ginamarina, I just saw your cat enclosure, and I had to laugh. I have one, also. My cats have the use of an enclosed porch, and outside of that I fenced in an area 16 feet by 8 feet with chickenwire, so they can go watch the birds. I live only 40 feet off of a busy road, and they would get run over if I let them go out on the road, so I gave them some fresh air room! Looks just like yours!! Some of them actually have house privileges, cause they are good, and some do not, cause they pee on anything. :( If they were all good, they would all have house privileges. I have 17 cats that have found their way to my home one way or another. Five are outside all the time, cause they never go near the road. I made the enclosure when one of mine got hit, and the vet bills came to over $500.00. He is fine, now, but does not have yard privileges!! Wish I was way back from the road. BB

LOL..I am loving these stories! It's True Confession time. :-) As a young bride I decided to try to make gazpacho as one of the courses for a small family dinner party we were having. I thought a clove of garlic was the whole bulb. You can probably guess the rest. LOL The worst part was watching our family choking down the soup and pretending it was good so as not to hurt my feelings. As soon as I took the first sip, I stood up and removed every bowl. ACK! The second story came from a friend, also a young bride at the time, who was cooking dinner for her new in-laws. The recipe called for chopped green peppers. She kept slicing bell peppers and then tossing them into the garbage. Her MIL came over and asked what was wrong. My friend said, "There's something wrong with these peppers. I keep slicing them and there's nothing inside, just some seeds. I think they are rotten.". :-) Somehow her MIL kept a straight face through this conversation. LOL Marilyn

Annie, I actually don't have a problem with Sebastian choosing to socialize rather then eat, well not with Sebastian anyway. I feel that part of why he is going to school is for the social part. I hate the way the schools devalue eating and socialization. The other problem is the cafeteria, actually it is a cafe-gym-atorium and it is loud and awful. All the kids prefer it when they have lunch in their classroom, at least according to my informal poll. lol, I have often had much with them in the cafeteria and once in the classroom. They were much better at eating while socializing in the classroom. The problem is lunch is when the teachers get a break. I would like teachers to eat with them and have their break during recess. My felling about food is make sure to feel good about everything you serve so it does not matter what they make a meal of. I told a friend of mine when we had 1 year olds, serve them good food and don't pay attention to what is on the floor or still on the tray. So long as you served it it counts. I don't even make my kids take a bite. I tried that once and the gaging etc was not worth it. Plus he had built up that he would not like it. I have told them if it is on their plate and they don't want it, don't talk about it. If they say something is disgusting I will require a bite, ignore it and I am fine. I just hate to have my food insulted ;-) Also they will need these manners for other peoples homes. My kids can have problems in the house of some peers as they are used to a certain level of food. They will not eat frozen pizza, super market rotisserie chicken ... We have friends who eat frozen pizza, when we go over to their house for pizza we bring dough, sauce etc. -Robin

I have a gluten free bakery and jammery and sell at a farmers market. I don't use corn syrup, weird chemicals or artificial anything. Most of my customers have other allergies or intolerance's and I try to accommodate them for things like no sugar, dairy, eggs, nuts, soy, corn, and the like that are easily done and most times have enough of a variety of baked goods to offer each week that they can have something right now. If not they can special order things at no extra cost per item but with a minimum $ amount to cover my extra time and effort, but still a sure sale that will make them happy. And, I do tell my customers, if asked, which products are from organic sources (or naturally grown without the piles of paperwork for gov't approved label of Organic). But, some people are off the wall with their, IMO and perhaps perceived, allergies to things like nutmeg or baking soda and some ask if there are any fish or seafood in my jams, pickles, and baked goods that would never be there normally anyway! All the ingredients for each item are listed on the labels but people do not want to read, just converse. It's like they have to share their aversion to justify them to themselves so I give them "grandma" answers politely and know that sometimes they just want to share, be recognized, to connect. Lonely maybe? Seeking to be unique in a world too full of people? Small price to pay if they go on their way happily and have a positive experience even if I have just an "I'm sorry" answer and offer alternatives. To be rude to those people means I have not respected them and therefore have not been respected, something sorely lacking in this world today, and that affects how they pass that on. On another note - about celiac disease: a new cookbook called "Nosh on This" gluten free Jewish-American baking said that one teaspoon of gluten flour in a bathtub of gluten free flour was enough to cause distress to a celiac (paraphrased). It is a real disease that has probably been around 50 or maybe 1,000 years ago but identification of it for all its widely varied symptoms has occurred only in the last 20 years or so and then only by serologic testing &/or biopsy. It is not as serious or as life-threatening as diabetes, for example, but still as valid as high blood pressure or arthritis and can be controlled by going gluten free. It is real, ask Annie_1992 about her Amanda. I don't think people with the disease are demanding special treatment at a restaurant, they just want something that won't make them sick. They are not asking for ice cream at a burrito truck but they do know that gluten cross contamination, even inadvertently, can make them miserable and have to avoid eating out. I sympathize with them. I can't eat spicy food (I'm old and my digestive system is too) and my friends all want to go to Thai or Mexican restaurants. So, I scan their menus and always find something to eat, even if it means pushing around a salad. It is the company of friends that is enjoyable and memorable, not necessarily what is consumed and forgotten a week later. I also suspect that the person posting the original sign did so from frustration. As one of the other poster's said, in effect, don't go to a steak house and expect the chef to prepare your vegan dinner as if you were the only one that he should personally cater to - there are others who are hungry and want what is on the printed menu that he has used his expertise to create. Respect that! Bottom line is: if you have a problem with certain foods on a menu, go somewhere else - as he said, or hire your own personal chef, or, learn how to cook for yourself, but don't be rude because they feed 99.9% of the other people who come in for that chef's food and you are only .1% and do not spread your rudeness and self importance to make everyone else unhappy. Nancy