Carlene

The fruit doesn't keep/ship very well, so you are better off to get seedlings or young plants and grow your own. You can purchase the plants from nurseries in FL and Puerto Rica. Maybe we can get TOM to buy some and ship them to all of us.

Bummer, Alexandra. I can sympathize, as I go the 18th for a fluoro study for my own issues. I've been having esophagitis and reflux, too. I can, however, eat (most days). My problem seems to be that my band, which is already tight, will get even tighter at the slighest provocation (stress), then if you add in sinus drainage, it becomes a very ugly mess. My reflux is not terrible but I sometimes experience aspiration during the night, and that's not a good thing. I won't know what my options are until I know exactly what's going on with my band. I'm hoping that an unfill and a rest will do the trick.

Don't you just want to hold Nicole Richie down and force feed her a Big Mac or something? Maybe it's my maternal instinct. EAT, Nicole! For Christ's sake....EAT SOMETHING!!!!!!!!

I definitely knew there was something wrong. When I was 17, I weighed 94 pounds and wore a size 4. I still have my wedding dress, but even though my jeans say "size 4", I can't zip the wedding dress. Could it be that the 30 pounds between then and now are responsible for that? Well....duh. I'd say that's a no-brainer. For about a year and a half after I was banded, I kept thinking I was going to put that dress on again. Maybe have someone snap my picture in it. I have now decided that it just ain't gonna happen. Aside from the fact that I'm unlikely to lose another 30 pounds, I don't think my 50-something body is ever going to fit properly into a dress made for my 17 year-old self. And I don't care. It would probably trigger some kind of major depressive episode, anyway.

New York Knicks guard Stephon Marbury makes sneakers affordable By Mike Celizic TODAYshow.com contributor As a kid growing up with six siblings, Stephon Marbury couldn’t understand why his parents couldn’t scrape together $150 to buy him the hot sneakers his heroes wore in the NBA. When he grew up and understood how much money that was and how little his parents had, he decided to do something about it. His solution? A $15 quality basketball shoe worn in games by the star point guard of the New York Knicks, Stephon Marbury. “Anybody who grew up in a household with a lot of brothers and sisters, they know how it is as far as, you know, everybody wearin’ the same sneakers – hand-me-downs,” he told TODAY correspondent Kevin Corke. The shoe, which comes in a variety of styles and fabrics, is called the “Starbury.” It’s made by Steve & Barry's University Sportswear, and, while it is inexpensive, it’s not cheap or shoddy. Marbury introduced them last August and has just introduced the Starbury II, still at the same affordable price. Mark Cuban, the outspoken billionaire owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, called the product "the biggest business story of the year." Steve & Barry’s has given no sales figures, but it has been reported elsewhere that in little more than half a year, some three million pairs of Starburys have been sold. That’s been enough to inspire Chicago Bulls star center Ben Wallace to join Marbury in wearing the shoes for the remainder of this year. Next year, Wallace will have his own Steve & Barry’s line —the Big Ben. Growth of the signature shoe Marbury grew up in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn, while Wallace hails from small-town Alabama. But they have a lot in common. Like Marbury, who had six brothers and sisters, Wallace came from a big family – he had ten siblings – and wore whatever shoes one of his older brothers had outgrown. Also like Marbury, he was offended at the exorbitant prices the big shoe companies charge for the signature footwear of the game’s biggest stars. "Why you want your name associated with a pair shoes nobody can afford?” he told TODAY. “I think that defeats the purpose." Both players are foregoing big endorsement checks by putting their names on – and their feet in – inexpensive shoes. Once upon a time, all basketball shoes were affordable. But then Nike founder Phil Knight realized that if he could design a special shoe and put it on the feet of one of the game’s greatest players, he could charge a premium for them. In 1985, he signed Michael Jordan, the promising young star of the Chicago Bulls, to an endorsement deal and brought out the first Air Jordan sneaker. The shoe was red and black with a big Nike Swoosh on the side and was so brash in their design that the NBA told Jordan he would be fined if he wore them in games. Knight gladly paid the fines and in no time at all, every kid in America had to have a pair. As Jordan matured into the greatest player of all time, fans camped out in front of shoe stores to be the first to buy the latest model Air Jordan, and kids were mugged for their shoes. Jordan himself made more money from Nike endorsements than he did from playing basketball. After that, every new star had to have a signature shoe, with prices running up to $175 and endorsement deals worth tens of millions of dollars. Marbury has at times been accused of being selfish with the ball on the court, but no one has ever called him selfish in his personal life. Not satisfied with making an affordable shoe available, he’s also given 3,000 pairs to high school basketball teams in New York City. His new Starbury II’s even come in a women’s model. Not everyone is happy Marbury has been razzed by other players for wearing $15 sneakers, and there’s been some jibes traded between Cleveland Cavalier megastar LeBron James, the current king of the high-priced shoe market, and Wallace over the shoe’s quality. The big companies say it’s not built as well as their shoes. But one of the shoe’s designers, T.J. Gray, told a newspaper reporter, "We're building them with the same construction, we're using similar materials.” And consumer advocate Ralph Nader, who has been challenging James over conditions in the Chinese factories where his shoes are made, singled out Marbury for praise in an open letter posted online at LeagueOfFans.org. Addressed to James, the post said that Marbury "challenged the entire basketball sneaker industry, in part, to present inner-city kids with an affordable (yet still stylish and well-made) alternative to the $150 shoes that you and others endorse." Instead of taking millions to wear somebody else’s shoes, Stephon Marbury decided to take nothing up front to wear his own. Instead, he gets a royalty on each pair sold. Wallace has the same deal.

