BJean

I went to a great new theatre in the area. They serve rather gourmet food and the chairs and tables are quite comfortabe and nice. The best way to enjoy this dining/movie atmosphere is to get seated around 20 to 30 minutes prior to the dimming of the lights. Today we weren't able to do that and did not get our meals ordered until just before the trailers began. Once our food arrived, I was engrossed in an exciting movie to be coming soon, took a bite of my turkey/gouda sandwich. It went down just fine, but just to be careful I took another very small bite, chewed like crazy and felt great. Then my wandering fingers grasped a lovely well-seasoned french fry. Yum my tummy thought. I nibbled on it while watching the coming attractions. OMG!!! Within a very few moments, the old pain rose in my chest and I knew I was in trouble! I wound up having to excuse myself after the movie started, not once, but twice! It was probably the worst PB experience that I've ever had. Needless to say it ruined my afternoon. I could hardly sip water even later in the day. Tonight, I was so depressed I ate ice cream for dinner. Yee gads, what the heck is up with me??? :cry

Greetings on Memorial Day. I hope you are all doing well. I am staying the same, but just barely. Up one day, down the next. Quite the roller coaster lately.

oooooh, snap! I hope you weren't talking to me.

Robin: Thanks for posting. If anyone can provide insight on this topic, you can. It seems that you have some understanding on both sides of the issue. I wish the answer was a simple one - it isn't - but opening up the lines of communication can certainly help.

Yup, we're freaks, high five Denise!

Hey ya'll, lets band together. There's strength in numbers and as baby boomers (a lot of us are, anyway) we should soon be wielding more clout in every facet of society. We spent our youth getting the war stopped, burning our bras and getting our voices heard as women, and we got ourselves treated better in the work place. So now looks like maybe we need to rally the cry for better treatment of older people and people who don't have Jane Fonda's body. I'm not sure where we need to stage our first march, but now that I think of it, I'm not sure just how far I could march down Pennsylvania Avenue, especially carrying a placard. Maybe we could figure out something via the internet? :drum:

Cool Jasimine, sounds like you have it figured out and under control. Running is so hard on knees and feet. But I used to be a runner too and there's nothing quite like it for a feeling of well being! I've never been much of a free weight person, but I'm told that it can be lots of fun and rewarding and you can do it without re-injuring things. I'm planning to get into it as soon as I graduate from water therapy. It's great that you're learning all this before you get to be my age!

calorienesiac... perfect term for what I am!!! Glad you've coined a word for my malady. Denise: I agree. I love the boxed foods that come with the nutritional guide. It's a quick jolt to the memory bank. I've bought several calorie content books over the years and I even seem to have amnesia when it comes to picking them up and checking for the calories in whatever I'm about to eat. When it's conveniently on the box or wrapper, it is right there, hard to ignore.

I knew it. I just knew I was different! I can eat a large wedge of Brie with a few water crackers and I gain 10 lbs. and the food weighs much less than 10 lbs. Ha! This is proof positive that my metabolism is MUCH lower than anyone elses. I'm a freak. How much does a cat turd cake weigh anyway?

Carlene that was my lame stab at humor. Jasmine: As a person who has serious knee problems, I certainly do sympathize. You know you can do this thing, you've just had a momentary setback. I have no idea how old you are and I hope you do not have any permanent damage. Just a word of serious advice. Whatever you do, don't stop exercising completely. Keep your self doing something because it's the inactivity that can cause your knee to completely screw up on you. I don't know for sure if it is arthritis that sets in or exactly what, but since I've had my problem I have learned from so many people that after some kind of sports injury where they babied their knee(s) by being inactive, was when the serious knee problems arose. You don't have to do much, and you can treat it with heat, but you also need to get in a warm swimming pool or some kind of regular therapy with warmth that increases the blood flow that will allow your knees to extend and straighten without causing any further damage. Many of us are facing knee replacements and if I can keep anyone from having to go through that, my job is done! Hang in there!

