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crossover_chickToday was Roger Williams Park day in our Four Days Of Vacation! Mainly focusing on the zoo, though we also stopped by the Natural History Museum and the Planetarium within. Let me sum it up for you:
-->Zoo: Very fun! Most of the animals were out and about in some fashion, which was nice. There was also some new stuff, including an "ambassador animal" exhibit where we got to pet armadillos (they're leathery!), and a new rainforest pavilion with giant river otters (which were really great to watch swimming around) and a tamandua/lesser anteater (which was lounging at the very top of his exhibit and sticking his tail out of the gap XD). Mom and I even got some souvenirs -- rubber wristbands with animal names and the web address for the zoo's conservation program. Mom got the "Otter" one (her favorite animal), while I got the "Komodo Dragon" one (my favorite of the ones on offer). A very good day all around, with only two low-lights:
A) The bathroom we ended up using was -- not great. As I am finding is usual with public bathrooms, one toilet wasn't flushed, and the stall I DID end up using was just too small! Built at a weird angle so you really had to SQUEEZE in to close the door. Ugh.
B) Lunch was also Not Great. We ate at The Wilderness Cafe, and -- look, we weren't expecting great shakes. It was clearly a quickie burger-and-fries sort of place. But the food was just awful. Dad said his burger was like cardboard; Mom got the wrong wrap at first (she ordered turkey; got salami and baloney) and ended up discarding most of the wrap itself because it was huge and doughy; and my chicken sandwich, while edible, was nothing more than a hunk of chicken slapped on a burger bun with a piece of lettuce and a tomato. The drinks were also filled unevenly, and the fries were okay but sparse -- really, the ONLY thing that place had going for it was a small air-conditioned dining room (which was important, as it was MUGGY today. Going around the zoo was fun but sweaty!). I can recommend the zoo itself, but BRING YOUR OWN LUNCH if you go. You want to support the zoo, buy a wristband or some other trinket.
-->Natural History Museum/Planetarium: We went here after finishing up the zoo, and -- it was all right. It's a very small museum, with about five exhibit rooms, which I will unofficially call: Urban Animals; The History of The Earth (Geologically and Ecologically); Stuff We Snatched Off The Pacific Islanders; The Moon Landing; Eclectic Victorians Give Us Their Eclectic Collections. Some interesting stuff to look at, though none of us were all that keen on the number of stuffed and mounted animals on display. (In my case, particularly because they weren't always COMPETENTLY stuffed and mounted.) There were some neat fossils, though, and the minerals were pretty cool. The room on the Pacific Islanders was the best and had the coolest stuff, including some amazingly-carved tribute paddles and adzes and suchlike. :) That was worth the three dollars of admission.
The Planetarium was also fairly meh -- we went because it was one of those dome projectors where you watch a show on the ceiling and learn a few things about space in the process. The film they had was kind of old, though (Pluto still listed as a planet!), and -- more annoyingly -- kind of blurry. I mean, you could tell what was happening, but I kept waiting for the image to sharpen, but it never did. The star map portion at the end, where they showed various constellations and how they change throughout the year, was better, but still not great. And a personal note, I feel any theater like that, where the show is on the ceiling, should have seats with HEADRESTS -- I kept having to support my neck with my hand. So yeah, not what we were hoping for. At least it was only three dollars apiece for the whole shebang!
-->Other:
A) Took a drive around some clothing stores so Mom could pick up some good comfy clothes for tomorrow's trip to Six Flags New England -- took two tries, but we managed to find some pants and a tank top for her.
B) Visited Powder Mill Creamery, a dinky little homemade ice cream shop near Waterman Lake -- Mom found it while looking up ice cream places, and it had good reviews, so we decided to try it out. We all had two-scoop cones -- mine was Mud Pie with rainbow sprinkles -- and sat outside watching somebody zip around on the lake with a jetski while eating. Very good ice cream -- and if you believe the menu, all homemade too! So that was very nice.
C) Caught up on some of my videos once we got home, mainly Sims:
1. Plumbella's ideas on how to improve The Sims 4, which I all agree with. Particularly semi-open worlds where you can visit your neighbor without needing to go through a loading screen; more stuff for kids to do in the game; better whims (she brought up the Wants and Fears from Sims 2, which I think would be great to bring back), and better traits (she came up with this neat idea of not only having more traits, but putting them in a tier system to show how much they affect a Sim! So a Sim who was Tier 1 Nerdy would want to do nerdy stuff a lot, for example, while one that was Tier 3 Nerdy would only get those whims occasionally. I'm not sure how that would be implemented, but it's a cool thought!). I need to watch more of her stuff, honestly -- we seem to be on a similar wavelength when it comes to the game!
