Whew! I'm glad it wasn't one of ours!
If you can't find it, maybe she took it down to fix it? It sounds like it probably needs fixing...
Good luck!

what does it mean if i click on a sim and it has an error box saying you sent me a crappy GUID please fix it?!

@grammapat
Strangetown with a twist should be downloadable from a tumblr named Strange Tomato (that's where I got it from too).
The other thing about dead sims being there on the neighbourhood screen but not on the lot happened to me too a few times. Maybe the game can't summon gravestones correctly if many sims die at once. I don't know if anything can fix it, but maybe the hoodchecker can do some things if a problem like that rises?

It means you sent them a crappy GUID and you should fix it. Do a 50/50.

whats a 50/50?

i'm dumb i know

It's not dumb to not know something. It's dumb to not ask when you need to know, and don't.

The 50/50 is the process of testing for bad custom content: Back up your game, take out your Downloads folder, divide it in two, put one half back in, load game, test. Does the problem recur? Congratulations, the the bad content is in that batch of CC and you don't have to test the other half. Does the problem vanish? Congratulations, the problem is not in that batch of CC and you only have to test the other half.

Continue dividing the bad half till you've narrowed it down to the single piece of CC that's causing the problem. Then you can decide whether to try to change the GUID (since you know it's the GUID causing your problem) or just delete it.

Ohhhh,thanks for the help Peni!

Is it possible to have a salon as an unowned community lot? Or do I have to set it up as an owned business and assign sims to work there? Just wondering if the salon chair could spawn workers, like say the massage table. It'd be nice if it could.

Anyway, about the lot loading screen, that sounds normal--the lot loading screen seems to lag behind household changes, imo. I've had it continue to show sims who've moved away, show babies when the sims have grown up, show sims in the wrong outfit, etc., etc. Give it time; it should fix itself.

=
In that hood there are many townie zombies that are ancestors of playables! You mentioned "...if many sims die at once", I don't know how the zombies were made, and when I made them mortal (so they would be properly DEAD!) and killed them it was two in quick succession - something I have done many times. Hoodchecker didn't fix. How did YOU deal with it?

Yes, salon chairs spawn NPCs on unowned lots. There's one in Bluewater Village.

In my experience, the loading screen shows you the sims as they were the last time you saved the lot.

Thanks, Peni! I've been looking for lot ideas to fill up my downtown/community lot areas and I can't believe I've never thought of a salon before.

Loading screens should show the sims as they were when the lot was last saved. Sometimes they seem to get stuck. I once had all the loading screens in an old Riverblossom Hills get stuck and refuse to update. None of them would show new babies, remove dead family members, etc. In my case it turned out that a file had somehow gotten write protected.

(Change G001 to whatever the number is for the neighborhood you're currently playing.)
The Sims 2 > Neighborhoods > G001 > Thumbnails > G001_FamilyThumbnails.package

I just right-clicked on the file, went into properties and unchecked the "read-only" box. This may or may not help with Grammapat's problem since her symptoms are a little different than mine were.

I installed the clean Riverblossom Hills and then sent my family to Downtown during play. It's the end of winter in Riverblossom but it's the middle of summer in Downtown. Can that be fixed somehow? Do I need to install the cleaned Downtown too to align the seasons?

No, all you have to do is go to the neighborhood screen for Downtown and use the Seasons button (the one with flowers on it) to change Downtown's seasons to match Riverblossom Hill's. The season in Downtown always matches the quadrant and day in the lot being played; so if it's the third day of the first quadrant (Winter, I think?) in Riverblossom, it'll be the third day of the first quadrant in downtown - but downtown defaults to summer/fall/winter/spring, so it'd be the third day of summer there. Change the Seasons to match, though, and the days will match perfectly.