Editor's note: I’m on my honeymoon, but that doesn’t mean you’re getting a break from me. Shoe and Demian wouldn’t let me off for my wedding until I cranked out some articles ahead of time. Jerks! - Aaron

Pictochat on the Nintendo DS is very useful if you want to show your friends how well you can draw a stick figure, smiley face, or penis. A few weeks ago, my fiancée (now my wife) and I discovered another use for the application.

We were sitting around watching TV when I asked her if she had filled out our marriage-license application. She said she hadn’t -- not because she was lazy, but because she couldn’t figure out what to do about changing her last name.

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to take my last name because she’s embarrassed that I don’t like Uncharted 2, nor did she feel that doing so would be succumbing to some sort of sexist ritual. She liked her last name (Risi) quite a bit, but that was only a small part of the issue.

The big problem is that we already have basically the same first name (Aaron and Erin), and with the same last name...well, things could get confusing. But really, other than telemarketers, who would we be baffling?

I know from reading Cosmo and watching chick-flicks that girls will sometimes practice signing their would-be name as they daydream about guys. So to get a feel for this potential name change, I suggested she do the same.

She was confused when I handed her a Nintendo DS and stylus, rather than paper and a pen. Apparently she had never before drawn anatomically correct, smiling stick-figures in Pictochat before.

She wrote her first name and my last name down a few times, and then began to practice her potential new signature. I explained how much fun it was to give the “s” on the end of “Thomas” a long tail, so she gave that a shot as well.

I eventually grew distracted by the TV or some other shiny object, but she kept trying out new signatures for quite some time. She had such a big smile on her face that I couldn’t help but take a picture while she tried the “Thomas” name on for size.

Who knew that Pictochat could actually be useful?

Scroll down to find out how the story ends....

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