2. Plumbella's reaction to the new Realm of Magic trailer, which I was waiting for because I'd already watched her previous videos about how much she loves magic and how Makin' Magic was her favorite pack and all that. Hilarious beginning with her getting all Potterfied, and just seeing her get all excited over it (with a couple of reservations about world size and such) was adorable. :D Yay happy Simmers!
3. Another Deli video about building a house -- this one a half-traditional/half-modern set up inspired by a picture someone sent her on Twitter. It's coming along well -- I like the look of the place, even if I didn't quite agree with all her wallpaper decisions. :p She completed the exterior in this video, and said she'd set up a floor plan and furnish in the next, so I'm looking forward to that! :)
4. James's latest Sims 2 video, where the focus was his panicked attempts to get Nina's aspiration up so she could have some Elixir of Life before she aged up to an elder that afternoon. He managed to succeed by the skin of his teeth, after a false start with the butler (who, annoyingly, was not available to call after Nina went to all the work of befriending and flirting with him). Took a lot of abusing the fact that time on the home lot pauses when you're on a community lot in that game, and you can't age on a community lot, but a date with Darren Dreamer, making him her sixth conquest (at least making-out-wise), brought her up to platinum and allowed James to essentially reset her age. Yay! Even better, his panicked attempts to keep her young brought the family friend count up enough that Eggton got a promotion, fulfilling his lifetime wish to get to the top of the Architect career! So now he's permaplat and James need never worry about his mood again. A pretty successful day, all told, if a stressful one! Now they just have to move out of that disaster of a house. . .
D) Added a few things to my tumblr drafts and answered some comments in my e-mail inbox, so that was good. Staying on-track! Helps that I don't have a queue to worry about for a few days.
And with that, I need to hit the sack -- gotta get up about 7:30 tomorrow for the Six Flags trip! We leave around 8:30 so we can get to the park right when it opens (it's about an hour and a half drive) and I want to have enough time to wake up and get ready. Should be another fun day! :) Night all!
-->Zoo: Very fun! Most of the animals were out and about in some fashion, which was nice. There was also some new stuff, including an "ambassador animal" exhibit where we got to pet armadillos (they're leathery!), and a new rainforest pavilion with giant river otters (which were really great to watch swimming around) and a tamandua/lesser anteater (which was lounging at the very top of his exhibit and sticking his tail out of the gap XD). Mom and I even got some souvenirs -- rubber wristbands with animal names and the web address for the zoo's conservation program. Mom got the "Otter" one (her favorite animal), while I got the "Komodo Dragon" one (my favorite of the ones on offer). A very good day all around, with only two low-lights:
A) The bathroom we ended up using was -- not great. As I am finding is usual with public bathrooms, one toilet wasn't flushed, and the stall I DID end up using was just too small! Built at a weird angle so you really had to SQUEEZE in to close the door. Ugh.
B) Lunch was also Not Great. We ate at The Wilderness Cafe, and -- look, we weren't expecting great shakes. It was clearly a quickie burger-and-fries sort of place. But the food was just awful. Dad said his burger was like cardboard; Mom got the wrong wrap at first (she ordered turkey; got salami and baloney) and ended up discarding most of the wrap itself because it was huge and doughy; and my chicken sandwich, while edible, was nothing more than a hunk of chicken slapped on a burger bun with a piece of lettuce and a tomato. The drinks were also filled unevenly, and the fries were okay but sparse -- really, the ONLY thing that place had going for it was a small air-conditioned dining room (which was important, as it was MUGGY today. Going around the zoo was fun but sweaty!). I can recommend the zoo itself, but BRING YOUR OWN LUNCH if you go. You want to support the zoo, buy a wristband or some other trinket.
