And now for a bit of juicy scandal and gossip.

Watch out Toronto - the Madcat and Carla are getting together tonight to do a bit of painting (as in painting the town red)

How do I know this - because I have an ear to the ground, and a long nose.

Oooh--Carla and Madcat without miss Ruth.

Shad--Hang in there.

And I thought you wanted snow at the back door and icicles hanging from the windowsills!!!!

Crikey, and here was I thinking the big windows let in what little light you have during the day in winter

Hello Ladies,

Thank you for all the Birthday Wishes... Of course I had to celebrate, with a big ol piece of cake... and a drink... and dinner.... OH, we'll back on track...Getting up to workout was so hard after being off for 4 days..

Shy - I too enjoy the winter, and I definitely prefer sitting in the house, under a big blanket. It turned cold here last week, I"m sure not as cold as up there though.

Happy - I love your mother's motto... I guess i'm somewhat living by it too..

Rennie & Mel - I too have IBS, I noticed when I'm stressed it seems to hurt more and of course when I eat high fat/greasy foods..

:wave::wave: Hello to everyone else...

NEWS FLASH - Toronto has survived an evening of serious canuck fc chinwagging. All is well with the world, many of its problems sorted, and a blood oath sworn to never divulge the evening's menu. Carla is pleased to confirm that, despite her name, Madcat is neither crazy nor enraged. Early discussions of a pan-Ontario get-together next spring - attention Holly and Ruth! (And, of course, any other worldly chicks in the area at the time...)

Mel, I haven't forgotten you, and have my fingers crossed that the new cyst doesn't require surgery. Such rotten luck you have! Just be careful to take it easy and eat right, or I'll waddle down there and use Shad's cattle prod on you. You have been warned!!!

Shad, what the heck is going on with that project? Why did it all suddenly get so much more complicated? Will they pay you enough overtime so you can zip over to join the Ontari-ari-ario get-together next year??
By the way, the tiny print below my siggie has been there for some time, ever since I realized setting goals had a negative effect on my success rate. It seems eliminating goals does the same thing... :shrug:

It's very late, and work tomorrow, so that'll have to be it for now. Sorry for the lengthy absence, I've been scouting locations for our move next week and got stuck in the Doldrums. Madcat, however, haŝ made it clear we're not going to spend the month there, so we'll have to keep looking.

I'll finally be home late Friday, and more likely to post then. My hotel (number three in the last week) is very ritzy but has no coffeemaker. I'll find out tomorrow if the free shoe shine really means free shoe disappearance! :eek: Also, Dec 1 absolutely must be the end of this reckless :censored: food porn frenzy. The weigh-in Sat morning should be sufficiently sobering... Maybe I need to eat whatever sent poor Mel to her all-night rendez-vous on the loo/one pound weight loss... about 10 times in a row.

Okay, I'm getting silly. So goodnight, sleep tight, etc. :wave: to Holly, Happy, Shy, 1day, Rose, Painter, Meadow, Ruth, Ceejay.

Goodnight Carla :wave:
Goodnight Madcat :wave:
Everyone else appears to be sleeping except
GOOD MORNING SHAD!!!!!!

Afternoon actually - your post came in at 2.41pm my time. And I have been here for hours and hours and hours and hours and hours..........zzzzzzzzzzzzz oh poop, meeting time (AGAIN)

yes, I forget that you are 14 hours into the future over there...

Morning chicks, no time to post. Having problems with the router and DH needs the connection so he can work.

Have a good one, hopefully back tonight... :wave:

