Business & Pleasure in Eden

Patar, Summer, 2002
Jesse is 36, Fiona is 33, Bill is 18, Veronika is 4




The Kent family has been doing a lot of traveling lately. Fiona decided that now was the time to visit Apple Valley's affiliate, Eden, also Jesse's hometown. Jesse of course was thrilled with the news. It had been ages since he seen his mother or his sister and he wanted them to see how much Bill had changed since he was eight years old.

The reunion was well timed. It felt good to see the Carr family again, Suzanna couldn't believe how cute her niece, Veronika was while Mama Carr was simply just happy to see her grandchildren in person. Suzanna and Jesse always thought that thier mother was holding on to see the new baby, however they didn't want to be correct. At least Veronika was able to see one of her grandmothers before they died.

Mama Carr died shortly after thier arrival to Eden. She was able to coo and awe over little Veronika before death claimed her.

The siblings and even the pets were overcome with grief. Jesse felt a bit guilty as he hadn't been in contact with his family as much as he should have and deeply regretted it. Fiona helped the family arrange a small private memorial service, stepping into the role that Jesse had fulfilled when her mother died years ago.

For the next few days, the family spent as much time together as possible. Jesse took them to eat at his Aunt Grace's house and Fiona had to admit that Randy's cooking was divine. She wondered if she could convince the man to open a resturaunt in Apple Valley Metro.

"Are you still playing kissy face with that guy from the hospital?" Jesse teases his sister.

"Shut up, Jesse. I'm not seeing that jerk anymore."

Fiona rolls her eyes at the two spatting siblings, it reminds her of the good natured teasing she and Fredic engaged in.

---

The family's last week in Eden was spent tying up loose ends concerning the death of Mama Carr and meeting with Brooke Young, the spokesim of Eden.

Bill offered to watch little Veronika in order to get out of the boring evening. He and the toddler recently had makeovers for thier trip to Eden. Bill didn't complain of the short cut, but couldn't wait until it grew out more. He had a few weeks until he would leave for orientation at Pierce University and he couldn't be more excited. Bewteen the courses and professors and the abundance of hot chicks, Bill was going to be in heaven!

While Bill was plotting his rise to academic and bedroom fame, Fiona and Jesse were mingling with the crowd outside.

"There's Brooke," Jesse started. "I'll introduce you."

Fiona and Brooke hit it off right away. Discussions of their common SUN membership soon paved way to various international events.

"To be honest, I miss the Golden STAR Awards. That was a great way for hoods to meet and strengthen thier ties."

Fiona agreed. "I think that the whole celebrity aspect of the SUN has been dying. From my research from the old dimension, it seemed like there were more avenues for celebrities to work, but now, not so much."

"I agree." Brooke elaborated. "I remember visiting The Gloria Show to promote the Food Expo, but now that's cancelled. There's only a few soap operas and even less movies available for our resident performers."

"We have one production company, but even so, they have numerous projects that have been on hold and it's a bit disappointing. Even Simmerville's production company has decided to stop doing international projects and focus more on regional work."

"I wish that there was something more for our residents and other stars in the nation. A reality show, a summer movie, something!"

---

After thier trip to Eden ended with promises of Suzanna visiting next year to experience a family vacation for Veronika's 5th birthday, Fiona and Jesse returned to the normalacy of work.

The proposal for the merger of Apple Valley and Apple Valley Metro into Apple County had been approved by 86% and there was a lot of work to prepare, including a restructing of the hood council into a county council.

Fiona also had to evaluate the trial of vocational classes in the hood. The first class was Jadhira's Introduction to Flower Arrangement. Two sims from Apple Valley Metro made the ferry ride to experience the thrilling topic. Fiona observed the class from the back of the room.

Perhaps it wouldn't work as a community course, she thought. Maybe a room at the academy could be converted into a practical studies room and teens not interested in typical university studies could enroll in the classes. There wouldn't be an admission criteria, only the need to pay the required fee.

Fiona liked the idea and made a note to present it to Johan, the educational director in order for it to be explored further. Besides, she had to send off Bill to university soon and she made another note to warn him not to cause any scandals. After all, he was a Kent according to the public eye.

---

The Kents have been a traveling lately. This is thier second SUN trip (third if you count thier trip to Simmington Hills after thier hurricane) recently and Fiona has more planned. She wants to visit more SUN hoods to get the SUN revived and the network of sim-to-sim sites increased and more intimate. Whew! Her family has been permenantly packed for action.

