Start your engines!

Every now and then, our family allows itself the occasional "calculated extravagance" to help enjoy life's long journey.

For 2009, we busted open our penny jars and got ourselves a Nintendo Wii. It's great fun. No regrets.

Anyhow, one of the games we acquired (at my insistence) was Mario Kart. As an original Nintendo junkie, I had played this game all through the years since its inception with the Super NES. And in every incarnation, this game has always hit it out of the park. Yeah, it's that damn good.

But I digress. I had originally bought this game to play by myself and hopefully hook Lisa in the process. However, I had no idea how addicted my Muse would get when the bug finally bit. As it turns out, Lisa's got very little to do at home once Vince is at school and her lofty list of chores are done. So when these precious periods of free time pop up, Lis fires up the Wii and tears around the many racetracks of Marioworld making her mark on the kart racing scene.

(Woah, there. Before you concerned moms start crying in anguish about Amy's neglect, let me just say that baby-girl love's to watch Mommy race. She can't get enough of it. It's an activity they enjoy doing together as she'll sit on her lap and cheer the whole time. So cut my Mrs some slack, check?)

So now it has come to my attention that our sleepy little quasi-family housing area is holding a Mario Kart tournament with prizes for the best drivers. Naturally, I want Lis to test her skills against all the single student wannabe "Tony Stewarts" to hopefully crack 'em in half and score herself some keen prizes! It'd be a great ego boost for her, I'm sure!

Now comes the tricky part of convincing her to compete....