green

Thanks for filling me in on all the buckle details, Kat. Below you will find the details of my buckle story. There was this real skinny Quebecois guy who had been sent to our Toronto aircraft plant as a foreman while I was still working there. (This was before I retired.) He was in the habit of wearing "cowboy" including the most enormous belt buckle I have ever seen. This looked idiotic on this skinny little guy. He was also in the habit of pretending that he didn't speak English and then when I spoke French to him of pretending that he couldn't understand me. In brief, he made himself very unpopular with us local grunts. Anyhow, one of us, a sturdily built biker, used to threaten to come in wearing a garbage can lid as a belt buckle in order make fun of him. This never happened but we sure did enjoy the dream. In fact I almost wet myself I was laughing so hard.

Oops! I guess I should have posted a frat boy humour alert on the last post, eh.

Bwahaha! Good idea, grrl. I could harvest them farts from all those travellers suffering from third world revenge, put 'em in aerosol cans, and sell them. They would make for a much more original gift than those sucky stuffed bears. And a real nice gift for yer boss, too. LOL Surprise him/her at a board (bored) meeting with his own personal luv fart.

Valentine's Day is just around the corner. Love Farts make a cheap yet effective gift, eh. *Frat boy snickers from Green*

I am very curious about this bizness of registering. Up here in Canada the only registration that occurs is that of getting onto the voters' list in your riding. The various parties will come around to your front door and court you for your vote and of course there will be lots of paid media promotion. If you happen to believe in a particular candidate and his or her party you can indicate that he or she does have your vote. You can go further and agree to have a party sign on your lawn or in your window or whatever...and by doing this you agree to advertise your choice. (Green routinely does this.) The next level of involvement is to donate your time/money in order to help your candidate and your party with their campaign. You can even become a party member. You can do all of the above, then go into the polling booth and vote for another candidate, another party. I am now asking about registration because an earlier poster on this thread mentioned that he would like to vote for a particular party but would be unable to because he was a registered voter for the other major party. Is it this true? Cannot registered voters change their minds? Why then do people register? This foreigner is very curious about this aspect of your voting system.

My husband tends to fart a lot and these are usually the silent but deadly kind. He comes from a gassy family. After spending a weekend with them I referred to them as the House of Methane. They fell about themselves laughing. Now that I am old and gassy I am able to exact my revenge. Yep, now I often win at the Green and company Fart Wars. I love the look of shock and awe that I see in my mate's face. I tell him not to be afraid, that they are only love farts.

"Buckle bunny," eh.... Now there's term that I have never heard before. Cute.

Oui, c'est bien possible. Cela me fait rigoler.

I had my band done at TLBC. The location is great for me. It is only 5 subway stops from my house. I have received great treatment from them and the fill nurse is fabulous at giving fills. You don't feel a thing! I have heard that Dr. Coburn and his team do fabulous work, too, and that they are very caring, very supportive of their patients. I guess this may mean that your choice might boil down to price, location, and aftercare. A lifetime of aftercare was included in the price which I paid to TLBC.

Can you switch from Effexor to a different anti-depressant? I was on Effexor for awhile and hated it! I gained weight and suffered from such serious constipation that I usually felt like I was giving birth whenever I was finally able to deliver. And oh, the pain! Now, I am one of those people who never, ever gets constipated, not even when I am on major pain meds. And my normally good blood pressure shot up. I had to take meds for that. I suffer from major depression. I am now on a cocktail of meds and am doing well without the horrid side effects of Effexor. These are as follows: Wellbutrin, Selexa, Topomax. My blood pressure is now fine again, I am no longer taking meds for this, and I can poop regularly and without pain. And even though my band has been defilled since last August I am still wearing size 10 jeans. Sorry about all the poop info but it came to be a real obsession of mine while I was on Effexor.

