AshevilleEddie

Good morning family! I hope everyone had a good weekend. We took the MH down to Orlando and went to Sea World. Lots of walking, so hopefully I lost a poind or two! Juli, if it's any consolation, it's been very rainy down here too. We got soaked yesterday! ScareDcat, glad you quit lurking! Welcome to our little place on LBT. So, I've been keeping up with the Dumbledore is Gay (gasp!) thread in R&R. Ahh, so many homophobes, so little time. But there are actually some very GLBT-friendly folks posting too. Any of you guys HP fans? If so, were you surprised about the news? I have to admit I wasn't shocked, but was a little surprised. It certainly makes a lot of things in the books make more sense now. Anyway, while I'm on the subject, in the first HP movie (Sorcerer's Stone), does anyone else think Madame Hooch (the broomstick-flying teacher and Quidditch coach/referee) was a big dyke? Yeah, I know, the whole "all female PE teachers are Lesbians" stereotype, but I just couldn't resist... :heh:

I don't know how you girls do the LDR thing (Juli, Pamela, Dana - did I miss anyone?). If I don't have Sean laying next to me at night I don't sleep. He's been out of town since Sunday and I won't get any real rest until he gets home tomorrow night. :tired Hey Stevee, I don't mean to say we told you so, but... :heh: Welcome aboard Kelly! Glad you found us. I think you'll feel very much at home here.

I'm finally in an elite club! :clap2: I actually now weigh less than I did in high school.

For those who have kept up with JKR post-Deathly Hallows, it's not a big surprise that she's made yet another revelation. In several interviews she has revealed details about many characters in the books, both major players and those only mentioned once or twice. Here's a direct quote from one of her first interviews after DH came out: Harry Potter, who always voiced a desire to become an Auror, or someone who fights dark wizards, was named head of the Auror Department under the new wizarding government headed by his friend and ally, Kingsley Shacklebolt. His wife, Ginny Weasley, stuck with her athletic career, playing for the Holyhead Harpies, the all-female Quidditch team. Eventually, Ginny left the team to raise their three children — James, Albus, and Lily — while writing as the senior Quidditch correspondent for the wizarding newspaper, the Daily Prophet. Harry's best friend Ron Weasley joined his brother, George, as a partner at their successful joke shop Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. Hermione Granger, Ron's wife and the third leg of the series' dark wizard fighting trio, furthered the rights of subjugated creatures, such as house-elves, in the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures before joining magical law enforcement squad. The couple had two children — Rose and Hugo. Luna Lovegood, Harry's airily distracted friend with a love for imaginary animals who joins the fight against Voldemort in the Order of the Pheonix, becomes a famous wizarding naturalist who eventually marries the grandson of Newt Scamander, author of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. So while this particular detail JKR revealed about Dumbledore may have been a surprise to some, it was certainly not startling that she gave details that were only alluded to in the books. She has also said that she's toying with the idea of writing an encyclopedia of sorts that would provide all the details about all her characters; histories, backgrounds, what happened to them between the last chapter of DH and the epilogue, etc. I personally would wait in line for that one too.

I've never been at a normal weight, so I don't know what it will look like when I get there. So I've got mine set at 185 for now, which is about 2 pounds into the NIH's definition of "Overweight." My original goal was 205, set at that because when they measured my body fat ratio at the gym they said I had 177 pounds of lean mass, so 205 would have given me a Body Fat Ratio of around 15%. Something wasn't quite right with that calculation though, because I'm at 218 right now I can tell you that dropping only 13 more pounds is NOT going to get me to a healthy weight. So I readjusted my goal to 185. If I feel like I need to drop a couple more after I get there I will readjust it again.

Re: Rule #5 If no naked pictures, what about those pics of you in the Speedo I've been fantasizing about? Will you go ahead and post them?

I'm pretty lucky I guess. Sean has always been more of a parent to our kids than their mother ever was, and they treat him as much as their father as they do me. And it goes the other way too. He was the one insisting they bring home pictures from their homecoming dance this weekend...

