Start Your Holiday Shopping Now

It's never too early to start your holiday shopping and this year I have some recommendations I promise will be popular with your loved ones.

Bakugan Starter Pack 

My recommendation for kids is Bakugan, Bakugan, Bakugan.
They will be the hottest item under tree this year and you better purchase now. I predict you’ll have a hard time finding these in December.
Bakugan Battle Arena

We’re already a Bakugan family and have already had problems finding new Series 2 packs.

For the adults, I recommend a digital photo frame.  We received one last year and love it.  Ours came from a company I had never heard of before called SmartParts but it turned out to be one of the best I’ve seen.  My biggest surprise is that ten year old photos I took with my first low-res Casio QV-PC 0.23 megapixel camera look great on our digital photo frame.

Smartparts 10.4 inch Digital Picture Frame

Mario Kart for Nintendo Wii

I’m not a real gamer but I’ve had a blast with this one. We have grand kids in Germany and every Saturday we connect to the Internet, play Mario Kart and race against the kids in real-time. It would be perfect if they could also integrate it with Wii Speak but for now our unlimited Germany plan with Vonage allows us all to chat on speaker phone while we play.

And for the entire expanded family, get your Nintendo Wii now while they last. Nintendo claims they’ve increased production so there will be plenty on the shelves but I recommend if you plan on a Wii Christmas, order now.

Nintendo Wii

My last personal recommendation saved my butt when I went out to LA for the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference. I don’t regularly drive on highways with over 6 lanes so I was happy to have this available.

Garmin Nuvi 760

Achilles WiiItis Injury was predicted

It was last March when I added a Nintendo Wii to our playroom and wrote “Nintendo Wii Replaces PE”. In my post I predicted, “ I’m either going to lose weight or I’m going to pull a muscle.” Well, I was right!

I really expected I would aggravate and old tennis elbow surgery but instead the diagnosis is Achilles Tentonitis. Not only is my Wii usage restricted but I now have a huge black air cast up to my knee. I’ll also be on crutches for the next week or two. Apparently playing a vigorous game of Nintendo Wii Tennis in bare feet may not have been a good idea.

Earlier this month a physician in Spain, Dr. Julio Bonis wrote to the New English Journal of Medicine and coined the phrase “Wiiitis”. I have a feeling more doctors will become familiar with this concept as the popularity of the Nintendo Wii increases.

This is a shot of yesterdays MRI. Apparently, the
black blob above the heel isn’t suppose to be so big

It’s probably impossible to prove the injury was caused by Wii Tennis. I can tell you, as an old guy who spends most of his time in front of the computer it’s still the most strenuous activity I’ve done in the past week.