Welcome to the Future

Our tenth wedding anniversary is next month, and I've been saving money for the last several months with the intention of buying Bradley a really rocking present.  (If Bradley had his way, he would get me presents on not only my birthday but on his as well.  Anniversaries?  That's when husbands give presents to their wives, not the other way around.  At least in his mind.  It's awesome, but I have to be sneaky if I want to get him something.)

We've been thinking about buying a game system for a while, and Bradley really thought the Xbox with Kinect would be the best.  But it's expensive, and not in our budget...so that's what I was saving for.  I was planning to hand him an envelope with the money inside so he could buy it himself.

(Aside:  How does a woman with no separate bank account save money?  By being thrifty with the groceries, and then withdrawing $20 everytime she went to the grocery store.  Voila!)

Then, on last Friday night, we were chatting in our bed after the kids were asleep.  We both really want to get in shape, and with winter approaching it becomes harder and harder to have a good exercise regime.  Bradley said, "You'll have to stop me from buying an Xbox tomorrow.  I really need to exercise more."  In our marriage, that means, "I really truly honestly want to buy this expensive thing.  Do you agree or do you have a good argument against it?"

I smiled to myself and decided that three weeks early was still an anniversary present.

"I'm not going to stop you.  I have $250 ready for that exact purchase."

His reaction was everything I had hoped for.  I love being able to give nice things to my husband--I don't often have that opportunity!

So now we are the proud owners of an Xbox with Kinect.  And a new TV.

(Wait, what?)

Well, you see, we haven't had a television in our house for...um...years and years.  Probably at least four, more likely five or even six.  Not that we don't watch television programming--we just do it on our computers instead.  With a few extra cords, we thought that the Xbox would work just fine.

We were wrong.  Because of those extra cords, any movement or command on our part would take three seconds to get to the console.  For a gaming system that depends on your motions to make it work--well, you can see that this was a PROBLEM.

(At first we didn't know why it wasn't working.  It was so pathetic, we couldn't believe that everyone had raved about this amazing new system, that plays games by watching your body movements.  It was sluggish, and lame, and stupid, and definitely NOT the wave of the future.)

Wal-Mart supplied us with our first flat screen TV, we plugged all the stuff in the right places, and...it works!  You move your arm, and almost simultaneously your avatar on the screen moves hers (or his).  You stand with your hands on your hips, and the avatar does the same.  This was definitely the wave of the future.

Happy (early) anniversary, Bradley!