-->Natural History Museum/Planetarium: We went here after finishing up the zoo, and -- it was all right. It's a very small museum, with about five exhibit rooms, which I will unofficially call: Urban Animals; The History of The Earth (Geologically and Ecologically); Stuff We Snatched Off The Pacific Islanders; The Moon Landing; Eclectic Victorians Give Us Their Eclectic Collections. Some interesting stuff to look at, though none of us were all that keen on the number of stuffed and mounted animals on display. (In my case, particularly because they weren't always COMPETENTLY stuffed and mounted.) There were some neat fossils, though, and the minerals were pretty cool. The room on the Pacific Islanders was the best and had the coolest stuff, including some amazingly-carved tribute paddles and adzes and suchlike. :) That was worth the three dollars of admission.
The Planetarium was also fairly meh -- we went because it was one of those dome projectors where you watch a show on the ceiling and learn a few things about space in the process. The film they had was kind of old, though (Pluto still listed as a planet!), and -- more annoyingly -- kind of blurry. I mean, you could tell what was happening, but I kept waiting for the image to sharpen, but it never did. The star map portion at the end, where they showed various constellations and how they change throughout the year, was better, but still not great. And a personal note, I feel any theater like that, where the show is on the ceiling, should have seats with HEADRESTS -- I kept having to support my neck with my hand. So yeah, not what we were hoping for. At least it was only three dollars apiece for the whole shebang!
-->Other:
A) Took a drive around some clothing stores so Mom could pick up some good comfy clothes for tomorrow's trip to Six Flags New England -- took two tries, but we managed to find some pants and a tank top for her.
B) Visited Powder Mill Creamery, a dinky little homemade ice cream shop near Waterman Lake -- Mom found it while looking up ice cream places, and it had good reviews, so we decided to try it out. We all had two-scoop cones -- mine was Mud Pie with rainbow sprinkles -- and sat outside watching somebody zip around on the lake with a jetski while eating. Very good ice cream -- and if you believe the menu, all homemade too! So that was very nice.
C) Caught up on some of my videos once we got home, mainly Sims:
1. Plumbella's ideas on how to improve The Sims 4, which I all agree with. Particularly semi-open worlds where you can visit your neighbor without needing to go through a loading screen; more stuff for kids to do in the game; better whims (she brought up the Wants and Fears from Sims 2, which I think would be great to bring back), and better traits (she came up with this neat idea of not only having more traits, but putting them in a tier system to show how much they affect a Sim! So a Sim who was Tier 1 Nerdy would want to do nerdy stuff a lot, for example, while one that was Tier 3 Nerdy would only get those whims occasionally. I'm not sure how that would be implemented, but it's a cool thought!). I need to watch more of her stuff, honestly -- we seem to be on a similar wavelength when it comes to the game!
2. Plumbella's reaction to the new Realm of Magic trailer, which I was waiting for because I'd already watched her previous videos about how much she loves magic and how Makin' Magic was her favorite pack and all that. Hilarious beginning with her getting all Potterfied, and just seeing her get all excited over it (with a couple of reservations about world size and such) was adorable. :D Yay happy Simmers!
3. Another Deli video about building a house -- this one a half-traditional/half-modern set up inspired by a picture someone sent her on Twitter. It's coming along well -- I like the look of the place, even if I didn't quite agree with all her wallpaper decisions. :p She completed the exterior in this video, and said she'd set up a floor plan and furnish in the next, so I'm looking forward to that! :)
4. James's latest Sims 2 video, where the focus was his panicked attempts to get Nina's aspiration up so she could have some Elixir of Life before she aged up to an elder that afternoon. He managed to succeed by the skin of his teeth, after a false start with the butler (who, annoyingly, was not available to call after Nina went to all the work of befriending and flirting with him). Took a lot of abusing the fact that time on the home lot pauses when you're on a community lot in that game, and you can't age on a community lot, but a date with Darren Dreamer, making him her sixth conquest (at least making-out-wise), brought her up to platinum and allowed James to essentially reset her age. Yay! Even better, his panicked attempts to keep her young brought the family friend count up enough that Eggton got a promotion, fulfilling his lifetime wish to get to the top of the Architect career! So now he's permaplat and James need never worry about his mood again. A pretty successful day, all told, if a stressful one! Now they just have to move out of that disaster of a house. . .
D) Added a few things to my tumblr drafts and answered some comments in my e-mail inbox, so that was good. Staying on-track! Helps that I don't have a queue to worry about for a few days.
And with that, I need to hit the sack -- gotta get up about 7:30 tomorrow for the Six Flags trip! We leave around 8:30 so we can get to the park right when it opens (it's about an hour and a half drive) and I want to have enough time to wake up and get ready. Should be another fun day! :) Night all!
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