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I managed to tweak my knee somehow during Tuesday's softball game, and jam my thumb at Krav, so I took last night off. I wanted to take my mountain bike out, but with the thumb, and the knee... not a good idea.

Instead, I dropped by the local video game shop, picked up a used PS2 and a few games, and stayed up late rotting my brain.

I was standing in the shop, scanning the wall for any of the games on my shopping list, when one of the kids who works there asked me if I needed help finding anything. I said I was looking for a used PS2. He pointed to the wall racks full of games and said, "Oh, sure, we have that. But these are just the games. The actual system is sold seperately."

Yes, kids, it's that obvious I'm a video gaming newb.

Once we established that I understood the difference between a console and a game, and he tried to upsell me on the store discount card, I picked out the following games:

Tekken Tag Tournament: An old favorite among my friends and I, and one that I've always wanted to master the way I did Street Fighter II.

Lego Star Wars II: I got this one on pure recommendation. I have no idea what it is.

Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil: A friend and I played through a few stages of this one a few years back, and it was a hoot. A nice mix of side-scrolling action and puzzle solving.

Katamari Damacy: After ripping through a few rounds of Tekken, this is the game I tried next, and it's the one that I couldn't put down. This thing is deranged. Best moment: rolling up a 1.2m katamari in "Make a Star 1" and heading back into the house to wreak havoc on the dinner table. Rolled up mom and the cat, then got stuck somewhere. I don't know where, because by that time I was at 2m and the camera had zoomed out past the roof of the house. All you could see was the house from above, shaking, with sounds of the katamari rolling around crashing into things.

I love being a decade behind the gaming curve. Everything's so cheap. Console and 4 games: $180.

So, yeah. I'm now a filthy gamer. I stopped off at lunch to buy a memory card. I've got that "wanna go home and play with my new toy" buzz.

Plans for tonight, however, involve more pressing business: I'm going to hit the gym, then go over my Wyoming checklist and make a shopping list for this weekend. Lots of cheap odds and ends to pick up, pack up, and ship off ahead of me so I don't have to carry them back and forth to Maine.

Tomorrow it's another two-hour Krav session and Wyoming shopping, and Sunday I'm riding with Lady D and some of the ALC crew up in Ventura. Can't wait!