Round 7 Part 5: Riedmayer-Landgraab Estate (2053-2057)

Beata is 76, Mal is 73, Malcolm is 38, Theresa is 35, Cole is 4, Melinda and Michael are 0.

"Crazier"

narrated by Theresa Dejackome

Well, the rugrat population around here is definitely in decline--Cole turned 5 about three years ago. (Cole is a bit of a stretch as a nickname, I know, but what are we supposed to call him when his father and grandfather have the same name?)

He got into private school, of course. The Landgraab family has a pretty impressive reputation around here and the headmaster is an old family friend.

The year after that, the twins had their own milestone birthday, turning 2.

I really can't say I was sad to see it. Babies are not my cup of tea.

Now they're old enough to entertain themselves a bit--or entertain each other. That's the nice thing about twins, I suppose.

Mom (yeah, I gave up and started calling her Mom--everybody else does) watches them during the day, while everybody is at work and school and Dad is running his host of businesses.

The only downside is that she encourages Cole in his flights of fancy--or maybe believes them herself! He made up a crazy story last year about finding a genie lamp on the front porch.

And a few months later he had this running fantasy about a werewolf that would come to visit and let him pet it. I told him he probably shouldn't pet werewolves if he doesn't want to get bit.

Anyway, my career is really taking off now that everybody's sleeping through the night. I snagged a position as city planner earlier this year. I don't know if I'm going to stick with it or go for something a little more fun, though.

Bonus random pics:

All three Malcolms sitting together

Theresa painted portraits of her in-laws

Notes:

- You'll notice from the link in the title that I've decided to start the tradition of using not-really-related song titles as post titles. Whether I continue it or not is anybody's guess.

- There's not much of a storyline here because I was really expecting Beata to die this round, but she's hanging in there--I guess she wants to meet her first great-grandchild come Sarah and Douglas' update. 

Week Six Part Five: Riedmayer-Landgraab Estate

Beata Riedmayer-Landgraab: 69 years old. Aspiration: Popularity. Lifetime want: Own 5 Top-Level Businesses. (Fulfilled: Become General.) Astrological sign: Scorpio.
Malcolm Landgraab IV: 66 years old. Aspiration: Fortune. Lifetime want: Own 5 Top-Level Businesses. (Fulfilled: Become Criminal Mastermind.) Astrological sign: Gemini.
Malcolm Landgraab V: 31 years old. Aspiration: Popularity. Lifetime want: Become Media Magnate. Astrological sign: Gemini.
Theresa Dejackome: 28 years old. Aspiration: Fortune. (Formerly Romance.) Lifetime want: Become City Planner. Astrological sign: Libra.
Marion Langraab: 25 years old. Aspiration: Pleasure. Lifetime want: Have 50 1st Dates. Astrological sign: Gemini.
Margaret "Maggie" Landgraab: 19 years old. Aspiration: Popularity. Lifetime want: Have 20 Simultaneous Best Friends. Astrological sign: Gemini.

Here is the Riedmayer family tree, very slightly truncated. (Beata's cousins are excluded.) Beata recently became an aunt for the first time by her much younger half-sister Agatha, though she was hardly lacking in relatives before that, with 7 children and 16 grandchildren. There is simply no way to make her family tree very small.

This is the family tree for Theresa, the final member of the household. (Theresa lives here because she is engaged to Malcolm V.) The Dejackomes have only just grown to the point where their tree is wider than it is tall. Theresa's two older sisters both got pregnant twice in Round 5, but Gretchen didn't manage to deliver her second child before the end of the round. (So she has to waddle around town heavily pregnant for several real-life months.) Theresa's sister-in-law Annie--wife to her twin brother Gavin--was put in a similar predicament earlier in this round.

If I had not truncated the Riedmayer tree, you would be able to tell that Annie is Beata's first cousin. I think it is funny that Theresa's brother is married to her fiance's mother's cousin. I just like twisty family trees. 

"The Right Thing To Do"
Narrated by Theresa Dejackome

Mal and I went back to live with his parents after college. We just stuck a double bed up in his old room...I wasn't a fan of the whole fish theme, but neither of us had jobs yet so we didn't have a whole lot of spare cash to redecorate. Mal's parents are worth a lot, but it's all tied up in the businesses.

No sooner were we back then Mal's younger sisters left for Sim State. Marion, the older one, got six scholarships. (For good grades, cooking, logic, creativity, top of teen career, and dance skill.)

Maggie got five. (The same as Marion's minus cooking.)

Mal and I ended up both getting jobs with the SCIA--not the dream career for either of us, but it paid the bills. We also spent a ton of time helping out with the various businesses that Mal's parents own.

In the fall of 2048 I found out I was pregnant. It wasn't exactly planned, though Mal had broached the subject a few times...he wanted a son to carry on the family name. Anyway, Mal wanted to get married the moment we found out, but I wasn't sure I wanted to rush into it. I mean, we'd been together for seventeen years by then and exclusive for five, and I was pretty sure I wanted to be with him the rest of my life, but marriage still didn't appeal to me much.

