Wheetsin

I own a small (as in - me, my husband, and a few recruited friends if we need help with the workload) web services company... designing/building websites, setting up network infrastructures, building servers, etc. We don't really network because we get more business than we can handle word of mouth (we do this outside of our regular jobs, and don't want it to become more serious), but I can offer a few suggestions: Use online networking resources such as LinkedIn. Do try to stay away from the more questionable sites such as MySpace. Remember that anywhere that bears your name can help build the impression of your company. If you can, join some local affiliate or professional groups. Most cities have organizations specifically for female/minority business owners, and organize conventions and socials for networking purposes... often, business can also set up booths to showcase their products. Doesn't AVON or similar organizations have their own networking conventions? Have you attended or had any luck? Can I give you some pointers on your commercial? (if no, don't read on) I would organize this more around the business. Make it more neutral. One of the first & hardest lessons many businesses learn is that by advertising some aspect of their personal lives, they're almost automatically cutting off some potential customers, especially when hundreds of people sell the same product. I watched a good friend of mine go through this with his business. He added a religious icon to one of his advertisements, right around the holidays... and suffered for it -- almost had to close. He found it was either a turn-off to people of other religions, people who preferred to keep religion out of their purchase, etc. "As a marine...you being a customer is my goal" doesn't, I don't think, read as you're hoping it will... the two don't have a business connection. Run your ad thrugh a rigorous proofreading and editing session. Hire a professional if you need to, it's one of those things that really does pay for itself. HTH

I'm kind of the opposite, if I love it. I'm very, very picky. It's hard for me to find something I "love" so when I do find it, the cost doesn't matter, I WANT IT. Sometimes I luck out and love = cheap, but not always. I'm also very spontaneous... walking down the aisle, not looking for anything, OOPs I love it, gotta have it, in it goes! Get it home and I don't even have a place to put it, but I love it... so do I take it back or hang on to it because just maybe I'll find it a place... I've gone with the cheaper things that I didn't love, and I always just end up replacing them because they don't make me happy. Wasted a lot of money that way. (Have a $3800 bedroom suite that's sitting in our basement... that I will never use... feel bad for wasting it, but I don't want it in my rooms... *sigh*) A few weeks ago I bought new couches for the great room (the ones in there were only 2 years old, but I didn't love them... see how that works?). I didn't even pay attention to what the price was, they were what I wanted. On our anniversary, hubby started the evening off with 10 roses and I was cringing because roses cost so much... Maybe it's just a matter of how we value things. One of my hobbies is photography and hubby wants to buy me the Canon Rebel XTi digital (a $800 - $900 camera). He's been wanting to buy it for me, but I won't let him. We would not miss the money, but I think it's too much to spend on me. I would spend the same amount on him in a heartbeat. And I'm sure each of those couches was more than that, but I didn't give a frip. Here's another example. The other day I bought some curtains at Target, about $170 total. I thought they were too expensive and took them back. (I didn't love them once they were hanging). My solution? I ordered about $500 in fabric that I loved, to have panels sewn. It didn't bother me to spend more because I loved it, even though I thought the $170 was too much because I didn't love it. The house and other people are pretty much my only carte blanches. Even my own hobbies I can't justify the $$$ on.

Sometimes the body just needs to take a break. You can't expect to maintain the same rate of loss you experience right after post-op throughout your weightloss journey to goal. Can't offer much advice on the elliptical, I don't like them. Monitor your caloric intake against your BMR, see if you're where you need to be. If not, adjust. If so, look to external factors.

Adding w/o an edit - I will buy clothes for myself, and things for the house. But I will not by "luxury" things for myself, e.g. jewelry. Our 10th anniversary was this week and my husband spent $$$$ on the dinner we had, the gifts, etc. and I felt bad enough that it took away from the enjoyment.

BTW, incidentally, really - I am an only child and both of my parents worked jobs that afforded a lot of extra money. I never wanted for anything - my parents bought me way more than I ever asked for. (Due in part to their guilt over me not having any siblings). I can show you pics of our tree from my childhood and you'd swear 8 or 9 kids lived there based on the number of presents under the tree. Yet I'm not spoiled in the sense you might think I would be. I will admit that I AM spoiled in the sense of -- value of a dollar... hard to describe, that may not be right, and I feel kind of bad telling this but I will anyway. I've never had a time in my life where there wasn't enough money. Even when I was in college and not making a lot of money myself, it was always there some how - parents paying my rent, buying me groceries, etc. I've never once had to say "I can't afford it" other than like if I forget my debit card and only have $20 on me... then I know I can only spend $20 until I go get my debit card. Anyway, that doesn't come from Santa or anything, but just lifestyle I guess. Anyway -- I do not enjoy it when people buy me things, and have a hard time enjoying things I know others paid for. And I have a hard time buying things for myself, even though I won't think twice about buying something that costs 5x as much for someone else. I sincerely tell my parents I want "nothing" when they ask, or I will ask for something handmade - for mom to knit me a throw, for dad to refinish a piece of furniture for me, etc. I do not want ppl spending money on me, not even my husband. It makes me feel terrible. Probably to an unnatural degree.

