That's awesome about Wylie! I was thinking about how good that game is for training kids about logic, in addition to the Lego building aspect. Who knows what my kid will be into. I really would like her to be into math and science, Legos etc., since if she is there's better than even odds she'll be able to play board games with me when I'm a 50-year-old grognard (and also will be able to get a decent job), but who knows? My half sister was a helicopter mechanic, so it's not like there isn't precedent.

Would you be up to give the Star Wars MMO a try? Sounds like it's WoW-in-space with some design updates (only have to have four in a party, and you can have AI "companions" to take the place of missing party members, ie NEVER HAVE TO DEAL WITH A STRANGER EVER). I'd like to try it. Maybe next month after the holiday crazies have settled down a bit?

How about you Enron, interested in at least giving it a shot? FWIW, sounds like it's more geared to the single player story experience than WoW is. Every character class has its own storyline, with fully voiced dialogue, conversation choices and so forth. And, Bioware has historically made pretty solid RPGs set in the Star Wars universe, they certainly will do a better job than Turkey Neck did in the last set of movies.

Anyone else?

For the holidays, we ultimately decided to split the difference and do Christmas up here, but go down for a few days the next week (I have that whole week off from work). Way less driving drama, and far less intense events to go to. I'm really bummed about not doing the Poop Deck this year and about not doing the party that Yukari was planned but it's the best thing right now.