Maria and I were delighted to find the Playland Arcade had opened on the Hampton Beach Boardwark, a delightfully retro and musty arcade filled with hundreds of games, contests, video war machines. Maria challenged me to a game of Skee-Ball.

People think of Maria as being sweet and quiet, but she has a ferocious competitive streak (unlike myself, who is but a meek lamb.) I won the first round, she won the second. She was not happy about the first round, but gamely took our tickets and redeemed them for a tacky plastic bracelet that I gave back to her.

Maria is the queen of cheap, and she throws nothing out. She is wearing the thing even as I write this. My game was good, I started off strong and racked up a few hundred points, but faded in the stretch. I told her her lob was wishy-washy, she called me nasty names.

We promised each other a rematch to break the tie and see who gets the title of Skee-Ball Champion.

Maria was not gracious about her loss, she cursed the balls and threatened to throw one of them at my head. I told her this is no way to treat a senior citizen.