green

Hah! Don't appologise. This just means that you are a crypto-blonde. You know, brunette on the outside and blonde on the inside. :heh::heh::heh::heh::heh: Once I start dying my hair dark I am going to look muy smarter, too. LOL :biggrin1:

Whenever you choose to do a quote, such as I have just done, you will find a bunch of these little creatures at the foot of the page. If you do not see them then just move the scroll bar down. Then move your cursor down to the appropriate smiley, hit enter once, and this will appear wherever you had last left off while working on your message. When you are writing a new message, one without a quote, you will not have access to the smileys until you hit the preview post button. Once you do that you will be able to not only proof read and edit your message before posting it, you will also be able to load it up with the appropriate smiley guys. You can get rid of them in the usual fashion; you simply centre your cursor on top of the item and then hit delete. I hope my explanation makes sense to you. I do come from analog land, which is the land before all things digital. :phanvan Everything is complicated for me.

Thanks, grrl, from Green. I get it and I respect it. :bounce:

Woohoo! Can I take my shoes and bra off??

I also found the joke to be tasteless, inventive, and very funny. And to let you know where I am coming from, well, I am one of the left-wing nuts who has always believed that Bush was wrong to invade Iraq. I will mention that I also adore Canuck, women, and blonde jokes: all are categories into which I fit. I have also heard some absolutely brilliant Jewish jokes, another category to which I can lay claim. All I ask of a joke is that it be inventive, witty, and funny. The best humour is usually unsafe. Jokes often do hinge on stereotypes and humour is by nature a complex response to life and to its stresses. Lenny Bruce's brilliant, bitter, and very funny rant about Jews and Jesus Christ is a case in point. For those of you who have never heard of Bruce and this particularly disturbing rant, let me explain: Bruce was a stand-up comedian who was notorious for crashing through the barriers of acceptable, and he had one particular piece where he liked to say something along the lines of "Jesus Christ? Yep, we killed him. He was one of us, but we killed him. And you oughta be glad that we didn't have modern technology in those times. Otherwise you would all be wearing little gold electric chairs around your necks instead of crosses." Lenny Bruce's savage rap was both chilling and very, very funny because it carried the stated reasons which many Christians claimed for their anti-Semiticism to the extreme. (By the way, he was a comedian who was active in the late 50s and early 60s - the conformist decades - of the last century.) We have now Jeff Foxworthy who jokes about being a redneck and we have such comics as Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, etc who are utterly brilliant on black/race issues. South Park does not respect the Geneva Convention when it comes to exempting people/s from reaping the consequences of their idiotic behaviour. Why then should this kinda cute little joke about the Muslim vehicle not be appreciated? Hell, the proper response, in my opinion, is to snicker and then move on in order to imagine what would make for a fine Fundy, Catholic, Jewish, Hindu, Southern belle, JAP, blonde or atheist car. After all, we all belong to some kind of stereotype, do we not? My advice to the Politically Correkt gang is to take a chill pill. My advice to Muslims is to take a chill pill and to join the 21st century. There certainly is room for you here. Just as you had traditionally made room for the dhimmi so, too, are the dhimmi prepared to make room for you. It is just a question of opening your hearts in order to engage in dialogue. This present state of affairs certainly is a mess.

1 week clear fluids 2 weeks fluids 2 weeks mushies

I also agree with your post, Laura. This is something that you do not have to wear in order to know that it is wrong.

I agree with your post. My father, Polish Jew, survived the Holocaust because he left Poland in 1937. Most of his family was not so lucky. He taught us the exact same things that your GG taught you. (Hey, maybe we are related from generations ago.... :eek:)

Hey Carol, it sounds like you are completely organised. I know that you will do well on this project. Congratulations! And it is cool that you will be a member of the Free 'Em gang.

Thanks for all the kind and supportive comments, folks. :biggrin1: Denise, I would be careful about getting another fill. It was because I was very tight that I ended up with acid reflux - for the first time in my life - and had to get a complete defill until this was under control. 4 months later I am still operating with an empty band! I feel unfulfilled without my fill. *sob* Better to try to stay away from the sweets. :hungry:Re breakfast in different lands: I used to live in France and breakfast there was delicious carbs and cafe us lait. Croissants or pain au chocolat or baguette with butter and jam. Though the French eat bread with every meal including pasta it is only in the morning that they eat it with butter. And in Italy breakfast consists of sweet rolls and pastries and caffe con leche. Both of these countries really like to start the day with carbs and sugar. The U.K. likes a fried egg, toast, and sausage breakfast served with tea. Coffee and cereal are habits which have been imported from the U.S. A protein rich meal which is also a heart attack on a plate. Ingyrob: I chose a face lift because it is the face which what everyone sees. I must say, though, in an ideal world my thighs and upper arms would see some tightening. This really did surprise me as I was carrying most of my fat on my torso. I used to look like a pregnant spider. :eek: Now they just look like old lady arms and thighs. :phanvan And, yah, turns out both Indio and I detest wearing bras and shoes. Free 'em all, sez Green. :bounce:

As for white folks and racism, I believe that Derick has a made a very good point. I don't believe that anyone of us can really get it except on an academic level. That being said, I have had some experiences of racism and I am so white that I have to wear #50 sunblock. My father's side of the family is Jewish, you see, but because I don't look Jewish I have been listening for years to all kinds of truly ugly crap about the Jews ever since I left white collar land in order to join the union as a blue collar worker. This always hurts horribly. On the other hand, I have never been stopped or discouraged from doing something solely because of the colour of my skin. Nor have I had people walk up to me and insult me or my family because of the colour of my skin. This would hurt far, far more.

Everyone has my respect until they lose it. Well, everybody except telemarketers but I am trying to work on that.

Indio, you always say the nicest things. We must meet someday over a coffee and drop bras and shoes together. :bounce:

I have got to tell someone and so I am telling my over 50 sisters. I went to see my doc today and hopped on her scale (I don't have one at home) and discovered that I have lost another 5 lbs. This is a big deal for me because I had already reached goal and then had had to have a defill because of acid reflux. And then I had the face lift, and now I have a bad, bad cold, and also will likely need a root canal ASAP, and thus have not had the chance to either excercise or get a refill. This means that this further weight loss has been due to my new&improved eating habits/my medical problems. I now weigh 142.5 lbs - I haven't weighed that for decades, eh!! Well, I must say that I am sorry. This sure has been an all about me kinda post but the truth is that I have been bowled over by this news. :bounce: I am leaving now. Good-bye nice people. :eek:

I am a TLBC graduate, too. I was banded Sept 7, 2006. TLBC certainly is an excellent clinic. I am happy with the treatment which I have had and still do receive there and I sure am happy with the results of my band, but I do hear that Dr. Coburn and the rest of the bariatric gang who operate the clinic in Mississauga are just as fine. :eek: An added bonus for me is that TLBC is really close to my house. It is a short trip by subway and I can walk home after a fill. :bounce:

I was banded at TLBC just over a year ago and now I am at goal. The folks there are very nice.

Grrrl, I had exactly the same thing happen to me about 9 months or so after I was banded. It took me a long time to figure out that my chronic sore throat - it felt like it had been painted with battery acid during the night time - was a manifestation of acid reflux and not a cold waiting to happen. I had just had another fill prior to the onset of these symptoms, by the way. I went in for a mini-defill and I saw my GP who gave me a prescription for meds to deal with the reflux. These measures didn't work and so I went back for a complete defill at the beginning of this past August. From what I had been reading on LBT at the time this is the right thing to do. Once the acid reflux has calmed down you can begin again with the fills. At the moment I am still defilled - long story! - and I am definitely missing my band. However I did manage to get to goal before the defill and I did learn how to eat the right way and I have lost a further 5 lbs since being defilled. I am hoping to get refilled within the next month or so. :bounce: Hope my story is helpful.

Congrats from Green, eh. That is a great NSV and there will be many more to come.

Sounds like a very fine plan to me. :bounce:

omigawd! lol I wish I had seen that. I love South Park.

Compassion, empathy, and politeness have nothing at all with being taken for a ride and used by others. These are two different issues.

Very cute post. :bounce: But, yah, people do assume that chubbies are idiots, especially if the chubby is a woman.

Omigawd! Thanks for posting this! I worked as a unionized grunt building aircraft until I retired. I sure did have fun dealing with those folks who believed in this unpleasant stereotype. haha

If you are merely missing sex but not romantic love and would like to continue with your present arrangement then I would suggest going for a sexual arrangement with your philandering ex-boyfriend. You needn't feel guilty about his marriage: if he isn't sleeping with you he will be sleeping with someone else for this is in his philandering nature. Do make sure that you are protected against STDs, though. If, however, you do want a romantic relationship then you must be prepared to separate from your husband and find yourself a new mate. If you want to stay close to your husband perhaps you could buy yourselves a house which has 2 apartments: you could live in one and he in the other. This may sound unconventional but so what! Why don't you talk to your husband about this issue?

"...compassion and empathy" and politeness towards others are fundamental to any civilized society.