Beata suggested that we go to the beach house...Big Mal had bought it a few years previously but they'd never had a chance to go. (I call Mal's dad Big Mal. It seemed like a good idea at the time and he thinks it's hilarious, probably because he's shorter than me.) Beata said we could clear our heads and make a better decision that way, but I think she just wanted to get away from the winter weather.

Remember how Dogface there got into an altercation with Theresa at Gavin's wedding? Now he's apparently taken up staring creepily at the Landgraab family as revenge. 

We spent the entire week doing pretty much nothing, which was awesome.

I think the break made Mal and I both perform better at work. At any rate, we both got promoted to Head of the SCIA a few weeks after we got back. Of course, that's just a job title. The real head of the SCIA has a totally ordinary sounding job title. We were pretty much working as glorified decoys. 

And maybe the vacation did clear my head a bit, because Mal and I got married in March. It was just a quickie ceremony with Mal's parents as witnesses, but it felt good. It felt like the right thing to do.

Our son was born on April 5, 2049. Mal was so excited you wouldn't even believe it. Of course, we named the baby Malcolm Landgraab VI. He looks like me, though--red hair and brown eyes. 

After the baby was born (I called him "the baby" at first, and then "Baby Mal" later.) we used the money we'd saved to renovate the house a bit. Downstairs we added a formal dining room and a little den. 

The upstairs study we turned into a nursery for the baby...sort of. We had other renovation plans so instead of a major redecoration we just stuck a crib and changing table in there. 

Shortly after Baby Mal was born, my Mal managed to get a job as a magazine editor, which was what he wanted to be doing. I still had no luck finding work as an architect, so I mainly helped out with the businesses. We got our second Best of the Best Award for the business we opened that year.

We had gotten the first shortly after Mal and I came back from college, after Big Mal had been in business for 40 years without getting any.

Meanwhile, Baby Mal was growing up fast and looking more like me every day.

Mal and I aren't the types to want a huge family, but he thought Baby Mal would be lonely as an only child and I kind of wanted a girl. Mal wanted them to be close, but I won out there...I found out I was pregnant again on Mal's fourth birthday, so they'd be about 4 1/2 years apart. 

The businesses were doing well, so we decided that we should expand our house before the new baby arrived. So we built out over the newer downstairs wing (with the dining room and the den). Our new bedroom was big enough to keep my drafting table on one end...I managed to finally get a job in architecture at that point.

We added two bathrooms, though there was a net gain of only one since we had to rip out the old bathroom to extend the hallway.

One Sunday just before school started back up, we closed the home business and invited over all our relatives for the day. The guys mostly played poker.

Clockwise from left: Johnson Simpson (Beata's uncle by marriage), Mal, Greg Pons, and Thomas Dai. (Thomas married Edith late last round, as you may recall.)

The little boys (Mal has a TON of nephews) mostly watched TV.

From left: Edward Pons, Charles Riedmayer, Seth Pons, and Gabriel Pons.

I ended up sitting and eating sandwiches with a couple of them. They talked about videogames the whole time. I wonder if all little boys like videogames. You'd think I'd know something about little boys, since I have a twin brother, but I don't understand them at all. 

Gabriel Pons again, Landon Whitfill, and Theresa.

Theresa's relatives were there too, but I didn't get any good pictures of them.

On November 18 I went into labor. I gave birth to a little boy, Michael...

And a daughter, Melinda!

The twins were definitely a surprise, but at least we have Mal's parents helping out. I don't know if I'd survive otherwise, with three kids under five. 

Speaking of, I think I hear somebody wailing upstairs. I suppose I should go check...

Side story: When Theresa went into labor, she was standing around in the dining room with Beata and Malcolm V. She walked right past both of them and into the kitchen to hand Michael to Malcolm IV so she could give birth to Melinda. I have no idea why you'd pick your father-in-law as labor assistant over your husband or mother-in-law.

The bottom floor of the house at the end of the week. You saw the new rooms close up earlier.

The second floor. I really like how the extension turned out. Right now Malcolm VI and Michael share the fish room and Melinda has the princess room.

The outside. There should probably be more windows.

The front. I still really like this house's overall look and cannot really take credit for it since it is a Maxis house, albeit heavily made over. 










In case you can't tell, Malcolm VI has red hair, brown eyes, and S2 skin. Michael has blond hair, brown eyes, and S3 skin. Melinda has blond hair, brown eyes, and S1 skin. I think it's funny that they each got a different skin tone. 

Right now the Landgraabs have 4 Level 10 businesses and 2 more that are working their way up, so next round they'll probably become my first ever family with 5 Level 10 businesses.

Also, I couldn't figure out how to fit it into the update, but look what I did! I think Beata's life insurance policy is going to benefit a lot of people when she goes to party with Grim...

And Theresa is doing very well for someone who's only been a Fortune Sim for 1/3 of her life. These college grads are almost too easy.

