Wheetsin

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...and an ultrasound this a.m. confirmed stones. I have a consultation with my band surgeon next week (he also does general laparoscopic procedures). Band was my first surgery, so this will only be #2. And of course I will ask him these questions, but because a week is a long time away... So what can I expect, with both the surgery, and life after? I'm sort of assuming it will be similar to my band surgery - in terms of risk, recovery... hopefully not as sore as I was after the port placement. What about general life? Will being minus that megadose of bile effect the way my body deals with fats, long term? I get visions of oil slick diarrhea at the blink of an eye... like the people on that medication that limits your breakdown of fats. Any words of advice from those of you who have been there?

Ah... I really missed conversing with some of you guys. Don't think for a second that my summer classes were a fraction as intellectually stimulating as some of the conversations here. Anyway, the title amused me. Here are places where I've noticed (oddly placed) tip jars lately: The deli counter at a grocery store A pastry store (all they do is box it up, they don't even have chairs there) Ice cream stores - Baskin Robbins, Cold Stone, etc. Umm... not that I've been eating ice cream... The gas station near our house The Hobby Lobby custom framing counter Many fast food places including Quizno's, Chipotle, Subway and Taco Bell Cash register lanes I don't tip any of the above situations, but I have noticed that they all use the "put a dollar in here so people think that others tip us" strategy!

Ooh, you're quick - and right! I have one print and was hoping to identify the artist so I could see if there were any others of the same subject I kept seeing "Svasso Ceilia" or "S. Vassodelia" :rolleyes

Long story short, I need to figure out what this name is. First name? Last name? Combination? No idea! Please post your guesses.

Now that's one I hadn't heard before. My spare time all but disappeared - I signed up for a semester and a half worth of classes in master's program, condensed into a single 8 week summer session. My life has been - work > get home > start studying > try to remeber to eat something > study more> it's midnight, wtf did the evening go? On top of that, we painted/redecorated the home office, complete overhaul, and since that office houses the webserver, it had to come down. And I ended up breaking something DH needed to bring it back up about 8 minutes before I had to take DH to the airport for a two week absence... so I was without internet, and without hubby who could fix it, for half a month. How the heck did we get by before the internet? I had to actually open a printed dictionary. Fortunately summer school week 5 of 8 ends tomorrow, so I see some sign of sanity out there on the horizon, like a dim light, beckoning me to go into it...

Robyn, truly interested - if they repaired it once before, and it recurred, is this something you may always have to deal with, or is there a plan B - something they didn't do the first time, that can be also be done to fix it? I've dropped away too. In a big way. Most recently because of school, but more long term because I'm not losing weight anymore. I've just hit this impossible plateau that isn't going anywhere, and it's been like... more than half a year. I'm still way too damn fat to not be losing, and I'm not eating enough, or enough bad foods, to account for it. I miss being able to call Billy and ask her input. Go figure that the one time you're part of a tiny fraction of the population, it ISN'T the tiny fraction that wins the lottery. Life stinks sometimes, eh? My offer for a margarita still stands. I'm busy, but promise I would make the time if you want to vent in person. Just let me know.

You'll find that many (I could probably argue "most" in this case) Americans are largely ignorant to anything they don't see immediately impacting their daily lives. And even then, they probably remain more ignorant than they should. I've often wondered... why. My inlaws are European, have been to America maybe 3 times between them, and they know more about how our country functions that most Americans. It makes no sense. We seem happy to not know what we don't know.

I'm picky and my taste is very plain when it comes to jewelry. My wedding band is a cathedral mount princess solitaire and I wear channel set princess bands on either side. Anniversary ring is a traditional three stone ring that I'm now wearing a plain gold band on top of, to keep it from falling off my finger. I have a pair or princess studs that I wear in my 2nd holes. I don't care for any diamond cuts other than princess and trillion. I hate baguettes. I don't care for colored stones. People always want to buy them for me, especially amethyst, my birthstone, which is my least favorite.

