I've been investigating ciders for the last 6 months since I discovered them and went to a cider festival. I prefer cider to wine as the alcohol content is lower. I'm amazed at the variety and differences in taste of the ciders from boutique brewers. I don't know what the US cide scene is like, but here there are some stunning new makers here.

There are some very nice ciders which are a lot like apple juice, some ciders are beery but not all.

Jim Parsons....hubba hubba. How can such a sexy man seem so unsexy on screen??

I'm really struggling to see what the hoo ha is all about. So they are using our info to make money, well knock me down with a feather. Of course they are! And people move go G+.... Do they think Google are supplying all these services out of the goodness of their hearts? I am far more bothered by the all seeing Google than I am by FB. Google see what we search for, what we send in private emails, what photos we keep, what sites we go to (via +1's should you choose to use them) what appointments we have if we use calendar. And should I make them unhappy in any way, I can loose my account for every one of those things, now that scares the crapola out of me as we do use gmail and google calendar. And people are actually advocating them as the safe choice over FB to give more info? It's laughable. We choose what we put out there, and we should always bear in mind that no matter how private we think it is, it may one day be public and behave accordingly. I tried G+ when it was first released. I didn't like it, it seemed less personal and full of people being wonderful. Very tiresome. I haven't looked in weeks, it may improve now it is open and more people migrate, but I personally don't think that FB is in imminent danger from the great migration.

DS and I were arguing over a spot on the couch this morning and Sheldon was referenced. I love the show!!

:iagree: and I love the translation, how true!! One of the main issues I remember from when my Dad died was multiple people said to my Mum, who had just lost the man she had adored for 25 years, variations of "there's plenty more fish in the sea". Un.believable!! And couple friends ran like my Mum, grieving for her husband, would be a threat to their marriage. Unless I've got something more specific to say, I stick with "I'm so sorry."

I think the sun bed thing is about the danger of overheating, it's there along with hot baths and spa pools. I do think the whole list of don'ts during pregnancy is getting out of hand, the list of food you are "not allowed" to eat has got much longer since I had J, it is getting beyond ludicrous and I ate most of them during my pregnancies. The medical community seems to think they need to save us from ourselves, it's tiresome being treated as a baby breeding factory instead of a human being with the ability to think for oneself. Fwiw, NZ and Australia have the same hysteria around alcohol in pregnancy, I think it's getting worse actually. I totally ignored it and enjoyed a glass occasionally in the 3rd tri. I agree!

We are doing a progressive renovation with ikea cabinets, so at the moment we have a combo of old cabinets and benches and ikea cabinets and benches. We are using all drawers, with antonious fronts on them, and ikea handles too. I put all the cabinets together, the only thing I didn't do is put the handles on, as you have to work out placements, so DH did that. They were super easy to put together, really, really easy!! So far the cabinets have been in a year, so it's not very long, but they still look like new and I love the antonious for it's easy cleaning and fresh look. Ikea kitchen parts have a 25year guarantee, so I'm happy that it will last the distance. I've used the ikea online planner to design the final kitchen look, it's a very easy piece of software to use, but make sure your measurements are accurate. Then I go in with a list of what I want. But you can also plan it online and then go in and their staff will pull it up and run through everything with you, I've seen them doing it with others. We will get someone in to measure for the final countertop, at present we have the cheapest ones as a temporary measure until the new kitchen is all in. Countertops need to be perfectly measured to take account of not quite straight Walls, and I'd rather someone else take responsibility for that. I can't comment on price in the US, but it's very cost effective here.

I'm not really SURE what the reviewer was GETTING AT. I wonder if she LIKES ACE and wishes EVERYONE to use it?

It is a giant pain to start with, but it gets easier. I've been GF for 5 years, and GF cooking is 2nd nature. Having said that, yes, it affects me worse now. Two days ago I used normal soy sauce instead of GF in our meal, I realised but I figured that the amount of gluten in the sauce was miniscule and the amount of sauce I would personally ingest even smaller, so I ate the food. Foolish, foolish me, 5 years and I still haven't learnt! **** stuff shouldn't even be in the cupboard, I need to tip it down the drain. Yesterday I had severe muscle aches, headaches and extreme fatigue. I don't have a definitie coeliac diagnosis, I'm in grey zone for life, but I probably have it and I should know better!

