I'm a loser, but it's not my nephew's fault

My nephew was playing a game with his sister when I came in this morning.

I am not sure it was the official rules or something they made up, but each player had five squat, gold figures that they set up near the opposite edges of the table. Then they took turns sliding one of the guys toward the opponent's team, trying to knock someone off the table.

My niece was explaining to my nephew that she was quitting, but that that did not mean she was forfeiting, as he was saying.

I didn't buy her explanation, and felt bad for my nephew, so when he asked me to play I agreed.

He picked the team, and we started setting up our guys. I was having some trouble with that, so he changed the rules.

Just leave them like that, he told me, pointing to the guys I had not stood up yet. He also knocked over his guys, so we'd be even.

He also kept making up rules to keep me from losing.

What made all this cooler than the usual cool is that my nephew often seems to take perverse pleasure in beating me at games on the Wii. A few weeks ago, he loaded a mini golf game, saying, oh, you'll be so bad at this.

I'd miss it if he didn't take advantage of me at Wii, but he made me feel pretty special today ... even if I did still lose.