Lame title I know but it's somehow oddly appropriate. New place to call "home", new friends, friendly & low stress environment. What more can a girl ask for when trying to loose weight. Oh yeah, that's right... ACCURATE INFORMATION! Well, that's here too.

I am so glad to see so many familiar people here from kk. It's great that there was a friendly place to go after leaving the other site. I upped my fat & calories before I left and am going to examine the Atkins 72 info here. Psychologically, I feel so much better now that I'm away from the kk forums. They are imploding in a major way. I still get e-mail about my challenge group so I can assume that Kimmer & the other Admins have as yet to see my goodbye post that I put in that thread. Nobody but us went there anyway and we were a small group, even so I did cut & paste it to my personal e-mail address. After I left they were down to 9. I'll miss them but I have seen one here already. HI Peg!! Maybe more will follow.

I will continue my weight loss journey, just in a much more healthy manner. I may be starting to get some of the dreaded side effects. I'll leave those for another journal entry though.

My personal motto is "Always Forward, Never Back". I believe that we should all leave the negativity we encounter in life behind. Not ignore it, but learn what we need to learn from it and then let it go and move forward with newfound knowledge. Some days that's pretty hard to do but I do try. My DH is pretty good at... most days. LOL

I started kk on 6/25/07 at 224 lbs. It is now 9/16/07 and I am at 186. So I lost 38 lbs on K/E and my goal is to be betweed 120 to 130. I will pin it down more once I get closer and see where I'm at - also what my frame type really is. So far I still supposedly have a large frame but that may change as I loose more.

Happy Loosing,

Go Kaly, go Kaly, go Kaly! CHEERING you on to great success, my friend!

Hi Kaly. I still get e-mail notifications from KK for the threads I was subscribed to and I was banned a while ago. If I would have known I would have subscribed to alot more!

Congratulations on your weightloss so far!

Thanks Jimmy, this is such a positive place. I should have come on over sooner.

Hi Vickie, your posts over there always made me smile - especially the ones about Victoria's Secret shopping when we all hit goal.

It's a beautiful morning here in Maryland. I'm at my kitchen table eating a crabmeat omelet, made with real eggs & butter of course, and turkey bacon. Yummm.

I'm about to make dinner for my son. He's 9 and my DH promised him mac-n-cheese. So, of course I get to make it. At least I don't get cravings any more.

I kinda messed up last weekend. This past Saturday I did a "refeed" day. I totally carbed it up - not with sugar but with bread and pasta. After reading here I now remember again that I don't have to carb-up to not loose muscle. I was expecting a to gain a few pounds from it and will see how long it takes to get back down to my weight from that morning. I was still 3lbs over my ticker weight this morning. I just need to stick to my new plan. ...Shouldn't be too hard.

It's nice to see so many familiar people here. It's made the transition a lot easier. I even saw one of the ladies from my old challenge group here and got a big Hi from her. Thanks Peg. I still get the e-mail notices from the group and I got the definate impression from at least one member that I now fall in the "out of sight, out of mind" category. It kinda stung. I was surprised and hurt too. I would have expected that had I posted anywhere on the regular forum but I only put it in our challenge thread and in my journal. Neither are widely read by the membership at large so I haven't been banned. It would be pretty funny to get banned for being upset about the banning.

Gotta go cook now.

Welcome Kaly
Another ex KK here.
You will like it here
sandi

Thanks Sandi,

Everyone I've met so far has been just great.

Happy Loosing!

Well last night I got one of those dreaded kk side effects. I posted about it right after it happened last light on the survivor thread while still very upset. I wanted to wring Heidi's neck!! Ok, so my hair has started to fall out. No warning or build up, just bye-bye hair!! I decided to take a shower before bed and noticed that the trap over the drain in our walk-in shower was half covered in MY hair. It was clean when I got in there. I have short hair (actually I have the same cut as the girl who plays Nikki Newman on Y&R) and it's very fine but I have, nope I mean had a lot of it. After I got out of the shower and combed my leave-in conditioner through it, I could *see* that I had lost some. I just cried in the bathroom. Then I was bad, really baaad.

I had therapy with Ben & Jerry. In the Cherry Garcia room. Luckily it was one of those single serving containers - 3.6oz. If it was a normal pint, I'd a been in serious touble. After my "therapy" I had a bowl of kettle korn. Then I got on the computer and posted.

