XBox rules

Since I am pretty much getting everything I want in the basement (including purple carpet!), I thought that the Adorable Husband should have something he wants. So, with the "reward bucks" we got for buying all our equipment at Best Buy, I picked up an Xbox for him -- and a few games. He is very excited about the prospect of playing Halo 2 on the enormous screen in digital surround sound!

To "check it out", he hooked everything up to the TV in the living room -- and things started going horribly awry. First, I shifted the Xbox while it was playing one of the game dvds. Yes, it was unbelievably stupid, but I did it anyways and amid loud grinding noises and death rattles, the machine ate the DVD. Munged it badly. Then, the dog took a serious dislike to the cords and cables dangling from the front of the television and chewed them off.

Luckily, a new video and audio cable for the thing is only about twenty bucks, and Target is awfully good about taking things back even if you damaged them yourself. But it was one of the those situations where we were thinking, "perhaps we aren't meant to have an Xbox. This might not be a good idea".

I have to admit that I'm a bit worried that the Husband -- who has eyes that are magnetically attracted to any screen -- would head downstairs, turn on the xbox, and only emerge to search for food and diet pop. I might see him once every three days or so! He's been known to lock himself in his office and play computer games for hours on end. I can't really complain much; he finds it relaxing and decompressing, I guess. But the lure of a huge screen and a comfy recliner (and wireless game controller) might be too much.