green

It is always easy to claim to feel the grief of others. We don't feel this grief because we can't until we have experienced something akin. BuSh's comments are cheap and meaningless. They are also in bad taste exactly because they are meaningless. Neither BuSh jr himself, nor his immediate family, have had nor will have war experiences. "Spin" seems to have become a substitution for genuine communication and for thought itself. Now this is a tragedy that affects all of us. This has become the culture of the "sound bite," sloganeering, and "spin." These are manipulative tools, of course, and they tell you what you are supposed to feel and think. And we do. We grunt and think that BuSh actually feels our pain just because he has told us so.

Welcome to Canada.

Doesn't matter if you are going cheap on the frames. What matters is how they look on your face!!!!!!!!! And whether you can see outta them! LOL

The executive director doesn't use the lab. It is totally inappropriate for her to make this decision. Wow! I would have been furious!

I think you are right to get the new frames. The right frames can seriously improve one's looks. And you wear your glasses all the time so you may as well spend the money and have the best ones.

I love spicy stuff and don't have any problem with it so far.

Ah, the always graceful and feminine burka....

Yep, TOM gives good post.

Now that you have given us more info, the caretaker is starting to sound a little sinister.

WOW! Looks like there are a lot of wily weasels out there.

Yep, that's what I mean. Often these arrangements are made with the collusion of the dying wife. She wants to make sure that her husband will be happy and well looked after upon her death. It is a strange act of generosity but it is an act of generosity all the same.

The arrangements that loving couples who find themselves in these dreadful situations set up with each other are very complex. While I was a single woman I had a woman who was dying of breast cancer send her grieving husband over to my house and my bed. (That I wasn't interested in the latter was my issue. I understood where she was coming from.) My father had a friend whose wife was bed ridden for years before she finally died. She wanted to know that her husband's needs were being taken care of. Though these are only two examples I suspect that this happens a lot. Certainly the ailing spouse may wish to continue to exert control over the surviving mate by choosing his or her sexual partner but there may also be a strong element of love involved in this transfer. Let us look at it this way: the caretaker has proved her mettle by giving good care to the ailing spouse, and she has come to be well known by the spousal pair. It is likely that the mate who is dying will have concerns about the one who will survive and will want to ensure that he is in good hands. (It is my hunch that these feelings are more important to dying women than to dying men, by the way. It's a question of hardwiring. Women are more nurturing.) Anyhow, all of the above is Green's long-winded way of saying that you might consider investigating a little further before deciding to excommunicate this couple. The future pair-bond of the caregiver and the husband might be the dying wife's deepest wish.

Yah! I think it was that great big buxom liver!:kiss2: LOL Never under estimate the power of fois gras (fat livers).:clap2:

I think I am kinda stuck with my girl gastro doc. She's got a couple of things going for her. She and her hospital are in the neighbourhood. She's a chick, and she puts up with my sense of humour. But I did mention to her that Americans enjoy their colonoscopies, not suffer through them, and that her pain management skills left a lot to be desired. I explained to her that this is why I had gone AWOL for a coupla years after the last failed colonoscopy. I suggested that she give me a morphine patch or maybe even a T-shirt made out of morphine patches! She claims that she gave me Demerol the last time but has since switched to something more effective. We'll see, eh.....(sez Green).

Thanks for your (always) most knowledgeable answers. This would indicate that should I wish to make a closer examination of the Bible, I would well be advised to get my paws on a Catholic edition, right? As a sidebar, I also note that Catholic and Orthodox (Byzantine) Christianity are the two oldest/original forms of Christianity extant.

Neither Joffe nor Yau mentioned my giant liver. I saw Yau 10 minutes before I went in for surgery and I met Joffe during my preliminary assessment visit. Though my gastric specialist knew nothing about the lapband, in fact she researched this on her computer while I was there, she did know both Dr. Joffe and Dr.Yau by reputation. She told me that Dr. Joffe is working hard to have lapband surgery covered by OHIP. This makes sense to me. The operation is much less invasive than the gastric by-pass which is approved by OHIP. She also thought that the price that I paid was fair. I agree. It seems to line up with American prices. It is only when you go to Mexico that you begin to save and then there is the problem of aftercare - the fills, etc. As for having a colonoscopy, Yoda, it is probably best that you talk to your GP about this. I am under the impression that most docs start wanting their patients to have 'em after they turn 50. Mind you, my kid brother died of colon cancer when he was 48. He had also refused to see a doctor for at least 10 years before he was diagnosed. He died a week and a half later. Well, Green is happy that she has got the lapband even though the gastric doc did mention that there could be erosion or slippage and even though she is looking at another colonoscopy appointment sometime soon. And there is the issue of further investigations to be made into the giant liver, eh. Yep, I am happy that I got the band because my boobs stick out further than my waist these days and today I got eyeballed by a good-looking man while I was waiting for the subway. I guess this counts as an NSV, huh?