County Council Meeting: 2002

Hood Council Meeting
Patar 2002
Attendees: Fiona Kent, Carmela Herendez, Rebecca Wilsonoff

Agenda
Approval of Merger and Progress
Introduction of new Titles and Officers

Fiona calls the tiny and short meeting to order.

"Let's get through this quickly, I have a plane to catch." She orders politely.

"The merger was approved by 88% vote." Rebecca starts. "Progress is going well. Most of the residents of Apple Valley Metro have registered, property values are being assesed and most of the 85% of the construction in the metro has a confirmed deadline of Patar 2003."

"Here's a list of the new titles for officers and the positions that we still need filled." Rebecca ended, handing the report to Fiona.

Apple County Officers:

President, Apple County (formerly-Hood Council President)
Fiona Kent

Treasurer, Apple County (formerly-Financial Director)
Rebecca Wilsonoff

Minister of Apple County Community Services (formerly-Community Director)
Carmela Herendez


President of Apple County Board of Education (formerly-Educational Director)
Johan Shazad

President of Apple County Board of Health Services (formerly-Medical Director)
Julio Wilsonoff

President of Innovation and Heritage (formerly-Archives/Technology Director)
Li Sweeny


President of Law Enforcement & Justice
vacant, pending funding

Editor, Apple County Times
vacant, pending funding

"Looks good," Fiona commented while stuffing the report in her briefcase. "If there's nothing else, then this meeting is over. Goodbye!"

With those last words, Fiona darted out the door.

FSBS Confusion

I've been reading and recieving emails about confusion over FSBS (for sims by sims) hoods. Many of the questions involve "Can I join the SUN?" "Please let me in the SUN"

The SUN (Sims United Neighborhoods) is not a club or secret society-though it would be cool to have a limo take us to a secret location and we can hack our grades, but I digress. Applying for the SUN is very very simple. Simply submit the required information about your hood and viola! You're in the SUN! It's a two part process and it can take a while, not because of approval but due to volume of applications and real-life.

Once a SUN member, please take time to enjoy the SUN boards and chat with other sims in other hoods. You can arrange a SUN Exchange with another neighborhood, submit a guest article to the website or simply browse around and read the older articles.

Second source of confusion, "What are the rules for FSBS?"-the simple answer, there are none. FSBS isn't a challenge, but more of a style of playing. The simmer speaks through thier sims to other simmers in a type of role playing. For example, if Sandy Warwick wanted to contact her family in Simborough (another FSBS hood), then I would post on the boards as Sandy. Each sim has thier own personality and nuances in speaking style. Sandy for instance, is "sim-british", so I try to make sure her spellings are british as well as her ideas. In terms of websites/blogs-if you chose to have any, then typically every service in your hood is provided for by one of your sims. If you upload houses for downloading, then one of your sims is the architect behind those beautiful homes, if you publish a newspaper online, then your sims are the writers and editors.

I've been a SUN member and playing in a FSBS style since about 2004 and I've met some awesome simmers, gained some great ideas and reinvented my hood several times. I hope this post clears up some confusion, if you have any questions-post/email me. Also, if you have a FSBS site, please post below any additional comments to clear the general confusion regarding this playstyle.

Website Updates

Ugh, my blogs are updated, but I have neglected my website. I have a long to-do list:

-Reorganize website to reflect that all the dynamic news happens in the blog or the BTS blog
All resident journals are on the blog and I've been keeping BTS updates here, so the only thing on the website is laws, community information and links to blogs. I decided that the only thing on the website will be:
---Administrative Office (laws and links to council notes, council meetings and simyearly census reports in the main blog);
---Community Life (information about clubs-Historical Society will have it's own page, as well as AVA and Pierce University; Apple Valley News-see below; link to tours which will be updated in the blog);
---Yellow & White Pages (links to blog, SUN yellow pages; Pennelson Inc, Pahala Shore and A.Pentragnani)

-Update the administrative laws
With the merger and changes in the way I play the hood, some minor updates need to be made.

-Update tours and decide on a publication schedule for tours
Tour of the neighborhood will be linked from the BTS blog. Will start with a hood/county overview; followed by tours of individual lots and some gameplay on those lots-if applicable. Would like to publish a tour once every 4-6 weeks.

