The thing we didn't get on our registry

...was an Xbox 360. True, Rachel wouldn't let me put it on there until about a week before the wedding so anyone wanting to spend that amount of money on us probably had already spent it. So it hasn't exactly been a secret that I've been pining for one for a couple of years. Halo 3 and Bioware's new epic RPG Mass Effect are coming out before Christmas! I mean, c'mon, how could I not want one? Plus it'll play the Xbox games I already have. The lure was has been pretty strong.

So, ever since Rachel and I decided that whatever money was left on our Higher One cards from Spring Arbor payrolls would be the last vestiges of personal money I decided that I was going to use it to buy myself my first "next-generation" console.

Too bad there was only $89.03 on the card.

I started taking surveys on the internet for one dollar a day. I took in all the games I don't play anymore, which got me fifty bucks. So, short of selling my old Xbox for twenty bucks, I was at a dead end, as I haven't been able to find a part-time job yet. So I started scrounging around for anything else I could sell to complete this process by November, when my games of choice come out. The only thing I had that would get me an amount of consequence was the iPod I won in June.

I put it up on the Facebook Marketplace last Thursday for $200. By Saturday it had been sold. That Friday the Xbox 360 dropped it's price by fifty bucks. So, that gave me a little more than $350 dollars to work with, which, by a bizarre coincidence was the new price of the Xbox. So loaded up a bag with my old Xbox, all four of my old controllers a couple more old game and I made my way to GameStop.

When I got there, I made a little over fifty bucks on my trade-ins, which put me well enough over $400. So I picked up a used copy of the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, just for good measure.

So, sitting pretty just under our DVD/VHS player is my new shiny white Xbox 360, connected quite nicely to my computer and streaming The Arrogant Worms.

Whether or not I'll have time to play games between studying remains to be seen. At least I'll have it for Christmas break and summer...

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to save Tamriel, for the very gates of Oblivion are encroaching upon the noble kingdom.