eek! I was going to ask if the bumps looked fuzzy thinking maybe a fungal infection. But I guess you have it under control. I hope the Proform LA works for you. I dont know about it, but judging by your '(ouch)' I'd say its expensive. btw, my Koi jumps too..man can they jump! And nothing is wrong with him. When I first got mine I had read in many dif places that Koi are known jumpers, so I never thought twice about it. I love it when I am right at the pond when he jumps. You will be treating the whole pond correct? I dont agree with just treating the sick fish in a hosp tank, or whatever. Better to treat the whole pond and rid the pond of the parasite, then to have to keep treating fish over and over again individually by not getting to the root of the problem. Good luck and I hope all goes well.

Hello Rock Oak and Ianna, I wish everyone was just nice and left everyone else alone unless they were really doing harm. Unfortunately, in my opinion, humans, for whatever reason, although they can be kind, they also can be predatory and cruel, among other nasty traits. I love gardening for so many reasons, not the least is that plants offer me back more than I give them with my tender loving care. In a way, I understand why you both may be thinking that complaining about selectively applied laws is like complaining about the weather... it just happens. From my perspective I don't see this thread as complaining about it but rather about helping me become more aware that this happens all the time, so that maybe I or my family or my friends or my neighbors won't be caught out in a lightning storm as this poor women has been who they decided to pick on with the initial excuse that she was growing a front yard vegetable garden. What happeded to this women could happen to you or your adult children in a much worse fashion. I read about a lady who had her life time home taken from her becasue she owed almost ten thousand dollars in back taxes. She was unemployed. There were over two hundrd and fifty properties in town with the same issue that were not bothered about the back taxes. The feeling is that whe the property was sold or when the person died hey would get their money. What person wants to put another person out on th estreet for society to take care of. But the town officals, at that time, didn't like her. So they took her house and sold it, making her homeless. Plus they took away her only source of income since it was a three family home. The sale paid off the ten thousand dollar tax issue but it also brought the town over eighty thousand dollars in profit. They did not give the poverty stricten woman her eighty thousand dollars, the town kept it. That is morally wrong if not legally wrong. That was really bad weather. But I think human nature can sometimes be controlling to feed the egos of those in power and they will push people around to show who is boss. And yet those in power say they are "public servants". There is a saying, I forget who said it but it goes like this, " bad things happen when good people do nothing" Well I am not very powerful, or connected but at least I can particpate in a discussion that talks about this type of political weather power. I think most people think it won't happen to them or a member of their family. But when it does, they suddenly become an activist about this type of weather. I guess I want my community to be preppers against this type of political weather than seems to just happen. Well tornados just happen and hurricanes just happen, and Nor'easters just happen. Isn't it nice to be aware that that weather can just happen and be prepared for it so one doen't lose what they worked so hard for all their lives or even worse their life or the life of a loved one. Political weather just happens, in my opinion, when good people just gossip about it as entertainment releived that its not happening to them. My personal opinion is that if we all talked about it, then maybe it won't happen as much, becasue it is unconsititional and it does not support the American fundamental legal and moral philosophy of freedom. Sadly, where ever we go in America, our lost of freedom is in our face. When I read about local law officials harassing someone for collecting their own rainwater off their roofs to water their gardens, that makes me understand how vulnerable we all are, especially when an offical will say" well its on the books but we don't enforce it". This is hard to face. Who wants to talk about political weather when we could be laughing and exchanging war stories about what we are going to be doing with all our zuccini. The reality is, soon, if we all don't pay attention to these selective laws, and what personalities have been put in power to decide who these laws are goin gto apply to and who they won't, few of us will have gardens to share zuccini war stores with. The farmers are hurting but since the farmers feed us, if they loose , we loose. It is my opinion that we all need to be at least more aware of this. I just don't see this as complaining. I see this as helping us all pay attention more to what is going on around this country that will soon affect all of us if we all don't start talking about it on a grass root level. My aplogizes in advance if I offended anyone with this post. Deanna, I guess we were actually talking about the same thing. I just misinterpreted your point. I wholly agree with you. Blake

To Sunflowerrose - I had the same experience with soy milk! Recently I stopped drinking milk and started drinking soy milk and without changing anything else my acne began to clear, and my skin was the clearest it had been in ages! I'm in my 30's. I looked into "the benefits of soy" online and found various references stating that soy contains a form of estrogen and depending on how much you take it can act similarly in your body as birth control pills. It also affected my periods - less bleeding each period and longer time between each period - went from a 27 day cycle to a 40 day cycle. Talked to my doctor who also confirmed that soy can affect your hormones. For me the effect was good - improved acne and less frequent periods. I actually stopped taking the soy milk about a month ago and guess what - the acne returned, so for me I am convinced the soy is what did it. I am now back on the soy milk and can't wait to see the reduced acne effect again (took about 3 weeks for me to notice a change before....) Anyway my point is - you might want to try soy! At least it's natural. Here are some links to articles about soy and hormones and estrogen: http://www.isoflavones.info/isoflavones-abstracts.php?article=119 http://www.babyhopes.com/articles/soy.html However it's also important to note that there are critics of soy, some say it's downright unhealthy altogether, so do your own research. For me, the benefit outweighs any "risks" because I don't necessarily believe the critics.

I am so glad this discussion is on here! I am 52, and was just told to go off the combo pill in August, after being on it nearly continuously since 17 when I picked it up in college. My blood pressure had started to go up last year, so we figured this was the cause. I had never had high blood pressure before - usually the opposite. I tried reducing salt and increasing exercise for a bit, but it had little impact. So, I was recommended going off or switching to the mini-pill progesterone-only. The first two weeks were fine, then I had a couple of weeks of constant overheating(no 'flashes', just constant hot). I read about how sometimes when you go off the combo pill, your insulin levels can be weird as your other systems take over estrogen and general thermostat regulation, so I cut out all the high spiky insulin foods(think sugar and white rice along with the rest of the online lists of foods to avoid) and reduced some caffeine, and the heat problem turned off completely. Now it has been three months of progesterone only, and I can see my skin aging, and hair growth slowing. I had been having a lot of brain-fog issues the past few years, and those have not changed, sadly. It's very annoying, and I hope that part at least sorts itself out by 60. Bonus and unexpected - my internal base stress level has gone down. It's just easier to cope. I have added rice and sugar back with no problems, and overheating is completely gone. I am sleeping better, although now I have weird little dreams, when I have never been one to remember dreams much at all. I do not have more energy, and some of my hand strength is just gone. Also, mentally, I find I am more detached from things and people, but not in a depressed or destructive way. More the feeling of having a choice about being involved or not, rather than having an immediate reaction (like wanting to scream at the grocery clerk that eye-rolled when asking a valid question). Hoping I am just done, but it's too soon to tell. I get mild cramping with no period, and some spotting during the week I would have normally had one in the '4th week off' time. But it's too soon to write off periods altogether. I am hoping most of the worst of it was masked during the past 5 years. But...I do have female relatives that didn't hit menopause until 56-65. One would have thought with half the planet going through this in their lives that there would be more medical study and progress on this in the last 50 years, but apparently no. lol I think starting a better workout routine and nutrition plan is next on the agenda. Wondering how much of my personality and priority-setting is hormone related. Will be interesting to see who I become now. Maybe my ten year old self has a chance again. :) She was fun.