Let's be fair. In her post Trixie referred to herself as a heifer, too. I believe that she was attempting to inject a little humour into her response, that she had absolutely no intention of insulting anyone. The use of the term "heifer" was definitely misguided and obviously not at all humourous, but it was only a clumsy mistake, and was not intended as an insult. As for her opening comments, she had her own point of view, she expressed it: the rest of us disagreed with her and explained why we disagreed.

Wow! You look fabulous!

Gravol! That is one of my favourite anti-barf meds, eh.

Wow! That is whacked! Say good-bye to your civil liberties. First they went after the smokers, and now they are going after the fat folks. I guess there will be a scale in every restaurant.... I wonder what the policy will be on overweight chefs?

It sure is good to hear from you, Leatha and Sallyjo. It sounds like both of you have been travelling through a lot, and that much of this has been difficult, painful, and complicated. Though your issues are likely solved with your latest surgery, Leatha, and that is terrific news, you, Sallyjo, still have many difficulties ahead of you. This certainly is sad news. I do hope that your daughter is able to get that healthy liver ASAP. Please keep us in the loop, eh. That means both of you....!

Good luck on your interview. I hope you get the job. This will be the kind of work where you will be able to make a difference and you will have interesting information to report to the rest of us back at LBT.

There have been articles in the Canadian media about the 100 kilometer/mile meal plans. The idea behind these is that many of our foods travel from very far away and thus come with a large carbon footprint. The concept is to make meals using only such produce which can be sourced locally. The trouble with doing this in Canada is that our growing season is so short. This leaves us pretty much deprived of everything except for root vegetables and apples during most of the year. blehhh..... I eat a lot of fresh produce and thus my carbon footprint will remain large in this area. And as for drinks, I much prefer scotch over rye and French wines over those produced in Ontario.

Yeah, when I was single I would always attract the guys who wanted to settle down and make babies on me! Talk about yer opposites attracting, eh........ It was a real drag. Even though I would make a point of announcing straight away that I had no desire to have kids they would figure that they could change my mind. Argh!!!

I think that you will find that many of the individuals who posted here are very much pro-Oprah. I personally am pleased that you have posted here; by choosing to post you have chosen to open up an area which is painful for further discussion. This is always a good thing in my book. The only way that people can come to understand and respect each other is by talking to each other. Closed doors are never a good thing, are they? It is my understanding that Oprah herself is all about opening doors....

I am 5'6" tall and 58 years old. I had a professional bra fitting done the other day and learned that I am either a 34C or a 36B. I think that my cup size is perfect; my boobs look as good as all the young ones do on the L-word, and that is a show where you get to see a lot of real breasts! Yesterday I wore my grrlie bra for the first time. What a strange experience! I felt like I was wearing someone else's breasts! I have been wearing nothing but sports bras for the past 15 years. At home I go commando.

I certainly don't think that we are flawed with respect to the tiny position which we occupy in face of the larger mechanism, the larger world, the universe. We are what we are or we is what we is..... This is what life is as far as we will be able to absorb it. The semi-feral cat with whom my mate and I live sure does march to a different beat. As I have already said, this cat is not a good pet. She is semi-feral. she does not enjoy that whole cuddling-cosy-lovin-kitty-thang. She sure is not warm and cosy. And though we had the creature spayed we did end up choking at having her declawed. A dumb idea on our part. Our house is full of textiles and this cat is awful fond of sharpening her talons on our soft stuff. She has always ignored the kitty scratch pad. Why ruin a man-made paper product when you can ruin valuable oriental rugs, hang from curtains, and evoke a knee-jerk response from those fools with whom you live?

