Mysterious circumstances

I'm completely envious of the people who have PCs and who already have The Sims II. It looks gorgeous. I've read a lot of reviews of it, and there are pros and cons; some people like the fact that characters are born, grow up, age, and die, but there are others who don't, especially considering the fact that time is so compressed in the Sims' world.

I can't really talk about it since I don't have any direct experience. It would certainly be different, though. You spend so much time creating characters with specific looks and personality, and it doesn't sound like you get to spend a lot of time with them. But I guess I'll just have to wait until (if) it comes out for Mac.

I haven't spent a lot of time playing with my Sims lately, but I did create a wonderful house and family specifically for Halloween. I started out with what I recall was a San Francisco row house (I'm terrible at creating houses from scratch), and turned it into a stone edifice with an overgrown garden/graveyard and a lot of wonderful, spooky furniture.

The family consists of two sisters, Eleanor and Daphne Rose. Eleanor became a schoolteacher in a boarding school, and Daphne Rose left home to seek fame and fortune. She didn't exactly achieve the goal of "fame," but she ended up with a couple of small roles in some instantly forgettable horror movies and although it's been years, she still talks about it.

"I used to be in movies, you know."

She is often found sitting out on the balcony drinking absinthe and reminiscing about the past.

Eleanor is more pragmatic. She had a son who married young, had two babies, and then disappeared under mysterious circumstances, along with his wife. No one is allowed to talk about them. Eleanor is raising the two little girls. They're twins, although they look nothing alike. Abigail ("Abby") is studious and spends most of her spare time reading.

Aurora ("Aurora") is a troublemaker, and is easily bored.

Even though she's been told a million times not to, she is constantly opening up the coffin in the corner of the living room and letting out the maid.

Also living in the house is Ralph, an old boyfriend of Daphne's who, during the filming of one of her movies, was mysteriously turned into a zombie. She broke up with him, but he followed her here and refused to leave. They tolerate him, and he helps out by doing the yard work. He also plays a mean game of checkers.

He sleeps in an upstairs hallway on an army cot, among the boxes that no one has ever bothered to unpack.

There are several ghosts on the property. One appears to be an old soldier.

Then there's Elizabeth, the ghost of the movie star in the photo in the living room. She's also an old friend of Daphne's. No one's talking about how she ended up in the graveyard out back, but it's a certainty that Ralph was involved somehow.

Aurora spends more time than she should with Ralph. She isn't really a very nice little girl, and she teases him.

"Do you like teddies?" "Ooh, I love teddies!"

"And bubbles!"

Abby is nicer to him. They talk about the same stuff, but she's really interested in what he thinks.

"So, what do you think about teddies?"

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month