Ever since Chin burned up in the stove fire last month, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon have left his room exactly the way he left it, except, of course, for the pewter urn in the corner. The leopard-print rug was still there, the bed and dresser, the paintings on the walls.

But life goes on, and Qui and Obi decided to re-do his old room (which actually started out as the garage and was divided in two with one side being Chin's room and the other side becoming a laundry room) and make it a workroom for the two of them.

Qui-Gon decided to go into woodworking.

He has a nice style, but his repertoire is a little limited.

In fact, it's real limited.

All he seems to be able to make are these weird little painted gnomes. They're nice gnomes, and as time goes on, he makes them faster and better, but still, nothing but gnomes. The workroom was getting a little overcrowded, in fact, with gnomes.

So he sold them. Fortunately, there seems to be a pretty good market for gnomes in Simsville. And the better he gets, the more he sells them for. The first ones he made just brought $1.00; the most recent ones are going for around $15.00. Practice makes perfect, apparently.

Obi-Wan decided to go for the chemistry set rather than the woodworking bench. It seemed to fit in better with his current profession as a hypnotist.

There are many different kinds of potions that you can make with the chemistry set, and once you've made one you (or someone else) has to drink it before you can make another one. There's a list in the Livin' Large Strategy Guide that lists what the colors are and what their effects are, and there are also a couple of FAQs on the web that do the same thing, only in this case, with a little more detail and a few strategy tips on how to deal with them.

The first potion Obi-Wan made was a benign blue one--it maximizes three needs randomly--in this case his energy, hunger, and fun, so he didn't have to eat or sleep (or have any fun) the rest of the night.

He made and drank the chartreuse (or light green) potion the next night, which redlines all of your Sims' needs, i.e., they're suddenly starving to death, they're exhausted, they're really aggravated because they're having no fun at all, and they really, really have to go to the bathroom.

The bathroom thing seemed the most urgent, so I had him use the bathroom first thing, then had him start out for the kitchen, but before he could get the refrigerator open, he collapsed on the floor. It took me a couple of (Sim) days to get him back to normal. The FAQ recommends you just let them pee where they are rather than trying to get to the bathroom--it ruins their hygiene level, but it's already ruined anyway--why waste the time?

That seemed a little harsh . . .

Once he was finally back to normal, he went back to the chemistry set and tried again. He made the blue potion again this time, but he decided not to drink it himself--he called Qui-Gon in to try it instead.

Qui did this dramatic sort of Lon Chaney-esque thing where he looked around to see if anyone was watching, then after he drank it, he bent over like he was having cramps and was going to turn into something vile, then he just stood up and said, "Mm. That tasted good. I'm completely refreshed now."

I'm looking forward to trying the orange potion, which causes invisibility, and the purple one, which turns the Sim who drinks it into a monster (according to the FAQ, this one "eventually" wears off).

There's also a green potion, which creates an Evil Clone of the Sim who drinks it, a yellow potion, which causes a complete personality reversal, a red potion, which causes the Sim to fall in love with someone in the neighborhood (undoubtedly someone completely unsuitable), and a white potion, which cures sickness.

The FAQ also mentions that the chemistry set can blow up in your face, and I'm not sure how to avoid that. Build up logic skills somewhere else safe, maybe, like playing a lot of chess.