Week Five Part Five: Riedmayer-Landgraab Estate

Beata Riedmayer-Landgraab, 62 years old. Aspiration: Popularity. Lifetime Want: Become General. Astrological sign: Scorpio.

Malcolm Landgraab IV, 59 years old. Aspiration: Fortune. Lifetime Want: Own 5 Top-Level Businesses. (Formerly Become Criminal Mastermind.) Astrological sign: Gemini

Malcolm Landgraab V: 24 years old. Aspiration: Popularity. Lifetime Want: Become Media Magnate. Astrological sign: Gemini.

Marion Landgraab: 18 years old. Aspiration: Pleasure. Lifetime Want: Have 50 1st Dates. Astrological sign: Gemini.

Margaret "Maggie" Landgraab: 12 years old. Aspiration: Popularity. Lifetime Want: Have 20 Simultaneous Best Friends. Astrological sign: Gemini.

Here is Beata's family tree. You saw a nearly identical tree in my last post, which featured Malcolm and Beata's oldest daughter, Millie. 

Malcolm IV has some ancestors, but I don't care about them. If you own OFB, you can go look up his family tree yourself.

Mal finally left for college when he was 24. Marion was chafing to go herself, but her parents told her that she might as well stay home and earn some more scholarships. Besides, it would be weird to go to college with her brother who was 6 years older than she was.

Meanwhile, Malcolm decided to work on rebuilding his family's business empire now that he was semi-retired and had a little more money. He started by having a grand reopening of Club Dante. Marion spent most of her after-school hours over there, greeting patrons and serving drinks at the bar. (If anyone asked, she said she was 21.) She always worked hard, figuring that she might as well get as many skills as possible before she struck out on her own.

 Meanwhile Maggie, who was too young to run the club by herself, took over Mal's old job as editor of the school newspaper for Bluewater Preparatory Upper School. Sometimes Marion would come home from the bar at 2 or 3 in the morning and find Maggie still at the computer they had in their room, typing away.

Random pic: Brittanie Kules and three of her lovers in the same room. I heard the "caught cheating" sound and stopped Malcolm just in time to keep him from slapping Brittanie. Meanwhile the other two guys fought each other constantly for the rest of the week and made it hard to get stars.

(Reminder: Malcolm dated Brittanie way back in Week One, before he married Beata. They've barely spoken in the intervening 30 years or so, but apparently he still had fond memories of their time together.)

When Maggie was 16 Malcolm decided that she was old enough to try her hand at running the club. The security cameras indicated that she spent most of the time dancing with Alexis Kules. Malcolm wondered why Brittanie let her 12-year-old daughter hang out at a club all day. Maybe Brittanie wanted Alexis to grow up to be a floozy too. 

Later, one of the customers set the kitchen on fire. Fortunately, Maggie managed to call the fire department before anything too terrible happened. After that, Malcolm had an alarm installed.

Of course, Malcolm didn't leave all the work to his daughters. In fact, he did most of the real dirty work himself.

Marion started think that maybe Maggie wasn't as obnoxious as she'd thought. She had been really responsible getting that fire put out; Marion wouldn't have thought she had enough brains in her head for that. The two sisters started to bond despite their age difference. One of their favorite things to do was play musical instruments together out on the porch.

At one point, Marion even snuck Maggie into the My Muse Music and Dance Studio.

Meanwhile, Beata finally accomplished her dream of becoming a general.

(TOC and LTW #1 for Beata! Since she's too old for another TOC, she'll get to spend her golden years using up accumulated maternity leave. New LTW: 5 Top Level Businesses. I guess she and Malcolm have all the same desires after being married so long.)

Around the same time, Club Dante reached the highest rank a business could achieve. Malcolm decided to purchase another business, the 1-2-3+ Gym. That gym quickly became Beata's pet project; she was over there constantly chatting with customers, giving them fitness tips, etc. She was good at it, too; the business rose to the top level with astounding speed.

After that Macolm decided to start a home business while he saved up for more ambitious ventures. The home business was nothing fancy, just some poker tables on the back patio, but people seemed to enjoy it.

Meanwhile, Malcolm had the chance to cultivate some hobbies. He brought Francine's old easel down to his bedroom and started painting from time to time.

He also took up pottery. Soon, it seemed like he could work on arts and crafts forever without getting tired.

(1 Hobby Plaque for me!)

Of course, he also made sure to make time for Beata. It'd be a shame to let the spark go out of their marriage just as they were achieving all their dreams.

(I actually took that picture because I couldn't imagine going to bed with someone wearing THAT suit.)

Not much has changed in the house.

Even Mal's room is exactly as he left it, since there are no younger children to displace him. (Recall that he took over that bedroom after Edith and Joan left.)

 The biggest difference is those poker tables.

Overall it was a very good week. Getting the venue businesses up was surprisingly easy, though retail outlets eluded me. (You'll notice that Electronics Supercenter, the other business pre-owned by Malcolm Landgraab IV, was prominently missing from this update.) Both Malcolm and Beata have filled their Lifetime Aspiration Meters, so they are very low maintenance.