Lol, that is so funny. I have a plant at the shop in a planter by the bay door and I kept forgetting to water it where it was at. I told my husband that plant must be drought tolerant it hardly got watered all winter and him and all his friends died laughing. I was like what's so funny and JD said we water it for you all the time but not in a way you would like, lol. I just walked away. Its doing better than the one I water so maybe they have something there, lol.

What a bunch of great answers. You guys had me laughing and giggling like a kid. But Fairgold gets the prize! As a matter of fact, that is exactly what I decided to tell my dh. He did agree to a vasectomy, believe it or not. Now, I just have to make the appointment. I was 14 days late and think I probably had an early mc, so it's time to get serious here. I'm too old to risk this again. Thanks for sharing all of your wisdom with me on this slightly embarassing post :) You guys are the best.

I'm going to chime in here. I don't read fashion magazines either. For one reason, I don't think they are indicative of what is in style at our "tier", if that's what you want to call it. Perhaps it has to do with where you live also. For instance, I won't say that nude hose are outdated. Yes, in years past I have seen alot of black hose (which is what I try to wear if I absolutely MUST wear hose), tights (which you can't wear with every type dress), and my favorite - pants. LOL!! I still see alot of nude hose on ladies in this area - ladies who are fashionably dressed. I also think we've heard so much about Katherine and Pippa and their nude hose, that we will see more of them. What's in-style or current, etc. in NYC is not what is the look here in Tennessee. I have to say re jeans, I see many more women here wearing the slightly flared leg than the skinny jeans. You may remember that I work at a college, and I do see girls there in the skinnies. The skinnies that are tight enough to look like leggings LOL. IMO, that is who they look best on, the younger girls. I don't think at my age (staring 50 in the face!), that skinnies are the look for me. Another trend - we talked about maxi dresses earlier on this forum, well after that conversation, I started looking more closely at what people were wearing. Again, I saw many more under 30 gals with the maxi dresses. Most were younger than that. They were popular with the college set. I really think they are cute, but I am too short to carry that look off, plus I don't think I could stand all that fabric around my legs. Things like that bug me. Age wise - I'm not so sure. I want to have an updated, current look but I really prefer to have my own style and don't worry about having/wearing what everyone else is wearing or what someone says is the style. Some trends, I like and are favorable on me, some I don't and they're not LOL. I like classic seperates that continue to look current through the years, and update them with trendy jackets, sweaters, accessories, etc. That's just me. While I don't read fasion mags, I will admit to being slightly adicted to home deco mags. LOL Recently downloaded two trial subscriptions to my nook. It IS cheaper!! Just my two cents worth on fasion! tina

Birth control pills may help mask menopause symptoms By TOM VALEO Published March 28, 2006 All women can expect to enter menopause sooner or later, but women taking birth control pills may not notice, at least for a while. In the meantime, they can expect several benefits from the pill beside avoiding an unwanted pregnancy: They will avoid some of the most conspicuous signs of menopause, such as hot flashes, night sweats and irritability. "A woman on the birth control pill is getting hormones at a level above what her ovaries would produce,'' said Dr. Catherine Lynch, director of General Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of South Florida College of Medicine in Tampa. "When a woman goes into menopause, the ovaries basically shut down and no longer produce estrogen or progesterone in any significant amounts, so a woman taking the birth control pill in the standard fashion of three weeks on active pills, followed by one week of inactive pills, often won't have any symptoms of menopause until that pill-free week. She may not even realize she's in menopause because she's getting adequate estrogen and still cycling.'' During the week when she is not taking active birth control pills, the woman may even have a "withdrawal bleed" caused by the sudden drop in estrogen. A withdrawal bleed is easily mistaken for a normal period. And if the woman is taking continuous-use birth control pills, she will take inactive pills only one week out of every 12 instead of every four, so she will have a withdrawal bleed no more than once every four months. "So a woman who's, say, 51 and taking Seasonale one of the continuous-use birth control pills isn't going to have hot flashes or night sweats for 12 weeks, because she's having estrogen provided for her by the pills,'' Dr. Lynch said. "She may experience symptoms during the week she takes inactive pills, but just as symptoms start to climb, she starts taking active pills again, and she won't appreciate that these are symptoms of menopause.'' But that's not all. Taking birth control pills also seems to reduce bone loss. In fact, if the woman is also doing weight-bearing exercises and getting plenty of calcium, low-dose birth control pills may even help build bone density. Women on the pill also experience less iron deficiency anemia, and some studies suggest that the pill protects against benign breast disease, endometrial cancer and epithelial ovarian cancer. The Cancer and Steroid Hormone Study, the largest to investigate this last issue, found a 40 percent decrease on average of ovarian cancer in women who had taken oral contraceptives. The risk decreased as the amount of time on the pill increased, so women who had taken the pill for seven years or longer experienced a reduction in the risk of ovarian cancer of 60 to 80 percent. Some Women on the pill also experience less iron deficiency anemia, and some studies suggest that the pill protects against benign breast disease, endometrial cancer and epithelial ovarian cancer. studies suggest that oral contraceptives might even protect against colorectal cancer, uterine fibroid tumors, Alzheimer's disease and rheumatoid arthritis. Taking the pill has always meant an increase in the risk of blood clots, which can cause a stroke. But a woman who does not smoke, does not have high blood pressure, and takes a low-dose oral contraceptive can almost eliminate that additional risk. So why not just stay on the pill and enjoy all the benefits of hormone-replacement therapy, known as HRT? Because even low-dose birth-control pills deliver five to seven times as much estrogen as HRT. HRT simply gives the body back what the ovaries were producing before they were shut down by menopause. The birth control pill delivers a dose of hormones large enough to shut down the ovaries, and it's pointless for a woman to keep taking hormones after menopause has begun and she has stopped ovulating. She would be better off with hormone-replacement therapy, which would provide her with the same benefits but a lower dose of hormone. "The trick is figuring out when she is in menopause,'' Dr. Lynch said. "There are a couple of ways to test this, but they're not 100 percent reliable. She can go off the pill and see if she's still cycling, but if she's sexually active, there's an outside chance she could get pregnant. "While it's rare for pregnancy to occur at the age of 50 or 51, it can happen if you're still ovulating.'' Tom Valeo is a freelance writer specializing in medical and health issues. Contact him c/o Seniority, St. Petersburg Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731, or e-mail features at sptimes dot com. [Last modified March 28, 2006, 08:52:07] Here is a link that might be useful: from a Florida online newspaper