For some time now, I've been trying to get my hands on a Wii. And it's proven to be a most difficult task, even though Nintendo's new console has had much more available units than Sony's PlayStation 3. In fact, the pursuit of Wii- piness has pretty much consumed me for the last couple weeks. See, I lost out of the pre-orders because I simply wasn't quick on the draw. My colleague Mark Raby at TG Daily scored one, the lucky S.O.B. I thought about lining up for one at the EB Games/GameStop at Universal CityWalk here in L.A., where Nintendo held its officia l West Coast midnight launch event. But there was that whole work thing standing in the way. Oh well.

I had planned on scouring the earth -- or at least the greater L.A. area -- for a Wii at various retail outlets Sunday morning, but I was thoroughly exhausted from my second midnight console launch event in three days that I slept late. Again, I just wasn't quick on the draw. I called a number of stores to see if they had any in stock. No dice. This is the problem with living in a city that has millions of people, tons of gamers, and lots and lots of folks who evade steady employment. So I jumped online early Monday morning to see if there were any sites still selling the console. And I found one:

Wal-Mart. Ugh.

I normally don't shop at Wal-Mart. I find some of their practices to be distasteful. But hey, they had Wiis, and I wasn't about to split hairs. I pulled the trigger and scored. Finally! The price was steep: $796.84. Wal-Mart was only selling the super-duper bundle that required the purchase of eight games. Like I wouldn't have bought eight games anyway! I was crushed, however, when I discovered there was no Twilight Princess or Call of Duty 3 units available. Whatever. Live to fight another day. I snatched up eight games, and ordered next day-shipping via UPS. Here's how it broke down:

Wii console: $249.82

Marvel: Ultimate Alliance: $49.82

Red Steel: $49.82

Cars: $49.82

Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent: $49.82

Excite Truck: $49.82

Far Cry Vengeance: $49.82

Dragon Ball Z: $49.82

Need for Speed Carbon: $49.82

Shipping: $94.97

Sales tax: $53.49

So the order was confirmed on November 20. With Thanksgiving just a few days away, I wasn't sure that Wal-Mart would be able to ship any of the stuff by Wednesday. But to my surprise, my Wal-Mart order track said most items, including the Wii itself, "will arrive" by Tuesday 11/21 and Wednesday 11/22. Next day shipping indeed! So why after more than a week hasn't anything showed up yet? Stay tuned...