Hello! Welcome back to Ruth’s (un)Officially Wacky Boolprop Challenge! We’re coming into the home stretch now, and I hope you can remember what happened last time, coz I sure can’t.

Aaaand I’m not sure how to transition into the chapter proper now. Um…

Excelsior!*

*“Excelsior” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Accessed from www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173897 on 4 October 2015.

Although I love this challenge, I will be very glad indeed when at least one part of it is over, and that is the part where I have to keep the tombstones on site.

There’s not room for a moat, so ghosts have the run of the house, and they are vicious bastards.

They’ll scare absolutely anyone, but they’ve got a particular grudge against Old Adam, who they will scare over…

…and over…

…and over again.

Yes, these are all pictures of different hauntings.

So once again I had to institute fairly stringent anti-ghost measures. Weapon #1 is an Energizer, which keeps Needs high enough that they are unlikely to drop below the death point with one scare, and which repairs any ghost-induced Need drops quickly and efficiently.

Weapon #2 is a common or garden bookshelf. The “stop reading” animation takes a surprisingly long time, and ghosts often get bored and go away to haunt a lamp or something before it finishes.

Weapon #3 is a big stack of homework, if you can swing it. I’m sure you know how big of a pain it is to get Help With Homework to work right, and Stop Doing Homework is almost as much of an annoyance.

Unless you’re avoiding ghosts, of course. Then it’s a godsend.

Passing Along business perks works pretty well, but only if you’re willing to allow them to be Passed Along the long way. The start-stop method is more efficient, but it leaves multiple windows of opportunities for ghosts.

In a pinch, you can use an easier-to-interrupt activity like painting, but be sure to use the buddy system: always make sure there is someone nearby who can plead for them. In fact, the buddy system is always a good idea generally when dealing with irritable ghosts.

In order to keep aspiration levels high enough to be able to use the energizer, it’s important to keep your sims happy. For Glen and Lisa, “happy” involves plenty of positive interactions and home dates.

For Old Adam, it involves going to the Tacky Flamingo, bowling a few frames, talking with the customers, and perhaps a soak in the hot tub.

Oddly enough, those very same things would keep every last one of the Tacky Flamingo’s customers safe from ghosts too.

For Casilda, “happy” is checking herself out in whatever mirror is closest.

Okay, technically that’s not true, but given how often Casilda did this autonomously, it might as well have been.

For Nanki-Poo, it means cleaning everything and anything. He’s happiest when he’s cleaning – I’m not even kidding.

For Deadeye, it means having a conversation with his friend Nicholas. Or, well, not exactly that…

DEADEYE: Nicholas, you know your sister, Draupadi?NICHOLAS: We’ve met, yeah.DEADEYE: Well, I like her.NICHOLAS: Huh. There’s no accounting for taste, is there?DEADEYE: I like her a lot. Would it be okay if I asked her out?NICHOLAS: Meh, whatever. What are you asking me for, anyway? It’s her decision, and she’s perfectly capable of making it for herself.

It was more the result of the conversation that did the trick.

DEADEYE: So… Draupadi… Your brother said you were the one to ask about this?DRAUPADI: What’s up?DEADEYE: Well… I kind of like you. Like, a lot. Do you think you might like me? Maybe?DRAUPADI: Sure, I like you.DEADEYE: But I mean I like you like you.DRAUPADI: Well, I like you like you, too. So there.

This made Deadeye ghost-proof for a very long time.

If you’re wondering about Piiti-Sing, wonder no more: I sent her to Uni at the very start of the rotation, since that was when she would have gone anyway. I sent Casilda to Uni at the very end of the rotation, since that was pretty well when she would have gone anyway. I will be playing them through Uni together because semester-altering mods are against OWBC rules, and I have better things to do that play 1,152 hours of Uni, or even 1,152 game-hours thereof.

Olga has met a very nice girl at Uni named Caryl, and fallen hard. Unfortunately, Caryl has thus far rejected all hints, suggestions, discussions, and outright proposals of marriage. Hope springs eternal, though, and Olga has not yet given up.

Leila topped her career and achieved her LTW, and she and Abhijeet are quite happy, except for the fact that there are still no babies.

You may recall that Lisa and Leila are twins, but Leila is younger than Lisa now because she was resurrected with the Bone Phone, and the Bone Phone resets your lifebar. I’m not sure how close she is to Elder at the moment, but she’s still within her fertile period.

Phoebe Grew Up this rotation, into an outfit that matched the wallpaper, and not much else. She has since had a makeover, and I have default replaced those hideous 80’s-era pants.

Nicholas has a girlfriend, Chant has found The Zone, and you’ve already seen Draupadi’s big news.

There were a lot of changes at Rose and Dmitri’s house. Clockwise from top left: Rose gave birth to their fourth child, a boy named Anton. Ivan Grew Up Well, and so did Mickey. Alex remained a well-adjusted Teen and joined a soccer team.

I meant for Dmitri to buy the family flower shop back, but I forgot. Next time, I suppose.

Penelope has moved back in with her parents briefly while she saves up money for a new garage.

Er, that’s a garage that you own and repair cars in, not a garage where you just store cars. Just to be clear.

Josephine and Phoenix are advancing up their respective career ladders – slowly, to be sure, but they’re not as young as they used to be and it’s not a race anyway.

Sky has completed the remaining 2/9 of that baby, and the finished product is named “Violet.” She is pretty darn cute, and both her parents dote on her.

And that’s all I have for this chapter. Please join me next time for the second-to-last installment of Plot. Without giving anything away, I will say that the upcoming Plot is the Plot that made me decide to play an Officially Wacky Boolprop Challenge in the first place.

Until next time, Happy Simming!