Lots of people came and helped out. Thanks to Jenna, Patty, Julie, Carol, & Christin for helping me out and making me feel better. I'm back on plan today and focused on my goal. Loosing weight in a healthy way. I went out and found the Nioxon shampoo, condition, & scalp treatment. Also got some more biotin as I was almost out and some more EFA - Omega 3, 6 & 9. I think I'm all set.

Maybe I'll save all my lost hair and send it back to Kimmer. She can use it to make a new wig.

Happy & HEALTHY Loosing!

Oh Hugs Kaly!!
I know how you feel mine is STILL falling out. I didn't even follow plan most of the time so I don't want to say its from that (though Christin followed to T and lost hair and her periods), Maybe it was the constant back and forth for me. I don't know but I hope it stops soon, for both of us!

Don't worry about the slip it happens to everyone.
Today is Day 1 of induction for me.
And I guess for you too!

Hi Kaly

When we tried to be honest on the challange we were basically told to sut up..I still post there because I feel sorry for Colleen but never mention the diet and I am not going to post my weight anymore either..I saw Adrienne here too we'll have to send her a few breadcrumbs...and yes my hair has been falling out too...
No matter what I will always be greatfull I bought that womans world magazine..It turned my life around and I met a lot of great people!
Oh well new life Jimmies site is wonderful I am enjoying the camaraderie and learning all about a variety of diets...
Have a great day!

Kim thanks for coming over and saying hi. Starting over is both good for me and depressing all at the same time. But so far so good. I'm still eating basically the same food as before - I'm just upping the fat. I'm not sure what to do with the light foods I have in the house though. I hate to waste but I'm tempted to at least throw out the light mayo & sour cream. LOL Why waste the carbs on that stuff? I'd much rather have a salad or some almonds.

Hair loss advice on pages 36 & 37 of the survivor thread.

Peg I must admit that I didn't appreciate the disregard my goodbye post got from some. I really felt like I should feel bad for bothering them. I didn't think I was negative at all - sorry if they only post there and don't care about what is going on in the rest of the forum - {sigh}. I thought I was pretty clear on exactly why I left and it had nothing to do with the "controversy". Officially anyway. I'm also glad I met everyone over there and I did learn about what portion sizes really should look like. The WW article got me motivated again to loose weight and I've done so. I'm going to continue, just on a different path - with the same destination. I don't want to do more harm to my body. I will admit that I was greedy and wanted to loose it all NOW. LOL

Here's a Kaly quip: Patience is a virtue, Patience is a virtue, Patie...who am I kidding? I'm not all that vitreous.

Hang in there everyone, your improved health is coming. STICK WITH IT!!!

Life is pretty good today. I stuck to my plan... I've decided to go the Atkind route (DANDR) and think I did ok. I started reading in the DANDR threads. Lost of info there! I also dug out my DANDR book and plan on re-reading it to help put me in the right frame of mind. My calories are way up. ...like over 1400 today but the carbs are at 13, fat is at 99 and protein is at 122. Maybe I did a bit too much protein? I put my Fit Day in my signature so I don't have to type out my menus if/when I need help.

I do have a success story for the day. This morning I decided to try on a new pair of pants I bought to were as I lost more weight. Well today they fit! I could put them on and button and zip then with no problems at all... didn't even have to lay on the bed to zip 'em. YEA!! Best of all they are a regular size 16 and real jeans, not the stretchy kind either. So I am now completely in regular sizes now! I tried these pants on last week and would have had to lay on the bed to get them buttoned & zipped, which I didn't do because I'm trying to be honest with myself about my true size. This week is a whole new ballgame!

I know that sometimes the scale doesn't show everything because I was 2 pounds lighter last week that I am today. I also had my little experiment with refeeding this past Saturday and my total cheat 2 night ago so I'm not doing too bad. Since I can now wear those real jeans easily, I know that I had to have lost inches or they just wouldn't gotten buttoned. I am quite happy with this new development.

Happy & Healthy Loosing All,

Sandi Thanks for stopping by. Thanks for the welcoming words. I realy would have struggled if Jimmy hadn't set all this up. Going it alone is rough. That's probably why I eventually quit every other time I'd "diet" or get a new woe. Not anymore though!

Hi Kaly,

Thanks for stopping by my journal! I'm glad I could help a little with the hair loss issue. It's so scary. I'm really vain about my hair.

