Trigger Happy

That's the name of my favorite Skylander in the Wii game Lincoln got for his birthday. If you've never heard of Skylanders and you have a son or nephew under the age of 12, run don't walk to your favorite electronics store and pick it up for the console of your choice. Get over your reservations about video games ruining young, impressionable minds. I turned out OK, didn't I? (Don't answer that.)

It's brilliant, really. Easy to play, funny, and just an all-around great marketing concept. You buy 2" tall action figures for $6-8 and put them on a wireless portal that interacts with your console. Voila, there's a digital version of your action figure, ready to play. There's a chip in the bottom of each figure that remembers your achievements and skill level so you can take your figures to your friends house and play on his system. It even ports from Wii to Playstation 3 to Xbox.

What I'm trying to say is Lincoln and I enjoy playing it very much. Above is Lincoln wagging his tongue like Trigger Happy. To the right, well, that's Trigger Happy himself.

Linc will have to play it solo tomorrow and Saturday, or convince the ladies to get in on the fun. I'm off to Jim Thorpe, Pa., for my second annual weekend bike trip with Gardner. We're revisiting the trails where Carey and I cut our mountain biking teeth in the early part of last decade and where he and Allison joined us for a B&B vacation just after they got engaged. Should be lots of fun. I'll bring our small Kodak and see if I get any good photos.