We finally tracked down a Wii! Earlier this week I called up our local Target, the same one we queued up at for the initial Wii launch, to see if/when they were receiving more Wiis. I was told that they had 'accidentally' sold off most of the Wii units reserved for a Sunday sale and that they only had "less than five" left. However, they did let me know that I should check out the Target in Evanston (a Chicago suburb) on Sunday, and to 'make sure to arrive early'. Allegedly they'd have around 50 available, so we were feeling pretty good about our chances.

We woke up at the bleary hour of 6am and damned the absolutely frigid weather, swearing that we didn't need a Wii if it actually meant having to stand outside for an hour. Luckily, when we arrived at Target around quarter of seven, the employees had taken pity on the twelve patience souls (one poor guy had arrived there at 3am) and let us stand in the enclosed, heated entrance. Around 7am the security guard came out and told us that there were only 19 units available and handed out tickets, leaving the most recent prospective Wii patron ticket-less. I couldn't help but feel a bit sorry for him, since we were in that position two weeks ago.

The next hour featured a constant stream of people being turned away, all told that the available Wiis were spoken for and that they might want to try Toys 'R Us (who were supposed to get in a decent number of units) or Circuit City (who had 9 to sell). Otherwise, the rest of the experience was amiable and quiet - mostly uneventful. Unitdaisy did notice a dearth of young ladies in the line though, as opposed to the launch line we attended which felt almost like a Chicago couples mixer. Most of the folks in line this time around were men in their 20s or older mothers. The only sour point was that they had only a handful of addition Wii-motes (and absolutely no extra 'nunchuks'), the last of which was nabbed up by #12. Oh well, it gives us something to hunt for now that we have our Wii.

Since yesterday, our time with our Wii been split pretty evenly between playing with the Mii tool, Zelda and Wii Sports. Wii Sports is just as everyone's been describing it: fantastic tennis, fun bowling, lackluster everything else. I was really skeptical about the golf section being mediocre, but after playing a handful of holes I found myself growing more and more frustrated with the power meter and small number of club options.

Zelda, well, I really like the controls, especially shaking the nunchuk to execute a spin attack. It's just that I'm just not quite sold on the twilight visual design yet. Don't get me wrong, it looks fantastic, but I'm not convinced that it's a good visual match for the game. But I am only a few hours into it and have many left to go, I'm sure.

Nevertheless, I'm more than happy with the system and damn glad I lined up for one. The Wii-mote works better than I imagined it would, the Wii's menu system has clearly been labored over and refined - just everything about the Wii is simple, fun and just works. Plus it has the rare distinction of being the only console in our house whose controller, when not in use, sits on our coffee table instead of being docked with its machine. Slick.