When building houses, I like starting out with a flat lot. So the “Flatten Lot” tool is very useful. But if there are butterflies on the lot, that section of land will not flatten out. I think it was a 9×9 square that ended up lower than the rest of the lot. When I tried creating the main room of the house, it would not build over the uneven, sloped area. I tried using the ‘move_objects on’ cheat to move the butterflies out of the way, but couldn’t seem to grab them. What I did was just make a narrower house next to the butterflies and waited until they disappeared, then flattened the area where they were. Luckily I have a big enough house that I won’t have to add on to it. I believe another option is to make your Sim catch the butterflies before you start building. Either have your sim catch them before you flatten the lot, or make some stairs so they can reach them. On lots that are pretty uneven to begin with, it may be difficult for your Sim to reach the butterflies. Good luck!

I’ve had a few wedding parties recently where the limousine does not show up afterwards. I’m starting to wonder what the requirements are. I thought just getting married using the wedding arch would allow the limo to come when the party ends, but that hasn’t happened. Maybe it has to be a great party first, but I thought one of my parties was pretty good. Maybe since I have Bon Voyage, no limo comes unless I book a honeymoon in advance. That is what the answer at http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071016092607AABE3BC says. Some people have had problems with endless wedding parties before their scheduled honeymoon, so I don’t think I’ll try that right now (see http://community.livejournal.com/thesims2/4447464.html)  Let me know your experiences.

Today I just noticed my Sim had built an evil-looking snowman. It has small horns, fire on its hat, a pitchfork instead of a broom, and a mischievous expression on its face. See the pictures below of the good snowman versus the evil snowman. Is the bad snowman created randomly or under certain conditions? Also I tried relocating one of the snowmen but couldn’t. When you start to move objects, it goes into Buy mode and the snow disappears. I got a message: “Must be placed on snow-covered ground.” Is there a way to move a snowman?

I was wondering about this the other day, and saw someone posted on the internet that their sim children had a snow day. Today it just happened to my teen Sim! He’s in public school, and I’m guessing that private school children (and teens) don’t get snow days, only public school children. The message is, “Snow Day! It has been snowing so much that the school will be closed today. Catch up on that homework and enjoy the day off.” The ground is completely covered in snow, and it’s still snowing. The message came at 7:00 am, the same time it usually announces that the school bus will arrive in an hour. He already did his homework, but I wonder if he can call some friends to come over. I’m not sure which of his friends go to public or private school though.

I get tired and frustrated with my guests immediately going to the piano, guitar, or drums as soon as they arrive (unless I start talking to them or distract them with something else first). Even when these items are on the 2nd story or far away from the front door. They don’t seem to ever stop until their needs are very low, even if it’s past time to go home (around 2am for adults). I have thought about removing these items, but why prevent the homeowners from enjoying them? The first option to get them to stop is to initiate an interaction (talking, playing, etc) with them or the “shoo” option if you want them out of the room. My trick is to use the “Call Over” option every now and then to stop them from playing. That way your sim won’t have to walk all the way over there if it’s far away, and you can make your guest come to you while you can continue what you were doing. I know playing instruments can be fun, and increases creativity, but once your fun bar is full it’s probably time to work on another need bar. If your playable sim is on an instrument when it’s time to go to work or school, do they stop automatically?

I always forget the keys used for rotating floor tiles and other objects. For some objects, such as flowerbeds, you can click and hold down the mouse button, and then move your mouse around in a circle to rotate the object. Once you release the mouse the object will be placed. But for floor tiles this doesn’t work because clicking once will place the object. For any object you want to rotate before placing, use the angle brackets (< and >) to rotate the object and view before clicking to place the object. The < key is the same as the comma key, and the > key is the same as the period key. This keyboard shortcut may require a certain expansion pack, does anyone know? Does anyone have other good keyboard shortcuts?