Carlene... is your fast food post anything at all like DISCUSSING CHEESE??????????

oooooh me too! What's your fav? I'm especially fond of a nice slightly warmed brie with water crackers. But I wouldn't turn my back on a wedge of Gouda or Edam. If you want to hear a really horrendous confession, do you? huh?..... really? promise you won't tell, okay? well, just between you and me... I make chicken enchiladas with, you'll never guess... it's really dispicable... you guess it VELVEETA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :faint: :heh: :heh: :heh: :heh: :heh: :heh: :heh: :heh: :heh: :heh: :heh: :heh: :heh: :heh: :heh: :heh: :heh: :heh: :heh: :heh: :heh: :heh: :heh: :heh:

gosh Funny, if only it were true! I always vote. It isn't about the "government" per se. With this administration, it's all about capitalism and big business. I have always thought capitalism is the best thing for our country, but I'm beginning to wonder if the pendulum has swung too far one way and big business has come to own us all. I feel hamstrung by the insurance industry. It affects most of the important aspects of my life. They have much better lobbyists than I. So I keep paying the premiums and being disgusted with how they control me. Defeatist? Me? Well, I am not a defeatist I don't think. I believe I am a realist. I've worked in the government - been a legislative aide, worked for an Attorney General, DH working for the government, etc., I think I have a good grasp of how things really get done in government. Although I admit that when our electronic voting machines are haywire and we have dangling chads and disenfranchised voters in many states, it's hard not to feel a little defeated. I'll still vote and I'll still keep some faith that we can make a difference, but realistically I believe that big business controls most everything in the government these days. But thanks for the encouraging words!

Anniejo: I haven't been counting calories for the past 4 or 5 weeks and that's when I stopped losing. I even got a very restrictive fill and didn't lose. I just ate chocolate and ice cream. So what I've learned is that counting calories does work for me. It helps keep me conscious of WHAT I put in my mouth. The band helps with HOW MUCH, but I have to make the decision about what I eat. I was hoping that the band would be such an appetite suppressant that I wouldn't be able to eat much of anything. At first that was the case but it didn't continue. I reached the point where I was just hungry, really hungry. And when I had the really restrictive fill, I could hardly eat, which was good at meals, but I was hungry all the time. That's when I began to forget about calories and carbs and eat what I could easily ingest. Chocolate and ice cream. (by the way, I'm not a chocolaholic - it was just easy to eat and satisfying) To make a short story even longer, I am begining to count calories again and I'm doing way better. Good luck. I still have 40 (at least) pounds to lose. I'm 8 months out from my surgery. It may actually take the 2 years that they told me about! But that's way better than the alternative life that I was leading! Fat and getting Fatter!! :tired

Yeah and you and I both probably have ocean front property in New Mexico we would like to sell too. (about as likely as making the government do our bidding) But you are right!

:heh: :heh: :heh: :heh: :heh: Yup, I've seen "Up in Smoke" and other Cheech and Chong flicks. And yup I agree that the story lines were probably based on real life. By the way, for 6.5 yrs. I lived very close (30 miles) from the Mexican border. Believe me, we were exposed to all sides of the issue. I'm just way mad at our government and the businesses in this country that have allowed our borders to function like a sieve and then structured it so that we're not only handing them towels as they come across, we continue handing them all kinds of stuff free, so that they can stay and be relatively comfortable. I absolutely do not begrudge people trying to benefit from the abundance in this fabulous country of ours, but there's no excuse for us turning our heads and allowing it to happen at the expense of the American taxpayer. And it didn't happen overnight - it's been going on since Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong were very young entrepreneurs.

The majority of illegal aliens coming into this country from Mexico are Mexican - I think. I haven't queried a border patrolman, but it's pretty obvious. And that don't make me prejudiced. Early on in this thread I brought out the point about how the terrorists of 9-11 entered this country. That don't make me prejudiced against Moslems either. Frankly some of the Spanish-only Mexicans who worked on my house and in building this neighborhood were far better workers than some of the English speaking ones. But I don't think you can categorize either English speaking or Spanish speaking workers that way until there have been some serious scientific studies on the subject. That can't happen very easily since many of the Spanish speaking workers may possibly be illegally in this country and not real quick to participate in any scientific studies. Besides they're busy working. Don't get me wrong - I don't like having millions of illegal aliens living and soaking up government subsidized benefits in this country. But I sure don't blame them for taking advantage of the situation WE created.

I'm a huge Bette Midler fan. Except when she does serious, pithy songs. Yuk. Give me Bette singing "Oklahoma" in a mermaid costume, riding in a wheelchair with her stage boys fanning her with palm fronds! Now by damn, that's a performance!! Melinda was robbed!

