LOOK OVER THE DESCRIPTIONS OF THE FOLLOWING TWO HOUSES AND SEE IF YOU CAN TELL WHICH BELONGS TO AN ENVIRONMENTALIST.

HOUSE # 1:

A 20-room mansion (not including 8 bathrooms) heated by natural gas. Add on a pool (and a pool house) and a separate guest house all heated by gas. In ONE MONTH ALONE this mansion consumes more energy than the average American household in an ENTIRE YEAR. The average bill for electricity and natural gas runs over $2,400.00 per month. In natural gas alone (which last time we checked was a fossil fuel), this property consumes more than 20 times the national average for an American home. This house is not in a northern or Midwestern "snow belt," either. It's in the South.

HOUSE # 2:

Designed by an architecture professor at a leading national university, this house incorporates every "green" feature current home construction can provide. The house contains only 4,000 square feet (4 bedrooms) and is nestled on arid high prairie in the American southwest. A central closet in the house holds geothermal heat pumps drawing ground Water through pipes sunk 300 feet into the ground. The water (usually 67 degrees F.) heats the house in winter and cools it in summer. The system uses no fossil fuels such as oil or natural gas, and it consumes 25% of the electricity required for a conventional heating/cooling system. Rainwater from the roof is collected and funneled into a 25,000 gallon underground cistern. Wastewater from showers, sinks and toilets goes into underground purifying tanks and then into the cistern. The collected water then irrigates the land surrounding the house. Flowers and shrubs native to the area blend the property into the surrounding rural landscape.

ANSWERS:

HOUSE # 1 (20 room energy guzzling mansion) is outside of Nashville,Tennessee. It is the abode of that renowned environmentalist (and filmmaker) Al Gore.

HOUSE # 2 (model eco-friendly house) is on a ranch near Crawford, Texas. Also known as "the Texas White House," it is the private residence of the President of the United States, George W Bush.

So whose house is gentler on the environment? Yet another story you WON'T hear on CNN, CBS,ABC, NBC, MSNBC or read in the New York Times or the Washington Post. Indeed for Mr. Gore is "an inconvenient truth".

Yep, a strawberry milkshake made with fresh, ripe strawberries, whole milk, and good-quality vanilla ice cream is hard to beat. Or a nice peach milkshake, if you have fresh or frozen peaches! Also, if you have Friendly's ice cream in the stores up there (boy, I miss it now that I'm back in the South), they make a really good black raspberry ice cream that makes a yummy milkshake - just put it in a blender with whole milk.

OMG, you guys are going to ruin me! I remember Friendly's all too well, laurend!

OMG, you guys are going to ruin me! I remember Friendly's all too well, laurend!

It's a good thing that the restaurants aren't around here and the stores here don't sell the brand, because I'd be in trouble.

Forget the whole milk. If I'm really going whole hog I go straight for the heavy whipping cream.

Throw a few tablespoons of whipping cream in the blender and whip until starting to creat peaks. Then add & blend well:

1 bottle Mighty Mango juice (labeled as Naked Juices)

1 container of peach or plain yogurt

1 frozen banana

1/2 cup of mango (or peach or orange) sherbert

and if your meds allow it, a bit of peach schnapps is a really good adder to the above.

Or if you want to give it some semblance of being "healthy" about the whole thing you could add some vanilla or unflavored Protein powder to the mix.

We're thinking of you.

Oooh, that sounds so decadent! And I love sherbets.

All the above suggestions sound brilliant. Thanks, everyone.

The mate thinks I should include a raw egg. Yech! sez I about that.

The mate thinks I should include a raw egg. Yech! sez I about that.

You probably wouldn't taste it mixed in with everything else but that is still just plain GROSS on so many levels. I'd insert the smiley here that is losing his lunch but with your own nasea I'd hate to give you any ideas.

(I love that smiley)

Can I add my regards to green. I think of you a lot and hope for your recovery.

Can I add my regards to green. I think of you a lot and hope for your recovery.

Thanks, ingyrob. I am having a pretty good day today. No real nausea and I feel good enough that I am able to avoid the morphine. This means that I have been able to post on LBT.

