I had Gunmod's Lightning System installed while playing Desiderata Valley, which is why the pictures look different. I've uninstalled it after though, I don't think I'm a fan of it.
It surprised me, but I actually found Desiderata quite enjoyable to play, except for the Travellers and the Bell family. I did a lot of reconstruction in this hood and quite a few of the families live in new houses that I built myself, because the old ones just irritated me or looked out of place.

Starting off the Desiderata rotation is the Aspir family. I love Luis, he's a great grandad.






He struck me as someone who made his work out of his hobby, so even after his retirement I let him draft up plans and things.



As well as plan out his own little mini city :) The hobby room is totally Luis', though his son comes in to play around with the train occasionally as well.



Victor (I think that's what he's called anyway) got demoted on his first day of work. Fail.



Somehow he still managed to convince his wife a second child was a good idea though. Blasted ACR.



Granted, he looks kinda cute during potty training, but not so much I appreciated this little surprise ACR threw at me.



Luis' project is taking on shape. He really loves playing around with that train set.



Ever noticed this on the trainset, by the way?



I couldn't stop giggling when I saw it ^^ Floating piggy! Well, deflated piggy, but still. This is one of the reasons why TS3 will never, ever replace TS2 in my regard.



Victor: 'I was actually trying to make tomato soup, but it turned out a little thick, so I made some pasta out of it instead.'
Elizabeth: 'Incompetent, unemployed and knocking me up. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you right now?'



Elizabeth: 'Awh. Okay, maybe I'll let you live for another day or two.'

Grainy because it's a screenshot of the special events movie (which I only just thought of I could actually do, now I don't use the ingame camera anymore to take screenshots. Durr.)



Birthday time for Pauline! She was a super easy toddler to take care of, and got all her toddler skills as well as a few choice skill points. Not bad, Pauline, not bad.



Besides being awesome, she's also very cute :)



Pauline saying hello to her baby brother, Diego. As you can see, they're already bestest friends, even though they haven't had a coherent conversation or anything. She really needs to get to know some kids her own age, cause your best friend being your 1 year old brother is kinda embarassing.



Toddler Diego. Cute as a button :) Looks like the Aspirs have got pretty good genes.


The Goodie Family



I seriously love these two. They are so cute together and are really fun to play for being old folks.



They've adopted a stray kitty named Noodles, who for some reason turned into an elder as soon as they adopted him/her. Weird glitch, that, though I've had it with moved in townies before. Either way, he/she is one cute kitty, and very friendly.



I can't get over his face :D He looks so happy, pretty much constantly.



Faith's One True Hobby is cuisine, so I had her pursue it. She already came with a good few cooking points, unlike those slacker Oldies who apparently did nothing during the entirety of their adult life.



I'd never done a cooking contest before, so I let Faith enter one. It doesn't really surprise me to find Tara Kat at the cooking hobbylot. She looks like the type that enjoys whipping up a nice meal, provided she can keep the cats out of it.



This is my foodjudge, by the way. Stylish.



Tara and Faith look like they could be good friends. I'll definitely have them stay in touch.



The moment of truth...



Faith won! Tara seems to be one sore loser.



One more cutesy pic, and we're off to...

The Contrary Family



This is the only picture I've got of Edward. He and Opal are both in the Oceonography career, so I had them install their own private study tank. Edward spends most of this time in front of it, pulling faces at the fishes.



None of them can cook, and I was tired of skilling up cooking, so they mostly lived on fastfood. Opal doesn't mind at all. She's definitely a girl with cravings.



Leading to the inevitable. I think she looks better as a curvy lady, anyway.



Her relationship with Rick is very strained though.

Opal: 'I could have forgiven you neglecting your studies. Or hanging out with that Jocque girl at all hours. But this, this is just going too far, Rick. It's too much. I think we need to find you professional help.'
Rick: 'I just don't like chinese food, all right? Sheesh.'



It makes me all sad when sim parents do this. He's your kid, Opal! Give him a break!



Oh NOW you're sorry?



She rang up the police immediately, and luckily Rick was found and brought home soon enough. Whew. 



Opal ran up autonomously and started apologising to him. Maybe things are fixable after all? I wouldn't hold your breath though, 10 mins later she got all slappy again. Rick has ran away at least three times so far, the most I've ever had a sim do. He's really not happy at home, and Edward isn't helping with his weird fish obsession. Good thing he'll be going to college after this round.



Look at how sad he looks :( I just want to hug him. Shame on you, Opal! There's no need to work out your frustrations over having gained a couple of pounds on your son!



I had him go out a lot, in order to get him out of the house and away from slap-happy Opal. He likes to play football on the neighborhood football field. That's Ajay Loner playing goalkeep for him.



He usually eats out as well, to avoid the standard family meals of chinese or pizza. I'm proud to tell you that this fine establishment is called Burger Kong. Get it? Burger King? And this is a tropical hood, so I made king into kong because of the... oh never mind. Moving on!

The Bell Family



Something went wrong in my picture folder, and this is the only picture that apparently survived from the Bell family, even though I definitely took at least a few more.
In short: David grew up, his parents were boring, his aunt moved out, bongos were played. That's all, folks.

I'm going to at least play out Round 1 of the Megahood (I only need to do Downtown, and the Universities if I feel up for it), but I might be doing something else after that for a while. I don't think I'll completely abandon the Megahood, but I've been thinking of trying one of those viking legacy things (extra challenges and only 5 generations long appeals to me), and I've got my new shiny Pleasantview/Strangetown hood to play around with as well. And on top of that, as you know, I also need to study. We'll just see what the future brings. :)