-Publish a few newspapers.
I haven't gotten the publication rate for the newspaper settled yet and would like some suggestions. Should I publish a paper at the end of every simyear (ie about 1 every 4-6 weeks) that has the updates for the simyear and few articles-or some other schedule (if you think some other schedule, please let me know what you have in mind.)

Suggestions? Comments? Please post them below.

Life and Death

Lovar, spring, 2002
Matthew is 72, Cassandra is 70, Grex is 30, Ginger is 30, Bryant is 7, Annie is 7



It's planting season, which means Grex is hard at work planting seeds and preparing for the crops. He has to do so much more to the soil now, it seems like all the nutrients are being sapped out of it. After fertilizing and preparing the soil, he hopes to be able to plant a few seeds this simmonth.

In addition to the planting season, Grex and Ginger Grey are celebrating thier 30th birthday this simmonth. They keep the celebration simple and lowkey. How lowkey? Well, Ginger made thier favorite meal: garlic roasted turkey, and they enjoyed a simple dinner with the family after a simple birthday song.

Matthew was older and he knew that there wasn't much time left for him. They say that you just know when your time is up. He was tired of pushing paper across his desk and vowed to get a part-time job or retire.

"Grandpa, why do you look so sad?" Annie asked innocently.

Matthew smiled. "I'm not sad, just thinking."

"About what, daddy?"

He smiled at his daughter. He couldn't tell her the truth. He was thinking about his insurance policy and his will. Would there be enough to help support his wife and his grandchildren when he was gone? Would there be enough for the funeral? It was a long way from the grandeur that he and his wife were used to growing up. His childhood was spent in the TS1 era, son of wealthy parents-in fact his father Bryant A Pierce was the namesake and primary funder of Pierce University. Cassandra also spent her childhood in the TS1 era, daughter of the legendary actress Starr Grey, used to mansions, expensive boarding schools and vacations. However Matthew's parents left most of thier wealth to educational insitutes after thier death and strangely a large trust was set up for thier great-grandchildren (which would be Annie and Bryant and the others) upon thier graduation from Pierce University. Cassandra's family lost thier money after her parent's death and paying for thier unpaid tax bills and fees. Yes, it was a long way from his childhood memories.

"About how much you've grown." He replied instead. "I still remember your birth and holding you and your sister in my arms. You were so tiny."

"Was mom a good kid? Did she get in trouble?"

Matthew laughed at his grandson's question. "Of course! When she was your age she loved to bake muffins, however she wasn't very good at it. So one day, there's this awful smell! Your mother decided to bake a muffin, but she left the oven mitt in the toy oven as well. Gosh, it was a wicked smell!"

"That was when we were living with Grandmother Starr," Ginger added.

"I remember, you were living in that large mansion. I was scared to talk to you because I thought I didn't have enough money or class."

"But you did and the rest is history." Ginger said smiling.

----

Shortly after thier birthday celebration, Matthew passed away peacefully in his sleep. The family took it hard, especially Grex. Even though Matthew was not his biological father and did not approve of Grex and Ginger's relationship at first, Grex was still very attached to the man and vice versa. They grew to have a strong fondness for each other and Matthew taught Grex how to be a good husband.

It was no surprise that Grex was often found crying on the floor. The twins mostly avoided thier father during that time, fearful that they would make him cry.

Finally, Ginger decided to take things in her own hands. She suggested that they do a little fishing after a rainstorm, since every sim knows that rain brings the fish closer to the surface.

"Perhaps we should move." Ginger suggested, baiting her hook.

"What?"

"We could move closer to your family. Giselle called and suggested that we move out there. The soil is richer, land is cheap and she says that there is plenty of work to be done."

"What about here?"

"What do you mean?"

"Our land? Our farm? Our market?"

Ginger bit her lip, anxious about the news she had been hiding for 2 simyears. "The hood council wants our land."

"What?"

"They've been trying to buy the land for over 2 simyears now."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"I don't know...I thought you would say no."

"Well...that's not true!"

"So, do you want to move?"

"I don't know, Ginger." Grex sighed. "I need time to think about it."

-------

Will they move or not? We'll see. If they do move, we'll be introduced to Apple Plains

Chasing Opportunities

Hapar, Spring, 2002
Sazo is 43, Sandy is 40, S'Ahmisa is 15 , Si'Enya is 9

"Are you sure this is really what you want to do?" Sandy asked her husband as they relaxed in bed.

