I haven't been hit by lightning, but I've seen mountain lions four times in the past ten years in the San Francisco Bay area, and that's pretty unusual. The first time was in Novato, a residential suburb in Marin County. I was awakened by the sound of a woman screaming at 3:00 am. When I looked out my front window, I saw that, instead of a woman, it was a mountain lion sitting next to my curb under the streetlght, screaming his head off. This went on for about 15 minutes before he finally left. The next time was when I went hiking on Mt. Tam with a girlfriend. We hiked down to Stinson Beach and, on the return trip, we were tracked by a mountain lion for about the last 1/2 mile of the trail. He kept pace with us--in plain sight--about 100 yards off the trail as we walked extra fast. Fortunately we made it back to our car in the parking lot before he made up his mind what to do about us. And lest you think that of course hikers are more likely to see one, this was the only time in ten years I ever went on a hike (and the last time too!). The third time was when I was driving down to Monterey. I was on a public road bordering the National Guard base which contains a lot of open space. Suddenly a mountain lion burst out of the weeds and ran along the dirt frontage road on the opposite side of a chain link fence separating the base from the public road I was on. The lion kept pace with my car for a minute or so and then dropped back to a trot as I left him behind and sped up. The fourth sighting was several years ago as I was riding my bicycle around a local community college campus. I came upon a mountain lion crouched down, busily crunching on a severed deer leg. I was close enough to see that it was the hind leg of the deer. The lion looked at me but didn't move. I turned around and got out of there fast. So I think it's pretty weird to have so many up close sightings of a supposedly rare and elusive predator. Needless to say, I'm quite afraid of them and I never walk my dogs in the evening in my neighborhood or hike in parks or woods. I figure why tempt fate?

Hi to my Smaller Homes friends! I appreciate your support and care more than you can know. I have been working toward a weight loss diet since the first of the year. I need to lose almost 200 lbs. In the past I have done liquid protein diets, both without and with other foods. This time, I am going to use the liquid protein to replace some meals and to use between my smaller meals. I figure that doing weight loss this way is a more sustainable way, and that I will likely need to use the liquid protein for some meals the rest of my life. Falling into the fast-food/drive-through habit is too easy for me, since I am on the road for my job. If I can leave the house with a liquid protein packet making a nice cappucino-like drink in home-brewed coffee, I won't be stopping for breakfast with bacon and white-flour breading. That saves a few hundred calories right there! I am trying to leave some snacking (a few individual Dove chocolates at night, a handful of pretzels, some air-popped popcorn) in my diet so that I learn to eat the way I always revert to - but with moderation, instead. DH is the sodium-sleuth, and since he does most of the shopping, I can eat low sodium if I do not sabotage his efforts! We still get take-out, but mostly Middle Eastern, and I get salads with some meat most of the time. So that is my plan - to establish better habits overall, use liquid protein drinks to keep my nutrition up, and eat fewer calories while avoiding sodium and white carbs. I started PT this week. We started with my ankles because that is where the worst pain is. Stan, my PT Man (a genius!) first studied my walk and added to my orthotics (he made them) to correct my left foot's roll. I am doing strengthening exercises, too. Next is my elbows, then my hand. Once I am done with the PT, I plan to get into that nice warm pool at the community center of a nearby suburb a few days a week to work out in the water. I am walking almost as fast as I used to walk as I cruise through my nursing homes, but get out of breath. No major heart pains since the one I had in my first week back at work. I am working to recognize my patterns of tension, worry, and stress. I drive around doing deep, slow breathing exercises and relaxing my shoulders! My biggest, best, and most time consuming change has been working my sauna into my schedule. I have done 30 to 60 minute sessions before bed, a 40 minute session as soon as I got home for work, and even a short 15 minute session before showering to go to work. It feels SO GOOD! I wake up without stiffness if I use it at night. As a matter of fact, it is warmed up for me now, and I am going to go indulge in a full hour in the baking, far-infrared 130 degree little cabin in our smallest bedroom right now!

I have two dream homes. One is on my family's lake property, which is small, is on the south side of the lake, and is on Minnesota, so severe winter is an issue. There, I want low maintenance, energy and space efficient, good cross ventilation. An open floor plan with informal dining. A screen porch with a sun deck above. Main floor bedroom and laundry. Probably floor heat under Marmoleum in the living space, to accommodate wet, sandy kids coming out of the lake. It needs to be two-story, because of the small lot size. The lot is level, and I don't want steps; the basement will be storage and storm shelter, but not living space (no windows to speak of). Upstairs, I want bedrooms for guests, and an open area overlooking the deck for a game table - my family loves board games and jigsaw puzzles. My other dream home is in the woods somewhere, more of a cozy cabin - though not log. I love the look, hate the maintenance!

That's the problem I had been reading about. I would have thought that would have fixed that by now though. If I understand correctly it's only when you post a new topic. The "apparent" duplicate appears in the index of whichever forum you next view (whether the same forum of a different forum). Except it's not really there, so when you "think" you've double posted and delete either one of them, they're both gone. I had it happen to me once or twice in the test forum I think it was. I forget if the "duplicate" went away after a refresh or if I had to restart my browser. (which is set to clear cache when exiting) Yes, still seems to be happening. I posted in the test forum and came back to Computer Help and this is what I see, which I will not delete: Very strange, I don't see it in the test forum, just here and I made sure I was posting in the proper forum. :-)) Edit: Restarted the browser and it's now shows in the test forum.