How can you even think that??? You are the cutest thing going on at LBT. Your avitar reminds me of Annie Potts (whom I dearly LOVE).

Miracle fruit makes everything taste sweet The Wall Street Journal ARLINGTON, Va.At a party here one recent Friday, Jacob Grier stood on a chair, pulled out a plastic bag full of small berries, and invited everyone to eat one apiece. "Make sure it coats your tongue," he said. Grier's guests were about to go under the influence of miracle fruit, a slightly tart West African berry with a strange property: For about an hour after you eat it, everything sour tastes sweet. Within minutes of consuming the berries, guests were devouring lime wedges as if they were candy. Straight lemon juice went down like lemonade, and goat cheese tasted as if it were "covered in powdered sugar," said one astonished partygoer. A rich stout beer seemed "like a milkshake," said another. After languishing in obscurity since the 1970s, miracle fruit, or Synsepalum dulcificum, is enjoying a small renaissance. In-the-know food lovers from Hawaii to Finland are seeking out the berry as a culinary curiosity. Growers like Curtis Mozie of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., are racing to keep up with the recent demand. The 63-year-old retired postman has cultivated the slow-growing shrub for a decade, and now says he has hundreds of them at a nursery near his home. Most of the small number of U.S. growers sell cuttings or seeds for chefs or other aficionados to grow their own plants, rather than shipping the highly perishable berries. After a food lovers' blog called EatFoo, to which Grier contributes, began spreading word in February about Mozie's product, he raised his prices to $1.80 from $1 per fruit. He ships them overnight, because the red berry -- about the size of a grape with a large pit -- turns brown and unappetizing within a day or so after it's picked. Miracle discovery Scientists say a Protein in the fruit works by binding to taste buds and altering the tongue's so-called sweet receptors to activate when sour foods are eaten. In 1852, a British surgeon described the fruit in a pharmaceutical journal as a "miraculous" berry. In the early 20th century, a renowned botanist for the Agriculture Department, David Fairchild, was the first person to bring miracle fruit from Africa to the U.S., says Linda Bartoshuk, a professor at the Center for Smell and Taste at the University of Florida. Lloyd Beidler, a biology professor at Florida State University, and a colleague isolated the active protein in the berry in 1968, which Dutch researchers doing similar work dubbed "miraculin." Around the same time, Bartoshuk was doing research on the berry for the U.S. Army, which never went as far as adding it to rations. Several miracle-fruit growers in Florida say cancer patients occasionally seek out the fruit because it reportedly alleviates a metallic taste in the mouth that is one side effect of chemotherapy. There is no scientific research supporting the claim. A strange experience Miracle fruit remains in a kind of regulatory limbo in the U.S. It's perfectly fine to grow and sell it, because the Food and Drug Administration doesn't require prior approval to sell fresh fruits, though it can intercede if it suspects problems. At the Arlington party hosted by Grier, a barista at a Georgetown bakery and coffeehouse, guests milled around a table covered with a wide assortment of tart and sour foods -- lemons, limes, grapefruits, pomelos, rhubarb, dill pickles, cheeses and sour candy. "Rhubarb is the big winner, it's like a sugar stick," said Lalitha Chandrasekhar, a 22-year-old researcher at the National Institutes of Health. Paul Sherman, 27, who works at a nonprofit group that studies campaign finance, followed his miracle fruit with strawberries and found them "like strawberry-flavored candy ... almost too sweet." It was, he concluded, "the strangest gustatory experience I have ever had in my life." MIRACLE FRUIT FACTS Scientists say a protein in the fruit works by binding to taste buds and altering the tongue's so-called sweet receptors to activate when sour foods are eaten. In the early 20th century, a renowned botanist for the Agriculture Department, David Fairchild, was the first person to bring miracle fruit from Africa to the U.S., says Linda Bartoshuk, a professor at the Center for Smell and Taste at the University of Florida. Lloyd Beidler, a biology professor at Florida State University, and a colleague isolated the active protein in the berry in 1968, which Dutch researchers doing similar work dubbed "miraculin." It's perfectly fine to grow and sell miracle fruit because the Food and Drug Administration doesn't require prior approval to sell fresh fruits, though it can intercede if it suspects problems. SOURCE: The Wall Street Journal