Yay for the regular sizes! That's so wonderful!! You're doing great, keep it up.

You'll never be alone in this Kaly! We're here for ya!

Kaly! Congrats on the regular Jeans!!

Thanks Kim ~ It's been so long so I could wear regular sized clothes. I'm still walking on air I went out this morning and got some new pants - 1 size smaller yet but these have the stretchy waist just because I can keep wearing them longer. Now in stretchy waist pants I can go a size smaller than the regular ones and wear them until I am a good regular size below that. I want to save my clothing money for when I reach goal!

More good news today... I'm down 1-1/2lbs from yesterday. So I'm only 1/2 pound over my ticker weight. WooooHooooo! Most importantly, I'm eating food I really like and that I know I can continue eating for the rest of my life. Today I got to sleep really, really late and then I took my daughter out to breakfast. So I had dinner for breakfast. It was 11 am when we got to the restaurant. We had tenderloin fillets wrapped in bacon with salad and steamed veggies. Yum. LOL

Looking back I now realize that I was mentally transitioning back to Atkins for quite a while. Here it is barely a week and I don't mind eating more calories or food with real fat in it. Not one little bit. I also put in an order for a 1/4 cow - over a month ago. Who on kk would ever buy that much beef when it's supposed to only be an occasional treat. My cousin's daughter raises animals for the 4-H club at her school. They had a steer that went to the county fair, so it was feed all high quality feed - it's as close to organic beef as I'm ever likely to get, at least in that quantity. LOL So it's off to the butcher or whatever they call it and in a month or so we will have enough beef to last, well a while anyway. Tonight we go looking for a chest freezer.

I dug out my Atkins book last night and went over the induction phase again. Since I've been having almonds, I guess that technically speaking, I'm starting or restarting induction today since nuts aren't an induction food. That's ok. If an ounce of almonds is the worst of it, then I think I'll be ok.

Now I have done Atkins (DANDR) before, several times actually. The first time I think I lost about 15 pounds - I know it was less than 20 but more than 10 and each subsequent time, I never lost more than 8 or 9 pounds. I'm not exactly sure why but I do have some possible theories. I could be wrong and these are just some personal observations I have from my own past experiences so these are my personal rules for doing Atkins:
1. a carb is a carb - I may look at net carbs when I reach goal but not now
2. NO low carb, artifically sweetened candy - I don't like what it does to me - if I must have chocolate - good, high quality, dark, really dark chocolate is pretty low carb - 1 or 2 sqs. is enough - sweets weren't my problem
3. save the carbs for eating veggies
4. It's just food - yeah that came from kk but it totally changed the way I think about food & eating - I will no longer center my social/personal life around the food but focus on people instead, they are what matter
5. eat & drink when hungry or thirsty
6. K.I.S.S. - keep it simple sunshine and don't overthink or obsess over it - that doesn't mean not to try new foods or recipes but it a regular steak is just fine

I'm sure that I'll think of more as soon as I hit the "Add Reply" button but this'll do for a start.

GREAT WORK, Kaly! You're DOING IT!!!

You are one quick guy, Jimmy. You are all over these boards! Impressive young Jedi. Ok That's the geek-girl in me coming out. LOL Thanks for all the support. It's so much easier to stay on track when you've got supportive people in your corner.

Happy & Healthy Loosing!

Another good day today. Not only is it beautiful outside but my weight ticker is on the move again. The few pounds I gained back last week are now gone - plus 1!! YIPPEE!! I can now celebrate my first "real" Atkins pound lost. In that spirit, I was soooo decadent and made myself my own recipe of crab imperial - for breakfast. It's very Atkins friendly. LOL

The positives from this week outweigh the negative by far so I can't complain. Now if there was nothing I could do about my hair loss, then that'd be a different matter entirely. Not much else going on today, DH and I are going shopping today for the chest freezer to hold our cow.

Happy Loosing Everyone!

That's what I'm here for, Kaly! May the force be with you, my child.

I just posted in the kk survivor thread about the way "It's just food!" got twisted. I decided to come here and sort out my thoughts and opine a bit further.

