Virtual Villagers The Lost Children has taken over the top spot of casual games on my Big Fish Games toolbar. It knocked off Ravenhearst about a week ago.

Ever since then I’ve been wanting to play it. With being sick, I just haven’t had the time nor the energy to download the demo and give it a go. So, on my gaming to do list tomorrow is to play this game. The video on Big Fish makes me think of The Sims and Civilization. My husband says it reminds him of The Sims and Survivor. Maybe he has a point.

It looks to be a fun one.

Meg is tired of the big city and needs a break. She opens up a small flower shop on a beautiful island. Help grow her business and reach her goals in Flower Shop Big City Break.

The game starts off with a little story background to really help set the tone of the game. Each level consists of growing flowers, cutting flowers, and wrapping flowers that are to customers’ orders. If you grow extra flowers, there are plenty of vases to hold them until needed. The first rounds go by fast with the maximum number of customers set at two. Meg moves pretty fast, so it is easy to keep up with orders and keep customers happy.

Flower Shop Big City Break is overall a fun game. It’s similiar to Cake Mania in that it is task-driven. With 60 levels, game play should last a while. You can upgrade your flower shop once you’ve played long enough. After playing a few levels, another step in the process will be added for some flowers. You will have to water the flowers before you can pick them. Luckily Meg is very fast on her feet, so this new step in the game shouldn’t slow her down that much.

Each round goes by fairly fast. There is a meter to keep track of your daily goal. Be sure to clear the money from the counter so you can make room for more customers. Flower Shop has great game play and is addicting. I can play for a while before even realizing it. It’s enjoyable and entertaining. What more can you ask from a casual game.

I have been reorganizing the room that was our former bedroom into a game/play room. It’s coming together nicely as the TV, two game consoles, and the computer have been setup. Since the router is downstairs, I had to set up a wireles connection on the computer.

I did have a USB network adapter that -after trying for a few hours- could not get to work. So, I implemented Plan B and to use the game wireless router instead. I plugged it in and so far have had no real problems. Having this computing/game setup works really well for me since we spend the majority of our time upstairs. It also makes me have an appreciation for WiFi that much more.

I also use my laptop quite a bit during the day, so I use the WiFi connection a lot. The more I use WiFi, the more I wish the whole city had wifi instead of a few select businesses. It would be nice to leave the house some and be able to work online somewhere else. Maybe more businesses will realize the benefit of offering WiFi at their location. If I were to set up a WiFi hotspot, I would check into using Cisco products. When I was in college for computer networking, Cisco received high praise from our teachers. Hopefully as technology progresses, more business will come aboard the wifi train and offer it to patrons.

Brought to you by Cisco Online.

I saw the trailer for the Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer tonight. I didn’t even know another Fantastic Four movie was in the works. Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver surfer will be released June 15, 2007.

I’ve been wanted to play the Fantastic Four video game for quite some time. Last week I picked it up for the Xbox for the bargain price of $9.99. We enjoyed playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance, which is another Activision title. I haven’t been able to play yet as we all have been sick. Hopefully we are all on the road to good health and can get back to our normal routine soon.

Doug Jones will play the Silver Surfer. He is no stranger to playing comic book characters as he was Abe Sapien in Hellboy. All of the FF actors are back this time around, too. Ioan Gruffud, aka Mr. Fantastic, is one of my favorite actors. I love him from the Horatio Hornblower series.

So, it’s almost March, and I’ve just have learned of one summer blockbuster that I must see.

Wii owners can buy Wii points and purchase classic games to play on their ultracool console. Three new games have been released this week:

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina in Time—1 player, originally for the Nintendo 64. Cost–1000 Wii points.

Bio-Hazard Battle–1-2 players, orginally for the Sega Genesis. Cost–800 Wii points.

Chew Man Fu–1-2 players, orginally for TurboGrafx16. Cost–600 Wii Points.

New games are added each Monday to the Wii Shop Channel. You can either by Wii points online or through certain retailers.

The Internet is a big place and sometimes it is nearly impossible to find what I’m looking for. I feel a lot of frustration when I’m conducting a search for something local. Most of the search results are nothing related or useful to me.

I found London advertising directory. It’s a great example of the type of local information I seek. The only problem is that I’m not in London, so therefore it isn’t very useful to me. But for someone looking for London businesses, it is a great resource. The London directory lists the address and the website of a business. You can rate a business and leave comments. Find out which links are mostl popular with visitors to the London advertising directory. You can also view top links or random links.

If only such as resource as the London advertising directory existed for my local area. The Internet is a really big place and useful links can easily get lost in the mix. Web directories with a narrow focus are a nice source for useful information.

With the Academy Awards tonight, there is not much on TV tonight. But my favorite reality show The Amazing Race did have a new episode.

I’m sad that Kevin and Drew were eliminated from the race. I was pulling for them as I thought they were great in season 1. Drew injured himself in the episode, and I don’t believe mentally they recovered from that.

Joe had seen a tease for tonight’s show that alluded that Rob and Amber went from first to last. They did, for all of two hours in the middle of the night.

Rob and Amber once again finished the leg first. Oy Vey. At least they weren’t that obnoxious tonight. In fact, Amber was helpful to a competitor in the Road Block.

Now to find another team to root for. I still like the Kentucky couple Mary and David. They finished in the back of the pack so hopefully they will move up and not leave next week.

The last Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is due out this year. My husband can’t wait. I am trying to get caught up with the series. I’m on The Order of the Phoenix. Yes, I’m that far behind.

I’ve been trying to get back into the book this week. Joe is really anxious for me to finish this book and the next one so he can talk to me about what happened. Wouldn’t you know it as I start to really get into the book, I come down with an awful cold. It’s hard to concentrate on anything for very long.

Rae has been sick and a Mommy’s girl all week. So, last night Joe suggested that he read to us to try and get Rae to go to sleep. It worked like a charm so no only did Rae fall asleep, but I got to hear another chapter of Harry Potter. I’m still not feeling well today. Maybe Joe will read to us again.

Rae now has her first handheld gaming system. The VG Pocket Princess system features 12 games. You can either play as Ariel or Cinderella. The character you choose will take you to the available games that feature Disney characters associated with her.

The video is of one of the Cinderella games in which Lucifer is trying to stop the mice from making Cinderella a necklace. It’s very Zuma-like and is actually pretty fun. The graphics are nice and remind me of my Sega game gear. There is sound but also an earplug jack. The VG Pocket already has been dropped several times and still works like a charm.

If the game survives long enough for Raegan to actually be old enough to understand how to play then that will be a miracle.

Here is a casual game site that has a great motto. Giveaway of the day does just that. They giveaway a game a day. It’s simple. Download and install.

Apparently the game is free for the first 24 hours, so get ready to play when you install. Your time begins from the installation of the game and not when you download it. For us casual gamers, a day of playing a game is long enough to play it for a while and grow tired of it.

Users can give a game a thumbs up or down, so you can at a glimpse get an idea if a game is really worth downloading at all.