Biggest Household Expense: Wireless Controller Batteries

So.

The Boy has been a Game Flier for nearly a month. Drop me an e-mail if you want to try it so I can send you The Boy's referral link -- if The Boy can convince 5 people to join Game Fly for a month at full price, he can win a Wii.

And he really wants a Wii . . . rumor has it that Santa is more of a Microsoft kind of guy (always remember your version of The Husband and Father of The Children when plotting holidays).

To date, he has played Eragon, Bionicle: Heroes, Shrek 3 and Cooking Mama.

He completely finished every game, with the exception of Cooking Mama, which is one of those games you can play for hours simply because no matter what you do, Mama isn't happy ("You should be better at this," The Boy informed me. "You actually have some experience as a Mama." Thank you so very much. Now get out of my way -- I have wontons to fold. And what do you mean by "some" experience?).

He has also convinced an assortment of grandparents, godparents, actual parents and even a great aunt to purchase Eragon, Bionicle: Heroes, Shrek 3, Cooking Mama and Over the Hedge.

Miss Manners and I are not sure what the etiquette may be, but I am insisting that all game purchases go through standard retail channels, and not the "Keep It Now!" option, to ensure that the developers are paid for producing a set of games he rates 10 out of 10.

His godmother is particularly impressed with Eragon, and invited The Boy over to play it for a group of her friends. You haven't lived until you have hooked up a video game console for a gathering of grandmotherly types heavily armed with tea, cookies and lumbar cushions.

There has been much discussion of the fact that video games are supposed to be horrible, insidious brain-melting devices designed to destroy civilization as we know it by turning The Children into drooling zombies, yet playing and watching a video game is actually kind of fun.

The only complaint I have heard from the group is that Nintendo should make a 7-9" screen for the DS, like the portable DVD players, to make it easier to see the little frowny animals in Zoo Keeper.

Next up in The Boy's Game Q -- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. It should be here Saturday.

I wonder what his next video game buy will be?