Linda Z

...to two of my favorite GSers! Hope right about now you're having a lovely dinner by candlelight with superb food and hand holding under the table and maybe a sweetly-stolen smooch while no one's looking. OR if it's more to your taste, a rowdy barbecue with your kids and friends OR ___________________ fill in your dream date. Congratulations for loving each other all these years! Linda

Love you, too. Thanks for understanding my heart and letting me see yours. xo, Linda

None of the above. I admire the loving things I observed him doing and that he did for me and my child and my parents. I am ashamed for his sake, and sorrowful for others' sakes, of the things he did that were not worthy of someone who'd gained so many people's trust. Linda Z

I got a new hard drive this weekend, and now I can't seem to stay logged in from post to post. I went to the Privacy menu and checked "Accept 1st-party cookies," but nada. I've checked the option not to have to log in each time. Nada. I can't even stay logged in from one post to the next. The result is that if I make a typo on a post and want to go back into it, I can't because GS isn't recognizing (or I don't have!) my cookie. Not to mention how annoying it is to have to keep logging in during one session on here. Can anyone help? (in best Cookie Monster voice): COOKIES!!! Linda Z Update I think I've figured it out. It seems it was that IE "Trusted sites" thingy. As soon as I restored GS as a trusted site, my log-in "stuck." Sorry for the false alarm. You can delete this if you like, Paw or Mod(eratin') Squad. [This message was edited by Linda Z on August 18, 2002 at 8:55.]

Hope it was happy. I was computerless on the big day. Keep on rockin' and lovin'! Linda

One benefit of not having seen people I know here for about 15 years is that I still picture them as 15 years younger! So you're still quite a young thing to me!! Enjoy your b'day, and may this year be the best yet! Love, Linda

What a great story--you old softie, you. I cried at the part where you cut off the collar that was choking her. People are a lot dumber than dogs, sometimes. Have I told you lately that if you aren't knocking on the doors of publishers, you should be? You are head and shoulders above 90% of all the writers whose writing I've ever gotten paid to edit, both in writing style and talent. I mean it. Linda Z

"The ministries are an outward working function, of benefit to the whole body, and specifically in a time of place and need. They don't say "come to me," they say "I'm coming to you."

All right, everyone. Maybe I'm just guessin' here, but I have a pretty darn solid hunch that Jesus Christ didn't bleed and suffer and die for us so that we could all verbally rip each other to shreds. Freedom: The right to open mouth and bare teeth? Tolerance: Something to be received but not given? Love: Something to be reserved for those who agree with us? Ain't it great to be out? Yeah. Sure. Linda

You're one of the bright spots of grace and reason and gentleness around the cafe. Glad you were born so we could enjoy your company! Have a great b'day tomorrow, and a year of health and happiness and love! xo, Linda

I hope you can Delurg long enough to have a piece of DE cake!! May your b'day be the best yet! xo, Linda

How great to see ya!! I was just thinking about you today and wondering how you're doing. Thanks for the facts you've observed. Facts can be refreshing. 8: Hugs...hope you'll pop in from time to time. I would have liked to go to the CFF Family Reunion this weekend, but just couldn't get away. I hope everyone's having a marvelous time there! Linda

In the recent "forgiveness" thread, Finz said, "It's a cruel world out there but we have been given some awesome equipment to work with." Boy, that just about sums it up for me! Thanks, Finz! Linda

Rascal, the story of your feeding those poor 4 pooches your picnic lunch brought a lump to my throat, and picturing a horse walking in your front door absolutely cracked me up. (We won't talk about the maggot parts. I was eating lunch when I read your post!) Corrydj, I hope your kitty is better soon! To everyone who said rescues make great pets, I couldn't agree more. Often they've been abused and/or neglected, and they sure seem grateful to have a safe home where they're loved. Linda