Money for xmas is a foreign concept to me. I always had presents. As I got older, bday presents became bday shopping trips where I could pick what I wanted, but still no money (to this day, I can't think of a single occasion for which my parents gave me money over a gift, they're just the type that subscribe to the idea that "money is impersonal, a gift shows you at least thought enough to pick something out.") Anyway - for those of you who got money as children, and believed in Santa, how was the absence of a gift explained? Or did you get money and maybe A gift from Santa?

To me, that's hypocritical. They're shunning the girl for prosecuting the brothers (or because whomever did it), which is its own form of punishment. They're basically punishing her for punishing them. I don't know much about Amish life, but I'm assuming their belief is that the intrinsic punishment is punishment enough. That's basically advocating for lawless rule. We all know what that's called. :faint:

NSAIDS (risk of ulceration) and enteric coated meds will probably be your biggest obstacles. Most other things can be crushed or have liquid alternatives. Post-op I was given Lortab elixir and something else that I'm drawing a total blank on... worked just as well as the pills ever did. Discuss your concern with your surgeon when you get to the point of consultation.

I gave up red meat after surgery. My surgery was in March, and late April was DH's bday. He wanted Fuddrucker's. I ordered a small cheeseburger, and that was the first time I realized what a horrible texture ground beef has. Yuck! Plus, no matter how well I chewed, I couldn't gooify it. The closest I could come was tiny beads of what felt like gristle. That whole experience really turned me off to red meat. A few weeks later I tried a piece of steak. Man, pre-op I used to love me a nice piece of aged sirloin, rare enough that it was bloody and jiggly in the middle. I tried a bite post-op, and I it just took one bite to decide that the amount of chewing & texture wasn't worth it. Now I'm content to order chicken and smell DH's amazingly good looking steak.

Do your children believe in Santa Claus? If they do, that might complicate things a bit. Children associate bad behavior with limited gifts. That's one of the main, non-physical weapons in curtailing bad behavior, right? So will using christmas as a time to teach them about money really accomplish that, or will it leave them thinking they were bad? I dunno, don't have kids. But if it were me, and I wanted to teach them the lesson, I would wait until a more neutral time. Maybe through allowance, or heck - even bday money. I will be as you are with the holidays - my kid will get whatever they want. :tape2:

I did look. Have been looking. I looked back through 7/01 and have no reported posts from you or any of the other names associated with you. Unless you did this in June or earlier, I have no record of it. Look - who started what, who's who, who is more at fault.... who cares? What it boils down to is that all sides of this have dropped to surprisingly immature levels. You are all adults, and you all know how to best resolve situations like this. Bickering isn't it. Someone take the higher road and turn the other cheek.

If you would like to report a post, report it. We will look into it. When you (your aunt, whomever) just start following people around trying to push buttons and conducting yourselves like children, that doesn't say "I feel victimized" to us. Both sides of this wtf it is need to look closely at how they're acting. Anyone who feels victimized or attacked needs to escalate appropriately.

I was addressing Lizrbit - I think. I'm sorry, but when someone isn't addressing someone else, and then has a comment like Id like to have a paintball match with wasabubblebutt sometime. As a matter of fact, id like that very very much. maybe for my birthday? maybe if i make goal? made about them, that's provocation. It is not defending onesself when "self" hasn't even been addressed in the thread. Neither of the people you're griping about had so much as brought up either of your names here. Their names were brought into it. That is not provocation. Be the bigger person and walk the higher road.

If you want someone to leave you alone, posting them messages in response to their posts, which you claim you can't even see, is not the way to accomplish your goal. If you really want to be left alone, then make the assumption that whatever they're posting is NOT actually all about you, and ignore them. Not board function ignore them, but big girl ignore them. I've never once actually seen it work where someone says "leave me alone," continues to "talk" to those same people, and is actually left alone. I think we can all figure that one out.

Yes this is just a shameless plea for some distraction. I've been having to do some heavy thinking lately on whether to stay in my current job or take another offer I've received. List the cons, list the pros, etc. - I know, but it's a bit more complicated than that and I can't stop analyzing the situation. Today I want to turn my brain off and not think about it, so post crap to help distract me.

Ah, forgive the misspells. I would go back and edit but there are way too many paragraph breaks to weed through.

