At a local family restaurant, there’s this Loser Machine that Audrey’s 4 boys are in love with.

Well, it’s sort of a love-hate relationship with the enticingly shiny, mirrored quarter-gobbling machine filled with colorful stuffed animals that you catch with a slippery claw one time in a zillion.

That’s why Barry and I started calling the beast a Loser Machine in the first place.

(Note to proprietors of restaurants with Loser Machines:  For the most part, I consciously avoid your restaurants when dining with kids.)

I think of all the times Barry and I have been to this particular restaurant with Audrey’s boys, they’ve “won” 2 times.  Maybe 1.

And “winning” means the slippery claw grabbing the one stuffed animal you didn’t want and then having 3 brothers crying over the florescent-green-polka-dotted doggie that probably cost the Loser Machine owner .05 cents.

Good times.

The “winning” animal, of course, then becomes the prize of the century and makes the Loser Machine all the more coveted because of the possibility of winning again.

Oh, the psychological horror of it all.

The little florescent-green-polka-dotted doggie gets cuddled all the way home by the brother who had the good fortune to be that ONE in a zillion programmed winner… while the other brothers can do nothing but stare at it.

The prize becomes THE PRIZE.

And, as PRIZES would have it, the florescent-green-polka-dotted doggie gets chewed up by a real puppy-doggie named Tansy who is deep into her chewing stage and who belongs to your auntie and uncle-to-be.

Is this some kind of Loser Machine karma?

Now what?

How about a little Stitch Me Love! from Grandma.

Poor little puppy…

I actually began to fall in love with the little puppy as I pulled out my precious sewing kit from my late mother-in-law Flo, with its wonderful needle collection…

And buttons…

I miraculously found the perfect shade of florescent-green from my own thread collection…

And I stuffed and stitched and mended and found perfect buttons for one eye and the nose until that little puppy sat right up and began to smile…

And the little puppy from the Loser Machine became a winner in my heart the second Benjamin saw it all Stitched with Love…

That puppy crawled right into my heart that night because it means so very much to my little grandson…

And even though that Loser Machine will continue to torment the rest of my grandkids and maybe all of the kids, parents and grandparents in the world…

I now think all of those stuffed animals in the enticingly shiny, mirrored quarter-gobbling machine filled with colorful stuffed animals that you catch with a slippery claw one time in a zillion are actually worth the visit and all of the quarters once-in-awhile.

(Note: Once-in-awhile.)

Oh, and I’ve become the Chief of Stuffed Animal Surgery…

Line ’em up!  I’ll Stitch Me Love all day long!