it’s been a few months since i’ve even really thought about updating here, and that’s because we’ve been spending our free time doing something else. there’s nothing much missed. it was a busy summer, but not much of anything to report. nicki is working a lot, learning the rhythm of her new job. just another sticky summer here in the big city!

some exciting stuff is coming up in the next few weeks, however, so watch out for updates. this weekend we’re going up to galena, illinois with friends, and the following week we’ll welcome bonnie, marc, amy, eric, and baby riley before we head up to saugatuck, michigan for labor day weekend. hehe, knowing me, i’m sure there will be plenty of pictures!

nestled in between these two trips, nicki and i will have a very low-key celebration of our first wedding anniversary! (can ya believe it’s already almost been a year?!)

so with all these exciting events coming up, it’s time to give a little detail on what’s kept me from spending any time updating this site: i’ve been feeding my video game addiction!

on my own personal front, i’ve had two major successes since the last time i posted about this stuff. so pay attention, kids, this is important.

first of all, i beat super mario galaxy AND super luigi galaxy! i have the 121st grand finale star for both of them.

nicki doesn’t like this game any more than she likes super mario 64, so all the game time is mine. enough to know that the hardest course in the entire game, for me, was luigi’s purple coins in the toy time galaxy. i easily spent over one hundred lives each time trying to beat that damn board. it’s really tough. you have to keep moving, there’s no time to collect your wits. you have to collect 100 of a possible 150 coins. of course, there are overachievers out there that needed to get all 150 coins and make it look like an easy task. maybe i’ll try that feat someday. i’ve become pretty good at the game. well, obviously i had improved after beating the game as mario. after playing the whole thing over again as luigi, it gives you your total death count as each character. i died roughly half as much the second time around as luigi as i did with mario. obviously, then, luigi was a much quicker run-through for me.

i have to say: super mario galaxy is easily my #1 favorite video game ever. i can’t even begin to fathom what will top it.

i was inspired by this win to go back to super mario 64. i’d beaten bowser for the final time after getting 70 stars, but didn’t really bother getting the other 50 stars. so after beating Galaxy, i went back and completely beat super mario 64. you get to see yoshi at the end, which is cool. you get a super extra jump and 100 extra lives, which is nice. too bad they didn’t write luigi in even as a cameo. oh well. it was still cool to beat the entire game. hey, if you’re gonna accomplish something, it might as well be something completely meaningless, right? yeah? are ya with me?

the funny thing? i never did beat the original super mario bros. i know i can warp directly to world 8, but i’m not very good on that style game. i’m much better with the 3D mario games. i’ve therefore been trying to beat each world at a time, to help increase my mad gaming skeelz. however, i can’t pass world 5. i can’t get past the world 5 boss. ah well. now that i’ve beaten these two games, i’ve been trying. the original SMB and super mario bros 2 have now been played rather often. hell, i can’t get past world 1 in SMB2. it’s so radically different than any other mario game.

anyway, i haven’t gotten any farther in donkey kong country or guitar hero III, either, than i had the last time i wrote a video game progress report here. i should play those games more often.

new games since last time are Wii Fit and Dance Dance Revolution.

yeah, as far as i’m concerned, those are nicki’s games. DDR is tough, though. even when i help her (she does the leg work, i do the arm work with the wiimote/nunchuck), the game is tough to beat. wii fit is okay. more interesting than DDR. but wii fit holds her attention longer.

finally, i have to mention the latest game to our collection, given as a birthday gift from eric and amy: Major League Eating: The Game.

now we’re talking.

nicki thinks it’s gross. and it is. in every way that is awesome.

here’s a promo video for the game. it’ll give a good idea of what it’s all about. it’s genius.

eric told me about it a while ago. i’m glad he sent it to me: i’m gonna have a ton of fun with it. soon enough, when i’m getting good at it, he and i will have to play each other remotely! that will rock. and that’s why i can’t wait to get mario kart wii. it’ll be fun to play them on that game too!

that’s more than enough for now. i just wanted to get back into this site to prepare you for what’s coming up in the next few weeks! in the meantime, go play a video game, dammit! it’s good for your soul!