About a week ago, I got an e-mail from Amazon’s notification system that the Wii Fit is available for pre-order. So I bought it! I can hardly wait to try it out.

If you aren’t familiar with the Wi Fit, you can see a video demo at the official Nintendo site. The games and activities work with a sensor balance board. You stand on it, dance, do yoga poses, practice balancing, and lots of other stuff. It looks like a good way to get moving and practice using your core muscles. I’m excited because I love games, and I hate exercise. If this is exercise disguised as a game, I’m all over it!

I can hardly wait until the Man in Brown delivers it to my home (estimated arrival date: May 23, 2008). You can bet I’ll be telling you all about it!

I had my first guest post published yesterday at My Wii News! It’s a riveting tale of loss, redemption, and the search for Earth. Well, not exactly. But it is about how my three year old deleted all of our saved Wii games — including my Pro status in Wii bowling — and how to back up games to an SD card.

If you’re interested, you can go check it out, and let me know what you think. So far, I’m the only girl geek contributor.

Vinnk over at 4 color rebellion has posted a scan of his actual, formal wedding invitation. Here is what he says about it:

… as it turns out even geeky gamers can find love. Of course that doesn’t stop me from continuing to be that geeky gamer. My wedding invitation proves this. Be warned that it is more than a bit silly and lame, but it’s also, I hope, kind of cute.

And here is a little preview of the photo. You can click on it to see the full scan. It’s very cute, and it features Wii likenesses of the couple.

He goes on to note that his future wife is not a geeky gamer, but that she does like the invitation, and is still going to marry him. So sweet! The only thing that would make it better would be to have the Miis dressed in wedding attire. Congratulations, Kevin and Misako! I don’t know you, but I wish you the best!

These are simply amazing. Click the thumbnail to take a closer look at these perfectly crafted Super Mario cupcakes! I would love to bite into that cute little 1UP mushroom, or give that piranha plant a taste of his own medicine! Chomp!

These are crafted by Australian artisan Naomi, who must be a fondant coloring and sculpting genius, to render these Super Mario characters so well. From the perfect shade of sky blue in the background, to the placement of the buttons on Mario’s overalls, these are just wonderful! I don’t know what I crave more after looking at these — eating cupcakes, or playing Super Paper Mario!

According to her profile, Naomi works with robots by day, and is a “cupcake ninja” by night. Sounds like the perfect combination! See more of her amazing creations, including robot, Lego, and Pacman cupcakes, as well as lots of beautiful non-geek designs, too.

Thanks for sharing, Naomi!

Okay, I know I don’t usually write about politics here, but I couldn’t pass this one up. Check this out! How perfect is this Mario – Luigi Campaign Tee for a Nintendo-loving geek like me?

Here’s part of the endorsement statement from the pundits at ThinkGeek:

We wanted to introduce you to our favorite candidates in the running for the ’08 election: Mario and Luigi Giordano. They own a local pizza joint where everything’s homemade, just like in momma Italy. Face it. Almost all America’s problems can be solved with a generous application of mozzarella. And pepperoni. And especially mushrooms.

I love it. I’m seriously thinking about buying it.

A few people have asked me how I made my blog header, so I thought I would share my secret. Okay, it’s not a secret at all. I can’t draw, and I didn’t do anything particularly clever to come up with those cute cartoon faces of my family.

As you might know, I love our Wii. I’ve “invested” more hours than I care to admit, honing my Wii bowling skills, and am now the proud user of a super-sparkly “Pro” ball.

But maybe you don’t have a Wii, and you have no idea what a Mii is? Well, a Mii is just a Wii avatar. And you can make one, even if you don’t have a Wii. I’ve used a couple of online Mii creators, but my favorite is this one. [EDIT: As of April 11, 2008, I found that this site is no longer active. Here is another Mii creator for you to try.]

It is very easy to use, and you can create your own mini-Mii (or mini-you) in just minutes. When you’re finished, you can save the source file and re-load it later to make changes. Or, download your image to your computer (you choose the size and format), and use it as you like.

You can see my own Mii family in my blog header, and here is one I made of Harry Potter, just for fun. If you make a Mii you’d like to share, please leave the location in your comment! Have fun!

I am addicted to my computer. And the Wii. And my kids are becoming total gamers too.

Think I’m just exaggerating? Well, how about this for proof that I spend too much time at the computer? My wrists are tired and my hands go numb. Also, my eyes barely focus on anything that’s not 24 inches away from my face, because that’s how far away my screen is.