Sazo nodded.

The couple had been discussing the issue for a few weeks now and a decision needed to be made. Three years was a long time and that required lots of thinking and planning.

The opportunity presented itself while Sazo was working at CupaJava and Antonio dropped by.

"This came to my house by mistake." He said, handing him a large envelope.

Sazo glanced at the return address and knew that his prayers had been answered.

"If that's the case," Sandy continued. "We'll tell the girls tomorrow at dinner."

----

S'Ahmisa and Si'Enya carried on thier normal routine, unaware that thier life was about to change.

S'Ahmisa helped her little sister with her homework that afternoon as usual.

"3+3+3+3 is the same as what, Si'Enya?"

Si'Enya chewed on her pencil. She pictured large leaves with tiny bugs on them, three to be exact. How many leaves were there...

"4x3!" She shouted in triumph as the bugs flew away and her thoughts returned to her worksheet.

There was one exception to the routine, that was Lucy. She was from Apple Valley Metro, but she was waiting for the evening ferry after a day spent touring Apple Valley Academy.

"My parents think that ferries are safer than buses." She commented.

S'Ahmisa nodded, wondering what it was that she was supposed to say.

"To be honest, I rather have my own car, but you know how parents are."

S'Ahmisa glanced at the clock, she didn't want to be rude, but Lucy was boring her and she really needed to study for her skill exams, not to mention practice her kicking form, call Verde and watch Pahala Shore with Si'Enya and her mom.

"Uh...I think it's time for you to go, if you don't want to miss your ferry."

Lucy jumped up, thankful that she was able to return to her urban mecca.

----
Later that evening, the Warwick family enjoyed thier weekly switch-a-roo meal of omellettes for dinner

"I have an annoucement to make." Sazo said interrupting the meal and idle discussions of school and work.

The girls looked at thier father curiously, his tone told them that this wasn't going to be a light conversation about MP3 players.

"We're moving to Kimikura."

"What?!?!"

"Sazo, perhaps you should explain why the entire family is packing up and moving to another place."

"I've been offered to join a research team in Kimikura about the affect of spring water on the quality of tea leaves. I thought about not accepting the offer, but it would be great for business and the tea industry."

"So we have to move there forever?" Si'Enya asked.

"Not forever, only three simyears."

"Three simyears, that means that I'll have to graduate over there."

"That's right."

"When do we leave?"

"They want us there by the end of the month."

"That will give us enough time to pack and get the house rented." Sandy added.

"Cool. So we'll get to eat sushi everyday! I love sushi!" Si'Enya chimed.

"Not everyday, sweetie."

"How do you girls feel about this?" Sazo asked.

"It's cool." S'Ahmisa stated. "I love to travel and this means that we'll get to experience another culture for more in-depth. Besides, we'll return to Apple Valley after three years."

"I'll be able to collect all sorts of neat bugs!" Si'Enya could hardly contain her excitement.

Sazo grinned. He thought that the girls would whine and cry about missing friends and psuedo boyfriends, but Sandy was right. The girls had a large sense of adventure.

----

The month passed quickly.

S'Ahmisa continued to practice for her skill exams by jumping rope outside in the cold to pass the physical fitness skill exam. She tried to enjoy her last few days in Apple Valley, but she was anxious to get to Kimikura and embrace the culture.

She read all about the Kimikurian culture of sports and found some contacts to help her continue to train. She said her goodbyes to Verde and they promised to email each other. She was surprised that she didn't cry about leaving her almost boyfriend...that's not how it was supposed to be...right?

Si'Enya found herself staring out the window at the fireflies and wondering how exactly the bugs would differ in Kimikura.

"Don't worry, Si'Enya." Sandy said. "The culture of Kimikura is very nature oriented, there will be plenty of sims there with lots of knowledge about the local bugs."

Soon, it was time. A shuttle arrived to take the family to the ferry where they would travel to the nearest international airport.

Simhours later, they pulled up to thier home for the next three simyears.

Welcome to Kimikura, Warwick Family!

----

The girls were not tramatized or anything. They were very excited about traveling to Kimikura, but then again, this is the family that travels a lot. I bet S'Ahmisa was thinking-"YES! I get to cross off more things on my list of things to see and do while traveling!" Honestly, they make great military brats.