It seems to me that the crux of the problem is that our anger and bad attitude toward illegals (from Mexico, mostly) is directed at the illegals themselves. Our country has, by its' actions or lack of action, made our country a very attractive place for illegal aliens from Mexico to come for a better life. It isn't surprising that Americans are angry. We should be angry. We should be angry that in order for us to get the medical care we need, we must pay through the nose for insurance and then the insurers exert control over our medical care. The insurance companies control our medical care even to the point of denying us medical care and medicines when they choose to, because our government lets them get away with it. However illegal aliens have the right to go to most hospitals and some health centers to receive medical care in spite of the fact that they have no insurance. So of course we are paying for ourselves, and indirectly for them, since they aren't compelled to have insurance to get medical care. That isn't fair and it isn't right. We pay a very significant portion of our salaries in taxes to provide for the education of American children. However, their children can attend school without their parents paying property taxes. How is that fair? Their children are often eligible for scholarships too, so our kids are competing with them for the available scholarships. In some cases that makes us mad because many of the Mexican students are working so hard for a better life and a better education, they're tough competitors. The list goes on, but you get the picture. The thing is that we shouldn't be all up in arms and pissed off at Mexican illegal aliens. We need to be furious with the government that has caused and even encouraged this situation. If we would all ban together and raise hell with Congress and the President and insist that the policies and laws either change or be enforced, we could make it happen. But honestly getting mad at people for coming here, even illegally, when we have encouraged it and made it a climate conducive to their better lifestyles, just doesn't make any sense. As for the language situation, there again our government and big business has provided a way and means for Mexicans to live in this country without needing to learn the language. Think about it: press 1 for Spanish, Spanish television and radio programming, Spanish billboards and signage, etc. English is difficult, it takes time to learn and as someone earlier pointed out, there is fear of discrimination (and rightfully so!) if they move around outside their comfort zone, so they are discouraged to get fully integrated into our society. We shouldn't be complaining about the illegal aliens who are fleeing a corrupt government and poverty. We should be doing something about insisting that the people who have encouraged the influx of illegals in this country to stop making it such a comfortable refuge for them. P.S. Insinuating that most of the illegal aliens who come over are drug dealers just doesn't make any sense, although I am sure we have also made that a lucrative business for some of them.

Sanjaya my a$$ - look at TRICIA!!!!!! wow!!!

Well Peaches, a good portion of your post describes very well how I would like to define the "viability" of a human being. It wasn't a purely scientific interpretation that I was thinking of, but one that is definitely all about nature. I'd just like to say that your post works for me. Thank you.

Actually if I had known what I stumbled into back then, I would have enjoyed the fray. I don't know whether I'd have taken the Cheddar side or the aggressive side, but I'd like to think I would have waxed poetic on the characteristics of a nice, ripe GOUDA!!

Way more! My DIL has done an incredible job of making the "real" living for them. Now that he's out of the music biz, they had twin boys and it still made more sense for him to work out of the home and keep track of the kids than for her to quit her very lucrative job. As the mother, it was only fun during the gigs. Between gigs, being the mother wasn't all that much fun either.

Dynamo: I would love to know how the whole record deal thing is structured for the Idol contestants. My son used to be in the business and we know that the music industry is full of sharks! The artists used to have all the clout and became rich. Now more often than not, the producers, et.al., are making all the money and the artists are their slaves. If the starving musical artists weren't all wanting to be stars so bad, they might ban together and turn it around at least so that things are more equitable.

Thanks Funny for taking the time to clue us in~! When I was first posting at LBT, and didn't even have my band yet, I somehow (you know poor innocent me :nervous ) incurred the wrath of one particular person. I tried to gracefully bow out but she wouldn't stop and her pals joined in. It was just bloody awful. I was stunned. Right after that I learned that she and some of her cohorts in crime were banned. I hardly knew what hit me. Several really nice folks PM'ed me and that kept me from fleeing forever. I wouldn't be surprised if now they regret that move since I'm so opinionated. But the R & R section is pure therapy for me. And I've been able to correspond with so many very smart, clever and nice people. I've learned a whole lot! Thank goodness they established the R & R area. It definitely seems to be doing the trick. If any of us get too het up and out of line, everyone jumps in and diffuses the situation by talking nice. It's cool. Limburger anyone?