Hurlshort

We get easier access to baseball prospects too.

Ok, so how would you two go about fixing the medical industry?

Who said anything about government regulation? How quickly you jump to that conclusion. The car industry works much more efficiently with limited regulation. You have insurance, you have clear language about how much it will cost you to do standard maintenance, you know what your coverage is in case of emergencies. There isn't massive price variance between different shops. So yeah, it's possible to do this without government interference. I don't really care how they fix the problem at this point, I just want to see a vast improvement in how our health care industry operates. Also I'm not sure what your familial standing is Val, but basic checkups and care for a family of four is pricey. So people with serious medical conditions are just brainwashed? That seems pretty unreasonable.

The US has the worst health care billing system in the 1st world though, can't argue with that. I have good insurance that takes a decent chunk of my salary, and I'm still swimming in nonsensical medical bills. If we could just get some regulation over pricing, maybe it'd be a bit more sane.

We have a store in the Bay Area as well. Thankfully that's more of a mother/daughter event, plus the grandma is tagging along as well. Me and the boy can stay home and play video games.

I'm pretty excited about the gift I bought my wife this year, it's a nice watch that she was admiring months ago. It was way out of the price range, but I found it online for a decent discount so I went for it. I'm also loving the fact that my son is finally at the age where he wants video games. I got him the new Skylanders and Super Smash Brothers. My daughter has been spending the last few months making us watch youtube videos about American Girl dolls, so we are pretty sure that's what she wants. ;-)

I sent him a PM back when it came out, haven't heard from him. He takes breaks now and then from the forum, he'll hopefully wander back soon enough.

I don't think most of us care about gems, we are too busy solving the problems of the world, like police violence and peace in the Middle East.

I think you can get 1000 gems for about a buck. I only have 200, and I'm not going to buy gems on the off chance I win an auction.

How can you tell what number your bid is?

The Xbox controller is pretty awesome, I use it on pretty much every third person game I play. Hopefully it will be a worthwhile investment for you.

The auction isn't live yet, so that's why the prices are so high. The high bid is only for the first copy of each game. On Monday when the auction starts, a new copy will go every 45 minutes, meaning you can probably pick up a game or two for cheap if you get in the window at the right time. At least that's what I gathered from the FAQ.

Wolf of Wall Street - Pretty depressing. I think I remember some stories about how the movie glorifies the central character. I don't think that could be any further from the truth. Enjoyable but definitely a downer.

Sounds awesome! I love Nobu but my wife liked Sushi Roku (also at Caesar's) better. Either way I'm jealous You gotta love Vegas. Are you brining the kids or is just a getaway for you and your wife? Kids don't belong in Vegas It is definitely our adult time away from the kids. We are trying to work in two trips a year. The nice thing is Vegas is pretty affordable when you go mid-week, and that is easy with our schedules. When I was in my twenties, I went to Vegas twice and thought it was pretty terrible. Now, for some reason I love the place. I think it helps that I can afford the nice restaurants, the decent clothes, a nice day-spa, and I have someone to enjoy it with. I barely even gamble when I'm there.

I booked my Vegas vacation for February. Technically I booked it for the 4th time, but I think this one will stick. The first time I booked it at a relatively cheap hotel called The Linq, that had recently been remodeled. I checked the rates a few weeks later and saw that some of the nicer hotels were at a good price, so I booked a boutique hotel called The Cromwell. They have a great rooftop pool and a bunch of hot tubs. Then I found out the pool and hot tubs were closed in February (Vegas is 70 degrees in the winter, not exactly cold!) So I got a room at Caesar's Palace for $110 a night. I checked two days later on the rates, and found the rates had dropped another $30 at Caesar's, so I re-booked and I have a feeling this one will stick. $80 a night is fantastic. I booked dinner at Nobu and a couple other nice places, so it should be a very good trip.

I'm enjoying the game tremendously, but I'm hoping to spend time in other threads and complain about games I don't play when I get some spare time.

The biggest problem I see here is that we had a huge amount of negative attention on the NSA awhile back, and the result was this backdoor spying ban which passed in June. So it's a terrible precedent to set that you just wait until the attention dies down and then reverse things. Sadly it shows what a bunch of douches we have in congress.

Speaking of which, I am ready for cars to start driving themselves on the freeways. People are terrible at it.

I blame Jack Bauer for all of this. But really, no form of torture is acceptable. We need to take the higher ground, not lower ourselves to the levels of violent extremists. We clearly have not been doing that, and I will be hoping and voting for change as we move forward.

There are no riots in New York. There have been protests that have been remarkably peaceful.

I was more worried about the wind, but that died down fast.

I'll tell Hurlwife and have her ground you. I totally did get in trouble. I usually go around making sure the kids are going to bed the way they should be, but I was too busy playing, so the kids got away with staying up late. My daughter ratted me out this morning when we went to get everyone moving.

I really don't know what gives you that kind of confidence, but from out here it seem anything but certain. Is out here not in the US? Because within the US there are some areas that are struggling, but as a whole the country is stable. Sure, there is economic concerns, but the amount of hyperbole about them is pretty crazy. It's way overstated. Of course, news stories about how the economy is making miniscule steps forward is really not sexy, so you have to blow stuff up to get attention.

I stayed up way too late on a school night playing this. I really had no idea I was an hour past my bedtime. I haven't done that in ages.

I was not one of the lucky schools that closed for the storm. My wife did stay home, which is nice.