Additions.

Just after the wedding, Yulia hastily rebuilt her tiny dwelling,

even including a real kitchen (because Derek, unlike Yulia, could cook).

“Sorry I don’t know how to cook,” Yulia told her new husband. “It’s on my list of things to accomplish, but I haven’t gotten around to it yet.'”

“Don’t worry about it, hon,” he smiled. “You’re a very busy girl. And, besides, I LIKE to cook.”

He sat down across from her. “I think it’s great what you’ve done with this small house, but how long do we plan on staying here? Now that we have my income, we could look for a bigger place.”

“It’s not a money issue, Derek,” Yulia explained. “We have to stay here until I get this venue to Level 10. Then we can move. But it’s only Level 6 right now.”

“Can I do something to help you?” he asked. “Maybe I could pitch in on my days off.”

“Oh!” Yulia laughed. “And you have SO MANY of those! No, you just concentrate on your career. It’s enough that you cook for me. I actually have two other employees besides Christian Love; I just don’t have any work for them to do yet. But I will soon.”

Yulia cleaned up after dinner and got ready for bed and, as Derek came out of the bathroom, she teased, “So, you don’t like our cozy little bedroom? You don’t see the charm in a room that’s barely big enough to put the bed in??”

He chuckled as he got into bed and put his arm around her. “Of course I do. It’s just that the house is going to be a little small once we start having children.”

“But we don’t have to rush into that, right?” Yulia asked. “We’re young, and we’re both so busy with work, and we’ve got lots of time.”

He kissed her. “Whatever happens, happens,” he answered, with a twinkle in his eye.

Sunday morning Derek headed off to the hospital. He hugged his wife. “Don’t work too hard, okay?” he teased. “Save some of your strength for me.”

“I’ll sure have to work hard if I want to make my husband happy and move to a bigger house!” She squeezed him playfully. “Have a good day, Derek, and I can’t wait till you’re back home.”

Yulia called Christian Love in to work, and he continued to make Snapdragon Bouquets while she worked on her sales skills. Mid-morning, her venue reached Level 7,

and Yulia took the next Connections perk. “Derek will need more and more friends now that he’s moving up in the medical field, and this perk will help me make us friends more easily.”

She continued to try to sell her old, unwanted items at $999 each.

She didn’t sell any items all day, but she was sure her efforts were at least improving her sales skills.

Derek came home just before sunset with the good news that he’d been promoted. “Don’t have time to talk though, hon,” he called to her. “Gotta change and go back to work.”

He used the Energizer,

changed his uniform, and took Yulia’s car to the hospital.

Soon after Derek left, Yulia got her Silver sales badge,

and a few hours later got her Gold Sales Badge.

She immediately started using her new “Sales-Dazzle” interaction, and soon had sold her old flamingo to Brandon, and her area rug to Tiffany, each at a price of $999.

The venue reached Level 8 just after midnight,

and Yulia chose the first Motivation perk. She wasn’t that interested in that particular perk, but she ultimately wanted two perks in that category, including the top one.

Though she was tired, she had to ring up her two sales before going to bed.

Just after 1 a.m., Derek returned from the hospital, with the good news that he’d been promoted for the second time in 24 hours!

“I can close up here, honey,” he offered. “I’m not tired at all, and you look beat!”

So Yulia retired for the night,

while Derek rang up Tiffany,

and restocked her flamingo and area rug, before remembering that the point of the sale was to get rid of such things.

And he helped two confused customers,

and so gained Yulia two more customer loyalty stars.

Derek wasn’t tired at all, so played cards with some customers until he heard Yulia in the kitchen.

He opened the door to a very pleasing sight.

“So much for ‘not rushing into this!’,” he cried with delight.

“I guess this is what you meant by “whatever happens, happens,’ huh?” Yulia answered.

Derek immediately turned serious and examined his wife’s belly.

