BACC 5/8/21

 Week 14 begins with the Kekahi/Wheeler family.  They had a lot going on this round.  Since Andrew also had the want to get engaged to Raven Collins, I had him move her in immediately so they could plan their wedding for the weekend.  They spent a couple of days tending to Lei Fleur, but then I decided to have Andrew build a sports themed lot for the purpose of unlocking Athletic, which seems to fit him better than the flower shop he inherited from his mom.  Originally, I had planned to have the soccer field be an unowned community lot, but that would mean building it from the community coffers and I'd have to wait until I had 12 households to do it.  The requirements for the lot are that it had to be on a 5 x 5 lot and be worth $250,000.  That's a lot of money to siphon from the community tax fund.  Since the Kekahis are wealthy, they could afford to build it from their family funds without too much trouble, and so Wheeler Stadium was built.  It was quite an endeavor to build such a large lot, but I think it turned out well.  In addition to selling tickets to the "soccer matches", there's a souvenir kiosk and a food stand.  It ranked up to level 4 in only two days!  Building the stadium unlocks the Athletic career for everyone and because it's the 20th total lot built, a second position in Architecture also opened up.

The twins finally celebrated their teen birthday on Wednesday.  I have never be so excited for children to grow up.  These two were overheated constantly and driving me crazy trying to keep the social worker away.  Amelia's LTW is for Law, which isn't possible, but her hobby is science, which might work as a career for her if I get the observatory built soon.  Liz wants to own 5 top businesses, which is what this challenge is all about, so she can definitely work on that.  On Saturday Andrew and Raven tied the knot finally and just in the nick of time because Adrienne died that evening at the age of 67.  Though she worked hard at it, she never got that last logic point she needed, and therefore never reached the top of Architecture.  RIP Adrienne.  At the end of the week, I moved Andrew and Raven out to a lot of their own.  This household is crowded enough, plus I know Raven's going to want a large family.  They'll be added to the end of the rotation, and we'll catch up with them again in Week 15.  I won't be adding them to the household/residential lot count until then.

Taxes due were a whopping $22,296.00, bringing the total to $122,373.00.

Stats:

Playable sims: 36

SM: 4

Population: 144

Residential lots: 8

Owned Community lots: 10

Unowned Community lots: 2

CAS earned: 12 (8 added)

Careers: 

Athletic: 0/∞

Business: 1/5

Criminal: 0/1

Culinary: 1/∞

Law Enforcement: 3/3

Science: 0/2

Gamer: 1/1

Music: 2/∞

Natural Science: 0/1

Paranormal: 0/1

Architecture: 0/2

Dance: 1/1

Up next, the Hastings family.  Happy Simming!

BACC Week 13 Summary

 Stats:

Playable sims: 37

    Births: 0

    Deaths: 2

SM: 4

Population: 148

Households: 8

Residential lots: 8

Owned Community lots: 9

Unowned Community lots: 2

CAS earned: 11 (8 added)*

Burglaries: 1**

Fires: 9**

Electrocutions: 3**

Graves: 5**

Careers:

Business: 1/5

Criminal: 0/1

Culinary: 1/∞

Law Enforcement: 3/3

Science: 0/2***

Gamer: 1/1****

Music: 2/∞

Natural Science: 0/1

Paranormal: 0/1

Architecture: 1/1

Dance: 1/1

Businesses:

Keanu's General Store

    Owner: Davon Kekahi

    Rank: 10

The Snack Shack

    Owner: Jackson Kekahi

    Rank: 10

Lei Fleur

    Owner: Andrew Wheeler

    Rank: 10

Crescendo

    Owner: Wyatt Hastings

    Rank: 10

Hulu a Lomi Day Spa

    Owner: Brenna Centowski

    Rank: 10

Nani Ke Ola

    Owner: Chase Collins

    Rank: 4

Kahua Junction

    Owner: Ivy Kekahi

    Rank: 5

Dance With Me

    Owner: Mckenna Lane

    Rank: 5

Kahua Fish Market

    Owner: Wyatt Hastings

    Rank: 0

Taxes:

Week 12 Balance:   $40,909.00

Taxes Collected:   +$59,168.00

Week 13 Balance: $100,077.00

*I realized that I forgot to add a CAS at some point, either for the cemetery or for the fish market, but the CAS total should always be equal to the total community lots plus the ones earned from Business Districts, Universities, and Downtown.  I have 11 total community lots and none of those other things, so I've earned 11 CAS.

