Things we did on our week off with the kids:  Ooseung got her first pair of rollerskates.   She gets around well enough, but I’d prefer one of those Mortal Kombat ninja masks to protect her pretty chin and face.

We went to the Detroit Zoo.  The official one with animals and exhibits.  Not the one that is an economic and municipal shithole that breaks into your car with the so-called valets (i.e., accomplices) ten feet away while you’re at your brother’s wedding.  That one still sucks.

Overall, the Detroit Zoo was a lot better than it used to be.  The attendants were omnipresent and welcoming.  There was a new playground area and a dinosaur zone.  It was clean.  We only covered half of it in four hours before we decided to head back – too hot.  Probably better to come back in the fall.  (Sun Su was afraid of the penguin house – he still remembers the last time he walked into a darkened amphitheater death trap.  Thanks Disney!)

I don’t even know what Ooseung’s looking at.  There weren’t any animals on the zoo train ride back, but this is my favorite smile in the world.  Already, I imagine her showing it to other unworthy boys someday and already … I do not like them.

The day after, we went to my old stomping grounds – Pinball Pete’s in Ann Arbor.  How much of my student loans went into refurbishing this place?  Some of the games are the same exact ones I played nineteen years ago.  The only difference is that patrons don’t ask me if I work there anymore.  I finished the Soul Calibur game on one credit with only a fraction of the moves I used to know PLUS a sticky Kick button (hate that!).  Appah’s still got it (it is important for me to keep you abreast of these things).

The kids insisted on playing the crane operator games.  The candy crane game is nice.  You keep playing until you actually win a piece of candy.  The stuffed animal crane game is not so nice.  Like I told Sun Su, “It’s a rip-off.  No one wins and it just keeps taking your money.”  (With the exception of certain professionals.)

Amy decided to give it a few (read: until our money ran out) tries.  In the picture above, she almost got that black horse.  Like five times.

“See?  I told you.  You can’t win,” I said, remembering how my dearly departed dad always used to say that, about his life in general.

Then Sun Su tried for the first time, and WON IT!

After about six more tries, Amy won another stuffed animal too.  They’ll just go on the pile of Other Forgotten Stuffed Animals, but I suspect the lesson will be remembered:  Don’t listen to dad.