And then when I’m done working at the computer, I love playing on the Wii. It is so much fun! And of course, it’s the kids’ favorite indoor activity, and it’s what they want to do as soon as their chores are finished. Between the Wii, and games on the PC, they will play for hours, if we let them.

Now before you blast me for allowing my kids to spend too much time in front of a screen, let me admit that I know it’s a problem. Isn’t that the first step toward recovery? I don’t know. I’ve never been in rehab. And it’s not like we live in a broken down shack full of rubbish and filth. Our home is fairly clean, the kids are well-fed, they make honor roll at school, and we read to them every day.

We do turn off the machines and interact as human beings, but sometimes it’s difficult to tear everyone away from the games. That’s where I need some help. Now you brilliant inventors out there, here is my idea. This is going to make someone very rich, and I’m giving it away for free!

I want a bank that I can attach to my gaming devices. For instance, I attach this bank to the Wii, the kids put in some coins, and it plays for however many minutes I decide each coin is worth. Then, I can open the bank, collect the coins, and recycle them into the allowance or reward system (or use as Mom’s Mad Money!). How brilliant is that?

The coin system makes the play time easier to regulate, because there’s no arguing with the machine’s timer. Also, I think it would be helpful in teaching the kids about work and rewards. They do chores to earn money, and then they can decide how much of the money to spend on gaming, or whether they would rather save it for something else.

So, does such a product already exist? Anyone out there going to make one for me? Please?

Hubby sent me a link to a page showing these cool-looking Wii remote jackets by CAMY, and I really really want one! So far, I’ve been spending my Wii sessions gaining “Pro” status on Wii Sports bowling. (I pulled a glute, but I did it, and I love my sparkly new ball!) The kids love Super Mario Galaxy, but I haven’t had time to figure it out yet. I have to wait my turn, you see, and it looks much more complicated than my old favorite, Super Mario Bros 3.

But I can hardly wait to get one of these Wiimote “light swords,” so I can get my Jedi on! (No, I don’t have a Princess Leia costume, you weak- minded fool!) According to CAMY, they are super lightweight, and the translucent blades are lit with ultra-bright LEDs. Sounds awesome! Now I have to go find a game to go with my elegant Jedi weapon. Cue light saber sound effects.

If you’ve read my previous post on our new Wii (the kids won’t unwrap it until Christmas, but we’ve been playing it at night – shhhh!), you know how much I love it! Even though I suck at pretty much all the games (except I did knock out Hubby at boxing), it is so fun! We plug it in after the kids are asleep and go for a couple of hours. Bowling, golf, tennis, baseball, etc. — none of which I do in normal life with any regularity… I end up sweaty and out of breath (especially from boxing – I turn into a crazed punching machine for some reason). Nothing wrong with that. I figure anything besides sitting at the computer counts for exercise, right?

But the next morning, boy am I sore! Yes, I’m a bit out of shape. And I’m not as young as I used to be. Anyway, my muscles ache, and my shoulder hurts. I’m really okay, but I was thinking, when will somebody develop a nice post-Wii workout cooldown game for us middle-aged Wii addicts? How about Wii Therapy, Wii Pilates, Wii Yoga, Wii Stretch? They can bundle it with Wii Sports and call it Wii for Oldies.

My husband surprised me with the news a few months ago. “Honey, I got a Wii! I wasn’t looking for one, but I just happened to wander into the game store, and the guy said they had just got the shipment, and they hadn’t even unpacked them yet. They’re really hard to find, so I was lucky to find one, and I had to get it, and we can give it to the kids for Christmas…” That was back in September.

We love video games, and it’s not that I didn’t want a Wii. It’s just that I don’t need another device that encourages me to waste more time playing games. I know that once the Wii is unwrapped and installed, there will be almost no chance of turning it off. The kids will want to play it all the time. And worse yet, I will want to play it all the time! And I’ll have to take turns!

So Hubby brought it home, and we tried it out (after the kids were asleep). We played tennis, golf, bowling, baseball, even boxing! It was awesome! I lost every challenge except for boxing. I don’t know what got into me, but I turned into a crazy manic Wii punching machine, and somehow I knocked him out. I was sweating and out of breath, but I won!

I think I’m developing “Wii elbow.”

We put it back in the box, and we’re hiding it under the bed until Christmas. Don’t tell the kids!