**These numbers represent the total number of these occurrences, not just the number that occurred this week.

***Though these positions are technically available, I've added the requirement of a neighborhood decoration observatory being added (at a cost of $150,000) prior to anyone taking a job in Science.  

****This position is available only to Daniel Drew.

BACC 5/7/21

 If you'll recall, Marina London quit her job as a server at The Snack Shack earlier in the round, leaving her free to be a full-time caregiver to her daughter and nephew.  Her husband Randy was luckier career-wise this round.  He earned, I think, three promotions; he's now a Lieutenant.  Ivy was able to get Kahua Junction up to rank 5, taking all the money perks, which allowed her to finish building/decorating, not only the pub, but also the home lot.

The kids grew into children early in the week; they'll be teens next week.  There were no other birthdays, since Ivy and Randy are both significantly younger than their spouses.

Their taxes were $6,145.00, which brings the total to $92,773.00.

Next up, the Lane family.

Business was good at Dance With Me and Mckenna got the studio to rank 5, which opened up a position in Dance.  I had Mckenna immediately fill that position because it makes sense to me that she would open the studio as a way to work in her chosen field while waiting for her big break to come.  I'll have her run the studio on her days off, but it doesn't really matter if she ranks it up to 10 because the only added benefit will be gaining yet another Business position, of which we already have five.  Also, Brady has the LTW to have 5 Top Businesses, so it would be a good hand-off to him later on.  Speaking of Brady, he grew up at the very end of the week and I'm planning to have him open a train enthusiast hobby shop called Ticket to Ride (I'm shamelessly borrowing this name from the popular board game series.  If you haven't heard of it, check it out.) next week.  Maya struggled with her career this round.  She got promoted on Monday, had Tuesday off, didn't get promoted on Wednesday, had a bad chance card that got her demoted on Thursday, and got promoted on Friday.  In other words, she netted just one promotion this week.

As I mentioned, Brady had the only birthday, aging to adult and therefore breaking his relationship with Emma Hastings.  He wasn't particularly interested in any of the adult women at his party, so maybe he'll wait for Emma to catch up.  On a side note, Brady grew into adulthood with maxed logic skill, which opens another slot in Science.  As for the ladies, though Daniel called Mckenna nearly every day, she persisted in being ambivalent towards him, while Maya likes him quite a lot...just not that way, nor is she bowled over by any of the other men she's met.  Maybe they're just not the settling down types?

Taxes were paid in the amount of $6,378.00, bringing the community total to $99,151.00.

Next up, Daniel Drew.

Daniel had a much better week than last week.  He found a job in Gaming on Wednesday and by the end of the week had been promoted up to Flag Capturer.  Between his promotion bonuses and the treasure chest he dug up, he was able to afford to replace his robot bench, as well as buy a drum set, telescope, and bookcase needed for skilling.

Though Daniel is in love with Mckenna Lane and has boltage for several other ladies in town, he never rolls any wants for them at all.  I had him go to some community lots on Saturday to see if he'd show some interest in someone, but he didn't seem all that bothered to talk to anyone.  His social never really gets low anyway, since someone is always calling him obsessively - last week it was Maya Lane, this week it was Dakota Hastings, who is still just a teen so I'm not sure what they were talking about, but hopefully it wasn't creepy.

Daniel's taxes were $926.00, sending the total to $100,077.00.

Since I'm at the end of Week 13 and will posting the round summary shortly, I'm not going to bother with including stats on this post.  It's long enough already, lol.  Happy Simming!

BACC 5/4/21 Part 2

 The Centowskis didn't have much going on business-wise this week.  Brenna's spa is already at rank 10, so she only went in on Wednesday.  Orlando is an employee, so nothing exciting there.  The twins grew into adults mid-week.  Reed has a LTW to top Law Enforcement and Robert wants to graduate 3 kids from college, which isn't likely to happen.  I've decided to have him take over the spa, though I may have him get a job or start another business that suits him more.  Robert was kind enough, however, to start a kitchen fire, which was the last one we needed to open up another slot in Law Enforcement, allowing his brother to get his desired career.

Both brothers desperately want to fall in love, so I sent them to Crescendo on Saturday to scope out the scene.  They met some ladies, but no crushes occurred.  They returned home and greeted all the women who walked by.  In addition, Raven Collins stopped by and I thought something might happen between her and Robert, since they are three bolters, but they didn't cross that line.  One of the ladies they met, however, offered Reed a blind date.  I don't usually do dates in this 'hood, but I allowed this one.  His date's name was Michelle and she appears to be the Gaming hobby lot director.  He has two bolts for her.  I didn't instruct Reed to interact with Michelle, but they developed a crush on their own, only to lose crush when Michelle rejected Reed for "hold hands".  The date ended up being lame, but Reed rolled the want to be best friends with Michelle, so I had him invite her over the next day.  Again, they autonomously developed a crush on one another, which is where their relationship remains.  We'll see if that goes anywhere next week.  Robert has a few prospects, but no one he has more than one bolt for except Raven.

