Wii got one!

We found a Wii yesterday! Because there are so many more of them available than the PlayStation 3s, we had assumed that it wouldn't be that hard to find one. On release day, though, we went to all the stores in McHenry that we thought even might have one, only to find that every store was sold out and that none of them really knew when they'd be getting more. Wal-Mart kept assuring us that they had another shipment that would be arriving at practically any moment, but it never materialized. Sears told us just two days ago that they only got two, and they had to turn away more than 50 people who were waiting in line.

So yesterday, when I had the day off, I hit all the McHenry stores again in the morning, and again nothing. After lunch, I was reading a message board where people were posting about trying to find the Wii and someone mentioned finding one at a Target in Michigan at about 1 p.m. eastern time. It was, at this point, 12:52 p.m. central time. So I put my shoes on and hustled over to the Crystal Lake Target - and found ten Wiis sitting behind the counter in the electronics department. I bought one!

As I was leaving, I called Randy to offer to buy another for one of his co-workers who's been looking for a Wii for his son for Christmas. His co-worker said yes, please, so I put ours in the car and went back in. As I was heading back to electronics a second time, a man sprinted past me to buy one - in the time between buying my first and second (which was maybe 3 minutes), I saw three other people buy them. So. Wow. We have a Wii!

And it rocks! Seriously, so much fun. It comes with a sports game that has tennis, baseball, bowling, golf and boxing - Randy and I played them all last night. In case you don't know how the Wii works, it has a motion-sensitive controller. So when you're playing tennis, you swing your remote like a racquet; in golf, you putt with it; you either pitch or bat with it; and you swing your arm just like you're bowling. I have to say that I didn't think a golfing game (or, honestly, tennis, or boxing, or baseball) would be that fun, but it really was. Bowling was my favorite.

In other news, we had a great Thanksgiving in St. Louis again. It was wonderful to get to see everyone, Grandma Gilda fed us waaay too much, and we did lots of shopping. The girls always hit the stores first thing in the morning, so we were at Wal-Mart at 5 a.m. I have to say, I hope to never ever be in a store that crowded again. The line to get in was so long that by the time we actually made it up to the doors, the first people in were already leaving with their insanely-lowly-priced TVs. I didn't actually get anything there, but I did find plenty of clothes elsewhere, so it worked out okay.

Back in Blogland

It's been five and a half weeks since our last post. What could possibly have kept us away for so long? Well, here's the answer, in reverse chronological order:

-- We had an A/C guy come by and add more refrigerant. The air is much cooler, now, thankfully.
-- Abby flew back to Kansas. We had a nice time during her visit.
-- We all went for a walk at the McHenry dam one evening. It was very pleasant, except for several swarms of bugs that we had to fight off.
-- We visited the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. There were many cool exhibits ranging from Leonardo da Vinci, to submarine warfare, to slices of body parts, to virtual reality. On our way back we drove along the lovely Lake Shore Drive.
-- We took a trip to the beach at Lake Michigan. It was sunny and hot (mid-90's), but the water was still very cold.
-- Wendy and Abby did lots and lots of shopping.
-- We "trained our brains" every day, by playing Brain Age, a super-fun game for the Nintendo DS Lite.
-- A plumber came by and fixed a leaky toilet.
-- We went for a nice two-mile jaunt at the nearby Chain O' Lakes State Park.
-- We embarked on a sacred pilgrimage to the Holy Land of Suburbia, otherwise known as IKEA. If you've never been to one on the weekend, it's hard to describe how insanely busy it is. Although we didn't buy anything, we did get some good ideas on how to organize our house.
-- We saw the Prairie Home Companion movie. It was very enjoyable.
-- I went to Meijer late Saturday night on June 10th, and at 12:01 AM Sunday, June 11th, I bought a Nintendo DS Lite. It's a new, improved, and slimmer version of the Nintendo DS, and that was the very earliest you could buy it.
-- I searched all the nearby stores for a DS Lite prior to June 11th, after reading that some places accidentally started selling them early. I did manage to find one several days early at Sears Grand, but it rang up as "Do Not Sell" at the cash register. Thus, I waited until June 11th.
-- Abby came to visit us!
-- We had an insulation guy come by and add more insulation. We hardly had any to speak of, but now it's like our house has a nice thick blanket that keeps all the cool air in.
-- We unpacked a lot, but there are still plenty of half-empty boxes lying around.
-- We spent almost all of Memorial Day Weekend cleaning the townhouse we rented the past year.
-- We moved!
-- I got sick.
-- We packed and packed and packed. And packed.
-- Wendy got sick.