Burzmali

The closest I've ever come to  taking time off for a game was getting a wicked rash the day Bioshock came out. I legitimately had to go to a doctor, and then had the rest of the day to play Bioshock. 
 
On a related note, I manage a bunch of people in games QA, and people who call in sick on the day that a major release comes out really drive me nuts. I have no problem with people requesting the day off ahead of time, but calling in sick is complete crap. We had 15 testers/leads call in sick when Halo 3 came out. Lately, we've started collecting gamertags, PSN IDs, etc before major release days. Anyone who calls in sick and has the released games activity on their account then gets some disciplinary action when they get back. The threat has been enough to make people request the time off beforehand.

Absolutely. I usually can only play when my son is napping, which means now sound. Games with important dialog but without subtitles don't get played in my house.

And yet another reason that I have trouble picking up an MMO. The potential for my initial cash investment to be completely wasted is worrisome.

I love apocalyptic settings, for some reason.

You say you can't see your home network. Can you see any other networks? If you can see other networks, then the problem isn't with your computer. Try rebooting your router or manually typing in the network name. If you can't see any networks, or you don't even have the wireless network tray icon, then open up device manager and make sure your wireless card is still working. If it's not in there, is your wireless card onboard or PCI/PCIe? If you think heat caused the problem and the card isn't onboard, you may be able to just reseat it. Turn off your PC, open it up, remove the wireless card and then put it back in. If your wireless card is onboard, then reboot your machine and press F2 to get into the BIOS. Hunt around for the onboard components list and find your network components. Make sure they're enabled. 
 
If none of that works, you should probably get your DxDiag info and post it so we can see exactly what you're dealing with.

As soon as the opportunity arises, say you don't trust the cops. The prosecution will excuse you right away. The only time I've been summoned, it was for a drunk driving case. There were 30 or so of us in a room, and they called up 10 at a time to answer questions from the lawyers. When I was in the box, they explained that the cop didn't do a breathalizer or blood test, and that he was the only witness to this incident that happened at 4 a.m. The prosecutor asked one of the potential jurors if they could accept a cop's word alone that the guy was drunk. That juror said no, and was dismissed. The prosecutor then asked if anyone else had a problem with it, and I and one other person raised our hands. We were dismissed, too. 
 
Anyway, the whole thing took about 2 hours and then I was done. Plus, I got the whole day off of work. You can get dismissed, too, if you say you don't trust cops.