"Four" in Korean, Wrist band night at the State Fair

Went to dinner last night with our neighbors, the Mitchells (as an aside, you'd think that we'd get more of their mail than we do). They took us out, in thanks for giving them an air conditioner.

After dinner, we talked about what games might be good for their autistic son (who is 8). I loaned them Blink, Cathedral, Quarto, and gave them Pepper, and just shot the mom this link. I should also have given them "Set".

In 15 minutes, I'm going to Tai Chi Chaun class number four. If I could write "four" in Korean, or any asian language, I would, but I can't, so I won't. I leafed through a kids book on Tai Chi last Wednesday, and it said that Tai Chi is like water. Water is the strongest force on the planet, because it flows and goes around, rather than breaking. We all are familiar with the allegory of the rock on the seashore eventually being broken down into sand by the waves...

Actually, I think that it goes "ha", "ee", "yup", "ka"...I'm pretty sure about ha and ee. I'm remembering back from my Tai Kwan Do days (when I was 11 or so, I took it for a year-and-a-half).

I'm not playing Eve very much anymore. Part of the problem is that it seems like if I only have 15 minutes to play, it isn't enough to even bother. It's like I have to have at least an hour to make it worth it.

I took Molly and a little friend to the State Fair a couple days ago. It was "wrist band night". Basically, every night is WBN. The rides cost between $2 and $4 each, or you can buy the wrist band for about $20. Just about everyone has a wrist band, and guess what? The best rides don't let you use the wrist band, or tickets. Cash only - and they cost $5. WHAT A RIP!

90 minutes and $71 later, with a $5 bill left in my pocket, we returned to our car to the sounds of "Maddie got to stay for FOUR HOURS", and "Why couldn't we play any GAMES!?". The games referred to were the "pay-$5-to-pop-three-baloons-and-automatically-win-a-prize-that-you-can-buy-for-$2" games.

On that subject (then I have to leave for my class), those games have started to drop all pretenses of being games at all, as I heard one carny say, "Pay $5, and pick your prize. You don't even have to try and ring the bell." I mean, please. At least keep up the charade. I'm there for the charade.