Monday, May 12, 2008

Cooking Mama Mothers Day


Rather than go the flowers route or get yet more candy for the house, I did all my Mothers Day shopping at BigBoxOfElectronics. This is not as self-serving and clueless as it seems. My wife enjoys lots of little gadgets. She's the one that decided we were getting GPS units for Christmas. I claim that I have no need for one since I am never truly lost. She argues that when the GPS says "Turn around as soon as possible." that it is very politely telling me to catch a clue.

That is just one example. The house is littered gizmos and gadgets that even I think is overboard. Nonetheless, I decided that more gizmos and gadgets were just the ticket. A nice mini-USB hub would go great with her laptop and I also got a 5-in-1 memory card reader for use with her digital camera.

BigBoxOfElectronics is also BigBoxOfMusicAndMovies. She just bought herself the new Neil Diamond album, so that was out. Then in the movie aisle I saw a box set of Audrey Hepburn movies. I had never seen the original Sabrina and we both love Roman Holiday, so that went into the cart.

I wandered into the gaming area looking for WiiFit. Normally, any gift implying the need for exercise is a risky gambit. But she had mentioned it as something she was interested in and the hosts of Buzz Out Loud says that that is the free pass needed. Lucky for me, WiiFit doesn't come out for another two weeks.

Not wanting to go away empty handed, I threw a game into the basket called Cooking Mama Cook-Off. When I showed the gifts to my son, he decided that this was the perfect game for him to give. He declared it doubly ironic since she doesn't play video games or cook. He's made it a running joke that his mother doesn't cook. That's not true. She just hasn't cooked in his living memory.

It's not that she can't cook. She has just managed to trick me into it. When she was a first year teacher, she asked if I could help out by cooking meals to free up time for her to write lesson plans. I asked if this would just last a year or two until she had a good stockpile of lessons. She just smiled ambiguously. That was twelve years ago.

The game is a lot of fun. You have to prepare meals by doing all the different steps to prepare a recipe with the WiiMote. There is cutting, peeling, stirring, pouring, stir-frying, and all sorts of other esoteric procedures. Cracking eggs takes a pretty delicate touch. Like most Wii games it seems designed to induce carpal tunnel injuries in the most efficient manner possible. To give the game a spin, my son and I used the head-to-head challenge mode. While he easily won the minestrone and custard rounds, I rocked at mochi.

And when I looked up, my wife had quietly snuck out of the room. I think all the waving of the WiiMotes looked too much like real work to her. So I will just have to become the master chef on the Wii as well as in the kitchen.

BlatantCommentWhoring™: In your house, who does the cooking and who plays games?

BonusBlatantCommentWhoring™: On a scale of vacuum cleaner to diamond ring, how inappropriate were my gifts?

10 comments:

Dave2 said...

Considering she doesn't cook or play video games, I'd have to say "Cooking Mamma" is equatable to toilet plunger, as far as Mother's Day gifts go...

courtney said...

I live alone, so I do everything.

I totally want that Wii game.

Caffeine Court said...

That game looks like fun! I was kind of hoping for the Wii Carnival Games this year.

I love the Blatantcommentwhoring section of your blog. I do the same thing!

Ed & Jeanne said...

Well...my prices for commenting are high (oh, never mind, I'm a unselfrespecting street comment ho)

I don't do the cooking unless its on the BBQ. How's that for stereotyping? It's not that I can't cook...it's that I pretend I cannot. So far, it's working.

Let's see, on the scale, I'd have to say your gifts were electronics level appropriate (hey...you made the scale...you determine where that falls in between vacuums and diamond rings).

ps - Did you see I referenced you in my blog post over the weekend?

Elizabeth said...

I've not cooked since I almost burned down the house heating up a frozen pizza...seriously. And I thougth your gifts were great! I hope she had a good Mother's Day.

Mooselet said...

You're gifts were pretty good - you got her what she likes in terms of electronics, but the game? Perhaps something for her mobile phone instead next time.

At Chez Mooselet, I do most the the cooking. The older kids will occasionally do something like tacos or desserts, and the Hermit does the steaks on the barbeque every Sunday but I do the rest. Sparky is the gamer, but I do like Scrabble on my mobile.

The Mistress of the Dark said...

Mom and I both do the cooking. My nephews are the gamers.

My sister has WiiFit on order.

Jeff and Charli Lee said...

I like the electronic stuff too. My birthday is July 27.

cathouse teri said...

In my house, I do the cooking and play the games. And have all the sex. In fact, this is why I am not married. :)

Your gifts were goofy and well thought out. Making them perfect.

I'm sure the WiiFi loved them.

Cedar said...

I do most of the day to day cooking, but my sig o tends to cook whenever we have guests over, which is prety often--he'll do the main course, and I'll do a salad and side dish. And then our guests gust over how great it is that my husband cooks--what a catch he is! How that must make things so easy for me! And it pisses me off, I have to admit, that he's getting praised for something most people wouldn't like twice at me doing, especially since I end up doing 90% of the cooking at our place anyway.