You forgot something, Val!

I told one of my forum members I'd do a photoshoot with Josh. I ended up building a bar-set for him to pose in with his brothers (all 4 are sons of Brandi Broke and Joe), but I built it in the street, because it was just supposed to be a set, and there's obviously no room on their home lot for an actual bar. Then I wanted to shoot from different angles, bring in props, etc, which meant actually building a very small-scale bar.

I forgot something pretty important, though. It took Josh a second to figure it out, because he had been in an animation loop for the shoot, I'd just canceled it out, and so he was mid-conversation with his twin, Jacob (about goldfish. Of course). But his brothers caught on, immediately. Can you guess what it is that I forgot?

"How YOU doin'?"

Doin' great, so far, Josh! How YOU doin', baby? How's the weather in there?



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It began raining. INSIDE. In unison, (pictured at the bar, left-right) Joey Jr., Bradley, and Jacob stood up and said "Huh??" (They really did!)



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Josh senses something ain't right. Why are his brothers acting like choreographed monkeys? Gary's pool stick slips right out of his hand.



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"Okay, what the hell??" Now Josh is peeved. "Why is my cap getting wet?!"




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"The roof! There's no roof! You can't build a roof on a STREET!" Three out of four Broke-Bayfield brothers smack their heads in disbelief.
Always one to find the humor in things, Joe thinks this is pretty damn amusing. He's stifling a laugh behind his sons' backs. "Way to go, Val! Ahahahaha!"



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Josh is astounded by my half-baked plan to build a bar set in the middle of the street. With no roof. In the rain. "What the hell was Val thinking? She knows I like my martinis DRY."

Joe and Gary wonder if they should attempt to resume their game of pool on wet felt. "Won't the chalk just make a paste?"




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"So, anyway. Where were we? Ah, yes. We were talking about goldfish."
"Guys, shouldn't we pursue this 'no roof' issue, first?" Josh isn't about to let me off the hook that easily...

When Good Snowmen Go Bad

This is an attempt to fake a brief respite from 3-digit real-world temps...

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How many snowmen can one lot hold? The Broke-Bayfield Boyz want to know.

Can you spot the non-snowman in this pic? Here's a hint: his name is Joshua. And he doesn't have a carrot-nose.



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"Dad! Do we really need another one??"



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"I mean, it's getting pretty crowded out here, don'tcha think? And I swear one of these snowmen is smirking at me...".




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Elfie's star pupil, Ty, is still not in a good mood. His girlfriend broke up with him. This trashcan deserves to be kicked!!





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Ty is working on Snowman Population Control, as his court-ordered community service "good deed of the day". You know, for the buttermint of society. Or something like that. He forgets what "society" means.

"This won't hurt a bit, Frosty. Okay, it will hurt a lot. Bwahahaha."

With a rather unceremonious doink of the carrot nose, Ty prepares to decimate snowman #1. (Inside, Jeremy and Val are forced to remain spectators, unable to break through the crowd of sims pushed up against the front door by rapidly multiplying snowmen. )




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"Just doin' my job, folks."



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The other snowmen bristle in fear.



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"No need to fear! Shawn is here!" Rebuilding the snowman population one-by-one.




Josh steps in to assist.



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"Will the Real Sim Shady please stand up?"



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Bayfield Boredom: the big picture.

(Note aspirationally challenged Brandon jumping on the bench waaaaaaay in the back.)



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By nightfall, the scene had become almost nightmarish:



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Ty was feeling the heat, so to speak.



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Okay, OVERWHELMED!!



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Where have the girls been through all this?? Inside, doing something "financially motivated" .

Professor Elfie: Sym Tooter

Ty is Scott and Val's son (Reese's twin brother). He is not doing well at school, and is in danger of failing. Enter Professor Elfie! Ty is already in a cranky mood.





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But he gives Professor Elfie a hug hello, anyway. (You'd have to know Ty to know why this is so shocking)



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The Professor starts with the basics, but tries to make it light-hearted and fun, so as not to scare the kid off with all the learning he's about to have to suck up.



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"Will you sing with me?" Prof. Elfie prods.

Ty falls for it hook, line and sinker. "I know my abc's, I do, I do, mmmhmm, yesh, yesh. C is for a wude word
...ooooh, and so is F !!! " (inside joke at the forum)



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"Okay, second verse: ♪♪♫ x=½y² ..."



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Ty senses edumacatin' is about to happen. He ain't stoopid. And he ain't happy.



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"WTF are you trying to pull?!"




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"Well, Ty..." Elfie clears her throat, nervously. This kid's not gonna make this easy. "I'm hearing you're a little behind in your reading comprehension."



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"Compreehenshun?! I don't even know wut that meanz!"



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He soups off in a huff.



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And goes emo. "A tooter? How could my parintz set me up lyke this? How could thay do this to meeeeeeeeeeeeeee???"




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Prof. Elfie is patient, but persistent. "Settle down, Ty."




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"You do understand that it is my job to nurture stubborn young minds, don't you?"



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The ghost of Jorenne provides too much of a distraction for Ty to concentrate on the perfesser's wurdz.



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"What ghost? Silly Ty. Ghosts don't exist."



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"Srysly?"



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Scariest tutoring moment EVAH!!!




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Ty pees, Prof. Elfie lectures, and Jorenne gets a huge kick out of the whole deal.




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"N-now do you believe me??"



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"What I believe, Ty, is that you have a very vivid imagination, a very small bladder, and that it's time to move on to your geometry lesson."



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"So, you're sitting at your desk. We'll call you 'a'. A 'ghost' floats by, whom we'll call 'b', and your pee puddle will be called 'c'. Pee-puddle²=Ty² + ghost². This, Ty, is the Peethagorean Theorem."




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"So, in a right triangle, the square of the measure of the hypotenuse equals the sum of the squares of the measures of the two legs, right??"

"YES, Ty! Now you're catching on!!!"




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"The other thing you need to work on is your attendance! Monday morning, you get on that bus, and you go to school!"




And just like that, Professor Elfie is gone.

Who was that technicolored-coat-wearing woman, anyway?



Nevermind that. It's time for a shower, kob frobbat.