Good luck with Wylie's surgery Elrick and fam! My niece just under went pretty much the exact same thing about a month ago, and she's doing much better. Before hand she was having a horrible time sleeping, night terrors, and stuff that looked like learning disabilities but was probably more due to her tonsils and some other stuff messing up the poor kids sleep. The recovery was brutal. I think they gave her codeine or some kind of hardcore pain killer (for kidz) but it was so hard to get her to take it. So, couple brutal weeks for my sister and her fam, but my niece is doing worlds better now, so looks like it all worked out in the end.
Goodluck with Amazon, Art! I spend too much money with them, which wouldn't feel so bad if I thought I was contributing to your family's well-being. I played and enjoyed Heavy Rain as well. Looks great and is a pretty unique take on the adventure game formula. Loved loved loved LA Noir, which incidentally, is much closer to Heavy Rain than to any of the Grand Theft Autos. Think you'll enjoy it. The only other must-play PS3 game I can think of is probably Uncharted 2, if you've had a chance to play it yet. That shit was amazing and now it's like $20 bucks I think. Plus 3 is coming out soon. Also, since the big Sony/Hacker fuck up gave us the option for 2 free games, I picked and enjoyed Little Big Planet 1 and Wipeout. Wipeout is the best game ever if you're into racing/spacey kinda jams. Awesome visuals, music, and just a really fun progression. It's also 2 games in 1 (HD and Fury), so there's just a ton of content for the price of FREE or whatever it costs otherwise (maybe $15-20).
Games.
On the boardgaming front, look forward to trying out 2 new games:
First up, Ascending Empires! It's another flicky game like Catacombs but with a space/civilization strategy game wrapping instead of a dungeon crawl. Good reviews although I guess there's issues with the board. See if any of your game groups have it and let me know the scoops.
Other game I'm actually interested in is from GMT of all companies! Space Empires:4x. 1-4 player 4x wargame/strategy kinda deal. Word on the street is that the rules strike a nice difficulty balance which I'm looking forward to.