I HATE THIS WIRELESS KEYBOARD!!!! :tantrum:
MY PINKY HIT "BACK" AND IT DID ALONG WITH MY LONG POST! :rollpin: WELL I CANNOT GO THRU ALL THAT POSTING AGAIN SO...........
SHORT AND SWEET IT WILL HAVE TO BE.
RICHIE'S MOM IS SHOWING SIGNS OF GETTING BETTER. THE FAMILY HAS LESSENED THEIR HYSTERICAL CRYING. RICHIE ACTUALLY HAS WORK THIS WEEK NOW. ALL THINGS GOOD OVER HERE. I HAVE BEEN FAITHFUL WITH THE HERBAL MEDS, CREAM AND EYE SOAKS. EVERYONE IS SAYING HOW GOOD MY FACE LOOKS. :D
SO I AM A HAPPY CAMPER AND PRAYING FOR MIRACLES ON BOTH MY "ENDS". :dance: :dance: IT'S CLOSE ENOUGH TO CHRISTMAS SO MAYBE THIS WILL BE THE YULETIDE MIRACLE FOR NEW JERSEY!!!
JEN AND I WILL FOOD SHOP TOMORROW. THERE IS A 2 DAY SNOW/RAIN STORM HEADING OUR WAY. I SHOULD HAVE STOCKED THE CLOSETS UP ALREADY AND TO BE TRUTHFUL...I FORGOT. I DON'T LIKE TO GET CAUGHT SHORT. NOT ONLY FOR US THREE BUT FOR THE OTHERS IN HERE. SOMEONE ALWAYS NEEDS SOMETHING FROM MEL'S CORNER GROCERY STORE. ESPECIALLY TOILET PAPER!!!! :lol3: :lol3: GOTTA GET OFF HERE. BEEN AT IT TOO LONG.
HAPPY THURSDAY :moped:

MADCAT & CARLA~ POOR TORONTO!! GLAD IT MADE IT THRU YOUR WHIRLWIND TOUR!!! GLAD YOU GALS GOT TOGETHER. CAN'T WAIT TO SEE THE FIL VERSION OF YOUR "PARTY" :rofl: :rofl: MADCAT, HOW MUCH WILL YOU TAKE FOR THE "DETAILS" OF THE MENU???? I THINK MAYBE CARLA NEEDS TO TURN THE PROD ONTO HER OWN BUTT! :nono:

CEEJAY~ AN OLDER DOCTOR TOLD ME TO GO TO THE STORES, BROWSE AROUND AND KEEP TRYING MEDS TILL I FOUND A GOOD COMBO CAUS THEY COULDN'T SEEM TO HEL ME. I DID AND JEN DID TOO. WE USE MUCINEX (BLUE BOX) TWICE A DAY AND DAYQUIL GELL CAPS ONCE OR TWICE A DAY. SINCE THEN LIFE HAS BEEN GOOD.
CHRONIC RHINITIS CAN BE A BIG BUTT PAIN BUT IT IS MANAGEABLE. GOOD LUCK!

RENNIE~ WILL SEND SOME SNOW SO YOU CAN WATCH IT OUT THE WINDOW!!

SHAD~ LOVED THE BIG PRINT...DIDN'T HAVE TO SQUINT TO READ IT:rofl: WILL SEND MANY PRAYERS YOUR WAY TILL 1/27!!!!!!!!!!!
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...A240_SH20_.jpg

HAPPY~ SO SORRY ABOUT THE ROUTER BUT GOD WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS!! NOW YOU HAVE MORE TIME IN THE REAL WORlD :dance:

PATTY~ GLAD THE DAY WAS A GOOD ONE!!
I AM ALMOST AFRAID TO BRAG BUT A FEW YEARS AFTER MY DIVORCE AND CHANGES IN DIET, I GOT RID OF THE IBS. (KNOCKING ON WOOD HERE) LOL

OK THIS IS IT..... :moped:

http://www.auburn.edu/~vestmon/gif/dec25.gif

25 Days

14 Hours

16 Minutes


...But who's counting?

Morning all,
Did someone say bananas - I live in Queensland which is known for its banana crops. That's why we are called banana benders. Other States are variously known as Cockroaches (NSW) Sand Gropers (WA) and Mexicans (Victoria - it's south of the border!) that might take some working out.

I read an article on IBS sourced from the Australian Doctor newspaper. I'll try to reproduce but may have to leave out some bits.

PARASITE SUSPECT IN IBS
Patients who have been diagnosed with IBS or chronic diarrhoea could in fact be infected with a parasite.
According to experts writing in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, a parasite previously believed to be fairly harmless was a strong suspect behind gastrointestinal disease causing diarrhoea, abdominal pain and cramping. In such cases a course of antiparasitic agents cured the patients.
Further research at St Vincents Hospital in Sydney found that one per cent of stool samples examined were found to be infected with the parasite, and all the infected patients has gastrointestinal symptoms.
While this research is an exciting development, controversy remains over the organism's importance in chronic IBS.

