into marriage in this game but not babies. I think it doesn't help that his wife is a firefighter and is rarely home.

Elsa started to teach the boy to talk but after a moment, she got up.

She got up because Jerod came over to cuddle his boy. AWWWW.

The Journal of Phillip Grant - March 19

Two houses next door to each other. A total of 6 teenagers, 3 per house. There is a lot of teen hormones everywhere. Veronica has been spending a lot of time at the Kane house the past few days.

She's really fond of James. She thinks about him often. At least since he lives next door, she doesn't have far to go and it doesn't usually take long to find her.

I asked Stephen to come met me at The Corner Pub. It's not a bad little joint; professional bar, lots of tables, stereo.

"So Stephen, what do you think of the place?"

"Well Dad, it's small but comfortable. But why did you ask me here?"

"Cause it's yours. Well, right now it belongs to the family but it will be yours when you leave home. You'll owe your sisters rental payments for what will seem like forever."

"Mine? Wow, Dad. I thought you said the family couldn't afford it?"

"We had to sell our interests in two businesses and dip into the family funds. But your mother gets nearly 10,000 a week in royalties so it won't take long to build the bank account again. If I can bring myself to sell a few paintings, it will be faster."

I shook a finger at him. "Mind you, boy. This is it for you. You'll have to make money quickly or throw a cot in a back room somewhere because we aren't buying a house for you."

"Dad, you and mom are the greatest."

As I said, Ronnie has been in James's company quite a bit lately.

So much so, that she's asked him to be her boyfriend.

There is a problem. James is very nearly an adult. Will he be moving on or will he keep this promise? Only time will tell. I'd hate to see my girl broken hearted but he'll have a very long wait for her. I couldn't blame him if he did move on.

Penny sometimes hangs out with Nicolas.

She definitely doesn't dote on him like Ronnie does with James. I think she just wants to show that she's keeping up with her sister.

Our last butler grabbed his pay for the week then vanished. So we asked the agency to send a new butler. Do you still call them butlers if they are women?

Third ever use of the hot tub and it broke. Hot tubs break?

Took awhile but I managed to fix it.

Vanessa spotted Kari at the park again. This time, she didn't try to be nice to Kari. There just doesn't seem to be a point to being nice.

But she says that our first grandchild is definitely on its way.

Kari may be unpleasant to us, but Vincent is looking fine and quite well fed these days. He's in the music business these days and doing well.

Stephen brought home another girl from school today. Don't ask her name, I'll try to remember if she shows up a few more times. Stephen and Penny are definitely playing the field a bit.

Vanessa went over to check our new property. This gave me an idea.

You see, today is Vanessa's birthday. So I decided to have a party.

But we are not having a birthday party. Any male my age knows better than having a birthday party for the love of his life unless she asks for one.

Still, there were party horns and a lot of cheering for Vanessa when the time came.

Poor Vanessa. She's already worried about if she should dye her hair or what.

I told her she could dye it pink and purple, black and blue or white as a sheet. She'll always be my love.

I had a chance to dance with the hottest lady in town. Grey hair shouldn't stop anyone, just slow them down a little.

-----

Emerald was actually home once. That was different. She's not home nearly as often as the rest of the family.

And as a complete and utter contrast to any Shrimp Grant story, Shrimp seems to mainly be a househusband. Almost every time I find him, it's at home with the toddler.

The Journal of Phillip Grant - March 16

It was a great trip abroad, everyone had a good time, mostly. Abbey wasn't happy when Stephen broke up but I'm sure they'll be fine.

Now that we were back from holidays, teenage hormones took charge of the house. With three teenagers, it was bound to start getting a bit intense.

Stephen invited his old friend Hayley over, and tried a bit of sweet talk with her. Last I heard, they aren't serious and he's thinking about starting again with yet another girl.

Why do my sons have such a hard time with this? I never did.

I went next door to catch up with Bradley and Emerald, now that their daughter was home again.

"Brad!"

"Phil! Was Abbey any trouble on the trip?"

"No, not at all. My son was trouble for her, though. 'Fraid he broke her heart by breaking up."

"What?"

"I know, annoying of Stephen to want to bring her on a holiday and then break up. But they are teens, Vanessa tells me that's really normal."

"Your wife has to tell you?"

"What can I say? Vanessa was my first and only true love."

"Abbey didn't even tell me they broke up."

"She was having a great time making friends with Penny and learning martial arts. I think she's pretty well over it now."

The girls came along to the Kane house too. Penny wanted to see her best friend Nicolas.

He'd only just had his birthday recently. Penny started with some innocent flirting but it didn't take long for her to ramp it up.

I must say that Penny on the prowl is a bit ... overwhelming. She had made up her mind that Nicolas was the boy to kiss first and

Penny's approach was completely irresistible. That poor boy didn't have a chance.

Seriously, how could any young male fail to fall under her spell?

Since Penny was monopolizing young Nicolas, Veronica spent a lot of the afternoon with James. James knows my sons but he is enough older than the girls that they're basically meeting for the first time.

After a while, she decided to chat to Bradley for a bit.

That lasted until she realized her sister had a first kiss. Veronica was not about to let her sister have a chance to brag about this later tonight. So it was back to James. The two of them don't even know each other that well but Veronica still managed to convince him to kiss her.

A man could faint from the barrage of hormones from two sets of teenagers kissing for the first time.

Honey?

Yes, Dear?

You still think it's a bad idea to lock the girls up for a few years?

I told you that they'll have to meet boys eventually.

No, Honey. I've seen our girls at work. The boys of Sunset Valley need protection from them. Because there won't be a single one that will be able to resist our daughters.

[laugh] That bad was it?

You should have seen poor Nicolas after Penny finished with him. He might be coming back down to earth now.

I'm sure the boys will survive. Men usually do.

Stephen still loves his new professional grade bar. He practices making drinks most of the evening.

The next morning was a school day. The kids decided to have some fun before they left. Apparently they really need this because it's seriously not fun in the classrooms these days.

I joined the games but the kids trounce me every time. It doesn't help that they join forces long enough to defeat their old man before they start playing with their friends.

I briefly went to visit my oldest brother Sammy. He's looking well these days, I haven't seen him for a few years. We've never been close, he was gone from home before I can remember. Maybe even before I was born. Still, you should make time for family and it was beyond time for a visit.

Vanessa happened to see Vincent's wife Kari in the park. She decided she should try chatting to Kari again. After all, we love our son and this is the wife he has chosen.

The meeting started well with the two of them sharing a joke.

Kari is just an unpleasant witch. Within minutes of meeting Vanessa, she was at it again.

I don't know how we'll deal with it if they have children. We want grandchildren and we'll want to be with our grandchildren at least sometimes. If Kari can't socialize for 10 minutes at a time, that's going to be tricky.

Penny asked to bring a boy home from school.

I'm glad my daughter has one priority straight. She and what-was-his-name-Wilfred? started homework first.

Honey, is there something wrong with Penny?

Why?

Well, she brought one boy home from school. She wants to ask the star sign of a different boy. She wants to have a group outing with yet a different boy. Poor Nicolas, I hope he liked that kiss.

There's nothing wrong, Dear. It's healthy for a teen to have a few romances. And she might just be looking for more friends.

God, I just wasn't ready for teenage daughters. I could cope while they were little but I just can't adjust to this.