It's important to keep in mind the types of personalities that help-based messageboards might attract. You also need to keep in mind that the dynamics of doing anything are completely different from doing it IRL. Messageboards are like petri dishes for immaturity, codependence and passive aggression. People can be very viscous online. If you think about it, these people probably aren't like this IRL. They'd get smacked down way too fast. Maybe they're looking for an "out" - a way to give them something their RL can't. I'm reminded of a boss I had once. She was a rabid bulldog at work, took no prisoners. People were scared to be in meetings with her. We'd have people ask us to proof their emails to her, to make sure they wouldn't rub her the wrong way. I saw her at home once and she was the most submissive woman I had ever seen. Her husband completely ruled the roost, and he did it with an Iron fist, and she was there at his beckoning call. When I saw that picture of her home life, it was easy to understand why she was the way she was at work. But, using these guesses to make cuts about someone's personal life, what they get out of being here, etc. is NOT the (IMO) most appropriate way to react. When people do that online, and I read it, I don't think -- YEAH, YOU'RE RIGHT, S/HE SUCKS! I think - really? Is that the level of maturity we're dealing with here? You say you're how old? That's kind of sad. I also think for too many people, maturity drops about 70% as soon as they create a handle. I see "people" claiming to be upwards of 30 years older than me doing and saying things that I would have considered immature when I was 12. (And I'm most certainly not the most mature person around... so that DOES say something). If someone on a messageboard managed to incite enough anger in me and hurt my pride enough that I really felt I needed to confront THEM (as opposed to their stance), I would do it in as close of a manner to IRL as possible: direct, person-to-person. But the me here is pretty much the IRL me, and that's not the case for lots of ppl out there. Online people tend to engage "smear tactics" such as starting threads to bash the person, whether the person is named, or the whole ordeal is disguised as some unnamed, unspecified event. I guess this is the IRL equivalent to telling your story to mutual acquiantances and seeking out the supporters. The anonymity of the internet also empowers people in a different way. This is related to my anecdote of a former boss. On this board - and most boards I can think of - people have a tendency to push buttons incessantly. "Jabs"... it's easy when you can walk into a room, slap someone across the face, and then log off. Or ignore, or block, or claim "I'm leaving this thread" or any other virtual means of not having to own your actions. You can't walk into a room and slap me, and then just disappear, or make me & anything I do as a reaction be unseen/unheard... no, you have to face the consequences of your actions. You DON'T have to do that online, so people do a hell of a lot more provoking and prodding than they would ever think of doing IRL. Not so brave people are suddenly very brave when they have a handle to hide behind. But really - if you're going to pee in your bed, you'd better be willing to change the sheets, or you're just gonna be soppy and stinky in the morning. All just IMO of course.

3 in a 4 is too much for me. I'm at 2.75 and this is as close to a sweet spot as I'm going to get. So yeah - 3.25 could most definitely be enough for restriction. I thought my surgeon was agressive with his 0.5 - 1.0 cc fills. WOW. 1.75 at a time, in a 4cc band? Do be careful when you resume eating. Having THAT much fill at once can easily push you into "overfilled."

This is just a guess, but "pain and soreness" combined with "burping" to me = stuck. Whensomething is stuck, your body produces thicker saliva, similar to what's produced just before you're about to vomit. And copious amounts of it, too. Adding this on top of whatever is stuck will just make things worse. What are you eating? How are you eating? How big of bites? How long between bites? If you've not eaten for 10 hours, do you still hurt, or is it only when you've eaten/are burping?

I have gone up a cup size. I attribute it to the same changes that make men think weightloss increases their penis size. My boobs have stayed the same, but as I've lost weight my abdomen is farther and farther away, so they appear to stick out more, and more "boob" is there to fill the bra cup.

I'm not great at forgiving. On one end, it takes sooo much to get to "need forgiveness" status, that few would be likely to get there. On the other end, outside of my husband and immediate family, people just aren't that important to me, so if someone did get to that status, it would be nothing for me to be completely done with them and never look back. I don't think forgive is a separate action. I think forgiving is reaching a decision that something the person or situation has to offer is greater than your resentment or hurt or <insert emotion of choice> at having to endure it. And really, I'm not sure people forget. I've seen people hurt by things, who live just fine 20 years, and *bam* along comes that trigger and everything is right there again, just like it happened yesterday.

One of the best movie quotes - The last time I had a pap smear, the guy needed leather gloves and an oyster shucker. So wrong on so many levels.

sweethazel, what's your opinion of the topic?

It looks liek this and is sold in as-is (not boxed up):

The only place I've found it is Wal-Mart. I've checked drug stores, Target, grocery stores, even gas stations because I don't go to wal-Mart unless I really have to. The name of it is "Rapid Blast" and it's usually stocked in the same area as regular Tylenol. Opaquish bottle, strong red color. There is also a PM version that comes in Warm vanilla flavor and is kind of honey-colored, but definitely not honey (or vanilla) tasting.