Last night I played The Sims for awhile; Obi-Wan kept made a couple of new potions, and one of them was the red one--the Love Potion. I didn't know what to do; I was tempted to get rid of the chemistry set and not find out what might happen. It seemed too big of a risk.

But I thought, well, I might as well just go ahead, so I told him to drink it, and one of the neighbor women magically appeared in the workroom and flung herself at him, madly in love with him.

I wasn't sure whether the feeling would be reciprocated, but it was, and he flung himself at her, too.

They were standing there in the workroom, kissing and hugging, and Qui-Gon kept bravely making trolls over at the wordworking bench, but his friendship rating of the neighbor woman went down to -70, and then suddenly he strode out of the room.

A little picture of the neighbor appeared above his head that said, "Slap," but he was apparently able to control himself enough not to do that. He did, however, leave. Left the house, moved out, left. He's gone. Completely.

Obi-Wan's all by himself now. The neighbor woman came over this morning and he proposed to her, but she turned him down. Her reason wasn't that she was already married, but that they hadn't been talking enough.

I guess what I'm going to do is have Qui-Gon move into another house in the neighborhood (actually what I'm going to have to do is create another Qui-Gon, since once they're gone, they're gone) and see if I can get them hooked up again. I've never successfully gotten two independent people to move in and live in the same house, but I know it can be done--Karen's been getting people married and killed off right and left. She has a "Black Widow" that serially marries and murders for money.

Socializing is just so difficult for me. There just isn't enough time. By the time you cook your meals and go to work and study and try to have a little free time for yourself, it's time to go to bed. There just isn't enough time to have a party or invite someone over, unless you want to miss work the next day and risk getting fired.

I realized this morning that the unexpected things that happen are what makes the game great, but I don't really want anything unexpected to happen. I don't want things to get shaken up. I want my little guys to eat a good breakfast, get to work on time, come home, play on the computer, read a book, watch a little television, maybe have sex, then get to bed at a decent hour and get up the next morning to do it all over again.

I don't want them falling in love with the neighbors or turning into zombies or staying up too late and collapsing on the kitchen floor. I want things to be nice and normal. Boring, but normal.

Yesterday morning when my alarm went off, Bob said, "I think we made it." I thought, what? Made it through the night? I said, "We did, huh?" and he said, "Yes--through all the traffic, the red alerts, and the air conditioning."

I knew then that he was dreaming. I said, "That's good. I was just dreaming that I was supposed to go to Galyan's and buy you an ax, did you need that?" but he just turned over and started snoring again.

He's been talking in his sleep quite a bit lately, but usually it's not quite so clear. I think it's because he's been staying up late, and when my alarm goes off in the morning, he's still deeply asleep and dreaming.

His parents are out of town, so he's been going over very late at night to walk their dog, and he's been playing a computer game that's completely absorbing him. I can't remember what the name of it is--some war game--the "pause" command doesn't work, apparently, so if he gets up to go do something else, the game proceeds without him. And I think there's something about not being able to stop and replay a scenario, so he has to follow a battle to its end before he can stop. Somewhat stressful, I think.

At least I can stop mine whenever I want and know that they'll wait for me to get back.