So there you have it.

And here is another little gem from the same Health and Wellbeing booklet we get distributed here at work.

When you get home after a hard day at work, walk barefoot across a carpeted floor. The textured surface stimulates pressure points on the soles of your feet and triggers the release of calming hormones.

Now there's one for our Happy!!!!!!

Mel I could be rude and say SHUT UP ABOUT CHRISTMAS ALREADY but I won't cause you are my friend and you enjoy it. Any joy in the season has gone out of it for me, but I will take the holidays and have fun anyway.
Speaking of Christmas - I don't have any cards written or sent so far this year. I'd better get onto it soon. Few presents to buy and I may just look for them over the weekend. I've hired a car because I need to do a big shop and I want to go visit a couple of places as well and I ain't coming in here to do anything at all. I've already clocked up 56 hours this week. A weekend off won't go astray.

Mel - as far as Madcat and Carla go, I'm not sure I would worry about the menu, I wonder what they said about us????? Just kidding. It's nice to hear of the chicks around the world getting together and forging new friendships and bonds. Long may it last and often may it happen.

Carla - I would love to come over for the Ontario chapter meeting. Alas, it is probably unlikely - unless someone can find me a job over there - I'm still working on it - or I win a lottery, but then that involves taking a ticket and I don't do that often.

Talking of Ruth and Holly - where are they? Did they get buried under a ton of snow or something. I know Ruth was going west to the DD but I haven't seen her around site at all for some time. I hope that things have not gone bad for her DH. Holly must be all Christmassed out because that was the last time we heard from her as well.

Rennie - sometimes I think those picture windows were created by men for women to clean! I did see something on Cable TV about a man who restored a water tower in Britain to live in and he put self cleaning glass in the top windows of the tower. I must find out more about them since I would love to live in a house which consists of a slab floor, walls of glass and a wide overhanging roof. There is one in Mataranka in NZ that I would just adore. However all that glass is daunting.

Right if I have forgotten someone, so be it. Breakfast calls along with some coffee. My weekly treat.

I'll never get caught up! I was away for a week and in major rush mode just before so didn't get in her much to post.

Came home yesterday to snow, ice and freezing weather but was able to put the Focus in the barn. Donnie cleaned and cleared all Kevin's construction crap to one side. Good guy! He even covered the AC for winter.

Today was mainly unpacking, ordering some gifts online and tackling the bag (yes, a bag!) of mail which included magazines and bills. I managed to get one gift wrapped and mailed off to my Secret Santa person who is in Toronto. It should get there in plenty of time for a change. Last year I had a woman in Finland which was a challenge - and $67!!!!

Tomorrow I will start another Christmas wall hanging, pick up one of the elusive Webkidz and crank myself into full Christmas mode. When I was out West, my DD and I did some shopping for the kidlets so I wrapped it out there and left it. I'll save millions on mailing.

Yes, I'm moving into Christmas mode. I love the season. Time to get out the Christmas earrings and sweaters, right?

I know I've missed a bunch of stuff but will try to read - great to see our Melodie back here even if she is a Christmas fruitcake! :rofl:

AND and Ontario Springtime meet sounds super.

Crikey - yell and she appears!!! Welcome home Ruth

Ruth
Glad you enjoyed your visit, but coming home to snow and ice doeesn't sound to inviting. Glad your helper got things doen for you. I'm not looking forward to that part of the winter.

Shad
Good for your for not working this week end. You need time to unwind and shopping does that for me.

Rennie and Shad
As for me and my story on the IBS problem. Partly due to nerves and partly due to the formation of diverticulum. Luckily I've not been bothered since I've been on my high fiber diet.

Reenie
Come clean for me please. I've just not been in the mood. However, It should not take long since I did a major clean before my sister's visit last week. I miss her already. I also like the Santa Avatar.

Mel
I've done the over the counter meds but they are not strong enough. The allegra d 180's doesn't appear to be doing the job eitiher. I went to Lowe's today and purchased an air purifier. If this doesn't help then it's off to the allergy clinic. The injection my doctor gives me last approximatly one week. I'm going back for another one tomorrow. My aunt doesn't want me to do this but I'm tired of suffering.