D'vorahDavida
Yetzirah

May I come, too, Red?
I live with 3 dogs AND 3 cats.
Take pity on me.
Puleeeeeeeeeeze!

Dear Red,

Those who can bend do not easily break. You are on the right course so it matters not what punctuation marks have to say on the matter. Besides, it very well may be that the Shakers got that little tidbit from the same place the Zen Master got it. Let () munch on that idea for a bit.

Quilty

PS. The snow is now 18-20 inches deep. Does anyone know where I can get a good sled and dog team?

Hmmm. Wonder how long that Zen moment will last. She can be pretty prickly, and unless she wants to romp, she'd better find a high perch.


Bless

Now Quilty it seems that I do know where you can
get the sled team!!! both are right on this page. Will 6 dogs do till snow melts.??

RYC: The Sims are great fun, but VERY addictive. I tend to restrict my playing to when I'm on holiday, because if I start playing in the evening, before I know it it's 2 am...

The choice isn't quite as overwhelming as it seems, because all the expansion packs rely on the base game, so you'd have to buy that before you could get any of the others. So really your only choice is between Sims 1 and Sims 2. Unless your computer is very old and slow, I'd recommend Sims 2, because it's so much more fun.

In Sims 1, you create your sims at a certain age and that's it, they never change. They can have children, but they never grow up. So I found once I'd got a sim to the top of his or her career I'd get bored with them and kill them off. With the Sims 2, they age, so you can have many generations of the same sim family. That keeps me much more interested, because I want to see how the great-great-grandchildren of my original sim turn out, and I can devise huge family histories, and feuds or friendships that last for generations.

Then once you've got your base game, it's really down to what interests you as far as expansion packs go. University lets you send your teen sims to university to study for a degree that helps them get a better job as adults; Nightlife creates a downtown area where your sims can go on dates; Open for Business lets your sims start their own businesses; Pets gives you sim cats and dogs to add to your families; Seasons lets your sims grow vegetables, and adds weather to the game; Bon Voyage gives you resorts where your sims can go on holiday; Freetime adds various hobby activities; and Apartment Life lets your sims live in apartment buildings instead of individual houses.

Each expansion pack also adds minor details to the gameplay (like University (I think it was) adds life-time goals that will make your sims happier if they reach them) and special characters (Nightlife adds vampires, Pets adds werewolves, and Bon Voyage adds bigfoot).

And then there's the Stuff Packs, which don't add anything to the gameplay, but are just collections of clothing, furniture and decorations, usually based around a theme. There's a Christmas one, a glamour one, a wedding one, various packs put out in conjunction with real-life shops... they just keep churning them out.

And of course, they've put out various special offer packs which give you the base game plus one or more expansion or stuff packs. So yeah, the choice is pretty overwhelming!

Oh yeah, one thing to be aware of with the newer expansion and stuff packs: they contain anti-piracy software called Securom, which is reported to have done serious damage to some people's computers. It installs itself the first time you run the game off the CD, so can be bypassed by using a no-CD hack, but that's a bit of a hassle (and because of this, ironically, it's made MORE people pirate the games!). The packs to avoid are Bon Voyage, Freetime and Apartment Life, and the stuff packs Mansion & Garden, IKEA, Kitchen & Bathroom, Teen Style, and H&M Fashion. But if any of those really appeal, let me know and I'll point you in the direction of sites where you can get the no-cd hacks (the hacks, while used by pirates, are actually legal as long as you bought a legal copy of the game).

Ok, this is now an exceedingly long comment. Sorry! :-)

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