Hi Saucy...I'm here. I ended up having a lovely Thanksgiving day after thinking it would be a lonesome day with just the 2 of us. I overheard our evangelist saying he and his wife wouldn't be going to Oklahoma,( where the rest of their family was going), because of a doctor's appointment the following day.I asked them if they would be with anyone else that day, and thay said no, so I invited them to come to our house. They didn't know for sure whether they could come, but I went ahead and started the preparations on Wednesday( baking pies and pumpkin bars). I told Nolon I didn't think they would come.But Wednesday night, after we both had gone to bed early, the phone rang and it was John asking what time I wanted them to come! I was so pleased. They arrived at the time I told him ( 1 PM ) as I was putting the final touches on the meal. As one of you said about your meal...it was a real nice dinner even tho I did the preparing of it.:-) Doris brought a pumpkin pie , whipped cream, green beans, and a few other things. After we ate, and ate, and ate..:-), we visited the rest of the afternoon. It was a wonderful time ! Our former DIL decided that she wanted the girls this Thanksgiving, and Tim could have them at Christmas. She has decided they will alternate the years for the 2 holiday get-to-gethers ! (I am wondering how long she thinks Nolon and I will be around???) Since we live so far from them, and the latter part of Dec. can be very treacherous for driving here...it will remain to be seen if they make it this year. Thanksgiving has been our time with them ever since the first one was born, and she knows my stand on Christmas....just another case of her showing her true colors. Thank goodness Tim plans on bringing them this Friday for the weekend. I won't fix another Thanksgiving dinner, but that's okay. I have been reading, and enjoying, all of the posts. I am happy for all the good news, and sad with you that have sad news. Woody, I want you to know that the B 12 shots have very definitely helped. I took one a week for 4 weeks, and will begin one a month this coming tuesday. I presume they will continue the rest of my life.... I took Nolon for a checkup with a differant Doc last Monday. His regular doctor has gone into some sort of rehab, and will not be back until spring. I am thinking he ( Nolon) will be getting more appropriate treatment now. With the new meds that this doc gave him, he has already cut down on the use of the nebulizer. I don't plan on his returning to the 'old' doctor. It is wintry here. We have had a couple of skifts of snow, and had some ice on things this morning. The roads were not icy, so we didn't miss AM services. We did stay home this evening. The weather was too iffy, and it was very foggy. I am sending more hugs to Chelone... Marian

Wow this is an old thread! Well, I do believe it was a fisher cat. We have them here now and several of them too! I had seen one squashed in the road a few weeks back. They are quite mean critters. Since I started this thread years ago there was a woman who was running/ walking her dog in Ct. At black pond. Which is maybe 10 to 15 minutes from my house, anyway she and her dog were attacked my a juvenile mountain lion. I hear she and her dog survived but I do not know the full story. Also since then I had been doing some reading up on mountain lions. And also since then I have had two rescued wimpy but wonderful greyhounds. One night while I was taking them out for their final nightly "run" up in the woods to do their business, they both stopped dead in their tracks. I had an enclosure put together up in the woods with several metal fence in a roll type deal and a gate with latest h that we installed. The dogs stopped dead and was staring up towards the back of the enclosure. I tool my spotlight and started looking around. About 50 feet on the other side of the fence in the back were red and green shining eyes. A tan head and chest. It moved sideways , turning it's body and it was without a doubt a mountain lion! Needless to say I yelled for the dogs to go to the house and we ran and went inside. It didn't seem to follow us. Thankfully. But my town is filled with wildlife , I've seen everything but moose in town. We all have to learn to coexhist. Ciao all! Is there a way to delete this thread?

In our research lab where we needed to cut through soft bone and tissue, we found that the most inexpensive utility sissors were the most useful. The one I found at Amazon has a tag at the end for support that might get in the way (or migt be useful) but you can choose others. They are short but powerful and though they don't have the gullet that John suggests, they will not slip because of the rough edge on the side of the blade. You can cut through tin cans and other great stuff too. Here is a link that might be useful: utility sissors

katsmah, That's awful! This is exactly what is causing these couples to register for a bunch of ridiculous stuff that they neither need nor want! It'a actually a self-fulfilling prophesy, right? The MORE you register, the less percentagewise will get bought. So then it's easy for the clerk to say, most items on the registry would not be bought. Of course not! Because they registered for too many things! In reality, if the store clerk is right, that should be incentive for the couple to register for fewer items, so that they can ensure that the items they really want will get bought. That assumes, of course, that the pricing of the items they choose is reasonable, or at least within a reasonble range so that those who don't want to spend a fortune can find something to buy. Getting back to the "olden" days, when I got married the first time and you just registered for fine china, crystal and silver (I actually just did china and flatware), I received gifts of a dinner plate, or a cup & saucer. People who didn't want to spend the $$ to buy a whole place setting just bought the piece(s) they could afford. It all contributed to my china set. Imagine if I'd given them the option of spending that same amount on something like a relaxation CD or some other useless item. No matter how you slice it, the couple is better off registering for just the items they really want/need. I'm sure the clerk at BB&B was just doing her job, after all, that sort of thing is good for the store, right? But ugh! What a disservice to those poor couples who don't know any better!