S'Ahmisa and Verde are only one bolt, so perhaps that's why S'Ahmisa wasn't upset about leaving her psuedo-boyfriend.

This was a ROS that actually started with Sandy divorcing Sazo. This didn't fit at all since I have to break up thier make-out sessions and get them out of the bed several times during a play session. They are very much in love. The second ROS involved them leaving for 3 years. It was harder to write than I thought since Sandy is a gamer and Sazo owns his own business. Neither industry sends sims to international countries for three years. Thus, Sazo had to join a research group about tea :)

Taxes and Fees

In honor of tax day, thought I'd share some insights of how Apple Valley collects taxes and fees.

The Old Version
The hood used to collect $750 per family and $1000 per owned business as a tax every Monday. Well, with only nine families and three owned businesses, that wasn't a lot of money (less than $10,000). Even after raising taxes to $1000 per family and $1500 per owned business the result was $13,500 every seven simdays. With the fact of the new simlonic calendar, this wasn't enough money to last 7 years!

The Possibilities
I debated property and income taxes, but with the sims living in apartments, thier net worth is a lot lower and besides, if they spent most of thier money on depreciable objects, then they won't have as large of a tax bill to pay, which seems like a tax shelter for those greedy wealthy sims that love to buy everything in the catalog. Not to mention making note of net worth or income before taxes were due was a little too much like work for me :)

The New Version-The Numbers
The sims are divided into tiers: wealthy (net worth $100,000+), mid-range (net worth$50,000-$99,000), low (net worth$25,000-$49,000) and proverty (net worth below $25,000). Thankfully with only nine families, I can easily tell where each family lands.

Then each tier pays a tax based on the number of sims in that household.
Tier I (wealthy)=$2000/sim
Tier II (middle class)=$1500/sim
Tier III (lower)=$1000/sim
Tier VI (proverty)=$500/sim

Misc Taxes:
Pet tax of $1000 per animal.
Luxury Tax of $5000 for each vacation home
Business Tax of $5000 for each owned business

Credits:
$1000 for each child
$1000 each married couple
10% of significant donations ($10,000 or more) up to $5000.

So for example the Herendez family. Tier I, 5 sims, 1 business, 1 vacation home, no donations, 3 children, married. $10,000+$5000+$5000-$3000-$1000=$16,000 tax bill.

The Humphrey family. Tier VI (not making much on that pastor's salary), 5 sims, no business/vacation home/donations, 3 children, 3 pets, married. $2500+$3000-$3000-$1000=$1500 tax bill.

Continuing for the rest of the families
Kent=$6000
Wilsonoff=$5000 (donated to Simmington Hills & footed the bill for the new university building)
Shazad=$3000
Grey=$10,000
Dawson=$2500
Sweeny=$1000
Warwick=$16,000

Total of $61,000 from the playable sims. Then to make things fair, each townie and NPC pays a modified tax, they use the community lots and public transport as well, brings in another $150,000. So $211,000 is the budget for 4 years.

The Timing
So every Monday and Thursday, the hood council president will collect taxes (this is about every 3/4 years). The current president visits the administrative office and using familyfund cheat, I'll collect the taxes and fees. Then the hood council will tell me in thier meeting ( via thier thought bubbles :P ) what to spend the money on and notes will be made in the council notes. As of now there isn't a seperate account for the hood council president and the hood's funds. I'm thinking of creating a placeholder sim and that sim will be the hood's accounts. We'll see since I'm more of a this lot cost about this much instead of a this lot was exactly this many dollars and cents type of player.

Birthday Family Vacation

Peacar, winter, 2001
Julio is 34, Rebecca is 31, Abel and Amanda are 5

Peacar starts as anything but peaceful for the Wilsonoff family. Julio and Rebecca are debating what to do to celebrate the twins 5th birthday. Luckily there was the short school holiday so the twins wouldn't miss any assignments.

"I know my brother would love to see them again and we can go to Kimikura again. The twins would love it."

Julio has to agree, the twins would love the culture of Kimikura, but the economy weighs on his mind.

"The trip would be expensive..."

"Yes, but we can afford it, besides. They can have new toys anytime, but there won't be much time for a cultural trip that expands thier minds."

So it's decided, the family, along with Rebecca's brother from Simmington Hills, will be headed to Kimikura again.

Rebecca asks her sister-in-law, Carmela to watch the house while they're gone.