How great to see you, and your canine family members. Jesse is a biiiiig, beautiful boy! You've got all shapes and sizes! Dot, you've got quite a variety, too! Like JJ, I love large breeds, but I have a small house so I compromised. Emma's only a little over 30 lbs. If I can muster up the computer skills, I'll try to post a photo of her. Hey JJ, could you send me the link to the Web site where my story about my late pooch Chester was (if it's still there or archived somewhere). I lost it somehow when I changed hard drives. Thanks if you can, and welcome back! Linda

Yep, Dot, the bells on Wheel of fortune and Ben Stein are both close to the sound of my doorbell. Good thing those aren't my favorite game shows! Linda

She's beautiful, Rottie. What a sweet face! I have Emma, a terrier-shepherd mix who's almost 4 years old. She's quite the clown and a sweet companion, even though a little hyperactive. Then there's Molly, a grey-and-beige butterball of a kitty. (She was the replacement for what seemed like a clan of about a zillion mice who lived with me last year after my old cat died.) She was abused before I got her, but she's gotten over her fear and knows this is HER house now. Linda Z

I tend to agree with Sudo. The cynical me thinks this whole movement was started by unscrupulous dentists who want to charge people for replacing all their fillings. Maybe not. Maybe the movers and shakers behind it are completely sincere, but it's a possibility I can't ignore, given the obvious economical advantage of promoting replacement fillings. On the other hand, those who suffer from chronic pain certainly are justified in checking out possible solutions that are off the medical beaten path. Why do some alternative therapies/approaches work? Some are genuinely beneficial. Sometimes they're neither beneficial nor harmful, but people using them experience a placebo effect (they expect relief and they get it, just as some people taking "sugar pills" in a clinical trial get the same results as those getting the real pills). I think it's also possible, though, since each of us is different and has different sensitivities to different things, that some people get genuine symptom relief from using these things while some don't. Dot, I say if you can afford to have all your fillings replaced and you want to go for it, then go for it. What can it hurt? (Well, it might hurt ...I mean what damage can it do? Personally, I've already put a couple dentists' kids through college, and the thought of spending hours in the chair having all my fillings replaced is right up there with hitting my finger with a hammer. Linda Z

I can't watch that. *Ding* "woof woof woof!" I can't watch Win Ben Stein's Money. *Ding* "woof woof woof!" No matter how many times I tell EmmaDog, "Emma, it's the TV," she barks with every single solitary ding. Of course, this is the same dog that sounds an alarm if she hears a leaf blow across the street 3 miles away. But can she hear me say, "Emma, come"? Nooooooooo. I swear, they're just like kids. Dot, I can't imagine what it's like with 5 dogs doing that!! Linda

"I can not even get my husband to use the hamper, so I feel this astroid thing is beyond my capabilities." I love it!

Sorry, I'd forgotten to fix my profile after the move. My e-mail add is there now! Linda

I'd move Howard Stern and the Tom Green Show up to spots 2 and 3, and I'd add bowling, fishing and billiards. Why isn't Duke's of Hazard on that list? I agree about Hogan's Heroes. I thought it was hilarious...great cast. I've never heard of lots of those shows. I must have been busy stringing chairs...guess it was good for something! Linda Z

Linzee stopped twirling and hopped off her stool. Still a little dizzy from her spin, she looked at excathedra and blinked. "I could have sworn she had bowling ball fragments in her hair." Linzee beckoned to the duck and the two of them, as stealthily as two masterminds behind a grand conspiracy (easily rivaling one of the plots Ron G had warned everyone about), tiptoed quietly over and peered into the dumpster. Tom Litwin exclaimed, "Excathedra, when I said 'DUCK!' I meant 'DUCK!'not 'HEY, LOOK AT THAT DUCK!' He gallantly gave her his hand and pulled her out of the mess. As Chuck's Duck and linzee busied themselves with picking bowling-ball shards from Excathedra's hair, laleo shoved all the cafe tables to one end of the room, put $5 in the jukebox and started dancing, beckoning everyone to join her. The cafe was alive with the sound of...

