Team Edward or Team Jacob? Yeah, I'm surrounded. Switzerland!

Laugh all you want.

I had to pull out the Switzerland card.

My 12-year-old stepdaughter is a dedicated Twihard fan. She's not a crazy mess--take that back, she's all about Team Edward. She's got the posters, shirts, bags, calendars, (I think ringtones, but I haven't creeped her phone, because that's just not cool). Twihard? Yeah, she doesn't have to try that hard at all. She read the books like they were pasta.

Invariably, every few weeks we'll get dragged into a discussion about the series. As a dad I'm interested in talking about her interests with her, and I like to talk mad crap about the series.

But then she brings up Smallville, and we're having a go-around about the virtues of storytelling, my man-soaps, her girl-soaps, her like for Edward, I like Chloe... So round and round we go.

The other day, she caught me watching Eclipse without her.

Oops. Busted.

She let me have it.

I suppose I deserved it. Her mom just gave me a look that basically said, "You're on your own on this one."

In my defense, I like Victoria. Well, her new cast, Bryce Dallas Howard, Ron Howard's daughter. I grew up with Mayberry, with Happy Days, with Ron's list of movies, and one of his recent directions, Da Vinci Code, as well as Angels & Demons.

My favorite Bryce movie was an M. Knight film: The Village. Can't watch this movie enough. It's my second favorite M. Knight film, right after Sixth Sense, followed by the other M. Knight/Bryce team up, Lady in the Water.

You see where this is going?

I like Bryce. She can play innocent, sinister, and now Bryce is in another film slated for this year: The Help. Heard about it after my girlfriend and her daughter came back from the latest installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Penelope Cruz is in that flick, too. She's steamy. Her accent? Just keep talking...

I don't have to try that hard at all either. I like me a hottie in a film just like my stepdaughter likes her hotties.

There's a gender divide, but hey, we get to talk about Twilight for a while. We get to talk about cool things (but I'm too old for cool. Drool? Not yet. I've got some decades in me still) and fill our day with some stepdad/stepdaughter time, which as any parent knows is like trying to pin down a zephyr. She's growing up so fast. I'm just trying hard to keep up with her. Best way to do that is to stay in the middle, somewhere in Switzerland.