Fianceé announces she has been secretly hiding some of her income in order to pay for the majority of the cabinet (budgeted at about $600, not including the actual cabinet materials: laminated plywood, smoked plexiglass etc.) as a present for our upcoming 7th anniversary . Much praising ensues.

Hauled slightly grumpy fianceé and her 11-year-old cousin Ryan to a local arcade for some quality "research". Her cousin is ecstatic(we told had told him we had to run errands, he was more than a little surprised). She, however, seems somewhat frustrated with the whole thing until she finds both A) the "Classic Corner" of the arcade (housing Ms. Pac Man, Tempest, Track & Field, RoboTron, and a handful of others) and B) Centipede nestled among some fighter games and Dance-Dance-Revolution. Her cousin has a blast (we spent all of about $8 between us), she gets 4th place on the centipede highscores. Get mini-pizzas and leave. Promises of trackball, Centipede, and Robotron support smooth over any disagreements about having our own cabinet. All is right with the world.

Fianceé has reluctantly agreed to having a big, bulky, ugly machine in our living room, the only purpose of which is time-wasting video games. Victory... kinda.

Recently purchased couch arrives to replace aging futon. New couch has no arms, so fits nicely up against a wall in an L-shape. Suddenly there's a large, arcade-sized gap in the room. Several days of arguments ensue with fianceé.