"Oh, Antonio wanted me to give you the photos from the twins photo shoot." She said, handing Rebecca the stack of photos.


The mothers couldn't help but spend a few moments ooohing and ahhing over how cute the twins were as toddlers.

"Stop it!!!! MOM!!!!! Amanda's tormenting me!!!!"


"Am not!!!!"

"Are tooo!!!!"

Rebecca sighed. Yes, they were cuter and quieter as toddlers...but she didn't miss potty training.

Before she can issue a word of discipline, the twins cease thier arguement and instead cry out.

"Uncle Ray!!!! Auntie Lydia!!!"

The twins love thier Uncle Ray and Aunt Lydia. They don't get to see much of them since they lived in Simmington Hills which was far away. The twins didn't mind since they could brag about how many places thier extended family lived. Uncle Roy lives in Murdville, Uncle Alvaro lives in Simborough and is the editor of STAR, the famous magazine that thier mother wouldn't let them read. Uncle Salvador lives in Brisbee Downs. Only Uncle Antonio (Uncle Alvaro's twin brother) and Uncle Jorge (thier father's twin brother) lived in Apple Valley. Wow, that's a lot of uncles.


After lots of swings around the yard, the twins start playing with thier new birthday gift, jump ropes. This frees the adults to discuss adult issues such as the recovery in Simmington Hills, the status of the Toy Shoppe and Ray's own bakery.

"I had a celebrity stop by the shop the other day," Rebecca gossips.

"Who?" Lydia whispered.

"Tatiana Garris-Vanderburg, from Pahala Shore."


"Really? What was she buying in a toy store?"

"At first she browsed around downstairs and picked up a few toys, I think for her nieces and nephews. Then she went upstairs to the nursery section and checked out the cribs."

"Really? So did you see a baby bump?"

"No, nothing. She kept her arm over her belly. But she did place an order for a crib."


"So it must be true!"

"I don't know!"

---

After a long ferry ride, a longer plane ride and thankfully, a short van ride, the Wilsonoff family finally arrived to thier resort in Kimikura.


While Julio checked in, Abel convinced his uncle to spin him around. Amanda was content to watch this time. Amanda did a lot of watching. It wasn't that she was shy, but she rather sidle up next to you and then capture your attention instead of loudly demand for it. Unlike Abel, who then commanded the conversation later about the fish in the koi pond.


"I bet we eat them at the sushi resturaunt!" He bragged. "I bet they don't swim that fast at all! I could catch them with my bare hands! Then we could eat sushi for days! Weeks!"

Perhaps Amanda was a better emotional reader of her family, for she recoginzed the forced smiles and tired eyes and dragged her brother off for a game of catch.

"Why do you talk so much?" She asked throwing the ball at his head.

"Why are you so mean?" He asked ducking.

The adults showered and changed into thier kimonos that they brought last time and the family walked to the nearby sushi resturaunt. The twins ran around the place, ducking under the bridges, dipping thier hands in the koi ponds.

Right before thier table was called, Lydia grew sick to her stomach. She insisted it was nothing, but Ray ushered her back to the resort while Rebecca and Julio exchanged knowing glances.

The family enjoyed thier relatively quiet dinner, though Abel refused to touch the sushi-too squishy, he declared. Amanda on the other hand happily enjoyed every bite. The knowledge that she told her brother that sushi was actually fish droppings and not fish at all made each bite sweeter.

After dessert of flan, cake and green tea ice cream, the family supported Abel in his attempt to sing karoke. Amanda didn't even try to pretend, she stomped off with her hands on her ears declaring the noise too much to bear.

It seemed that Lydia's illness didn't get much better and after Julio took a look at her, he advised the couple to return home and be closer to thier hospital. The twins pretended not to be upset that thier family trip was cut short and instead packed thier things without asking.

Upon thier return home, Julio discussed the possibility of signing the twins up for extracurricular activities.

"There's not enough on this island for them to chose from. Each group that starts only has about two maybe three children in it. That's not enough for a soccer team even!"

"How many players are on a soccer team, daddy?"

Julio stumbled around for an answer, sports were not his thing, he preferred his bugs and medical journals. "Um, four, sweetie."

"Four? That doesn't sound right?"

"How about a game of catch after dinner?" He said bribing his daughter.

Afterwards he couldn't help but hope, please don't let her be a sports fanatic...please oh please!