green

I really enjoyed reading your post. And I quite enjoyed Shallow Hal.

That really is a drag. That knowledge would have saved you a lot of frustration and relieved you of all feelings of failure. I must confess that I didn't know this when I paid for the operation. At the time I just felt so fed up with being fat that I cut a cheque, and got the band. It was my dumb good luck that the band solved many of my problems and that I had an easy time recovering from the surgery.

Ghost, how are you doing? And what is the latest news? Please keep us in the loop.

The band works well for those people who suffer from portion control issues. People who have a sweet tooth fare less well with the band. I was lucky in that I fell into the first category. I was a glutton and the band put up a physical barrier against my gluttony. I ended up losing the 50 lbs that I needed to shed over a ten-month period and with little pain. I was lucky in that I have never liked sweets. Folks who enjoy sweets have a much bigger battle ahead of them, one that will never be entirely resolved without using a lot of personal will power.

Very cogently expressed, Wasa. Bravo! It is not that we choose perversely not to believe, it is that there seems to be absolutely no reason to believe. We see zero evidence to support belief, is all.

I can only wear a big sleep shirt or nightgown and the item has to be thin cotton or linen. Silk/synthetics are too hot, lace is scratchy, and pajamas end riding up right into my crotch area. Very uncomfortable and I don't wish to spend my nights pulling clothing out of my privates.

We keep our plastic flamingoes in the backyard where only a few select neighbours can enjoy them. The front half of our house looks like normal folk live here. Bwahahaha! I love your signature work, the work at the foot of your posts that is, by the way. (Is that Hitler running around and around that tree?)

I think that cheap fake flowers are the best. I love it when they fade from the sunlight, get dirtier and dirtier and are still sadly blooming in January. Fake birds, flamingoes if you can get 'em, will add to the charm. These gardens are often the most interesting and are a lovely thing to plant if you live in a conventional neighbourhood.

Yep, this sounds normal to me. I sleep with the fan on throughout the year and I always have to have my feet, at least one, protruding. Often I sleep with the duvet covering only one leg. My sensitive mate loves to cuddle up to me, his little "furnace," but I snarl at him to leave me alone, wailing that I am too hot to sleep with him crushing me! The poor guy. I don't cuddle. Too damn hot! And I live in Canada, eh. This means that in the winter I can wake up sweating only to find him and the cats, those heat-seeking missiles, glued to me. Argh!

I have been following this thread with interest. I believe that it is normal to wish one's children to hold the same values and beliefs as oneself. This is only human nature. I know that as an atheist I would be inclined to shield my children from religious influences until they were old enough to sort through the information with what I would consider to be reasonably well developed critical faculties. It is understandable that believers feel the same way.

I've known two women who have had hysterectomies because of fibroids. These growths were benign and the surgeons could have taken the slow route and opted excise the masses instead of a full-out removal of their container. Both women afterwards mourned the loss of their wombs claiming that the quality of their sexual pleasure was severely impaired. As for myself, for many years when I was young I was intent on getting a hysterectomy. This was because I had always had bad problems with my period - cramps - and because I had no desire to have children. Why suffer the downside of being able to reproduce when I had no intention of do so? I thought. My doc at the time talked me out of this by telling me that my orgasms would be affected by the removal of my uterus. You see, during arousal it assists the area in becoming engorged and thus hyper-sensitive to orgasms. Now, I am aware that this is a dissenting opinion but I thought that you might be interested in the information. Good luck in whatever you choose to do.

I agree. I, too, am fairly nit-picky about how I say something and I prize this quality in others. And when someone takes the trouble to attend to the rules of written communication you will usually find that their thoughts likewise become clearer and more disciplined and easier for the rest of us to understand. Clarity in thought and in language is just the finest thing that I can think of.

Men and women tend to like very different things. Men, for instance, do not collect plush animals and yet many women love the things. When giving a gift to an independent old man it would be best to ask your male friends and members of the family what they would suggest. Women do tend to like windchimes. An old man might just find them to be noisy and an irritant. I give this advice in all respect. I spent the past 20 years of my life working on the floor with men in an aircraft factory. During that period of time there were no birthday parties, showers, or pot lucks. And any plush toys or cheap votive candles handed out were always gifts given by some of the handful of women working there. I myself did not participate in these grrl activities. In many respects I am kinda like a 89 year man myself. I would rather have a quart of single malt scotch or some well aged cheddar or a double-creme brie. Quality chocolate is also appreciated by many men. The key ideas are quality and that the gift doesn't stick around long enough to become a dust catcher. (I guess I display my feminine side in my fondness for cut flowers.)

Bravo! Excellent post!!

If he is not very sociable it probably means that he enjoys drinking. Get him some nice cheeses, some quality salamis, peperonis, and a bottle of Jack. He is a man and that is the kind of stuff they like.

Mandela after Nelson Mandela. Or call him Nelson.

Ooh, I want me one of those. Right now I have a husband who does it but I have to nag him first.

I now weigh 134 lbs and I am 5'6" tall but I still have an equator where my waist was supposed to be. Now that is not very nice, is it? Tummy tuck, the next frontier, eh.

I don't believe that the ACLU is against the practice of one's religion inside a church, synagogue, mosque or inside one's home. I am under the impression that this organization seeks to separate state and religion and that is all. Doesn't seem like such a big deal to me. Of course, I am a foreigner and don't fully understand the American ways.

Yep, what MacMadame said.

I prefer cats. My tenant has cats and turtles, we have cats, and whenever she is away we look after her lot and vice versa. Cats are low maintenance compared to dogs and yet they can still be very loving. They don't smell and you don't have to wash 'em. They also dress up the place; get enough of them and it looks like you have a nice collection of fur throws draped over your furniture while they are sleeping. And they give you the comfort of sharing your bed when you are sick or feeling down. Cats is where it is at for the lazy pet owner.

Diane, I am so sorry to hear this news. All my thoughts and hopes are with you at this time. Please do keep us updated on your situation. Remember that we are your support group and that we are pulling for you.

My advice would be to dump the dumb girlfriend. You have enough on your plate. Good luck on all your other projects.

She sounds like quite the 2-faced bitch, one without any sense of kindness or of social borders when it comes to her peers. It also sounds like the boss enjoys her company a lot. This would indicate that she is cold-hearted and manipulative, able to crap on her colleagues and suck up to her superiors all at the same time. Play your cards right and you will be able to crap on her while she is on her way down or out the door but do be careful. This one doesn't play nice!

It seems to me that the above comments can just as easily be considered social or economic stereotyping: poor people are likely to be lousy tippers no matter their colour. It makes sense that women tend to be cheap at tipping; we generally make less money than men do. Sadly, there are some rich people who are cheap, too, and these are individuals who don't have reason to be. To some extent stereotypes do make sense and do express a degree of reality. People in Texas like cowboy music, Italians love pasta, Russians love to drink, Canadians are polite, and English cuisine is boring. They wouldn't have come about if there wasn't more than a grain of truth behind them. What is tragic is when one refuses to meet the individual, and instead chooses to only see the stereotype. People can always surprise. I myself am half Scottish, half Jewish, a woman and I tip very generously as do all my grrlfriends.