My sweetie and I spent the whole holiday-Monday playing computer games on our respective computers, which he had kindly spent much of Saturday assembling. Now all we need is Internet and we're back in the 21st century (except for the TV antenna, unless we get cable). He was playing Zelda, I Battle for Middle-earth, one of his Christmas presents to me. Must... defend... Helm's Deep... "I've created a monster," quoth he, late in the afternoon when we both surfaced enough to realize we'd forgotten to eat lunch.

It is a very fun, and very pretty, game, similar in some ways to Starcraft, which I have had bouts of addiction to in the past. It's prettier than Starcraft, though. And my lord is it satisfying when those Rohirrim cavalry clashingly run over a battalion of orc troops (flinging them in the air hither and thither, and everything). Tonight: the siege of Isengard.

contents of purple tricycle are copyright 2005 carrie lynn king unless otherwise noted.