I’m no food photographer. Or any kind of photographer. But I can chop some apples.

I decided to try to make apple cider in my slow cooker today, with a recipe found on Pinterest. Basically 5 tart apples, 5 sweet, one peeled orange, cinnamon, cloves, sugar, water to cover, turn on low and cook all day. Voilà!

The problem is, it’s a bit bitter. I don’t know if it’s the apple quality, I used Granny Smith and Gala. But they were pretty small. I just added some more sugar, it’s going to percolate a bit. I’ll let you know, tomorrow how it turns out. 

Since yesterday I showed you Wil’s character, Phoebe,  I’ll show you what I am up to. I am working on The Ultimate Sim Challenge. It’s a massive, long term challenge during which you have one sim do every single thing in the game. EVERYthing. All the jobs. All the skills. Live in every town. Be every type of supernatural. Get all six degrees at University. Fulfill every achievement that comes with every skill. Visit China, Egypt, and France – exploring every tomb. You have to collect every single thing there is to collect. It takes a long time. 

I started it not long before sims 4 came out, thinking it would be a good way to say goodbye to 3 before I switched to 4. Then I played 4. No worries,  I’ll be playing Sims 3 for some time.  Sims 4 – meh. That’s a whole ‘another story. 

I based my Ultimate Sim on the first Sim I played in the Sims 1, Ana Madrigal. (Named after a character in a series of books by Armistead Maupin, Tales of the City.) there were only so many looks in The Sims 1. Ana was the generic blonde. I took her all the way to the top of the psychic career path. And back then, getting to the top was HARD. 

So here is Ana Madrigal 2.0. She can paint you a masterpiece LICKETY SPLIT! She’s a 5 Star chef. She’s been the CEO of a corporation. She’s run her own day care, until it was the best in town. Frankly, she kicks ass. 

 
The challenge is broken up into seasons. Like a tv show. Season 1 starts in Sunset Valley, the first town that came with the Sims 3. Each season is in a new town, and the first six seasons start with Ana going back to University and getting another degree. She has certain skills she can work on each season, and only those skills. For example, in season 1, she could not cook anything. She wasn’t allowed to work on that skill. 

Each season she has 3 jobs that she must master. And she has to have one kid each season, eventually having kids in all the available methods. (Cloning, genetic engineering, from a wishing well, etc.) and every single family member must live with her. You take their graves with you so at the end of the challenge you can bring them back to life, restore their, youth, and buy them a house. It behooves you to make a great deal of money.  

 The ghost of her first husband, Scott. He was a good husband. 

  Her second husband, Mandark. He was not a good husband, but that’s another story for later. 

   Ana proposes to her second spouse, Brenna. For the first time, she’s planning a big wedding. That’s going to happen tomorrow while Wil’s asleep and I can get on the gaming PC. I am just about to finish season 2, and I’m super excited to get out of Riverview. Not my favorite town. After the wedding, we outta there!

This is Phoebe Moore.

  
She is the character that I helped Wil create, in Fallout 4. I like that part. The creating, the hair, the outfits. She’s bad ass. Or, I guess she will be. Wil hasn’t had too much time to play and all he’s done is explore, kill critters, scavenge and build stuff. 

I’m not crazy about the bangs. I settled. 

After we’re done creating, I’m kinda “meh.” I mean, I know it’s a good game, but from my perspective it’s no Mass Effect. That game is like watching a movie, except for the long fight scenes. FemShep is the BOMB!

I made some thing amazing for dinner tonight. It’s called Cracked Out Chicken Bubble Up. I found it on Pinterest. I believe “cracked out” means it’s got bacon, ranch dressing, and cheese in it. Bubble up because that’s what it does in the oven? Maybe? 

Ingredients include:

• Cooked chicken 
• Sour cream
• Cream of chicken soup
• Crumbled bacon
• Ranch dressing mix
• Grated cheddar cheese
• Pilsbury Jr. Grand biscuits cut into quarters. 

I’m sure you can imagine how delicious that is. Wm could not quit eating it. It’s pretty rich. The ultimate comfort food. 

    
Don’t be jealous. 

I came perilously clos to missing a day. I had a blog planned but then I did not do that about which I planned to blog. 

I spent the day doing the dishes, cleaning up cat vomit, and playing the sims. When Wil woke up, I watched tv while he talked about Fallout 4. He’s very excited. We had pizza for dinner and now he’s playing a space game and I’m reading books. 

That is my post. It counts. 

I’m certainly enjoying my new Apple TV. My best friend, Siri, is so helpful. I was just browsing through old movies and I saw the decidedly creepy “Daddy Long Legs.” It’s not a movie about spiders, it’s about a wealthy man who encounters an orphan in France. He decides to send her to college, anonymously, in New England. She writes him letters, but he never writes back. Then he visits the college and they fall in love despite the 30 year difference in their ages. I watched it once. Despite featuring Fred Astaire and his dancing, it wigged me out.
But it stars Leslie Caron, and that made me think of another movie about young girls and creepy old men that I do like – GiGi. And that when the new remote is very handy. All I had to wait ask Siri to show me Gigi, and it brings up all the options available for watching it. Ta-DA!

And now I am going to watch it.

  
Now please excuse this terrible picture of my tv screen, but I’ve just found out about this Easter egg in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Late to the party I’m sure. I’ve desaturated it quite a big because it makes it easier to see. 

In the visions that Thor has, brought about by Scarlette Witch, there are three men wearing masks, a wolf, a ram, and a hart. I LOVE THIS EASTER EGG!! Additionally, I LOVE JOSS WHEDON!!!

I’m sure everybody else already knows about this, but I was just watching the commentary and it’s the first I’ve heard of it. I got a little overly excited and took a picture of the tv. Maybe I overreacted. I don’t know. Here is a picture of George, also watching the movie. (I always use the “spring” filter in PS Express on the cats because it makes them look so soft.)

  
That’s all I really have for today, I spent most of the day running errands on the way back up to Canada. Wil assures me that if I keep at it, I’ll find my old blog skills, but I’m not entirely sure.