I know that probably just like the cat stories, half of my readers hate reading about my Sims addiction, and the other half live for it. Several people have written to say that my stories about the game have persuaded them to buy it, and several others have written to say that although they don't have any interest in playing it, they still enjoy reading about it. No one has written to say they hate it, so even though I assume there are some, I figure they're just skipping over those parts and hoping I find a new interest soon.

Well, probably not.

You'll recall the Jedi "family" -- being turned into a zombie doesn't seem to have affected Qui-Gon much, if at all. He still needs to eat, shower, and go to the bathroom, and he still gets up and goes to work. He's lost all his personality, though, and has a smaller range of actions available. For instance, if I normally could click on him and see "Talk," "Joke," "Entertain," "Hug," "Dance," "Give Backrub," now I might see a series like "Tease," "Insult," and, strangely, "Dance."

So generally I let people interact with him rather than have him initiate the encounter. Seems safer.

Oh! But the big news was that they got a call one day early in the week asking if they wanted to adopt a baby. I thought, well, sure, why not? What have we got to lose? Qui-Gon's already a zombie.

So I said yes, and a little green crib magically appeared with a baby in it. A crying baby. I already knew that Karen had had trouble keeping a baby long enough to have it grow up (if you aren't vigilant in keeping it happy and fed, the Child Protection Services will come take it away), so I knew I had to keep right on top of the situation, feeding, playing, and singing almost constantly, with just a few breaks for sleep.

Then, three days later, the crib went away in a puff of rainbow-colored smoke, and a little boy appeared. A little boy in jeans and a white shirt complete with pocket protector, and little round glasses. He washes the dishes and mops the bathroom on his own, and sometimes will choose studying over watching television, and goes to bed without prompting.

So after a few days it became apparent that they needed a bigger house, or at least another bathroom, and a separate bedroom for the little boy (Jake) would be nice (I had put his bed into the study, but it was only temporary), so I had them work especially hard for a few days until they could afford it, and then moved them into a bigger house. It was a struggle for a few days, but they're settling in nicely now.