jt...that is a worrisome description you give of your friend. The combination of eating the french fries and then describing how thin she is and the condition of her teeth leads me to think that she is purging by vomiting, known as bulimia.The stomach acids eat away the enamel on the teeth. It is very very common. I ran with a friend that did it. I finally confronted him after hearing him in the bathroom. We would eat lunch and he would have all of this stuff that one wouldn't think a runner would eat. Then he would always have a reason for going to the bathroom. i followed him and listened. So sad. He also would stop by the trail to supposedly urinate but he was actually vomiting the snacks/lunch we had eaten. He was able to finally get it under control. As an aside he is a clinical psychologist Phd. My DD had a friend in high school who also purged. Her Mom found glass jars of vomit in the girl's closet. Really really sad. The Mom is an MD and did seek help but it was very hard for this gal to accept help. She had to go away to a facility in order to get well. The disorder is extremely addicting and consequently very hard to get over. Here is a link. c Here is a link that might be useful: bulimia and famous people

I just want a laundry area next to the bedrooms---that vents straight out the back. I can't tell you how many new home owners have issues with the stupid idea of trying to vent a dryer straight up throught the roof, or worse, venting down through the slab where all of the moisture condenses and stops it up in about a month's time. And I want at least enough room to fold the clothes in the laundry room and some room to hand stuff up too. Put all of this in my master closet with a built in coffee machine and beverage fridge and I might never leave the suite! And while I don't care for the concept of a "formal living room" and want to have an open concept plan, I also do want a "den", sunroom, office, or other comfy space where I can shut the door and watch my TV shows or read with a minimum of disruption when the other half (or kids for other families) has friends over and monopolizes the "family" space. I want a vanity space next to a sink and running water, but not necessarily in the "bathroom" with good lighting and a mirror that telescopes to me because I'm blind as a bat and getting worse. Most of all, I want smaller square footage than most home plans that I see being built. As attractive as having a maid would be, it'll never be in my future. So, if I have to clean it all, it had better be all space that I use and no wasted space like a formal dining room that gets used once a year and accumulates dust the rest of the time.

Took a detour from my Victorian kick for a day or two and read "Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic" by John de Graff et al. Very interesting book about the (mostly) American culture and how it has developed into more of a materilistic culture than it was. This was written in 2000, and so it has prophecies of what life would be life ten years from now (i.e. next year). He was right about a recession and also by how many people would be influenced by or hear of the Voluntary Simplicity movement (basically buy less stuff, have less stuff).... Very thought-provoking esp as all the ads on tv and in the mail are about "get, get, get" or "give, give, give". I am certainly going to heed their counsel on not buying so much rubbish. :-) Then read a series of stories and essays by David Sedaris (including the memorable SantaLand/elf story) - funny stuff. Now onto "Hucklebery Finn" and another visit to the Victorian times: "Victorian London Street Life in Historic Photographs" by John Thomson printed in 1897 and reported to be the first photographic evidence of how the people who worked on the streets lived their lives (i.e. flower sellers, shoe shine boys, chinmey sweeps, etc). Very interesting...

Pat I read The Edge of Nowhere (the first in the series)by Elizabeth George a few months ago and was rather underwhelmed by the story which was very much aimed at a 'US teen' market and made me feel very old and English. On the other hand I felt I could be put down anywhere on Whidbey Island and be able to find my way round without a map; the descriptions were very detailed. I've just finished A Week in Winter by Marcia Willet (not to be confused by a book of the same name by Maeve Binchy that has just come out) This was an OK read for a few days. Set in Devonshire/Cornwall with the usual middle-class characters suffering from guilt, hidden secrets, lost love etc. with some nice descriptions of the countryside. As the characters spent almost every page drinking tea or coffee and one of them was called Polly, I felt a better title would have been 'Shall I Put the Kettle On?'