crossover_chick | Slacking Off A Bit Now, I Admit

But I got two pages done on "The Gift and the Curse," I'm finishing up a page in "Time Mix-Up," I wrote a bunch on "Marty In Wonderland" earlier, as well as my Christmas drabbles88. Still no ideas for a

backtothefanfic challenge fic though.
-DW: Odd. You think you would have come up with at least one, given six opening lines.-
I know, I know. It's just -- nothing's coming. Very annoying.
-DW: Well, there's plenty of TAS-universe plot bunnies you could bend to the requirements, I'm sure.-
Maybe. Though I try to keep my

backtothefanfic stories Trilogy or PreTime.
-TD: A story about the mansion fire, perhaps? We've seen a bunny or two for that.-
About preventing it.
-D: We wouldn't complain too much.-
Eh, knowing me, a great idea will hit me tonight while I'm trying to get to sleep. Got the day shift tomorrow.
-RPD: Ahh, which helps explain the lack of Sims.-
Yeah. Oh, and speaking of Sims:
We have a preview of the next EP, Seasons
-M: Did they fire the guy who came up with all the old, interesting names?-
It was called "In Season" previously, but that got dropped. Don't ask me why. Anyway, though I've never been gung-ho about weather in Sims (clothing is so much easier to handle with permanent 70-degree weather), this does sound pretty interesting. Choice bits:
a) NPC's in the form of Penguins -- Now, what would be cool would be if you could get a wolf, a penguin, and the skunk all on your lot at the same time.
b) 6 new careers are included: Adventure, Music, Law, Journalism, Education and the ultimate in slacker careers, Gamer! I can't wait to make one of my Sims a Space Pirate! Each new career path also comes with a fun reward object, such as the heavy metal guitar.
-M2: FINALLY!-
I know! I still plan to make ToP Marty an Icon (probably because he'll graduate before I get this pack -- not out until the end of February), but then I'll switch him into Music. And now Clara and Strickland can get into Education! Who should I make a lawyer though. . . .
c) A great addition is that leftover food can now be put away in the 'fridge to be consumed later without going off. This saves on wasted food and money, and allows for instant gratification of quality food like Lobster, should you make up a batch in advance and store it away! -- useful in the EXTREME, right fellow Simmers?
d) GARDENING. Seriously, I LOVED gardening in Sims 1 -- talk about a money-saver when it came to groceries! Gardening is actually an earnable Talent Badge, and you can grow fruit trees as well as the classic veggies. You can also earn a fishing talent badge with ponds!
e) New foods in general -- not only do you have harvested produce, you also have a Hot Chocolate Maker, "Perfect Packets"--
-HD: *horrified* INSTANT IS EVERYWHERE!-
Welcome to the 21st century. Anyway, there's also a juicer. You put your fruits in and blend, to make special juices. Almost like -- potions.
SQUEE MAKIN' MAGIC STUFFS SQUEE
-D: O.o Really, it's more like the chemistry set from Living Large.-
Shhh, don't break the beautiful delusion. Though yes, that chemistry set was beautiful.
f) New "freaks" -- or "differently special" Sims, perhaps? :p We now have Plant People, which result from the overuse of pesticides. And for once, this is a breedable condition. I will cheerily add them to the Freak House challenge, though I'm not sure who I'll turn into a Plant in Twin Oaks Park.
-D: How are you handling that, anyway? Julia is the alien, Verne's the robot, but is Mark the vampire?-
Nope. I'm planning on Holly's twin boys being nice enough to be the Vampire and Werewolf. I'm also hoping one might be nice enough to start up a relationship with Julia, but we'll have to wait and see there. Donald's old lot should provide a Ghost and a Zombie. Still figuring it all out.
All in all, it looks like a pretty fun expansion pack -- though someone on the

thesims2 community rightly noted that Maxis is really just kind of catching up with ModTheSims2 modders with harvestable plants.
. . . Wait a minute, why didn't I know about that earlier?!
-VD: *laugh* Planning on downloading some?-
I dunno. Leery of breaking my game.
-RPD: That would be inconvienent. Though aren't you due for a new back-up soon?-
Yeah, maybe this weekend. This PC may have annoying quirks, but I can't fault it for being able to burn to DVD. So much easier to back stuff up.
-VD2: I can imagine. Anything else you'd like to share with the readers before you go back to ignoring your writing?-
Snopes About Christmas -- be sure to check out the Mondegreen page, it's hilarious. "Deck the halls with Buddy Holly, fa la la la la, la la la la"
-Martys: *crowd computer to see and laugh*-
Me, I have an appointment with YouTube -- Tom and Crow are going wassailing!
-OD: Don't you have that on video?-
Yeah, but I can't watch it in full until the weekend. I'll content myself with clips for now.
-OD: Fair enough -- but can you throw in some more sketching? *tentacles chatter*-
I think so, yeah.