I may have mentioned before that I now work from home. My office is on the second floor. Actually, it is the second floor. It’s where I spend most of my days, running Live Oak Games and working on my writing. Every once in a while, however, I get the hankering to see some other people.

That’s where the tickle attacks come in.

When the kids are home, I’ll occasionally sneak downstairs and work my way carefully towards the kids. Once I get close enough, I leap out, shout “Tickle Attack!”, and tickle them.

I’ll admit this receives mixed reactions, but I only do it once every couple weeks, so it generally goes over pretty well.

A couple of weeks ago, I was having a tough time upstairs, trying to work through some problems with a game design. It just wasn’t working out and I ended up launching several tickle attacks that afternoon.

C (the five year old) loved it, and started trying to sneak around to catch me when I came downstairs. His momma, of course, was ready to build a gate over the stairs so she could lock me out. N (the three year old) didn’t like them either. After the fourth attack, he grabbed my hands. “Hey Daddy! I have an idea! Let’s sneak up on your drawer and get some Tootise Rolls. Wouldn’t that be fun?”

Yes, I have a drawer of Tootsie Rolls, and no, attacking it is not as much fun as a Tickle Attack.

Nonetheless, we launched a raid on the unsuspecting drawer, and then I headed back upstairs.

The chocolate killjoy. Hmph.