So I got home from work Tuesday and found a box on my porch.  The movies I had ordered had already arrived so maybe this was something my wife had ordered.  No...it was addressed to me.  Quite heavy.  According to the label on the box it weighed 15 pounds.  The return address was Young America, MN.

Now those of you who are not familiar with Young America let me explain: 
Apparently everything you send away for is in Young America, MN.  You know...save 12 labels, send them to Young America, MN and get a t-shirt;  order some limited edition Disney pins and they come from (you guessed it) Young America, MN.

Now I'm intrigued.  I hadn't redeemed anything or ordered anything.  Lately, at least.  I brought the box in and opened it up.  Sitting on top was a note.  It said:
"Dear Winner, congratulations.  Thank you for entering the Mountain Dew/7-11 Game Fuel Sweepstakes. (I'm paraphrasing.)  Enclosed please find your prize.  Yada yada blah blah."

I pushed the styrofoam peanuts aside and saw another box inside.  On this box was a picture of someone wearing a helmet with a shiny orange-colored faceplate.  The writing on the box said XBOX 360 HALO 3 Special Edition Console.  That's right...I won a freakin' XBOX 360!!!  How cool is that.  I had all but forgotten about the contest.  You gotta figure it ended September 30th.

To the mall!!!  I needed to get some games and another controller.  (That's right: it didn't come with a game.  AM I gonna cry about that?  Hell no!!!  I just won a $400 gaming system!!!)  Went to Gamestop and got 2 games: Tetris Evolutions for XBOX 360 and Godzilla All Monsters Attack Melee for XBOX.  It was when I tried to play Godzilla I learned what I'm sure will be the first of many lessons about the XBOX 360:  it is NOT backwards compatible.  There was however a download that I could install and make things right again. 

So now I can play Godzilla but I won't be able to own the next 2 DVD's until Spring '08.  But that's for another blog entry.