Again, unretracted foreskins seems to me the kind of thing that a kid or parent would bring up and would then be checked. Knowing how much boys play with their bits, I bet they'd notice a cancerous lump before a doctor would. I'm still unconvinced that this needs to be done routinely. Obviously doctors here are also unconvinced.

Er, no he won't. Both my boys have played and do play contact sports, and no doctor has ever asked to do that. I sometimes wonder if the docs in the US have to justify their exhorbitant fees by doing unnecessary stuff. Who knows, all I know is that I'm often puzzled about this.

I'm sorry, I obviously wasnt clear. I meant I can't work out why a doctor would need to look at a child's genitals on an annual basis, as part of a standard physical where there was no expressed cause for concern by the child or the parent.

I understand those things, but undescended testes are diagnosed early, and by the time a child is school age they would have been treated, yes? They may need rechecking at some point if this was the case, sure, but that's different to just having every child inspected. And I also understand precocious puberty, because I have a child with it, and yes they had genital examinations, many. But they had them when I took them in to see the doctor about it. I think parents are capable of knowing when a child may be developing earlier or later than normal and can see the doctor should that be an issue without every kid having to drop their daks on an annual basis. m

If the numbers suggest celiac, the doctor will most likely want to do a biopsy to give an absolute confirmation and she still needs to be eating gluten for that. As for how long it will take to feel better, she will most likely feel better within weeks, but will still notice things improving for months, possibly things that she didn't even realise were related to gluten intake.

:iagree: Pretty much nothing gets me more irked than a conversation that assumes that because I don't believe in gods, I'm spiritually adrift and need saving.

How's the view up there from your high horse? I can't work out why any doctor needs to look at a child's genitals. I don't think my children's genitals have been checked since they were under 6 months, excepting for specific genital related concerns that we have gone to see the doctor about. But then my kids don't get annual checks either, I'm perplexed at the point. Surely it's a parents job to discuss periods, wet dreams and foreskin care? To me the doctor doing it is as inappropriate as the school doing it.

http://www.orangutans.com.au/Orangutans-Survival-Information/Whats-palm-oil-got-to-do-with-orangutans.aspx Info on palm oil and orang-utans.

I use sesame oil for cooking specific foods where I want that taste as it's a strongly flavoured oil. I use sunflower oil when I want a flavourless oil, and because the manufacture is fairly simple compared with many oils, it's a pressed oil. I am not anti saturated fat at all, and in most cooking I use butter, but I use oil for frying etc. My main philosophy around food, oil included is the less it's mucked with, the better.

Ethically palm oil is not a good choice, not in this part of the world anyway as it's production destroys the habitat of the orang-utan. Local zoos are actively campaigning against it, and it's inclusion in products is now being labelled separately to enable consumers to make educated choices. I use olive oil, coconut oil, sesame oil and sunflower oil. and butter of course, mostly butter.

Same here :). http://pinterest.com/keptwoman/

We inherited my Mums cat, she had all the stress issues and peeing. We spent a fortune trying to make her happy and she was not really much fun to have about. Catteries made her miserable, antidepressants made her miserable, life in general made her miserable. I felt exactly the same as you! Then Erro walked into our lives as a stray and changed my mind entirely, not all cats are like that. :iagree: Our lovely Erro died last week at the vets, not put down, he died from a snake bite. I will eternally regret that I left him there for treatment and did not stay with him as he died barely half an hour after I left him and he hates the vets :( I guess it depends how much you love the animal, but I agree that to be there with them is unlikely to be something you regret later.

This is why I have not posted mine. Can you explain for the very dimwitted (i.e me) how one goes about doing this?

Putting the cat in the guest room will not help his stress, you may make your life easier wrt not having to deal with the pee, but how does it improve the cats life? I have been in the exact same position and in the end we had her put down, my only regret is not doing it sooner for the cats sake and ours.

Beyond agreeing WRT the straw man, I think that VAKim was referring to living in "socialist" countries like Australia and Britian where we have the dreaded UHC.