The phrase itself is fine. Heck it's a great saying for anybody on a diet. The idea that food doesn't love you back and can't help you solve things..., well I can't argue with that. But the idea not to center you life around food is easier said than done. ...Still a good concept though. Many of the families I know consider family time and dinner to be one and the same. So many things we do involve food: school funraisers - heck, most funraisers, sporting events, date night, family gatherings - especially when everyone brings a dish, entertaining, being entertained, church socials, getting together with friends, and holidays - they involve even more food. What should we do? Ban the food. Not such a good idea and not very practicle or realistic either. We just have to learn to make better, healthier choices or bring your own food with you. But this isn't about food so much as it is about your state of mind when it comes to food.

So far so good but that's not where it stayed. The "It's just food!" phrase evolved into something much more sinister. It took on the meaning "Food is you enemy." I would see it posted over and over again. People asking for help about cravings, cheating, stalling, or what have you. They'd be told to stick to plan, eat some *lean* protein if needed, and to remember that "It's just food" and can't really help you. Not too bad yet... But the advice started to change and more and more I saw people being advised to cut their fat more and eat fewer calories while still saying "It's just food". I saw someone (can't remember who now) who actually wrote not to eat chicken thighs, even though they are on the approved list because they have a higher fat content. I kept waiting for someone to actually say that we don't really need to eat at all. A few people came awfully close. (I never looked into the fasts so I have no idea what was being advised there.) You were made to feel inadequate, sometimes even stupid if you complaimed or asked more questions. After all, the plan is simple and you just couldn't really be in ketosis if you were still hungry and/or having cravings. Ketosis takes care of your hunger and that's that. After looking at your FitDay, it would be pointed out that you've had bacon(one time) and that could stall you - so cut that out and BTW- here's a list of other higher fat foods you're eating - cut them out too. You would be left with egg whites & chicken breasts. That was not an actual quote but it is the type of response I would see over and over again to newbies asking for help. A lot of us thought that we had something to "live up to". That this was our last chance to loose weight... ever.

Why, didn't I see it sooner and leave earlier? I know better. Was the promise of super fast weight loss that appealing that I just lost all sense? Yes, it must have. I was just so tired of being over 200 pounds. I was lulled into a false sense of security by the fact that WW isn't the National Enquirer or The Weekly World News and by the fact that no diet products were pushed on us or even advertised. I said more than once "It must be ok, I've done Atkins before and this is almost the same. Besides nobody's trying to sell me anything else so it must be legit." How wrong I was!! I just kept telling myself that it had to be ok. Look at all the people here who are loosing and they're doing fine. Nobody else is complaining. Don't be a baby.... I'm sure that many here told thenselves the same thing.

Here's a milestone I didn't expext today. 40 pounds GONE!! I'm not knocking it, I just didn't think I'd loose another pound after yesterday's pound loss. Needless to say that wasn't the pattern on K/E. After the first month, I'd loose a 1/2 or whole pound and then nothing for a good 6 or 7 days. I know I won't continue to loose a pound a day but I think the losses on Atkins will be more evenly spaced, in general anyway. It's not like I'm close to my goal weight either. I still weigh 184 lbs! And I'm 5'. I don't personally consider being 50+ pounds overweight close to goal. LOL

I got more veggies in today but my calories are less than they have been & I am full. Hmmm... I'm still working out the finer points. I gotta figure out how to keep my calories and fat up but keep the protein a bit more moderate.

Just life today, no deep insights or meaningful observations.

Hey, the day-to-day life is every bit as important as those BIG moments. Don't underestimate that ever.

Kaly!!! WhooooHooooo!!! Congratulations on your 40 pound milestone. That is HUGE! I'm sooooo happy for you.

By the way, I loved your "it's only food" journal entry. I can really identify with what you said. It seems so strange looking back now and seeing how twisted my thinking was becoming.....all the while insisting that "I do NOT have an eating disorder!!!" Whew! I'm glad we're outta there!

Keep up the good work my friend.

Jimmy - I hear what you're saying. Everyday is important and has meaning. It's just that this morning I had a great, "meaning of it all" type of journal entry all ready, only problem was that it was all in my head and I was in the shower. I lost the whole darn thing - I think it went down the drain with my hair. I seem to do my best 'composing' while I'm getting ready in the a.m. Maybe I should put a tape recorder in my bathroom. LOL


Thanks Vickie,

I must admit that that it feels wierd to eat cheese again. Every now and then I hear in the back of my head...

Three words: PEN AND PAPER! Some of my best thoughts for my blog happen in the middle of the night when I get up and start WRITING. If it's REALLY good, then it'll come back to you--but better not to take a chance in the future, right?

