Cool Uncle Snakemeister

It appears I've made a (good) impression on my 7-year old nepehew.

He's been impressed in the past that I know almost as much about Ben 10 as he does - I like to watch cartoons in the morning while I have breakfast, as the news just depresses me too much. I listen to the news in teh car anyway, so no need to hear the same things twice, I say. And a little escapsim never hurt anyone.

Anyway, he recently got Mario Kart Wii, and he's been having a great time with it by all accounts. A coupel of weekends ago, his mum and dad were bringing him and hit little brother back from soft play when he apparently piped up from the back seat and asked if he could invite me over to play Mario Kart with him, since he knew that I was a gamer and I'd played it on previous systems.

His mum and dad decided to turn it into a dinner invite, and my girlfriend and I were over for dinner on Saturday, a few days later. I'll be honest - I wasn't too thrilled about the whole thing. I call the little guy my nephew, but he's not a *real* nephew, his mum and dad are my girflriend's friends from school. We all get on really well though, so we see each other pretty regularly.

Anyway, the dinner was fantastic, the dad can cook really well, and I had a blast playing Mario Kart. We'd even arranged to spend some time with the Ben 10 game on the Wii, but we never got round to it, as bedtime came round all too soon. We went out on the Sunday and bought a Wii with Mario Kart (for me) and Animal Crossing (for my gf...and me).

It turned out that it was the dad's 40th birthday last weekend, so we were round again. I was looking forward to it, but in true Scots fashion, I intended to get well-oiled before we got there, as they tend not to serve quite as much alcohol as I like. I started drinking around 3, and we got there around 7. I'd paced myself though, so I was in reasonable shape - this won't be a horror story, don't worry.

Sadly, I was under strict instructions to hold back on my Mario Kart skills, so as not to crush my nephew's spirits. Much plaeading and a detailed explanation of Mario kart etiquette fell on deaf ears. My experience with 'friendly' Mario Kart sessions on every system to date was all for naught, I was not allowed to give my nephew a proper schooling in Kart-fu.

I consoled myself by horsing all of the adults though, and I still got cool points from my nepehew though, so I survived.

What will get me even more cool points is that I've managed to grab a couple of torrents of the 'new' Ben 10 series. I know you guys have had it over the pond for quite some time now, but it's only just now reaching our shores. I've been downloading stuff for the past couple of days, and I burned them onto discs this morning. My nephew's not home just now, as his parents were having a romantis break alone last night, but I've dropped the discs off at their house, so all I need to do now is wait for the phone call later on today, telling me that I'm the greatest uncle ever.

Either that or the phone call saying their DVD player won't play the discs I burned for them :(