I've wanted a Wii since the first year they came out. Remember how, at Christmas 2006, everyone was all about the PS3? Well, my stepfather is a gaming nut, and my mom is a Christmas nut, so she couldn't stop at getting him the PS3 that year. She had to get him a Wii, too. He was all, "Oh, isn't that cute?" and turned his attention back to the PS3. I, however, fell instantly in love with that adorable little Wii.

So I've wanted one ever since. But, you know, it always seemed like kind of a decadent expense for me. I'm not much of a gamer and I've never actually bought a gaming system in my life. But then Nintendo introduced the Wii Fit, and my desire turned to flat-out obsession. Of course, you can't have a Wii Fit wthout a Wii. And to get both, you need the kind of buckage that neither Joe nor I were willing to spend this Christmas. (Remember, we ended up making 40% of the gifts we gave just to save some extra money.)

But then we had the chance to get the Wii Fit for free.

See, Joe works at Bank of America, and up until January 1st, the company would routinely award employees with these things called Spirit Points. Spirit Points were given for lots of different reasons, like if you helped someone out when it wasn't really your job to do so, or if you did fantastic work on a project, or whatever. Early last year, Joe even won 5,000 Spirit Points in a raffle. (The rest he earned the old-fashioned way - by doing good work.) Spirit Points could be cashed in for merchandise much like reward points on a credit card. Joe had been saving up to get us the Wii, but then BoA announced that to cut costs, they were discontinuing the Spirit Point program, and we ran out of time. Points had to be cashed in by a certain date or they were rendered useless. Even though Joe didn't have enough to get a Wii, he did have enough for a Wii Fit (not to mention a Rachael Ray 5-quart hard anodized oval saute pan with lid, a super cool Tanita scale that also measures body fat, and a mini food chopper thing). We haven't gotten the pan or the scale yet, but on Monday, our Wii Fit finally arrived. (So did the food chopper, but we're not nearly as impressed with that.)

Anyway, yay for Spirit Points!

Of course, we still didn't have the Wii itself. But I had some points of my own. They were Citibank "Thank You" points that I'd been amassing for about three or four years and never bothered to cash in. I didn't have enough for a Wii, either, but I did have enough to get a $100 Visa Gift Card, spendable any place that accepts Visa. I also happen to have a very generous uncle who sends me $200 every year on my birthday, this year being no exception.

Between those two things and an excellent sale at Walmart.com ($249 for the base unit, plus $17 shipping), we were able to order our Wii Wednesday night. AND we still had enough left over to purchase an extra controller and a charging station through Amazon, where we were able to take advantage of their most excellent Super Saver Shipping option (I was a little miffed about the $17 shipping charge from Walmart, but I'm getting over it).

The fact that we didn't spend any money out of pocket makes it that much sweeter.

Then, last night, Joe decided to e-file his taxes and we found out that he's getting a fairly decent refund. Enough to put a down payment on a wedding caterer (assuming the caterer we want doesn't laugh in our faces when we tell them how much we'd like to spend total).

It's nice that Joe can file his taxes so quickly and easily. I haven't had a situation like that since I sold my first novel. I mean, almost everything can be considered a write-off (books, magazines, even cable TV), which is nice but requires crazy-good bookkeeping skills and a meticulous review of the year's receipts. Plus, now there are the other deductions, like paying student loan interest and contributing to an IRA and all the stuff that comes along with owning a house. Add to that this year's medical expenses, and it's going to take me at least 12 hours just to get all of my duckies in a row. I never get away with paying my accountant less than $350, but it's money I pay gladly. Doing it myself would cause too many headaches, and I fully believe that some things are better left to the professionals.

So, yeah. Yesterday I filled out the contact form for our current caterer of choice and am waiting to hear back from them. I really, really hope they can do the kind of appetizers we want for the money we want to spend. Our current guest list is at 89, but we already know that a bunch of those people won't be able to attend due to the cost of travel. Which means we're looking at a final head count of 75-100, instead of 100-125. (Last night, I trimmed a lot of plus-ones off the guest list. Our new rule is that unless the single person is already in a serious relationship, they don't get a plus-one. It's not ideal, but it's definitely practical considering our budget.)

Could it be that everything's coming up Milhouse?

Off to run a few errands before class ...