Nutritionists vs. Doctors

OK, how many of you have read over at kk that most doctors aren't nutritionists and that their information and/or knowledge, if they have any, is horribly out of date and probably from their med school years. I thought so! Most of you have heard that or something very similar.

Well, guess what? They're right. In a lot of instances, your family doctor is going to more than likely refer you to the government approved food pyramid. OH Goody!! You might be one of the lucky ones who has a practitioner who can keep up with all the research and changes in not just nutrition but their own speciality but most of us just aren't that lucky. Maybe that'll change one day but I'm not holding my breath.

Bear with me here folks. The point is coming up. In a bit... If Kimmer and others there are reassuring people who have questions about the safety of her plans by telling them that "Remember, your doctor is not a nutritionist and his info probably isn't all that accurate". I even saw "Maybe you should find a more Kimkins friendly doctor". Yes ladies and gentlemen, a member really was told that maybe she should find a doctor more friendly to the kk way of eating. WTF!!!

Now, riddle me this Batman.... The kk line appears to be that since doctors are not nutritionists, you don't really have to listen to them where your diet is concerned. So why listen to them when they whole-heartedly approve the plan? Remember, they're not nutritionists!! ...And their info may not blah, blah, blah... you know the rest. LOL Now quite a few docs hear low fat and low calorie and see a few pounds missing on their patients and they just rubber stamp it. Mine did. I'm now looking for a new doctor.

That's some seriously faulty logic.

Kaly,

There is a lot of truth to this. My brother just graduated from medical school in May. You could put everything he knows about nutrition in a teaspoon. But not all doctors are like that. You can find those who know the importance of good nutrition and have taken the time to learn.

They get one week's worth of nutrition training in medical school--that's such a travesty!

I think that Doctors should be required to get a degree in Nutrition as well. I mean don't Nutrition and health go hand in hand??

This makes no sense to me.

Kaly - Hows the WOE going? Keep up the good work girl!

I'm definately going to interview the next doctor before I change the insurance info. It was time anyway. The old one is by our old house - and hour away.

So far I'm doing pretty well on Atkins induction. FitDay does the ratios for me and they look generally ok, to me anyway. I'm still working on upping my veggies. So far I've lost 2.5 Atkins pounds.

So far so good with induction. I'm going throug a whoosh or melting time right now. I noticed that I felt squishy. My skin just felt really different and the last time this happened I woke up one morning and noticed a bunch of me was missing from the night before. It was really noticeable. It seems to be happening again. I'll take those inches leaving!

Hey Jimmy, if you stop by and read this here's my numbers from the past several days..... and yes I'm trying to eat more veggies -LOL Do I need to tweak anything, other that those veggies of course.

Calories - Fat/Protein/Carbs
1303 - 59/37/4
1615 - 63/33/4
1172 - 54/41/5
1464 - 66/32/3
1154 - 56/41/3
1466 - 63/34/3

Happy Loosing Everyone!

Looks AWESOME, Kaly! KEEP IT UP!!! Make 1200 calories a MINIMUM every single day, but you've done well. I'm proud of you, girl!

Kaly looks good! Definitely up your veggies to up your carbs 3 and 4 a day is way too low I think, JMO. And I agree with Jimmy you need to keep the calories AT LEAST 1200 a day!

Keep it up girl!

Well, I really did melt. I lost about an inch off my waist, an inch that was still there a few days ago. Atkins ROCKS!!

DH and I are busy planning a trip for our anniversary trip next weekend. I ordered some low carb goodies for us so I don't get tempted by the goodies at the resort. I ordered some low carb fudge & ChocoPerfection bars (dark of course) and I'll take some with us - a bite or two is almost always enough for me anyway. I also got some of the cracker bread to have with some cheese or Walden Farms fruit spread, no more that 2 of the crackers per day. I just want to be prepared. It is our anniversary and I don't want to sudenly decide "What the hell, it's a special day and this one little thing won't kill me". I know me, while I can hold fast a lot of the time, I also recognize that I can be pretty weak and self-indulgent too. I'd much rather have a bite of low carb fudge or dark chocolate than the same of bite of chocolate cake or worse. There's a pretty good chance I won't touch the chocolate or fudge at all but I'd much rather be safe than sorry. One of my personal favs are the parmesan crisps - they are sooo good and DH really likes them too. I got a few packages of them too. Those will definately be eaten! I may do induction for another 2 weeks after next weekend - just to be on the safe side since my carb counts may get out of line. While steak has no carbs - what they put on it probably will. lol

Happy Loosing!!

