Monday Dave and I went to Scandia Family Center in Fairfield. It has two miniature gold courses, video games, kids play area, go-carts, bumper boats, a small train, modest dining facilities. I wanted to play miniature golf and I've never been to Scandia. Dave had been there three times and my brother and sister have been there at least once.

We played a lot of video games. They have some newer games and a lot of old games. Tokens are 25 for $5 and most of the games are one token (for the old ones) to four tokens (for some of the new ones). One of the first games I played is the old Star Wars. It was great. It wasn't set at a hard level and you got 3 shields per level so I got to the sixth level. Then I played again starting at level 5 and got to the 9th level. Brings back old memories of when I used to play this game on my roommates Amiga 500.

I also played Robotron 2084, a two-player game of Joust, Galaxian, Galaga (which Dave blew me away in), Frogger, Front Line, a few games I don't remember. We did play one of the more current driving games, forget what it's called. But I finally finished the two advanced tracks on it. Maybe it was set on an easier level because before it was hard to finish even if you didn't crash. This time I ran out of time but limped to the finish line. Actually on the other track I also ran out of time and limped to the finish line, although this time Dave barely beat me by less than 1/100 of a second.

For some reason I seem to be better than Dave with simple driving games. First person perspective just drive down the track type of games. I don't use manual transmission if I can help it. I think I don't crash as much as Dave, which helps a lot. He is a lot better the overhead driving games. I just don't turn well in those games and I go too fast.

We also played a round of miniature golf, the right golf course as you look at them both. Miniature golf is not something I'm good at. I can do the angles and such, but my putting sucks. I hit the ball too hard so many times I went right over the cup. In any case I started out well. I was sinking long puts and not making any big mistakes so that by the end of the first nine holes I was three strokes ahead.

But then reality crashed into me. I started missing easy puts and even the long game was kind of erratic. Dave steadily played and I got three or four 6-shot holes which killed me. I ended up 8 strokes behind Dave, he even got the hole in one on the 18th to get a free game.

All in all it was a fun time. Really liked playing the old video games. Didn't see one of my weirdly favorite games, Major Havoc. Some of the games were for sale too, I saw a couple had for sale signs for $300. There was also some sort of Doom game. Two consoles so you can play against someone else in an arena environment. I don't know about that. I'd rather not play a video game version of a computer game.

Later on we went to Claim Jumper and stuffed ourselves. Spinach-Artichoke Dip for an appetizer and I had Atlantic Salmon with a baked potato and clam chowder and garlic bread. Barely ate most of the salmon and some of the potato. The soup was good and it came in this weird bowl. It looks like a fancy dinner bowl, round on the outside and all. But the inside is shaped like a triangle, although with curved edges so it looks like it's bulging. Anyways, Dave had the Salisbury Steak, which was actually two steaks and a hill of mashed potatoes which he didn't even try to finish. We are so old.