Ugh! I don't blame you for being pi$$ed off. This is totally unfair and unjust. I also think that there ought to be laws against cell phone use while operating a vehicle.

While it may be unpleasant to the viewer to be forced to see more of someone's butt than one might like to, isn't this kind of a waste of police manpower? Shouldn't they be chasing after those who are abusing the other kind of crack?

Leatha g, I believe that there has always been homosexuals. It is just that most of them hid themselves; homosexuality wasn't socially accepted by most people and there were laws against the sexual practice of homosexuality.

Carlene, would the Apocrypha be in the King James' Version of the Bible?

If God is distressed by same sex unions then let Him deal with this issue. It is not up to us to judge nor to meddle in others' lives. I must stress that I find this issue particularly poignant since I am aware that all the latest research indicates that homosexuality is not a lifestyle choice. One doesn't choose the colour of one's skin or one's sex, and similarly one doesn't choose one's sexual orientation. I have a number of friends who are gay. They would have preferred to have been straight. Life is easier when you are straight.

Which version of God? There are Jews and Muslims whose belief in God and their own holy texts are just as powerful as any Christian's belief in God and the Bible. Moreover, there are deep divisions in beliefs among the Christians themselves. It is for this reason that it is important that the state remain entirely divorced from religion.

The state and the church are separated. When the state performs a marriage this is a civil contract. When a church performs the marriage this contract is both civil (because the state recognizes the validity of the marriage) and religious. I see nothing wrong with the state agreeing to same sex marriages since this does not infringe upon religious law. In fact I think that this is a humane response on the part of the state; we now know that homosexuality is not merely a lifestyle choice. The latest scientific evidence indicates that homosexuals are born that way. Why deny this group the same rights that the rest of us have? In Canada same sex marriages are legal. Most churches will not marry same sex couples nor are they required to. There are a few who will, however. You might be interested to know that the state of France does not recognize religious marriages. Couples there have to get married twice, once in a church and again in the town hall.

Nisrine is very beautiful. Did she ever show you her before picture?

I had to see my gastric doc today even though I've been avoiding her since I had my first colonoscopy 2 years ago, a colonoscopy that was never satisfactorily completed. This was the colonoscopy from hell. It appears that I have an unusually long and twisty colon and the team that was hanging out inside my butt was not at all generous with the kind of meds that are supposed to keep the whole experience light and fun. Anyhow, they never did manage to see the end of my colon even though they made a number of runs at it and kept me in the colon room for a really long time. (I know that they kept me there for an abnormally long time because the recovery nurse told me so.) The upshot of the failed colonoscopy was that she wanted me to have a barium enema. Her office made the appointment. I cancelled. I was traumatised, you see. So since my last visit my kid brother has died of bowel cancer and that increases my own odds exponentially and I have an enlarged liver to boot. I had to see her today and I had to tell her about the lapband. Turns out that I am her first ever lapband patient. She knew nothing much about it. And because I am not morbidly obese, she wanted to know why I didn't just diet and exercise. Why did I spend 16Gs on surgery? She was starting to treat me like a nut. I was starting to feel like a nut and defensive as well. Then she feels my liver and boy does it feel fat! It seems that fat people often have fat livers. Mine is a monster! It is almost a third over sized. I am horrified by the news about my liver. As for my bowel, I feel kinda casual. This doc is interested in 'em both but more interested in the bowel. Going to a specialist is always stressful but I guess I found that I was extra stressed by having to both explain and defend my choice of weight loss surgery over simple diet and exercise. To tell you the truth, this left a bit of a foul taste in my mouth. I did let her push my port though. :rolleyes