We recycle, and we have a compost heap. Also a set-back thermostat and ceiling fans in every room. My car has only 4 cylinders - hubby's has 6. But we don't walk anywhere, except for exercise. There is nothing close enough to walk to. And we have no mass transportation system. Everytime I go to DC, I'm impressed. The uniform there is business dress with tennis shoes for the commute, and all the women carry their dressy office shoes in their bag. Plus, it must be the dog-friendliest city in the world.

From the folks who bring us electricity in my area.... Only ONE plant uses renewable fuel to generate its product, yet they call that "balanced". What a crock.

The chart I posted was nation-wide. The majority of our electricity in the US is generated by fossil fuels. In my area, it's natural gas because that's what we have on hand.

Here is a nice pie chart that compares the various types of energy used to produce electricity for the US in 2005. As you can see, about 70% fossil fuels were used.

We use fossil fuels to generate electricity, so it's only renewable at the expense of natural gas, coal, etc. There are some nuclear plants in the US, but not many. The one in my area shut down a number of years ago, after the electric company got us to pay for it. They claimed electricity would be so cheap, they wouldn't even bother to meter it. Yeah.....right. Now we have some of the highest electric rates in the country.

She makes me CRAZY! I don't go to her Yahoo group for the same reason. I say "her" Yahoo group because she started her own, after getting "kicked off " another one.

We are energy whores....all of us. The average home built today has 5 times as many electrical outlets as one built 50 years ago. I think it's a safe assumption to say that we probably use 5 times as much electricity as our parents/grandparents did. At least 5 times. My mom's house, where I grew up, had no computer, one refrigerator, one phone, no video games, no DVD recorder/player, one TV, no kitchen counter appliances (slow cookers, food processors, etc), no electric toothbrushes, no rechargeable anything, no garage door opener, and until I was almost grown, no clothes dryer or dishwasher. My house has 4 TVs, 3 cell phones (w/chargers), 5 cordless phones (w/chargers), 3 DVD players, 3 computers, two refrigerators, and a whole host of bathroom and kitchen appliances. My kitchen has 11 (double) wall outlets. I have dusk-to-dawn landscape lighting in my front yard and a security light in back, plus a flagpole that is lighted. My neighbors have swimming pools with electric powered waterfalls and hot tubs, plus the filters, cleaners, etc. And water features (with or without Koi pond) are very popular in my area. Whatever happens, we have no one to blame but ourselves.

My post had nothing to do with either Gore or Bush. It was just a congrats to Leatha's brother, who came from a broken home. Al Gore, Sr did not die penniless, but he came from some pretty humble beginnings. He was the son of a farmer and attended public schools and graduated from a state college, before being elected to the US House of Reps and Senate. Bush, Sr, on the other hand, attended the prestigious Greenwich Country Day School and Phillips Academy in Andover Mass. After graduating from Yale University, Bush went into the Texas oil exploration business. He was given a position with Dresser Industries, a subsidiary of Brown Brothers Harriman, where his father served on the board of directors for 22 years.

Me, too. Bring 'em on! And the more lightening, the better.

Another curly lightbulb fan here. And I agree....good for your brother. He made his without daddy's help. PS...I'd love to have a lake house on Possum Kingdom....even a little one.

For the last 13 years, Bush has lived in "public housing" - first the governor's mansion in Texas, then in the White House. George Bush is very happy to visit the little town of Crawford, TX (population 705) to get away from the stress of DC, but he just doesn't strike me as the Jimmy Carter type, retiring to a dot on the map and joining Habitat for Humanity. But we'll see. Here are photos of the Crawford ranch, and the Bush vacation home in Kennebunkport.

