Wiieeee--yowww! (AKA My New Addiction)

I'm a good mom. When my husband and I decided to get a Nintendo Wii for our son, the ever-awesome Boy, I took a couple hours off of work, stood in line at the EBGames in Burlington Mall (indoors, and you can get a danish from Au Bon Pain), put down my deposit, and got a preorder.

And when the consoles came in a few weeks later, I dutifully went with Jim and The Boy to EBGames at MIDNIGHT ON A SATURDAY to be one of the first people in America to own one. Like I said, I'm a good mom, and the Wii seemed like a good thing all around, as far as gaming platforms go. And it really is. Even my mother loves it, and she's a veritable Luddite.

But with all the hype about the motion-sensitive controller, the reasonable price (as such things go--less than half the cost of a PS3 for god's sake), and the sort of Apple-like design, why do they never warn you about the really important thing?

That is: If you play Wii Sports for several hours over the weekend--especially the boxing, tennis, and bowling--your shoulder and arm will hurt. I have tennis elbow from a video game! And not from mashing buttons, but from really swinging my arm as though I'm playing tennis. This is not my father's Nintendo, but were he around, Dad would probably love whuppin' my butt at it. (He loved tennis.)

I can't WAIT to explain this to my doctor. "But, Doc, I can't help myself. I get to play as a Mii character that I customized to look vaguely like me (though I never wear that much eyeshadow) and it's so much fuuuuunnnn." And I still want to play, despite the achy shoulder.

But hey, if I do the boxing every day, I might even lose a few pounds. That's gotta be worth something, too. No pain, no loss. Wiieeeee!