A snippet of Sarah’s writing has been published again. It’s the third review down, if you’re interested.

Austin American-Statestman 2008 Summer Reading Guide

For those who have been wondering, Greg’s gift was a Nintendo Wii (though I have taken to calling it the weeeee!). It’s starting to look like the Wii might be less of a gift though and more a threat to his life.

When the Wii first came out, there were all kinds of reports of people getting injured. I remember wondering what was wrong with these people, how they could lack enough motor control to play a silly video game without injury. Well, for a certain type of person, one with an overdeveloped competitive instinct and a little too much adrenaline, this system is dangerous. I’m not going to name any names, but we have a person like that living in our household.

The problem became apparent when we tried out tennis. For those who don’t know, you swing the controller as if it were a racket. It might be possible to play this sitting down, but I surely couldn’t. So Greg and I both stood in front of the TV, him behind me because he’s taller and presumably could see the TV over my head (though I don’t think he actually could).

We tried a few matches and I kept losing. I complained to Greg that the system didn’t seem to be adequately picking up my movements. He told me I was standing too close to the TV. I asked him to move back. So poor Greg ended up squeezed in the narrow aisle between the coffee table and the couch. Meanwhile, I now had plenty of space and lunged wildly back and forth. It’s enthralling to see your little character replicate all your movements. I wasn’t even in the family room anymore. I was living in the TV. A few times I nearly ran into our fireplace.

Greg told me that we could buy racket attachments to add to our controllers so that it would be more like a real tennis match. I think this might be a ploy on his part to get a new TV because if I had a full racket, I would surely send it through the screen.

We played a few more matches, just until I managed to win. I’m pretty sure Greg let me win just to end the madness.

Greg’s birthday is this week, and I spent quite a bit of time nagging him about birthday gifts. I always have some idea of what he wants, but it’s usually some technical toy (Greg would say technical tool). I know he wants a camera lens, but which one? Or he wants speakers, but what kind?

After all my nagging, Greg finally made a list. And he was even thoughtful enough to add prices for each of the items. I started to read. A hammock. A PlayStation 2 with a particular game. Apple TV, which you can record all of your movies and music onto. Hmm. He said Apple TV was $215. This might be an option.

But then, I saw the offhand comment next to it. “Problem is that this requires a new TV.”

So the actual price of Apple TV would be closer to $2,215.

I’m keeping Greg’s gift a secret until his birthday. But I think you can guess what he’s NOT getting.