“This is wonderful, just wonderful,” he murmured. The sun came up and Derek had to leave for work. “Now you take it easy,” he said sternly. “Don’t work the whole day. Doctor’s orders! Maybe call up some of your friends and have fun with them. Oh, by the way, we need one more friend for my next promotion.”

Yulia changed, invited Amanda over, and went out to chat with some customers as Derek was leaving for the hospital.

Yulia decided it was time to hire a butler, not so that she could get more rest, but so that the butler could take over the cleaning duties so Yulia would have more time to sell.

Amanda arrived. The two women hadn’t seen each other since before Yulia met Derek,

and Yulia had to spend some time with Amanda to restore their friend status.

“Hopefully this will be all the help Derek needs for his next promotion,” she thought as she climbed back into bed.

It worked—Derek returned home having been promoted again.

He checked on Yulia, was happy to find her sleeping, and stayed outside talking to his colleague, Sean, whom he needed to make into a friend for his next promotion.

The new butler made grilled cheese sandwiches just before he left for the evening, and Yulia—who had awakened several times because of the summer heat—joined him in the kitchen.

“I was glad to see you in bed, but I also notice the venue went up two Levels while I was at work,” he said sternly. “I hope you didn’t work too hard.”

“Oh, it’s easier now that I have my Gold sales badge,” she assured him, as she finished her sandwich and climbed back under the covers.

Derek showered and climbed into the bed next to his wife. “I know you love to work, Yulia, but you’ve got to take this pregnancy seriously. I do NOT want to come home and find you exhausted tomorrow!”

“You worry too much,” she retorted over her shoulder. “Now be quiet so I can get the sleep all pregnant women need.”

He smiled to himself and snuggled up to her back.

_____________________________________________

NOTES FROM THE AUTHOR:

Just after midnight on Monday, the couple has $79,055 in cash and a net worth of $155,798.

Yulia picked up another aspiration benefit, and chose Financial Advice for Cash.

I spent some time thinking about how to allocate Derek’s 6 aspiration benefits. So, beyond the 4 Needs benefits, what to do with the other 2 points? I gave him the first Work benefit, since extra vacation time will give him the opportunity either to help Yulia with her venues or to help their future children with skills. But the other Work benefits aren’t useful to him—when those Chance cards come up, I always pick “Ignore”—I don’t take chances in real life, and won’t let my Sims, either! The “one fewer friend” benefit is not that valuable, and I’ll never let him get fired. Re the Knowledge benefits, this character (a Knowledge Sim) enters Uni (and I did that with him, and fast-played him through to get him ready for this blog) with almost all skills already maxed, so he doesn’t need the Eureka one (which I usually like), and I’m certainly not going to let him be abducted by aliens! But I figure he’d like to to have the “Impart Knowledge” benefit to teach skills to his future children, so I picked the first Knowledge benefit in order to get Impart Knowledge next. After that, I’ll probably give him a secondary aspiration of Family so he can make chicken soup.

Strategy:

When Yulia went to bed after getting her Gold sales badge, she didn’t reset the prices of the remaining items (the 2 armchairs and the easel)—she left them at $999 each. By doing that, she assured herself that customers, left to their own devices (i.e., with no one actively selling to them), wouldn’t buy the items. So, there’s no need for anyone to run the cash register or restock items, and she could just go to bed and not have to call in her employees, without worrying that customers would be frustrated that there was no service.

If you have a combined business like this—something that’s both a venue and a retail store—there’s no way to shut down the store for the day yet leave the venue running. So, the solution is to keep the retail prices high enough that they won’t “self-sell,”

And, the fact that the retail store remained open after Yulia went to sleep meant that Derek could do the “Sales-May I Help You?” interaction (which never by itself results in a sale) with customers, and thereby gain Yulia 2 more customer loyalty stars.

The backstory:

http://veilsmilliondollarchallenge2.blogspot.com/2008/12/yelena-andropova-picked-up-phone-to.html