Their tax debt came to $7,998.00, bringing the total to $86,628.00.

No stats changes.

Careers: 

Business: 1/5

Criminal: 0/1

Culinary: 1/∞

Law Enforcement: 3/3 (Reed immediately took the new opening.)

Science: 0/1

Gamer: 0/1 (conditionally)

Music: 2/∞

Natural Science: 0/1

Paranormal: 0/1

Architecture: 1/1

Up next, the Kekahi/London household.  Happy Simming!

BACC 5/4/21

 The Collins household was pretty calm this round.  On Monday or Tuesday, Meadow came home with a promotion, which would normally be just fine, but if you'll recall, Meadow is the manager at Lei Fleur, so she shouldn't be able to get promoted higher than that.  I've had this happen before in other 'hoods; it appears as though the employee career was originally intended to have more levels, but that idea was scrapped for some reason and the coding wasn't fully removed, meaning that sims who work as employees can sometimes get promoted above manager to "Unused 3" while playing their household.  This is a problem when returning to the business owner's lot because the sim will no longer be controllable as the manager and the owner will have to demote them or fire and rehire them to fix the problem.  Since Meadow is nearing the end of her life, I decided not to mess with all that and just have her quit at the end of the week.  The other employee who works at Lei Fleur has enough badges to become manager, so Andrew will be fine without Meadow.  Meadow will spend what time she has left helping Chase out with his business.  Speaking of Chase's business, he got it to rank 4 (just shy of rank 5 actually) by the end of the week and hired a cashier to allow him more time to focus on painting.  Since Ethan will be taking over the gallery one day, I had him get started on his pottery badge.  He's already got 8 creativity points, so the painting won't be a problem, but he'll need to make his own pottery since Meadow won't be around much longer.

Two birthdays were celebrated this week: Chase joined his wife in elderhood mid-week and Raven aged up to adult near the end of the week.  I had Raven invite over all the teens/adults she was friends (or very nearly friends) with for her party.  Upon growing up, I checked her chemistry with the three adult men present; she has 3 bolts for Jackson Kekahi, 2 for Daniel Drew, and 1 for Andrew Wheeler.  She spent most of the evening hanging out with Jackson, but no romantic interactions were performed.  Andrew followed her around all night trying to interact with her, but she mostly ignored him until right at the end when he got a romantic hug in, causing them both to fall back in love.  I'm not 100% sold on this match, though Andrew is clearly very determined to make it happen.  Since there was only one more day left in the week, I decided to table it for now and see what happens as I play through the other households.  She did roll the want to get engaged to Andrew, so I locked it in, but we'll wait to see if he also wants that.  Ethan started dating Dakota Hastings during her round and they continued that this week.  I actually really like them for each other, so I hope it continues once they both grow up.

Taxes for the week came to $4,552.00, bringing the total to $78,630.00.

There were no changes to stats or careers.  Up next is the Centowski family.  Happy Simming!

BACC 5/3/21

 As expected, Markus Kekahi passed away on Monday at the age of 71, leaving a generous life insurance payment to his family.  Jackson used the money to expand The Snack Shack, adding a food stand off the back facing the beach and installing a piano for live entertainment.  While these measures didn't quite get the restaurant up to profitable status, they did drastically decrease the losses being incurred, as well as help Jackson get the rank back up to 10.  Jackson also determined that he didn't really need two servers, but was loathe to fire either his aunt or uncle, so I had him leave them underpaid until one of them (Marina) quit.  With the lowered salary expense, Jackson might just be able to make a profit next week.  He's also planning to open a business of his own, so we'll see how that goes next time.

Marsha literally rocked the Music career this round.  She earned three (or four?) promotions, reaching the top and becoming a Rock God.  There's no real benefit to reaching the top, as Music is already fully open, but the bonuses really helped and now she can use up vacation days before retiring.  That means she'll be available to help Jackson out with his new business venture.