And, yup, the creep who knowingly chooses to sell someone vulnerable a piece a junk used car or who wishes to play the role of this Hitler cat, that clown who had caused a) that dreadful 2nd World War and who had b)worked hard to erase all the Jews in Europe, well, both these individuals should be viewed as immoral creatures, as creatures who have transgressed against the well-being of the human pack, and as such the actions of these folks must be examined and they must be considered equally eligible to receive a cruel smack-down. For sure it is true that Hitler's actions were certainly oh so stunningly much more harmful than the actions of a cheap crooked used car salesman should you are wish to engage in weighing the relative damages of injuries of this sort, should you wish to talk about yer quantity and, yah, quality, nevertheless, the cash-screwed family who finds themselves stuck with a bow-wow lemon car and no chance of recourse, may well find themselves suffering as just about as much about their sad situation as those families who find themselves utterly ruined because of the seemingly random brutalities of racism and geo-politics. I am inclined to view the immorality of such activities as genocide as being very similar to any knowingly irresponsible behaviours which are enacted on those very small, those very intimate, those very narrow levels. I mention this because I have been reading in my, an admittedly, foreign press that the first victims of this bluddy awful sub-prime tragedy are decent working class folk, some of whom are not white. Seems like many of these cats are Canadians, eh.

Although I think that I get what you are saying, Marjon, (I have been spending some of my time as a recent retiree reading human genetics for dummies, environmental history for blondies, and social anthropology for fools or, um, er, artsies) I am inclined to view our human concerns through two different set of optics. There is indeed the larger view: we human creatures, mammals, omnivores, social animals, and big-head members of the monkey clan are only one item in a large and intricate mechanism. Indeed it may be argued that our membership is unnecessary for the planet earth to keep on ticking. Subtract the dung beetle and this planet may well encounter more problems than it would should we humans be subtracted from the equation. This is the big point of view. Nevertheless, and this is where I find that I disagree with you, we are human beings and thus our own physical, emotional, and ethical concerns are naturally of paramount importance to us. This is only normal and might be considered a product of our hardwiring. All animals are anxious to survive, thrive, and pass on their genetic material. All animals understand that a certain amount of co-operation between the pack will be required if they, as individuals, are to survive. I believe that we are at the top of the food chain in many ways. Our extraordinary intelligence has caused us to distort the natural ecological patterns because we have kinda overrun the planet. We sure are the top predator, eh. But we big-heads cannot be faulted for being desirous of examining the ethics of our behaviour, of weighing the value of the survival of the pack against the survival of one's own self. For sure you are right when you say that you find our tiny struggles to be only that, something which must be viewed within the framework of something which is much, much larger - and something which is of course entirely detached from us. At the same time it is only natural that we will interest ourselves in those issues which loom large in our own little own lives. And what is wrong with that? This is how we are built. Let me explain: my husband and I now live with a semi-feral cat, a stray which we took in, had spayed, cleaned up, etc. She has grudgingly begun to show signs of attachment to us but this is very much within the framework of her tastes, interests, and drive to survive. Her behaviour remains a mystery to us; there is no chance of anthropomorphising this. She is an alien creature who continues to look after her own interests in her own mysterious way. I would be fool if I were to attempt to understand this animal. I do have all the skills and rights to attempt to understand our little human corner of this big universe.

The problem (as I see it) is that virginity until marriage and then sexual monogamy afterwards does not necessarily guarantee good marriages. All that this clean livin' will do is cut down on the transmission of STDs and the number of single parent families. Sexually tidy practices will not solve any of the other problems which can make a marriage a truly hellish experience. Some people will act in a physically or emotionally abusive manner towards their mates and their children. Some people will marry before they are sufficiently emotionally mature to handle marriage. They may marry in order to escape living under their own parents' roofs, they may rush to marry because they are horny and they want access to sex. It is easy when one is young and immature to confuse sexual passion with true love. There are many people who believe that they truly love their mates but they show this through displays of pathological jealousy. These are unions where personal growth is stunted. Dysfunction is not, I believe, rooted in loose sexual practices. Sexual tidiness won't solve these ills.

Oh, I completely agree with you. I deeply enjoy treating others with kindness, consideration, humour, and generosity. Where I run into trouble is when people treat me badly. That is when my rage problems errupt. I am lousy at turning the other cheek. Instead I become ornery, sarcastic, and then refuse to ever have anything to do with the individual ever again. This is a real problem for me. That is why I am in therapy.