Anonymous wrote:This completely explains all the whack jobs I see posting. Now I get it.

I love these posts. Next up, we'll be hearing about how all the D&D players are actually being converted to Satanism, if the heavy metal lyrics haven't already done the job

Seriously though, what I find really amusing is that a family sitting around playing board games doesn't get a second glance. A group of adults doing the same thing(And yes, that falls under the definition of "gamers" as well) is often looked down on for some reason. A game is a game. There's nothing inherently good or bad about them. I don't see complaints about Mahjong groups, weekly poker games, or any number of other types of games. The only times there are problems are when you place too much importance on them, but that's true whether you are spending too much time playing them, to the point you neglect other things, or you hate them so much that you start denouncing anyone that enjoys them. Everyone plays games, from crossword puzzles, sudoku, board games, video games(Those games on your phone count), sports games, etc. That doesn't make anyone any better than the other.

Except for those who play Magic: The Gathering. Those are some sad, sad people

Anonymous wrote:I don't know of Republicans that want to "ban birth control"....all Republicans that I have talked to just don't want the government to be responsible for paying for it...or for the government to mandate that employers pay for it. And the reason for that is not because it "encourages promiscuity"

Some do want to ban it, but not many, as you said. A bigger issue, to me at least, is the number that don't want it taught in schools, for the same "encourages promiscuity" reason. I grew up near the Alabama/Mississippi line, and I saw how well that worked out.(Fortunately, I went to a private school that had no such illusions) IMHO, employers should not be in the business of picking and choosing medical coverage for all of their employees based on their personal opinion. If the insurance companies just offered standard plans to everyone, then each person could choose what they wanted based on their personal beliefs, and we'd all save a lot of time, money, and effort arguing about things like this.

I haven't kept up with the Insight as much, but an important question for me would be how the air conditioning operates. On a Prius(My wife and I both drive one), the air conditioner runs entirely off of the battery, which means if you stop in the summer heat, it keeps going when the engine shuts off. I did a quick search, and I don't think that the Insight works the same currently.(The Civic Hybrid might, but I'm not sure) If you have to run the engine for air conditioning, then it is going to kill your fuel efficiency when you are stuck in traffic. That would be a deal-breaker for me, and it is one of the reasons that we bought a second Prius as opposed to another hybrid last time we were looking. I can't say how big of an issue that would be for you.

Other than that, the reviews I read were fairly positive. I'll probably stick to Toyota personally, based on my experiences though. The Prius C is comparably priced, but I haven't done a direct comparison between the two. Pros and cons are harder to state without knowing what your expectations are, such as MPG, room for kids, etc.

I think you might be overreacting to this. Fathers can have concerns as well, and if he brought it up, he probably was looking for reassurance from you, since you have more experience with it.

I'd suggest every other week as well. That's what we're at now, and we only have to do a little cleaning on the off weeks to keep up. We're considering moving it up to once a week after the baby is born, but we'll see how things go first.

Tell your husband to get used to it. My wife sounds the same(And yes, I've recorded it and played it back to her as well). We've tried some of the same things you mentioned, but nothing works. She says it is payback for all of the years she had to put up with my snoring I'm a heavy sleeper though, so it is only a problem when she falls asleep first. Of course, she's been more tired than usual and with all of the first-child worries on my mind, it is taking me longer to fall asleep, so the last few weeks have been rough. My best advice it to make sure he catches up on his sleep when he can and consider it good practice for after the baby is born.

We used one several years ago, when one of our dogs kept getting out.(It was more amusing than anything else, because he would proceed to one of two neighbors yards, dig/slide/etc under their fence to get INTO their yard, all just to visit their dogs.) It worked perfectly, and we never had any other issues with them getting out. However, I would be very nervous about using it exclusively without a fence as well if you plan on leaving the dog unsupervised. They aren't fool-proof, and they also don't prevent other dogs, kids, or whatever from coming into your yard. Depending on how your dog would react, it might not be a good approach in that situation. We used the actual Invisible Fence, professionally installed.