It’s funny – I never thought that the older I got, the more often I’d play video games. But my friends in Omaha are all about gaming! We bought our Wii because we had so much fun playing it with Lynn and Jon. When we went to their house on Saturday to watch the big University of Nebraska vs. USC football game, we brought our Miis on our remotes so we could play as ourselves on their system. The Huskers were disappointing, so we flipped off the game at halftime and started playing tennis and bowling on Wii — after spending a good 30 minutes helping Jamie and Dan make their own Miis.

Then yesterday we went to Eric’s house for a couple of hours and learned how to rock out on Guitar Hero. I was terrible at first — I got boo’ed off stage — but by my third song I was bopping along while fretting and strumming. Now J and I are going to have to buy the game when it comes out on Wii.

Oh! And the other day we purchased some “Wii” points and downloaded Mario Bros. and Super Mario Bros. You can play using the Wii remotes by turning them sideways. How smart is that! Doot doot doot doot dootdootdoot… (that’s me singing the Super Mario Bros. theme song) The original Mario Bros. is pretty bland, but J and I had a blast playing the “super” version, trying to remember where all the secret bricks are. We may have to purchase Super Mario Bros. 2 next. I remember preferring 3 when I was younger, but they don’t have it available to download yet. But they do have Excite Bike! I think I stole that one from my neighbor back in the day…

J and I are now the proud owners of a Wii! Yesterday we hit Best Buy as soon as it opened so J could purchase one of the 10 they had in stock with money he got for his birthday. In addition to the actual unit or whatever it’s called, he also bought the game Wii Play because it comes with another Wii Remote (additional nunchuk purchased separately).

Before we even really understood how to use the remotes, we battled each other at bowling (I won), tennis (he won), and boxing (I won). It’s true what they say about the Wii – you almost get a true workout just by playing the games. I was a little bit worn out after our last round of boxing. Of course, that may just be because I was flailing my arms like a madwoman rather than properly jabbing or punching, but I just couldn’t figure out how.

The activities on Wii Play actually helped us get more comfortable with the remotes. I recommended doing those before trying to play a “real” game. I learned that I’m a better Wii pool player than I am in real life, but I’m terrible at racing cows or picking odd Miis out of a crowd.