Girl, hop on 95 and come on up here! You can throw some bath salts in there and turn on the jets, maybe put our "Natural Massage" cd in and kick up the relax factor a couple more notches. Damn, I need to take my own advice and get my ass in there this weekend. I just found out a few hours ago that Sean has to head down in your direction (Jupiter) Sunday afternoon and won't be home until Wednesday night. Gotta love owning your own business...maybe I will when it's big enough for me to go to work in it full-time...

You know, if you ever come to Florida, we've got one of those big tubs too. Ours even has a heater and 10 jets. How many does theirs have, huh??

Damn it! How's I miss that one?? No matter, you can have a chat with Sean about that too! :biggrin1:

I wish someone would hand me some head. Could one of you guys have a chat with my DH? Wow, do we work for the same company?!? We've got re-orgs and "displacements" going on too. Oh wait, you get a FRIGGIN' $20K CHRISTMAS BONUS!! You know what we get for Christmas? Off three hours early on Christmas Eve. :angry Gee thanks, now I'm really in a great mood... :heh:

Damn girl, don't hold back - tell us how you really feel! Yeah, you may sound like a royal bitch, but anyone who's read more than two or three of your posts knows better. And I really do agree with what you're saying, but a lot of people only see what they want to see, including me. It's not necessarily ignorance - in my case it was excitement. I watched Sean's weight come off him like a blowtorch to a stick of butter and thought mine would drop like that too (he's down 95 pounds since Feb 21 and at goal BTW). I have since gotten VERY discouraged many times and wondered if I did the right thing. But like I said in my earlier post, I've finally learned how my body loses and it's not the same as anyone else. I mean damn, I look at Edd's ticker - he's lost almost as much as I have and I have almost a four-month head start on him. I could get discouraged again, but why? I'm consistently losing, even if it's not as quickly as I'd like and I know I will ultimately reach my goal. But Juli, you're so right - the vast majority of bandsters do not lose rapidly. That's a major difference between band vs. bypass and I think a lot of folks get the impression that they will lose like a bypass patient. Again, my DH is very much the exception - our doc has actually referred to him as a freak! I have my own suspicion as to the cause of it though - he has hypothyroidism and I'm very concerned that as he began to lose, his dosage of thyroid medication (which has not been adjusted at all since he was banded) became too high, which would have caused him to lose faster, which would cause his dosage to be even higher, which would cause him to lose even faster, which, well, at this point I think I've made my point. ANYhoo, Stevee and Caresa, no one here (well, I mean Juli but I was trying to be generic :heh:) is trying to discourage you. Quite the contrary, you guys are family to us and we just don't want you to have unrealistic expectations that could set you up for failure later. Stevee, 16 pounds in two weeks is damned incredible! That's around 1 1/4 pounds per day!! In contrast, I have averaged less than 1/3 pound per day and I don't really consider myself a slow loser. Plus, if you read back through my early post-op posts, I stopped losing for a week or two, then all of a sudden it started moving along again. Again, take a few deep breaths. Neither of you made a bad decision, and this is NOT like any other time before. It WILL happen, you've just got to do like Juli said and get your brain in line with reality. Now, can I get off topic and pack my own pity picnic basket for a minute? It's now official - I HATE my fucking job!! :angry I've worked for this bank for almost 8 1/2 years and used to love it. The longest I had ever worked for the same company before was just over three years. Now it's not enough that we feel like we're whoring ourselves out to try and persuade people to open accounts. The latest thing just started: we now have to create a "rolling top 20" list of our friends, family and acquaintances and call at least five of them a week to try and sell them accounts. It's bad enough that we're pissing off total strangers, now we're going to be alienating the people we care about as well. Oh, and as we call folks and get them off the list, we have to add more to replace them, hence the "rolling top 20." GRRRR!!! I get three weeks of vacation, more sick days than I could ever take and really good domestic partner benefits, not to mention the 401(k) contribution match and retirement plan. I don't want to leave, but I just can't take this shit anymore. Sean and I own a business, but it's just not to the point where I can quit working an outside job yet. I have a former co-worker who just left to go to a new bank that's opening next spring and she's trying to get me in there as well, but there's no guarantee. So now I don't know if I should look for another new job anyway and then make a decision if the other one comes through or if I should just try to hang in there a little longer. I'm not really asking for advice (although it would be welcomed), I just needed to vent. Thanks for listening guys...

