I was so surprised to receive copies of emails supposedly responding to my post on gardenweb. Whoa, I thought, I haven't been there in ages. So I checked it out and here it is...imagine my surprise to see folks responding to something I posted 3 years ago! Helen, that is baffling about the virus warning. I've been on and off that site the past 3 years, and know many others who faithfully use that site and never had a problem. Perhaps your anti-virus program is set to a super sensitivity level that would pick up on something quite innocuous. But I am sure no expert on that. Haven't heard of Fitday.

eDiets is successful. My understanding is it gives you a balanced diet. I use weight watchers. Same idea. I also use the posting here for motivation and friendship. Whatever you choose - try to find something you can live with. Look for flexibility, choice and balanced eating - especially if you have a lot to lose or want to relearn your living habits. Everyone is different. Anyone else care to share? McPeg

Reading this (although it's several years old) is really interesting because I have a 6 year old cat who reads for all the world like the one in this original post! She's rotund and has difficulty cleaning herself on her back and rear end due to her short, tubby stature. She has a very fine, thick undercoat and a long top coat (almost like wool) She also looks a little deshevilled and the fur across the top of her back is usually oily... and she has dandruff! Although only in that spot on her lower back. The rest of her fur is immaculately groomed and maintained, although thick and woolly. Missy however, fortunately LOVES to be brushed and we also shave her rear end on a fairly regular basis to prevent a build up of nasties as tends to happen with her as she has difficulty cleaning that area. I suppose my biggest concerns for our baby girl are that she is itchy where the dandruff affects her and she also has the tendency to emit a rather pungeant odour as a result of her inability to maintain her nether regions and her naturally oily/flakey skin. She's due for her annual vaccinations so I intend to raise this issue with the vet when we take her along but wondered if anyone else had experienced these problems and what they've found (if anything) works.

Our rule has always been that as soon as an adult starts having children, we buy only for their children. My oldest SD has 3 children, who we spoil the hell out of. Her younger sister isn't married, and wouldn't care if we didn't get her anything, but I just wouldn't feel it would be fair if all the presents and money went to her older sister's family just because she's the one with kids. So I spend the same amount of money on my youngest SD that I spend on her sister's 3 children, and as I do go overboard on them, well, this year she got an HD camcorder to go along with the plasma TV we bought her last year. But the truth is we don't have anyone else to buy for because the rest of our family has all agreed to stop exchanging gifts completely. A lot of them really couldn't afford it, but felt so obligated, they literally went into debt rather than show up empty handed. We also had to confess that most of us had dreaded having to open all those gifts, knowing we'd have to fight back the urge to blurt out "What were you thinking?" My honest recommendation is that you should have the grandchildren who live with you open their presents from you privately, when the rest of the family isn't there. We always did this with the kids at midnight on Christmas eve rather than have them open their big presents in front of everyone else Christmas day, which frankly, would probably have made the other kids there jealous.