Still can't stomach olives, regardless of color or context. There are a few flavors that my mouth simply rejects. Olives are one. Horseradish is another.

Green - when I was a kid (quite a skinny one to boot) instead of sneaking candy or sweets, I would sneak rock salt out of the bag my parents kept in the pantry for making ice cream. We lived near the community baseball center, so I would sneak a handful into my pocket and then go sit on the bleachers, watch baseball, and eat salt. Wtf? Dill pickles are a weakness too. REAL, true, dill pickles. Not Kosher Dill. Not chips. Sour dills will do! But a good, homemade dill pickle - few things in life are better. WHen I was a kid, for something to do my parents and I would go to this big swapmeet on Saturdays, and just walk around. There was always this guy there selling his homemade pickles out of big cauldrons. When I think of them, I almost get a tear in my eye. I love picke & mayo sammiches.

I have one and it has a juicer attachment that works just as well as my regular juicer (some kind of Jack LaLane (sp) something), only MUCH smaller and easier to clean up. A regular plain magic bullet isn't going to juie to well, just puree, but there is a dedicated juicer attachment that is awesome! Nothing can be taken as a rule. I've run mine for well over a minute straight WHILE making butter, actually just last weekend - DH is a purist when it comes to the butter on his homemade bread. And it's still working fine today. Sometimes people think theirs has quit working, but it stops working if too much gunks gets down either under the silver plate at the bottom, or around the holes that the cups lock into. If any of you have them just kind of spontaneously (or even in the middle of running) stop working, just clean it out good, let it dry, and try again. Granted - that may not be the problem, but it fixes it for me.

Seriously - what's a foodie? Here it's slang for food stamps. Are you looking for ways to go bandster on a budget?

Kyethra is right, all telemarkting centers are required to maintain their own DNC list, and all it takes is a firm request to be put on it. It really does work. We're on the state and national DNC registries, but any company that you contact on your own, or that you're in currently in business with, can still call you. There are also some other exceptions because we've gotten a LOT of calls from agencies wanting donations or to sell raffle tickets, etc.. surveys, what have you.

If you want it, do it. There is no etiquette when it comes to decisions you regret, but have the oppportunity to change.

I'm not judging how you discipline your children or questioning your technique, but I do have a question about timing. Most public spankings happen because that's where the offense is committted, and the best correlation to consequence is immediate enforcement. In other words, you discipline a child for doing something bad when they do it, and they're more likely to understand the connection between a specific action and the discipline. Not that I equate children to dogs, but it's the same principle when you're - say - housebreaking a puppy. (Our cognition is much more complex but the basics of behavioral modificiation are rather beyond cognition and the same whether you're talking about people or fruit flies or anything in between.) So if you do not discipline in public, but public is where you children misbehave, what do you do? Wait? Discipline them in some other fashion?

I can't stand olives. Never could. The mere sight of a dirty martini is enough to gross me out. Ok, on the topic of credit cards. I don't use 'em unless I get some kind of special discount or I'm taking advantage of Discover's cashback aware (you can make some nice money with that card) so I can only relate to my debit card. When we opened this acct, we told them "no spending limit on the debit card." We'd learned from our past acct that most banks impose a per transaction AND per day spending cap on debit cards, and didn't want to deal with that again. Sp after spending seriously about 6 hours in a store that's an hour way, picking out two bedroom suites of furntiure, beds, headboard/footboard, a couch/loveseat combo, lamps, etc. -- my card was declined. It didn't dawn on me that it could be due to the limit, so that never entered my mind. We weren't supposed to have a limit. I called the bank, they verified sufficient funds. So what's the problem? We don't know, we'll call you back. (Meanwhile I'm telling the store "they're looking into it" and I know they're thinking Uh huh, just swallow your pride and charge it). Finally they get back with me, about an hour later, and say that we were trying to exceed the daily cap on the card. So I tell her we weren't supposed to have one, and she says "All cards have one, they just raised yours higher." :faint: I now carry checks with me, to use in just such a situation. I've also had my debit card decline (once in the middle of holiday shopping, talk about catching people at their worst) for "over limit." Over limit?? It's a DEBIT card! I tell the cashier to try again as credit, she does, it declines, she once again announces, "IT'S BECAUSE YOU DON'T HAVE ENOUGH MONEY. DID YOU PAY YOUR BILL?" I tried to just get $ out of the ATM, transaction declined for "insufficient funds," which I KNOW was BS. Called the bank. "Oh, sorry, our lines are down and no one can connect. That causes cards to decline for "insufficient funds." "Well it's xmas eve and I'm buying all my last minute presents, when can I expect the lines to be back up?" "Two or three days." The cashier was quite put out and in much disbelief when I asked her to put my things to the side and I'd be right back with a check. :faint:

A rider is a way to make a change to a contract once the contract has been put in force. Think of it like an ammendment. Laurend is right - check with your provider on their definition of medically necessary. Providers can be arbitrary about this so no one can tell you "for sure" whether or not you would be covered other than them.

Songs? Damn Laurend, bands are easy. Songs are hard. Let's see... Today - Smashing Pumpkins/Siamese Dream All Mixed up - 311/311 Jesus Built my Hotrod - Ministry/Psalm 69 Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd/The Wall Heroin - The Velvet Underground/The Velvet Underground and Nico Hurt- NIN/The Downward Spiral OR The Only Time/Pretty Hate Machine (or just about any other song, especially pre 1992) Where is my Mind? - Pixies/Surfer Rosa I Will Find You (theme from Last of the Mohicans) - Clannad/Banba Recipe for Making Love - Harry Connick Jr./We are in Love And sooooo many others...

For me it's dinner. Mostly because I'm usually too tight to eat much other than soups before late afternoon/evening.

My hubby is indifferent to it, but admits that going bare makes oral sex a little more interesting. The thing about pubic hair is - either you do it, or you don't, because the growing out stage SUCKS. Brazilians are quite a way back in my past. Now I just shave as part of my morning shower, along with my legs (I have very fine leg hair and only have to shave my legs once every week or week and a half - you can't even tell) & pits.

I may have said this earlier, but it's a biggy. People who pop their knuckles. Or backs, or necks, or who cares what, it's all equally disturbing. I'm like - CAN YOU GIVE A LITTLE WARNING NExT TIME? So I can leave? Nails on a chalkboard - doesn't phase me one bit. This crap gives me the heebeejeebies.

If I'm hungry, I snack. To me, the point of the band is not to deprive myself, it's to eat less. So my Snacks now are nothing compared to what they used to be. Typical snack foods - cottage cheese, turkey pepperoni chips, 100 calorie Snak-Paks (or however they're spelled), Protein drinks, wheat pretzels (I love those honey wheat braids, but don't eat many b/c I do try to watch carbs), homemade jerkey, etc.

IMO - becaues in some way you get more out of being fat than being thin. People confuse this as "You want to be fat." But they're very different. Few claustrophobes want to be afraid of confined spaces, but they still are. That's because there are some things the mind takes care of autonomously. Many people get many different things from being fat. Security, protection, control, etc. "I eat to celebrate" and "I eat when I'm emotional" are the same thing, really - both focused on an emotional connection to food. Pay attention to how you feel when you're eating. Especially when you're eating without being hungry, or eating beyond the point of being full. What's on your mind? What emotional state are you in? Etc. Most people can accomplish just about anything they really put their minds to. Few people can accomplish sustained weightloss on their own. So there's something interrupting that drive, eh?

Good luck. Never had to have one, but don't think I'd like it much. It's easy to fail with the band because you're still accountable for what you eat. Not so much with bypass. Bypass is more of a "handout." Lap-band helps, but won't do it for you. Your success will be a reflection of your determination, and your goals. Welcome to the board!