Vegetab;e Experiment #1 Completed!! Outcome: Success!!! Tonight with dinner, I did something I've never had before. I had a spinach salad. Yep, 2 cups of fresh spinach leaves with dressing and I ate it all. Not too bad either....

I was surprised how much I love spinach leaves, too. Not the mushy, nasty stuff in a can, but fresh and nutritious spinach leaves. Mmm mmm! GREAT JOB, Kaly!

I posted this earlier in the Kimkins Survivors thread...

GO KALY, GO KALY!

That was a great post Kaly!

Nice work kaly!

It's Monday and for me the start of a new week. I've joined a challenge - an 8 week biggest looser challenge. Team SMokin' Aces!! We totally kick butt by the way. I even pledged exercise minutes. Shocking, I know but since I've lost just over 40 pounds, I need to get off my butt and start doing something about my muscle tone and possible loose skin. There's none yet, thankfully, but I'd like to keep it to a minimum.

I'm also signing up for some T-Tapp classes in my area. I just can't do exercises from a book and the video is not much better. I can do all sorts of intricate metalsmithing from a book but I can't seem to get these T-Tapp exercises down. lol It's one night a week for 4 weeks and is over an hour away but if it'll help me with my body position/form, I'll be fine to continue on my own. We'll be doing the same exercise groups during each class so that should help out quite a bit.

In addition to T-Tapp, I'll be walking. That's actually what I'll be doing this week since the classes don't start until next week. Just me and my iPod shuffle. Once I get going, I'm quite the endorphin junkie. lol

BTW, I made my scrambled egg in 1/2 tbs of coconut oil instead of butter. They were quite tasty, I must say. Just a hint of coconut flavor.

Happy loosing everyone!

Oh Kaly that sounds good! I am going to try using it as much as possible in my cooking from now on

Hi Kaly,
Life goes on after Kimkins..I am sorry you were banned funny even though I tried to tell our challange group the facts of Kimkins I'm still not banned..I guess they are down to 5 now plus Colleen..I don't even care anymore I tried to warn them... Old habits die hard I still sign on even though I don't post anywhere on that site anymore...I see you are joining another challange..I think till they come up with the "old ladies" challange I'll stay away..
I bought Barry Groves book but alas that is not for me...I really don't like meat much and I still have a real fear of fat!!! I continue to loose weight besides having added back food..I am at 70lbs lost now and would be happy staying at this weight..No more 500calorie days for me though...
Glad you are doing well a total computer dope I keep loosing posts and friends anyway good luck on your new challenge and Happy Anniversary have a great trip..

Hi Kaly!

Thought I'd stop by and say hi to the recently banned. Kind of ticks you off but you eventually just let it go. I say it's their loss not to have you there. Good luck on the challenge, I'm rooting for you guys.

Oh if Pegala stops by again tell her to check out the 50+nest-great group of girls there, mostly former KK, so she would feel right at home.

Keep up the good work on your diet, you're doing great.

Love,
Carol

Hi Peg,

Thanks for stopping by. I know you tried to warn them but they still believe in what Heidi's selling. Even though I'm banned now, I'm still getting the posts from the group. The least they could do is turn them off. lol I kinda feel bad that there are so few still in that challenge.

You'll find a plan. There has to be one that'll suit your tastes. Maybe PM Jimmy? I'm not that knowledgeable on other diet plans, then again if I was I probably would have never joined Kimkins. If you need anythingjust yell or PM. If I can help, I will. ((((HUGS))))

Hey Carol,

I'm pretty much over it now. Didn't take too long. I was just a bit surprised that it came now. Maybe someone saw my posts here or whatever. Done is done. They don't need much to feel justified in whatever they do or say and they're just happily speed boating up the river DeNile - engines set on redline all the way.

Happy Loosing

hey Kaly...just popping in to say hi and thank you for all the encouragement you always offer.
By the way...I was banned quite a while ago and I still get e-mail notifications from the threads I subscribe to. I got one today and the person was saying, "Helloooooo, is anybody here? I'd like to keep going on this challenge if anyone's still here"....I was wishing I could say, "here we are...at Jimmy's...come on over"...