My young nephew was eyeing me warily from across the table, anxiously awaiting the inevitable. Waiting, waiting, waiting… Suddenly, I glanced up from my menu, catching him looking. He immediately dropped his gaze down to his plate. Too late. It had begun. “Sooo,”I started, much to his obvious discomfort, “what’s happening at school?” He shrugged, fingering his Vietnamese sandwich. “Do you have a girlfriend?”I asked, echoing a line of questioning I despised when I was his age. He ignored me, feigning full focus on picking the parsley out of his baguette. “Girlfriend?”I pressed. “Girlfriend? Maybe?” He murmured something under his breath that I couldn’t make out but may well have been some juvenile expletive. “What was that?”I asked. “It sounded like you were mumbling a girl’s name. Deidre or Joanne or something.”
“Amanda,”offered his nine year old sister seated beside him, winning herself the briefest of brotherly glares.
“So, what’s so special about Amanda?”I pressed.
“She’s nice,”Eric offered begrudingly. And then, after some thought: “She likes to talk.”
“Likes to talk? Be careful,”I warned, “You don’t want to make the same mistake I did.” That won me my own frosty glare from Fondy. I ignored her and continued the grilling. “What does Amanda do? Does she have a job?”
“She’s in my class,”replied Eric.
“So, full time student,”I concluded.
He nodded then quickly tried to switch up the conversation by turning to his sister and asking: “Who do you like Megan?” A game effort, but I wasn’t prepared to shift focus just yet since, at age nine, Megan was old enough to see through my antics and find me amusing whereas Eric, at age seven, was still young and trusting enough to be left bewildered and occasionally exasperated by my eccentric ramblings.
“Hey!”I piped up, pointing at Eric. “Can’t help but notice your tooth is loose.”
He wiggled the tooth self-consciously with his forefinger.
“I see a terrific business opportunity here,”I confided. “How much do you get from the tooth fairy?
“Two dollars,”said Eric.
“Really? And how many teeth do you think you have in your head?” And before he could hazard a guess – “At least thirty, right? So here’s what we do. Why don’t you let me pull them all out so that you can put them under your pillow tonight then, tomorrow morning, we can split whatever the tooth fairy leaves us.”
He glanced about, no doubt seeking some distraction. I quickly followed up before he could seize on one: “At two dollars a tooth, thirty teeth will bring in sixty dollars. That’s thirty dollars each. What do you think?”
“But then I’ll have no teeth,”he offered by way of a response.
“Yeah,”I agreed, “but I’m the one who’ll be doing all the hard work. Pulling teeth isn’t as easy as it sounds, you know. Some will probably be really tough to take out on account of the strong roots and they’ll require some really intense yanking. Anyway, even without teeth, there are plenty of foods you can enjoy without chewing. Like soup and ice cream and porridge and soup and pudding. And soup. Sound good?”
“Not really,”he murmured.
So ended our dinner discussion and Eric was pretty much free and clear. Until I tried to drop the raw prawn in his pocket to save “for later“.
Pics: More Lulu, a sneak peek at the Kindred II Art Department package.
PG-15 writes: “1. Harmony: is it the episode filling the last empty slot? 2. You mentioned breaking the Shep-on-Earth story next week, but I thought you guys have already spun it out, or at least broken it already? 3. So, Martin Gero is doing “Harmony”? Wow, so he’s writing his “Three’s Company” episode, the JF-pitched story, AND Harmony? He’s going to be busy.”
Answers: 1. Yes, Harmony takes the last empty episode slot. 2. We started spinning the story but took a break to work on Harmony, then will switch gears again to work on the Sheppard on Earth story next week. 3. Martin was writing the Sheppard on Earth story but, having finished Trio (formerly Three’s Company), he will start on Harmony while Alan McCullough assumes writing duties on the JF-inspired eppy.
Promogirl writes: “You mentioned in a previous blog that Carter would come face to face with a Wraith. Can you tell us in what episode that will occur?”
Answer: Do you mean an actual face to face rather than an encounter? If so, then The Seer is your episode.
Anonymous #1 writes: “i don’t think anyones ever asked, but do you play any videogames, or own any game systems like PS3, PS2 etc?”
Answer: I own a PS2 but haven’t played in ages as I’ve been more focused on work, blog, and reading.
Erin Anderson writes: “Have you ever read Stephen King’s Dark Tower series?”
Answer: Nope. Any good?
Toni writes: “ I’m pretty sure I remember you mentioning you jog, correct? I’ve been thinking about taking it up, but I worry about the impact on the knees. Do you have any problems with that?”
Answer: No knee problems on my end. However, if this is a concern for you, might I suggest your using the elliptical trainer instead?
Wolfen writes: “Speaking of which, I second the wish someone had yesterday for some good McShep — er, McKay/Sheppard friendship moments, of the not-nearly-so-snarky, plenty-angsty variety.”
Answer: Millers Crossing.
Anonymous #2 writes: “You already said that you weren’t going to deal with Sam’s love life on atlantis.”
Answer: That’s right. We will not be dealing with Sam’s love life on Atlantis. However, a passing mention of her personal life during a candid moment is another matter.
Anonymous #3 writes: “I was wondering, could you please tell me who wrote the teen Stargate SG1 piece in the 200th episode? And the bit where Sam/Jack were going to get married?”
Answer: Robert Cooper wrote the teen SG-1 piece. As for the wedding, I believe that was Brad Wright.
Anonymous #3 writes: “The SDJ was all about Daniel Jackson and many from that campaign have nothing now to do with the lot over at a certain delphi forum whose lives seem to revolve around the bashing of Sam Carter.”
Answer: I stand corrected although, in all fairness, they still do use the old SDJ url.
Smiley Face06: “ Do you have a favorite football team?”
Answer: Need you even ask? Go Raiders!
FargateOne a ecrit: “Alors dites-moi que vous avez vu le film RATATOUILLE?”
Reponse: Pas encore.
Anonymous #4 writes: “awwww Joe!!!!! You didn’t post my reply to Farscape Fan’s post telling me to frell off – why not?? “
Answer: In this case, the comment was mistakenly deleted.
Linzi writes: “Just because one article has that headline doesn’t make it true. Joe F. is leading man, and Carter heading over to Atlantis can’t change that. Unless, of course, Carter is having a sex change…I would take everything you read with a pinch of salt, I do. However, Carter coming to Atlantis needs to be publicised, or non hard core fans won’t know. So, I’m not concerned with Joe/Shep being usurped at all. Joe M has said what Sam’s role will be, and that the show is primarily about the team with lots of support from those around them, Carter included.”
Answer: Well said.
Vaberella writes: “Who is Matt? What does he do?!”
Answer: Matt is Jewel’s husband and a mighty fine actor himself.
Anonymous #5 writes: “I know you won’t post this one so between you, me and the gate post, if even your stalwart shippers are now seeing through your spinning just who is there left to fool?”
Answer: Who’s the wangry widdle anti-Carter sourpuss? You are you fwisky widdle whiner. Sooooo cuuuuuute!
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