Ramblin’ Prose

The Wii comes with several sports games, but only one controller.

I guess we can blame it on the babysitter.

This summer, the kids spent some time with one of our neighbors, a teenager who helped us out during the weeks the kids weren’t in camp. That fact that she lived two houses away from us - and had a car - was perfect. Not only that, she had a fenced back yard so that the kids could take Pippin with them and let him roam and stretch his legs instead of being cooped up in his crate most of the day. He frightened the teen’s cat, but he is a dog afterall.

Anyway, the girls and the sitter spent quite a bit of time playing with her Wii. So much time, in fact, that the girls turned into huge cheerleaders of the Wii and began a nonstop onslaught of asking us to get them the game console.

We decided to get one for Christmas, but based on store availability, we didn’t think we’d get one until next year.

Well…

Just the other day, we were in target and they had one in the store. As we were standing there, a store worker brought a handful of them to the protected display. “We have a bunch in the back,” he told me. I called Susan, who gave me the green light to pick one up. I asked the worker to hold one at the counter and we’d pick it up after we finished shopping.

On our way back to retrieve, I witnessed one customer walking away with two! At $250 a pop, I wondered whether the economy really was in jeopardy. “They’re going quick I guess,” I said. The clerk laughed.

Now we have a Wii. It’s hidden in the house - in plain sight ’cause we don’t have time to put it away - until the holidays.

I haven’t had a game system since I was a teen, but I’m looking forward to giving it a try.

Maybe I’ll let the kids play with it, too.