On the personal front, Jackson has not found a single lady in town that he has more than one bolt for except Mckenna Lane, which isn't likely to lead anywhere.  He did spend some time chatting up some of the one bolters, but doesn't really seem all that interested in them.  Eli is, of course, dating Raven Collins now.  Cherry has two bolts for Brady Lane, but has not acted on them.  Vanessa, who grew into a teen on Monday right after her father died (Jackson also aged up to adult the same day), is gay, but since all the other teens in town are straight, she doesn't really have any options at the moment.  She did spend some time hanging out with a townie woman that Jackson wasn't interested in, but her cousin Andrew was also spotted flirting with the same woman, so I don't know if she'll be a prospect later on.

The Kekahis owed $6,567.00 in taxes, plus back taxes.  They were able to pay the entire balance of $14,897.00, bringing the total community fund to $74,078.00.

Stats:

Playable sims: 37

SM: 4

Population: 148

Residential lots: 8

Owned Community lots: 9

Unowned Community lots: 2

CAS earned: 10 (8 added)

Careers: 

Business: 1/5 (The Snack Shack regaining rank 10 opened another position.)

Criminal: 0/1

Culinary: 1/∞

Law Enforcement: 2/2

Science: 0/1

Gamer: 0/1 (conditionally)

Music: 2/∞

Natural Science: 0/1

Paranormal: 0/1 (Markus' grave was #5 in the 'hood, opening the first position.)

Architecture: 1/1

Up next, the Collins family.  Happy Simming!

BACC 5/2/21

 The first three days of this week with the Hastings were about birthdays.  Carolina grew into a child on Monday, Wyatt became an adult on Tuesday, and Olivia aged to teen on Wednesday.  Sadly, Albert also passed away on Tuesday at the age of 70.  He passed his business, Crescendo, to his son Wyatt just hours before Grim showed up.  Unfortunately, despite his best efforts on Monday and Tuesday, he was unable to get the business up to rank 10.  I think he was just three stars short.  Wyatt took the reins on Wednesday and brought it to 10, hired a manager, and ran it remotely for the rest of the week.  I took some time to think about what Wyatt wanted to do with his life.  Crescendo doesn't really suit him, he can't take a job in Oceanography (his LTW) and doesn't really fit with any of the available careers, and his hobby of fitness suggests opening a gym, which I don't want to do until the Business District is open.  So after much consideration, I decided to have him open a fish market, which kind of goes with the Oceanography thing.  Per the rules, Oceanography is open to any sim with a gold fishing badge, which he'll certainly earn while running this shop, however I've added the requirement of a public beach, so it won't be quite as easy as that.

Michelle did quite well career-wise this week.  She's in line for her final promotion early next week.  Hunter struggled a bit, getting one promotion, but then a bad chance card lost him several points.  As of the end of the week, he's yet to get everything he needs for his next promotion.  The three teen girls (Emma, Dakota, and Olivia) rolled LTWs of Athletic, Gamer, and 5 Top Businesses, respectively.  Athletic may be doable, since I've been toying with the idea of having Andrew Wheeler open a soccer stadium.  Gamer is no problem, but I'm not sold on that for Dakota just yet.  Olivia's LTW is intriguing because I could easily have Wyatt pass Crescendo to her and possibly the fish market as well if he gets the chance to go into Oceanography.  That just leaves three more businesses, which with her hobby of cuisine, I'm thinking could be restaurants, though maybe not traditional restaurants - perhaps food stalls?

Romantically, Hunter finally met a woman he has two bolts for (Chloe Gonzaga) but since he's nearly elderhood, I don't know if I'll have him pursue it or not.  If he rolls wants, definitely, but I'm not going out of my way.  He's already got two kids and is very focused on his career.  Wyatt greeted several ladies who walked by, one of whom was Meadow Pederson, who he met while buying groceries at Keanu's.  They have two bolts and are nearly friends, so we'll see how that develops.  Dakota finally made a move on best friend Ethan Collins, so they're now dating.  Emma is still seeing Brady Lane, however Olivia has three bolts with him, and given that Emma and Olivia were fighting to the point of becoming enemies this round, I don't think Olivia will have any qualms about going after him.  In any event, Emma will grow into adulthood next week, so it may end up being anticlimactic anyway.

The Hastings' taxes were $7,913.00, bringing the community total to $59,181.00.

Stats:

Playable sims: 38

SM: 4

Population: 152

Residential lots: 8

Owned Community lots: 9

Unowned Community lots: 2

CAS earned: 10 (8 added)

Careers:

Business: 1/4 (Crescendo becoming rank 10 opened a new slot)

Criminal: 0/1

Culinary: 1/∞

Law Enforcement: 2/2

Science: 0/1

Gamer: 0/1 (conditionally)

Music: 2/∞

Natural Science: 0/1

Architecture: 1/1

Up next, Markus and Marsha Kekahi.  Happy Simming!