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There are the few different seating sections at Corny's, but since we always have Manny with us, they put our family in the section called "Children's Alley." In Children's Alley, I don't think they even bother cleaning up when one family leaves and a new one comes in. So when you get to your table, there's always crumpled-up napkins on the floor and half- eaten french fries on the seats.

The first time we went to Corny's, I didn't check my seat, and I ended up sitting on an open-faced peanut butter and Jelly sandwich. Another thing I hate about Children's Alley is that you're right next to the bathroom's, and the doors are always swinging open, so you can see in there when you're trying to eat. Also, the service is TERRIBLE at Corny's, so we always just get the buffet and serve ourselves. The food is in these metal trays, and there's always stuff from one tray mixed in with the others.

At the dessert bar, they have an ice-cream dispenser where you can make your own sundae. I know that sounds great, but there's a reason most restaurants don't let customers operate the soft- serve machines. One of the reasons Mom likes to go to Corny's is that they have a ball pit, and she's hoping Manny we'll learn to play with other kids his age.

But Manny usually just buries himself in a pile of balls to hide from the other kids and then waits it out until it's time to go whole home. Last Thursday we went to Corny's, and Mom actually made Manny go in the plastic tubes so he couldn't hide in the ball pit. Manny got freaked out up there, though, and he was too scared to come down on his own.

So mum told me I had to go up there and get him since I was the only one in the family who was small enough to crawl in the tubes. I tried climbing up through the area Manny had used to get to the tubes, but it was too tight of a squeeze and I had to bail out. That meant the only way I could get to Manny was to climb up the spiral plastic slide that empties into the

ball pit. I am not a fan of dark, enclosed spaces to begin with, so I wasn't looking forward to crawling up that thing. I yelled into the bottom to make sure the coast was clear. but kids ignored me and came sliding down anyway. Once I made it past the traffic jam and got all the way to the top, I started crawling around through the maze of tubes to try and find Manny. There was no ventilation up there, and it REEKED of dirty socks.