I remember when we bought out Xbox. We bought it on our way to Florida. It was a blast to play Halo and Crash Nitro Cart in our hotel room. Quite a fun experience to say the least. Taking gaming consoles with you on vacation can be a great way to ensure that the kids(and adults!) are entertained without getting stuck paying for in hotel gaming options.

Whether you are staying at a North Carolina hotel or at a New York Bed and Breakfast, chances are that you will have access to a television. Since some TVs might be older, buy an adapter to be able to plug it in directly to the antenna outlet. We had to buy a converter for the Xbox when we were in Florida and didn’t need it when we got back home. It is nice to have around though because when we need it again, we will have it.

It’s also a good idea to buy a gaming console case. This ensures that your console is packed safe and snugly into its own container. It will also make organizing the games, cords, and other gaming peripherals easier.

Having your own game console on vacation is not only fun but can give you a taste of home even when you are hundreds of miles away.

I’ve been thinking of changing my blog tag line “for the casual gamer.” I’ve had it for a while, and it was part of the Romperz game website that was the predecessor to the game blog. So, I’ve been wanting to change it to more accurately reflect what I post about. Unfortunately, I post on a lot of different subjects.

First and foremost I do want to stay focused on casual games. I am a huge casual gamer and love to talk about games. If it’s the latest demo I’ve downloaded or an old favorite, I like to share my thoughts on it. I do like other media like television, books, and movies. I’m a reviewer at heart and love to talk about my experiences with products, websites, and services. It may take a few days to cram all of that into a few words.

Feel free to share suggestions. If I use it or like it, I will put your link in my blogroll.

Sorry I had comments turned off. My bad! All fixed..hopefully…

Getting a car insurance quote is so easy these days. I needed to get a couple of different quotes. The last time I had gotten quotes the process took a while. This time I was done is less than 10 minutes. The process has really become quite painless online.

It’s fast service like getting a car insurance quote that makes me wish even more services were available online. There is already quite a bit you can do online. I renewed my driver’s license and always get photo prints online. I do pay a lot of bills electronically, too. Now that I think about it, I’m not sure there is another service that I would like to see online. It seems I do more online than I originally thought.

I do like buying auto insurance online. It means one less errand I have to run each month. If I could only pay all my bills online then that would be really nice.

Being sick the past two weeks has really bummed me out and thrown off my whole walking regime. Hopefully tomorrow I can get back to walking some in the afternoon. I just feel so drained that it is hard to get up the energy to walk let alone push a stroller around the neighborhood.

I am slowly going to break drinking Diet Coke when I go walking but right now it gives me a lot of comfort. I will probably invest in a water bottle that fits the stroller. A water bottle filter will likely save me money over buying bottled water. Why pay for purified water when I can do it myself?

It’ll probably be a few more weeks until I am ready to add water and give up the Diet Coke. This sickness setback is probably going to mean restarting over with my walking plan. Hopefully this will be the last of the Spring/allergy colds for a while.

Is your Mom a gamer? Popcap games is giving away Bejeweled Deluxe beginning today in honor of Mother’s Day. Subscribers to Popcap’s newsletter The Fizz will receive an email notification between now and May 23rd for their free copy of Bejeweled 2 Deluxe. New susbscribers to the monthly newsletter will also be able to snag a free copy of Bejeweled Deluxe. Newsletter subscribers will be sent a link to the game and a special code to unlock the game. The offer must be redeemed by May 30th.

Give Mom the gift of fun this Mother’s Day. Since your gift is such a great price, be sure to pick up a card and her favorite flowers.

Multiplayer games are a lot of fun to play with other players. We have enjoyed several fun multiplayer games like X-Men Legends, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and Shrek 2. These games do have one common element and that is the same publisher.

Activision is fast becoming my favorite video game company. Through the Activision website you can view all of their games for a certain platform. You can also find at a glance all of the multiplayer games.

Finally I have found a nice collection of multiplayer games to keep in mind when purchasing our next video game.

Thanks to The Sims 2, I had a good idea of what my daughter would look like. Since The Sims 2 uses Sim DNA to determine physical traits in offspring, I was able to get a good idea of what our children would look like. Well, even without The Sims I would have a had a good idea since I remember a little about dominate genes from science class. It’s fun to create families in The Sims 2 and see what the kiddos look like.

It is interesting though to play the little one in The Sims 2 and watch her take her first steps, speak, and other developmental milestones. While she has reached plenty of those now, it was fun to play it out in The Sims 2 before it happened in real life. It was a great way to pass a little time and not get too involved in another project. I’ll have to start playing The Sims 2 again.

One thing I miss about working outside the home is having plenty of office supplies. It seems there is never a sheet of paper or pen handy when I need one.

To help with organization, I took the suggestion from my husband and bought a wipe board. Now it is mounted near the computer and stands ready for me to jot down my musings. Our home office is everything from the computer room to game room to living room. The wipe board definitely helps me keep track of games I want to play or groceries I need to buy.

Some of my best ideas happen when I’m playing games, so it’s nice to have something close to the computer to write down those thoughts.

I’ve been mulling over the games over at Big Fish since I will soon have another game credit to purchase a game. I’m really leaning towards getting a game for the little one. She loves Dora, so Dora’s Carnival Adventure looks like a great gaming choice.

I will have to download the demo to explore it further but just from looking at the screenshots it looks to be a mesh of games. Hopefully the interaction with Dora will be there as this will be the main reason to get the game. Rae loves to hear Dora’s voice, so for the game to truly pique her interest needs to have a lot of Dora.

Dora does help with counting, memory, and coordination skills. Those are all important to have so this game might be a winner.

I’m always on the lookout for solutions to store games and other video game related equipment. I’ve used with much success those plastic drawer stackable organizers. While they work well, they do have their drawbacks. They tend to slide unless they are firmly against a wall or stacked with at least one more drawer.

Since I like to use objects that are already in our house for multiple uses, luggage makes a good storage solution for video as well as board games. We don’t use our luggage that often, so since we keep it in the house it might has well have a duel purpose. We seem to cycle through video games anyway. Games we are not currently playing can always be put out of sight.

When working with limited space, you can come up with all kinds of creative storage solutions.