Originally posted by green

I am having a pretty good day today. No real nausea and I feel good enough that I am able to avoid the morphine. This means that I have been able to post on LBT.

Glad to hear that you have no nausea today. Long may you continue to be nausea free. I miss your posts so much.

:tongue2::huggie:OK, I haven't been on LBT in a while and I haven't heard from Green, and I think we agreed to check on her on this thread...

Green, are you there? how are you doing? I've been thinking about you.

I finished my 35 sessions of radiation the week before this one just past and then became so very sick with radiation sickness - I was seriously dehydrated and I couldn't eat but I was vomitting - that they admitted me to hospital and kept me there for a week. Now I am back home and am slowly starting to feel a little better.

I am very skinny: my BMI when I was released from hospital was 21.5 but the same person who had noted that also noted the patient was a little overweight! Actually I gained close to 7 lbs in hospital because they were feeding me 24/7 through my feeding tube. And how did I find out all this info? My home care nurse lets me read her file on me. In fact my file is always kept at my house in case I get a substitute nurse.

The radiation also destroyed my ability to enjoy the taste of food. Everything tastes like toxic waste should taste. My bucket list consists totally of restaurants I want to visit again and dishes I want to eat. There are days when I obsess on food. This never happened when I was losing weight the band way. Weird!

So that is my news and hello to everyone from Green.

I finished my 35 sessions of radiation the week before this one just past and then became so very sick with radiation sickness - I was seriously dehydrated and I couldn't eat but I was vomitting - that they admitted me to hospital and kept me there for a week. Now I am back home and am slowly starting to feel a little better.

I am very skinny: my BMI when I was released from hospital was 21.5 but the same person who had noted that also noted the patient was a little overweight! Actually I gained close to 7 lbs in hospital because they were feeding me 24/7 through my feeding tube. And how did I find out all this info? My home care nurse lets me read her file on me. In fact my file is always kept at my house in case I get a substitute nurse.

The radiation also destroyed my ability to enjoy the taste of food. Everything tastes like toxic waste should taste. My bucket list consists totally of restaurants I want to visit again and dishes I want to eat. There are days when I obsess on food. This never happened when I was losing weight the band way. Weird!

So that is my news and hello to everyone from Green.

THERE YOU ARE MISS GREEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I sounds that you have gone through a lot and I'm so sorry about that, man, I was imagining the details you were giving on your treatments and all and darn girl, you are some strong woman! but you know, these kind of events in our lives makes us stronger inside and outside, because this radiation, even though so rough now will help you get well again.

I would be obssesing about food too and would be dreaming of all the restaurants that I want to visit after the whole thing is over, I don't blame you one bit, I DO want your BMI though.... I know we don't want a low BMI because we are feeling sick, so I probably sound stupid by saying that, I'm sorry, but the last time I had a BMI in the low 20's I must have been 18 years old... but you know what, once you get better, you are going to start gaining and you are going to be just fine! then you will probably have to be watching out what you eat so you don't gain too much:wink: listen, hang in there, you have been very strong through all this, you are an inspiration to me and to us here, I always think about you, pray for you, ok, ok, I know you don't go by the praying thing, but it's like sending good vibes to you my friend! and thank you for updating us and please keep us always updated, I have missed you!:biggrin: I know you are winning this battle and you are getting great care too.

Love

Elena

Green, so good to hear from you. I've been sending good vibes/prayers your direction as well. I know you have so much more on your plate but I think I'd want to put a swift boot up the backside of whoever noted that you had a BMI that low and were slightly overweight at the same time GRRrrrr!

Hi sweetie. I was pretty sure you had been a very sick puppy after that last round of chemo and the rest of your radiation. Thank goodness that's behind you!

I think about you every day. I miss you too. Very, very much. I've been away from the office/computer and only jump on periodically for a few minutes to try to slay some dragons. HA!

This whole LBT rants and raves things has become very theraputic for me. I prefer participating on these threads than obsessing about my weight these days.

Hope you'll feel like coming back into the fold full time because we sure do need your input. Has anyone told you lately that you're brilliant? Well remember how often people told you that at LBT? You gotta miss that!