Life, what is it but a dream?

Oh my God, Dad is just the best. He decided that the family should take a vacation. Because Ripley and I both love art, we are going to FRANCE! Dad found that he could have had a discount on a vacation to China but he wanted to bring us to the home of fine art.

It was an ask on the family savings. We had 12,000 Simoleons before buying the tickets and more like 9,000 after. Dad just smiled when I brought that up. He said something about only having 7 Simoleons to his name at one point and 9,000 seems like plenty of money.

So here we are, newly arrived and ready for our first holiday.

Dad started off with some fishing.  Ripley and Johnny went to the local museum to soak up some culture.

Me?  I hit the local shops.  Bought my first camera which is a real cheapy.  Just as well, I can't take a decent photo to save my life.

But I could enjoy the quaint town, and the pleasant weather they have this time of year.  I chatted to some people and took photos.

Dad spent time rushing back and forth catching insects and collecting rocks.  He's already found some palladium and sold it.  That alone brought in a fair amount of money.

In the evening, Ripley and I both practiced guitar.  Pity we were working on different songs at the time.

Did I mention that my goals in life are to master guitar and charisma?  I have a long way to go with both.

So here's the end of our first day.  Dad cooked us a proper meal but the whole family was exhausted and barely managed to find a bed before collapsing.

Johnny decided to check the adventure board and offered to find a lost treasure.  Better him then me, tombs sound scary.

Hmm, not just scary but a lot of hard work too.  I think Johnny needs some gym time.  It looks like he can barely handle that axe.

Give the twerp credit, he is doing well at exploring his first tomb.  He's found hidden doors, keys, and treasure.  He's sold a couple of money bags and spare gems.

I'm chilling after doing my homework.  Yeah, homework.  The teacher is not going to take "But we were on holiday" as an excuse.  She's a right b...ummm, witch.

Johnny found everything in this tomb.  He recovered the lost treasure.  He told me later, it was a baseball!  Who thinks of a baseball as treasure?

Dad did more finding rocks and he made his first batch of nectar.  He says it was horrible!

Ripley helped the guy who runs the nectary and got some money as a reward.

So it was a brief holiday, but worth it.  Here we are, getting ready to fly home again.

Johnny has been thinking about what he wants to do with his life.  First he contemplated being like Ripley and mastering the arts.  Then he thought about just swimming in cash.  But he finally decided on having a private museum.  Those gargoyles alone are worth between 4,000 and 5,000 Simoleons so he is well on his way to his goal.

Oh, and with everything we did, gathered and sold, we have 15,000 in the bank.  We are far better off now then before the holiday started in more ways then one.

Of Shoes and Ships and Sealing Wax

So the burglar stole our self-cleaning stove.  Dad has always thought that stove was a god-send since he could cook on it but never needed to clean it.  But the burglar had woken Ripley.

Ripley went downstairs to tackle the burglar on her own.  It was a good try but the burglar beat her up instead.  Meanwhile Dad was up and he rang the police.

The cops came and fought with the burglar.

And arrested him.  They recovered the stove.  Dad says it was odd though.  He found the stove stored like the cop says but also this painting that he swears he doesn't remember ever owning.  Ripley looked slightly guilty when the painting came out.  Wonder what that was about?

Dad cooks hamburgers for dinner pretty often.  He knows it's my favorite and it's something he knows the recipe for.  His burgers are the best.

The twerp couldn't wait for us to arrive downstairs, he blew out the candles before anyone got there.

Oh my god.  It was a magic "Twerp no more" cake.  That can't be my dweeby little brother Johnny?
Dad just smiled and said that most boys went through a bad stage.  He thinks Johnny will take after him when he's fully grown.

Dad's gone back to painting.  He doesn't want to start something that takes too long to finish.  Apparently he doesn't want to start a new fantasy novel now.

A girl just has to show off her hottie.  I haven't had time for art this week but I made some time for Hans.

Dad installed a burglar alarm.  Twice is enough for any house.

I am still trying to get used to Johnny as a teenager.  How on earth will I know if my friends are here for me or trying to catch his eye now?

What I tell you three times is true

Sunday morning and Dad is hard at work.  Royalties come in on Sunday and he's racing to finish this book before noon.  He made it too, his royalties this week were around 8,000 Simoleons.  His fantasy novels sell like hotcakes.

