Computer card game clicks with family

We don't have card sharks in our family. But we're hooked on Spider Solitaire.

The kids love it. So does my wife, Joni. Thanks to her, I've become addicted to the game.

The great thing about this game is that we never have to worry about losing cards. We play it without any real cards. This card game is on our home computer.

That's an advantage since real decks of cards or at least some of the cards in those decks have a way of getting lost in our house.

We take turns playing the game. It's impossible to play just one game. The computer card game beckons us again and again.

At night, you can find us gathered around the computer screen, clicking on the mouse to move the cards around.

We love to have the computer tell us we've won.

It's downright entertaining to watch the cards stack up on the computer screen.

Of course, there are no prizes with this game, just the satisfaction of knowing that you've won a virtual card game.

You won't win a new car like the Malaysian driving instructor who recently won a four-wheel drive in Kuala Lumpur after spending 23 days inside it as part of a radio-station contest.

The contest pitted four contestants who lived together around-the-clock in a Ford Ranger parked in the city's busy commercial district. There's nothing like camping in when it comes to getting rid of that new-car smell.

The winner outlasted a housewife, a law student and a salesman in the withering tropical heat.

Participants were allowed out of the car once every three hours for a 15-minute bathroom break. They could not shower or shave.

Their cramped living space ended up littered with food wrappers and chicken bones. They would have done better to stick to chicken nuggets. At least then there's no bones to mess with.

Still, there's nothing enticing about camping out in a cramped, hot car.

Parents view vehicles as a way to get children to and from school, dance and cheerleading classes and Girl Scout meetings.

There's a lived-in feeling to our van and our car. They're home to children's books, tap shoes and backpacks.

But we wouldn't even consider camping in our vehicles. We need lots of elbow room.

Becca and Bailey have trouble sitting still on a trip across town. Spending days crowded into a vehicle would be impossible particularly without even a computer game of Solitaire to enjoy.

I'd rather spend time in the University of Notre Dame's restrooms than stay stuck in the car.

A Web site recently recognized the restrooms in one of the school's buildings as the best in the United States, marking one more reason why folks should appreciate higher education.

When you're at a large school like Notre Dame even clean restrooms require public comment. Michael Garvey, a Notre Dame spokesman, couldn't help but gloat. "When I go to the john here now, I feel positively ennobled."

Not even White House press secretaries get to make that statement.

Voters on the Web site liked the restrooms' Victorian charm, including tile floors imported from England and solid oak doors on the stalls.

The restrooms reportedly are cleaned three times a day. One voter boasted that the floors were "clean enough to eat off."

The same can't be said for our car and van. But then neither would be mistaken for an institution of higher learning, although they're a whole lot cheaper.

Back home, our lives aren't just a house of cards. It just looks that way.

Mark Bliss is a staff writer for the Southeast Missourian.