Ah, summer. Time to kick back and chill out a bit, take a few vacation days, and get outside a bit more often than normal.

For yours truly, summertime means that life is even busier than normal, since my weeks and weekends are occupied by fun but time-consuming things like baseball games, family visits, trips to Atlantic City, and so on. Of course, I’ve still got my 8:30-to-6 regular job. That doesn’t go away, no matter what time of year it is.

Generally speaking, all this extra time on the go translates into less console and more portable gaming. It’s nice I’ve got my PSP and DS Lite with me most of the time.

Lately I’ve been alternating between two ridiculously similar games on each platform - Field Commander on the PSP and Advance Wars DS on the (you guessed it) DS Lite. I find it terribly funny how much of a “rip off” FC is to AW, but yet with that said I enjoy it more. I think it’s because of the silliness of the story in AW, or the more cartoony aspect of it. Both are great fun, but if I had to pick just one I’d take Field Commander in a pinch, even if it blatantly steals each and every idea, right down to the action descriptions.

The other things I’ve been doing lately is going to all sorts of great events, like a couple of Phillies games (Phils-Mets and Phils-Yanks). While I am a Mets fan through and through (and have been for 24 years now….damn I am old), the beautiful ballpark in Philly is only 40 minutes from home and about 87 million times easier to get to than dreary old Shea Stadium.

I’ve also got tickets to see two of my favorite bands in July - Ryan Adams & The Cardinals then the Black Crowes - and was able to catch Pearl Jam earlier this month. And I can’t forget about (finally) taking my wife to see The Lion King on Broadway for her birthday in August. She’s been asking me for years.