[sigh] Homework, the bane of my existence.  I've tried to tell Dad that an artist can rise above without the benefits of good grades.  His answer?  "Been there, done that and I want you to have a much better start in life."

I should hang around Ripley a bit more.  This is her first Brilliant painting, I can probably learn a lot from her if I tried.

Eventually the family ended up in the park for Sunday afternoon.  I beat the dweeb at chess.  We also got to know each other better while we played.

Ripley was trying to participate in the Grill-a-thon but her first batch of hotdogs took forever to cook and they were burnt.  Dad wasn't very diplomatic, he opted to snatch a meal out of a basket instead of burnt dogs.

I love Hans
I love Hans
I love Hans - and so it must be true.

Ripley had her birthday while we were out.  I have to admit, she's pretty for an elder.

Dad helped her celebrate with a tour of the theatre.  I asked him to spare me any details of how they celebrated.

The twerp decided to see if he liked the writing gig.  He hasn't done much yet.

Check out this guy's eye colour.  Cool, eh?  His dad is this light blue skinned guy called Clover.  Tristan didn't get his dad's skin colour but that's definitely his dad's eyes.

Dad tried writing a children's book for a change of pace.  He said it was fast to finish but the royalties are a pittance compared to his fantasy work. 

Is it just me or is Dad looking frail these days?

Oh my god.  Not again.  Surely there are better households to rob then ours, we don't have much really valuable stuff.

Oh Frabjous Day

My twerpy brother brought over a twerpy girl.  I would have made some comments about his new 'girlfriend' but that was about the time that my cute, adorable and wonderful Hans came over.  Completely distracted me from teasing Johnny.

I had invited Hans over to meet Dad.  It's really important to me that Dad likes him.  If Dad doesn't like him, I'll have to think this whole thing over.  Dad is pretty savvy on who is good to know and who isn't.

I don't think I've properly introduced my Dad.  Sam Grant fantasy novelist with 3 best sellers to his name. 

So I asked Dad to join our conversation.  After a couple of minutes, I moved away to see how they interacted.

Dad became friends with Hans very quickly.  He has known Hans's dad Byron for years now.  I'm so relieved to see them getting along.

This is weird. Ok, it's a guy and his baby which doesn't sound that weird.  But *he* was the one pregnant with the baby, not his wife or girlfriend.  I think we may have a mad scientist in town, doing weird experiments.

Only my dad can walk into a room with this much water and think the room is fine.  It's disgusting!  Dad does try to remember that these things do affect the rest of us and he fixed the plumbing first thing.

I gave Hans one of my amazing massages.

Then asked if we could go steady.  Not the most romantic place for such a moment but sometimes you just have to catch the dude where you can.

My Story so far

Hi, I'm Brooke.  Brooke Grant.  I'd like to introduce you to my story so far.

This is me, your typical teenager. Interested in boys, gossip, music and art. Not necessarily in that order.

Dad says I'm a lot like my mom. Her name was River McIrish before she married Dad.  I wish I remembered her but she died when I was still a baby. She caught on fire at my first birthday party

and died.

I kind of remember Dad being really sad for a while

but he eventually managed to move on. I was just too young to know there was anything to be sad about.

So now I have a step-mom and a baby brother

Oh, all right, he's not really THAT much of a baby now.

His full name is John Edward but Dad calls him Johnny. Unless Dad is mad, then the full John Edward Grant rings out through the house. My twerpy little brother.


Art flows through the family. Dad is a writer.

Mom loved to paint. She was working on this the day she died.

Dad has kept it even though she never finished.

Even my step-mom is artistic. She loves to paint and play guitar.

I haven't really tried writing yet. But I love painting

And Dad bought me a guitar so I can learn music too. Dad is encouraging me to be an artist of some description, he says it's the family tradition.

So I've covered my interest in art and music. Gossip is just a given. But boys, I have just discovered boys. In particular, Hans Cusack-Montgomery.

We got to be friends in school and I suddenly felt that this was one boy I wanted to kiss.  So we met in the park and flirted for a bit.  I could tell that he liked me, I wonder if he's just been too shy to talk to me.

He's good at this.  Does he feels the same way about me?  It was getting dark, I decided I better head for home.  I wonder if he'll get on with Dad?  I hope so, I really hope so.