In my simplistic way of thinking, when people disagree on ideas or issues, that's a debate, or an argument. When they call each other names or call into question each other's mental health, manhood, integrity, etc., it's a fight. Debates I like. I admit to sticking my nose into my share, both here and in my life away from here. Fights I don't like much, because instead of being an exchange of ideas and opinions, they're generally an exchange of insults and generalizations. While fights might settle down and lose their heat, I don't really think they settle anything. The one who appears to win a fight is the one with the most words and the most relentlessness to keep pounding away until achieving the coveted Last Word. Debates might not change anyone's mind either, but I like the way they challenge me to challenge my own thinking. I don't really think a special place is needed for debates, even if they get a bit heated. But name calling is already against the rules, so fights (by my definition, and of course I'm right! ) ought to be easy enough to avoid if people will just think a minute before shooting off the insults. Paraphrasing one of Satori's points, it's possible to look the other way when passing a trainwreck, but few people do. We must like conflict, we humans. Football, boxing, baseball, soccer, political debates--isn't the popularity of all these things based on our tendency to want to take sides? Linda Z

As Excathedra worked feverishly on the bi-biography, the rest of the partiers--who were hiding under various tables around the room, poised to spring like panthers at the unsuspecting birthday boy the moment he entered--started to grouse. "Where is he?" queried Litwin with a groan, trying desperately to pull his left hand out from under the lethal heel of one of Ryebred's stylish red stilettos. Ryebred, daintily lifting her foot to free her old friend's paw, in the process lifted the table they were crouched under, sending the absent guest of honor's birthday cake flying ... flying ... flying ... flying....flying....flying....right through a nearby open window. Plotinus, ready for a break anyway, hastily leapt to his feet and looked out the window to see where the cake had landed. "Maybe there's a stupid-human-tricks spot on Letterman in this for us," he mused, expecting to see the frothily frosted cake kersplaaaaat on the sidewalk or on someone's head or on top of a passing car. "That's funny," Plotty said, turning away from the window. "The cake is gone. Not even a smudge of frosting marks the sidewalk below." Suzie, crawling out from beneath her coffee table hideout, whispered (stickily), "In case anyone cares, the ice cream has melted." Linda Z sighed heavily, half-inflating her party noisemaker, and started to cry. "Oh drats," muttered laleo. "This birthday party appears to be a bust. We so wanted to surprise Chuck on his big day. But we have no Chuck," she sniffled. Just then the group of well wishers heard a loud, rustling noise outside the door. All eyes flew toward the source of the commotion. The door burst open with a clatter, and in flew Chuck's Duck, puffing on his little stub of a cigar for all he was worth, cussing like a sailor after a downing a gallon jug of cheap wine and wiggling his ducky *** in an attempt to untangle the huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CHUCK!color=red> banner tied to his tailfeathers. "Sheesh, couldn't you people afford a damned airplane to pull this @#%-in' thing?" grumped the duck, sputtering. "It wasn't enough that I had to fly under Homeland Security Radar, which ain't easy for a duck of my um, er, uh prosperous physique. Oh nooooo. I also had to pull THIS thing. It weighs a freekin' TON! Where's my martini? where's the bathroom? Do you know what air traffic is like around here at this time of day? Where's Chuck? Why I oughta...." "Calm down, Ducky," whispered Ryebred soothingly, playfully showing Chuck's Duck a little well-turned ankle and batting her eyelashes at him. Chuck's Duck melted into the puddle of ice cream and sighed himself into infatuated bliss beside Suzie. Nothing better to do, they entertained themselves by smearing the gooey melted ice cream onto each other's faces and giggling. Plotinus took another look out the window, just to make sure his eyes hadn't been playing tricks on him. "Hey, everyone! He's here!" exclaimed Plotinus, scrambling to duck under the pool table. Laleo quickly flicked off the lights and shooshed Suzie and the Duck sternly. In walked the Man of the Hour, carrying...