I was fixing myself a late breakfast when I heard someone at the front door. Actually, I heard my dogs hear someone at the front door, barking and howling to catch my attention. I’ve been conditioned by my wife to check who it is before answering (too much Sopranos has made her wary of unexpected visitors). Turns out it was UPS with a package, and a quick glance at the sender’s address let me know that I would be receiving something far better than a headshot from a 22. I was getting rum cake from the Picardos!

You’d no doubt recognize actor Robert Picardo from, oh, everything – but his turns as Dr. Richard on China Beach and The Doctor on Star Trek:Voyager in particular. He’s also made a fair share of appearances on both Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis, which is how I got to know Bob and learn that he is a bit of a foodie – and that his wife Linda makes the greatest rum cake in the history of rum cakes. Bob is a pretty accomplished cook himself (he makes one tasty spinach pizza), but Linda kicks some serious kitchen ass. When it comes to baking, the woman means business. I mean, seriously. She even packages her creations with the skill of a professional bakery shop right down to the ribbons and “From the Kitchen of Linda Picardo” seals.

I tried some of everything (super chocolaty chip cookies, melt-in-your mouth frosted and jam-filled cookies, not one but two kinds of buttery and boozy rum cake, and what looked like fruit cake but couldn’t have been fruit cake because I hate fruit cake and this was fantastic) and have one word to describe the assortment. To borrow Cartman’s namesake from one of my favorite South Park episodes: AWESOM-O.

Now let’s take a moment to root through the mailbag:

Anonymous writes: “…there is a new interview with NJ Smith on MGM’s site and he talks about 24 hours of episodes for SGA S4 – are there going to be 24 episodes?”

Answer: If there are, I wish someone would have told me. But I‘m going to go out on a limb here and say no, we‘ll only be producing 20 episodes of Atlantis this year.

NowIWillDestroyAbydos writes:”Will we finally see the “when the time comes, cut the green wire” thing Black Cam mentioned at the end of “Ripple Effect,” in the back half of Season 10? If not, what about the movies?”

Answer: Not in season 10 but maybe in the movies.

Anonymous writes: “No Jack O’neill? That’s just awful news. I sure hope Jack can lead the team in the movies. It doesn’t feel right without him. And what about him and Sam?

Answer: Although Unending may be the final episode of series, the adventures of SG-1 will continue on DVD. Their story is not over, so we‘re not looking at Unending as SG-1’s swan song. As for Jack being in either of the movies – it’s still too early to tell. Of course we’d love to have O’Neill in the movies. Believe me, if all it took was our desire to have him on the show, Rick would have never left.