Hurlshort

I love my Ikea stuff. It's not really long term type furniture, like I don't expect it to last through many moves, but it looks good, functions properly, and was cheap as heck.

Shoot, all I have are these VHS cassettes! Sorry about that.

I did change my mind on the presents after reading everyone's posts. You folks are right and it was good to get a perspective that wasn't as emotional as my own. My children are 2 and 5, so they aren't quite old enough to understand much of anything about the situation. They already didn't have much of a relationship with my parents, we only saw them a few times a year when things were good (well, when I was under the assumption that things were good.) I will take equal responsibility for that, although I have always felt my parents were less than interested in getting to know my children. They've never asked to have them over or anything like that. I always assumed it was because they have 7 other grandchildren, but after this stuff with my wife went down, I'm guessing there was more to it than that. Frankly my mom has always been cold with the women in my life. My first girlfriend, my wife, and now possibly my daughter. It's odd and I'm not sure how to explain it. This has strengthened my relationship with my wife, which I didn't even think was possible because we are pretty dang tight. But it has also made me appreciate her parents, who always accepted me unconditionally (despite my many personality quirks!) and all my other close friends. I've been letting them know that regularly at this point. Oh yeah, I appreciate all of you too. This is remarkably helpful and I know I keep saying it, but you guys are all awesome.

Just as a side note, I suggested family counseling or therapy, where we could sit down and discuss this stuff with a third party. My parents declined. My current plan is to just give it time, I'll take their calls if they want to talk, but I'm going to try and stop thinking about it so much. Thanks again for everyone's feedback, it really does help.

Wow, these are some great responses guys (and LC ). This community really just continues to amaze me. I appreciate all your insights and perspectives, and it really did make me feel better to read them this morning. You folks convinced me to switch gears on the presents issue. I think it is important to get to the point where I am accepting the situation and not having nightmares, and I believe you all have helped me toward that. If it comes down to choosing family or my wife, I barely even consider it a choice. I'll stick by my wife's side all the way. She does have her flaws, we all do, but she's also an amazing women, mother, wife, and teacher who gives herself fully to everything she does. Oh, and she was a showgirl Seriously, I didn't post this just to brag about that

Hi Guys, This is going to be a bit of an awkward topic, but I've been struggling with some family issues and I value many of your opinions highly. Plus it's loads cheaper than therapy. Over the summer I received a phone call from my sister. She was upset about something my wife had said to her. My immediate reaction was simply have my wife apologize for offending her, which was not intentional. But then my sister started telling me about how my parents and other sister all have problems with my wife. I called each one of them individually and got the low-down on 10 years of complaints. In hindsight I wish I hadn't done that, but it was probably simply delaying the inevitable if I had brushed it under the rug. So I composed a long email about understanding and unconditional love. I used some bible verses, since my family is into that stuff. Now my wife can come across as brash, that is something she is very aware of. She composed a letter as well. Our big concern was that no one in my family had ever taken the time in the last 10 years to sit down with my wife and let her know they were upset about her words. So instead of having one issue, we had a decade of toxicity being unveiled. It was distressing and overwhelming. Here is an email from my father, which I really need input on. I have shared most of the correspondence with my wife, but I was not comfortable letting her read this one: This angered me quite a bit, and I cut off contact for awhile. It seemed like he basically wants my wife to change her personality? I couldn't imagine ever wishing that, I'm absolutely crazy about my wife. Coming up on the holidays, I sent an email asking that we not exchange any presents, even for the children. My mom said she had already bought them, so I asked her to donate them to charity. Today they still arrived at the door, which I found rather infuriating. I haven't decided what to do with them, they are somewhat personalized for my kids. So yeah, this is some stuff I've been struggling with the last few months. Any input or advice is more than welcome.

Yeah, that was pretty clear from the get go, but sadly there are still people giving them money. A fool and his money, I suppose.

I might be a bit peeved if I bought Hitman Absolution and found out it was half off a month later! Sleeping Dogs might pique my interest at 25% off.

I wonder if you can get them to issue a refund if you have never played the game? I mean they can tell if you've used the key or not, I would imagine, so if you haven't, you might have a chance to get it refunded.

I received a full refund on a pre-purchase once for Steam. It was pretty easy.

I was more confused about the use of the music. I was trying to read the dialogue and getting blasted with stuff that didn't seem to fit the scene at all. Then you have all the sitcom references, which could be funny, but nothing really made me laugh in the trailer.

Very cool. Do you guys sell at renaissance faires or anything like that?

Good luck with the recovery Nep. Take it easy.

Huh...that kind of looked terrible.

I find it funny the entire company even exists anymore. I'm shocked that anyone has actually contributed to that.

Sounds like a crazy holiday for you Enoch. A few years ago I broke my leg right before Christmas, and I remember what atough holiday that was. Good luck!

From what I heard, you have to choose between a brisket cut and a tri-tip cut when carving the cow. Apparently brisket is more common, but tri-tip is more popular in California. I've been having a blast getting presents for the kids this year. My daughter was a bit tricky, she asked for an easy-bake oven and a slurpee machine. I read up on them and apparently they both are garbage. So I used my powers of persuasion and convinced her that a cupcake griddle would be cooler, and I got her a little sno-cone machine that looks very awesome. I got my wife some overly expensive earrings also, but our 10 year anniversary is coming up and I'm hoping they will work towards that as well

Looks like I wasted my $3.75. No matter what I do, it ends up at the configuration utility, which crashes with a "application has stopped working" error. Not impressed. ME1 seems to have been a much better PC port. One is a lot older than the other. I would check the Steam forums for help.

One thing I would like to mention is that there is such thing as a long term policy change, which is probably what we are looking at here. Guns are too widespread at this time to simply say "turn in all your semi-auto weapons" in the US, but you can make changes to lower the amount of guns and gun use over time. I guess you could compare it to smoking regulations. It took generations for the rates to go down, and eventually they leveled off, but using a combination of public education programs, taxes, use restrictions and so on it has become less common.

I did take my RV out this last weekend to fill it up with gas and make sure everything was running smoothly, just in case I need to load the family up on Friday and get out of town

That's why I prefer the Secret World system, which has a ton of abilities, but you combine certain ones to make decks. So you are making strategic decisions out of combat, and then the combat itself is fast paced.

I counted last night, and my Jedi Guardian has 21 abilities that are somewhat useful in any given fight. Yeah, only about 6-8 of them are critical, but that's still a lot of fluff.

It's my favorite time of the year! Personally this has actually been a bit of an odd Christmas, since I've had some troubles with my parents and sisters, and I won't be seeing them this year as a result. But I've been doing my best to focus on all my friends and family that I do have around. I've already bought most of my presents and have them hidden away for the kids and my wife. I also had some extra money for presents this year, so I took part in a gift exchange, which felt good to do. I am hosting Christmas lunch/dinner for my in-laws, but I haven't decided what I will cook. I've done tri-tip in year's past, but this year with my wife on a restricted diet I'll probably do something a bit more creative.

That was probably the best part of the movie. Although I imagine that was taken directly from the book, but I never read that. Still, quoting American Psycho is a bit off-topic

That's actually been the biggest defense brought up when arguing about violent video games. Violent crime as a whole has steadily dropped in the US for a number of years.