1) Gore's family has taken numerous steps to reduce the carbon footprint of their private residence, including signing up for 100 percent green power through Green Power Switch, installing solar panels, and using compact fluorescent bulbs and other energy saving technology. 2) Gore has had a consistent position of purchasing carbon offsets to offset the family's carbon footprint -- a concept the right-wing fails to understand. Gore's office explains: What Mr. Gore has asked is that every family calculate their carbon footprint and try to reduce it as much as possible. Once they have done so, he then advocates that they purchase offsets, as the Gore's do, to bring their footprint down to zero. If Al Gore, or anyone else, can reduce the carbon footprint of their home to zero, they will have done their part for the environment - regardless of the size of the home. I say, let the millionaires build all the oversized mansions they want to, just limit the amount of fossil fuels they can use to power them.

The Bush's ranch in Texas is not "the private residence" of the President. It's their vacation home, much like the trailer I used to own on Lake Tawakoni, only on a much grander scale. When Bush's term is up, I seriously doubt that he and Laura will live in Crawford, TX.

I have met MANY people who had their surgery done in Mexico and virtually all were pleased as punch with the hospital, the care they received, their doctor, etc. Plus, most American surgeons learned to perform LB surgery in Mexico, proctored by Mexican surgeons. I was once doubtful myself, but having seen the results, I would consider Mexico for virtually any procedure. The only thing you have to be careful of is aftercare. You MUST line that up pre-surgery, as many US doctors will not do fills for patients banded in Mexico. Plan B.... Continue to look for a new job, and don't be bashful about asking for an insurance booklet at your interview. It's perfectly reasonable to take benefits into consideration when negotiating an offer, and the booklet should say if WLS is excluded. Plan C... Would your partner consider changing jobs, to a company that covers same-sex partners? I gave up a job I loved, and had held for 15 years, because my DH needed surgery that my insurance would not cover.

I didn't know who Dan Savage was, so I Googled him and found this... OMG!!! At least he votes Democratic, though!....LOL Savage Love From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Savage Love is a syndicated sex-advice column by Dan Savage, appearing weekly in several dozen newspapers, mainly free city papers in the U.S. and Canada, but also newspapers in Europe and Asia. It started in 1991 with the first issue of the Seattle weekly newspaper The Stranger. It can also be found in the Stranger's sister publication, Oregon's Portland Mercury. Other venues include: The Onion AV Club [1], the LA Weekly, The Chicago Reader[2] and its affiliated paper Reader's Guide to Arts & Entertainment, the Twin Cities' City Pages, the Cleveland Scene[3], Halifax's The Coast [4], The Orlando Weekly, Boston's Weekly Dig[5], St. Louis, "Riverfront Times" [6], Hamilton Ontario's View Magazine[7], and Vancouver's Georgia Straight[8]. The openly gay author uses the column as a forum for his strong opinions that often flout "family values"; he often encourages advice-seekers to pursue their fetishes. The tone of the column is humorous, and Savage does not shy away from using profanity. He is strongly opposed to bestiality, incest, pedophilia, rape, and social inequality. Though Savage encourages sexual experimentation, he does not encourage carelessness. He frequently makes use of his position — that of a columnist with a large and loyal audience — to spread AIDS awareness and to promote safe sex. In political matters, Savage occasionally shows a libertarian bent. He does however vote Democratic because he believes that voting for minority parties gives votes to the Republicans.

Like I would post anything from Michael Savage... Somebody really is smoking something stronger than a Marlboro....LOL

The problem with this idea is that a safe dosage for one person would be a lethal dosage for another, so without a doctor to monitor usage, I think we'd end up killing a lot of people. And the addicts would never be satisfied with limited quantities. They would either go back to illegal sources, or just get someone else to buy the drugs for them, from the pharmacy. The pharmacies have to keep the Sudafed under lock and key now, and limit the number of packages you can buy at one time. The hardware store has to lock up spray paint and even model glue/paint. Kids are sniffing everything from octane booster to household cleaners. How sad is that?

I had a Scottish friend years ago (pre-kids) when I lived in a downtown, Yuppie apartment complex. We had parties every Sunday out by the pool and one afternoon Isabel said to one of the neighbors, "Brock, would you come around about seven in the morning and knock me up?" We were all laughing too hard to really hear the rest..."Me alarm clock's on the blink." There was a TV commercial about that same time that featured the line "little Annie's fanny". It absolutely scandalized Isabel. She couldn't believe they would use such a dirty word on TV! I was clueless until she told me what "fanny" meant on the other side of the pond. In America, it's acutally a nice word for butt.