LOL! I guess it's true - a picture really is worth a thousand words!

Caresa, your post hit as I was writing my earlier one. If you'd like, I can copy it and repost it with your name instead, or you could just pretend I wrote it for both of you. :guess We will ALL do this...TOGETHER! I officially declare this our "Fat Stonewall!" Where we may have failed alone in the past, now that we're all standing together we will succeed!! <am I channelling a little too much drag queen? :moony:>

Ok girl, take a deep breath and a chill pill, in whatever order you desire. You're less than two weeks out and are probably still on either liquids or mushies, am I correct? Most of my mushies were high-carb stuff like grits, mashed potatoes, etc. Plus if you're drinking a lot of calories right now, they're not going to keep you full for long, and they may be increasing your caloric intake without you realizing it. Or on the flip side, you may be consuming way less calories than your body is accustomed to and you could be in a bit of starvation mode. Also, your body is still recovering and readjusting after what it considers a trauma. And if all that isn't enough information, your band is probably empty, so even if you are eating solids now you're not going to have much restriction. And last but not least, stay away from the scale! Try to only weigh once a week. I know it's hard, but weighing too often and not seeing the scale move is only going to make you even more frustrated. Trust me, I've been there. And believe me, it doesn't help to see people that are losing 5 times as fast as you are. I live with one of them, remember? My body had finally settled into a sort of routine - I'll go for a week, maybe two without losing anything then all of a sudden I'm down 2, 3, even 4 pounds almost overnight. As my doc says, this is a marathon, not a sprint. You WILL be successful. This it not like any other time before. Besides, when before have you had such fabulous people supporting you?? :biggrin1:

I actually didn't drink through a straw very often pre-band, so it's not an issue for me now. But I have another issue and have been wondering if anyone else has this problem. I can't drink from a water fountain anymore. It totally fills me up with air. I can only manage a couple of tiny sips before I'm in pain...

Boy Pamela, I don't know which it worse - the fact that you pretty much just admitted that you're old enough to remember the Bump and the Hustle, or the fact that I just admitted that I'm old enough to remember them too!! Shall we move on to Bad Seventies Gay Music for our next category? :note2: At first I was afraid, I was petrified... :note2:

Thanks for jumping in there Dee! I check the thread every day because I don't always get notified of a new post. I hate posting something just for the sake of posting (I know, some of you think I always have something to say) but I'm always a little let down when everything is quiet, so I think I'll just bump the thread occasionally to remind everyone it's still around. Soooo.....BUMP! :bump2:

I have a couple of times. Since it was a relatively small glass and I sipped it slowly, I didn't notice any effect on how much I was able to eat.

Juli, I'm just not sure what to think of you anymore. I thought maybe your previous distaste for camping was just a fluke, but now I see that you don't like tents at all. Maybe you're just a good Lesbian gone bad... LOL! Pamela, are you feeling any better? Haven't heard anything from you for a few days.

Cool! Please keep us posted... Pamela, your stoma could be irritated at this point and you may not be able to hold anything but liquids down. Try some very warm (but not hot) broth. If you have any unflavored protein powder, you can mix some in to keep your protein intake up. Hope you feel better quick! Well, I finally did it! I have moved from "Obese" to simply "Overweight!" Woo hoo! I never thought that would be such a big deal to me, but it really makes me feel great. Next stop: goal!

Hey Bill, can't wait to welcome you to Bandland! Remember we're all thinking about you, and post when you're able to let us know how you are.

OMG! I just about crapped my pants laughing! That is too freakin' funny Derick!!

OMG Brandy, I was thinking exactly the same thing! BTW, I read earlier tonight that the judge gave John his leg back. I'm sooo relieved.

Only because it's you Juli. :bounce: