Gas Prices

I know. I don't feel bad at all about owning our CUV.

I do hate people who have SUV's and drive like sissies in the snow.

For godssake people, you have FOUR WHEEL DRIVE. USE IT A**HOLE!

Actually Bella, your geneation doesn't even have much of a choice. My generation and my parents generation decided for you. We picked big honkin' SUV's over more practical choices and when asked, we always rated mileage as one of the least important things about buying a car.

the problem with relying on milk for calcium is that the balance of calcium vs fats and other vitamins .. ( now.. I really dont remember the technical stuff..) is that it is not in proportion to our bodies needs.

We need ( and this is what I have forgotten) <-- that for our bodies to absorb calcium . Milk is NOT in balance with what our bodies need to absorb it so it is mostly going to waste.

It is nutritionally balanced for a baby COW to absorb all the vitamins and nutrients from it because that is what their bodies require..

Not ours..

The boys pediatrician has told me to make sure they have three cups a day..ever since they were one. I am pretty sure he has no attachment to the dairy industry. But he is older - and sweeeeeeeeet, I never even thought to question him. We drink water mostly other than milk - the boys do anyway...I have issues (diet soda addict).

And as far as the Station wagon is concerned...I am happy to stay in it...but lap belts can cause serious injury in an accident. The shoulder belts are safer. I guess I am having a hard time balancing what if and what I know (possibilities) with the actual likelihood of something happening...if that makes sense. If we were in an accident and the one in the lap belt got hurt badly - I think I would feel pretty crappy. Whereas if I did what I knew was safest I would be thinking I did the best I could. I guess...if something happened to any of them I'm pretty sure it wouldn't matter. I would be miserable regardless...Do you think I am over thinking?

Yes.

Just like everyone else who has someone they love depending on them.
I too did the whole " my car is not safe" for my baby as well..

Yet.. it reallllly is.

Use the lap belt behind a seat, and not in the center and you are 10 times safer

That's my problem shewolf...three kids in the back seat...one has to be in the middle where there is no seat and only a lap belt. Bucket seats up front and that little arm rest in the middle...but I am pretty sure having that up would not do any good...

We were told we could not have any more children unless we went on fertility - we had the twins and were happy. Bought the stationwagon. 4 months later the dr. was proven wrong...I got pregnant - no fertility drugs. Had my tubes tied after that one. And here we are :wink:

Do you have any idea how much the dairy industry bribes the medical industry? They give big donations to medical schools in order to get their PR into the curriculum and later follow it up with personal visits from salespeople to promote their products in the schools and medical offices. They operate just like the drug companies. No child actually needs cow milk, they need mother's milk as babies, but cow milk is just another thing we can eat as omnivores. I do use milk and cheese in my diet, but none of it comes from commercial farms. I suggest you do your own research and see what other sources say. Good book that hits on the topic: "In Defense of Food" by Micheal Pollan.

(stepping off soapbox)

All car seats can use a lap belt..

what about getting a different car seat? One that has a 5 point harness or something..?

( Or did you already address that issue .. )

We do drink organic milk - I go to a farm up the road a bit every two weeks to get it. But I will look into it...just never doubted my pediatrician - he is a family friend and we love him. But he never suggested organic either and I just have always had a feeling that the milk with all the steroids and hormones can't be good for me or the boys Always pays to look into things when a question is brought up.

Hey shewolf, I don't think I was real obvious about it...but he is in a 5 point harness right now. The problem is that the harness is not as effective past 40 pounds...I guess the weight of the child in an accident would cause the fasteners to pop thus causing the whole projectile child situations...yikes - being in the center and all. I do feel a lap belt is safer than that though...but maybe a different car seat would have a higher weight allowance. Never thought of that. I will start researching that. It's always something you know?

wow....this has turned into a great discussion, covering a lot more than gas. I'm lovin' it.

mismi, re the doctor and never thinking of questioning him.

Always remember, you are part of a team, your doctor is just one, albeit important part.

Doctors are FAR from infallible (shewolf, I can hear your head bobbing up and down from where I'm sitting), and being sweet and a friend of the family has no corelation to how good a physician he is, or if he/she keeps up with the times.

Here's a lame joke, but it's true......


What do you call a doctor who graduated dead last in his class?



wait.....



wait.....



you call him Doctor.

A friend of mine...

Lets call him Jon.

Jon.. is a doctor.
He graduated rather high in his class .. about 12 years ago from UT.
Very well paid, owns his own office.. hires currently 5 other doctors in his office.

Successful. Nice. Married. Good guy


ya know who helped him pay for that UT education?

Merck.

Ya know how he repays that?

Prescribing a certain percentage of his patients Merck brand only drugs

I once went on an all expense paid vacation to Hawaii courtesy of Phizer Pharm.. My then boyfriend was a dermatologist and was very good at writing drug prescriptions for rashes that buttermilk would have cured. He also got a really cool pinball machine from some other company for similar loyalty.

(didn't mean to bring up a milk thing again)

Being a physician today is all about politics.

ok, back to "saving the planet"


yeah, the 101 pound woman dashing into whole foods to buy and organic beet, taking 15 minutes to first park her SUV. Yeah, she looks like she hauls a lot of construction stuff around

Another thing....selling these "green bags" to pack your groceries in?

What? You don't have 20 years worth of canvas totes laying around? Or some generic plastic crates?

I was thinking about that just this morning...I'm going to look around the house and shed and pull out some of those crates. Put them in my supermarket cart, put all my groceries in there while I'm shopping, load it onto the conveyor belt, and put the groceries right back in the crate....then load the crates in my trunk.

Problem is, people will feel like they have to go out and buy "green" plastic crates from Crate and Barrel or something.


This also brings to mind something else I've been thinking about....I'll be back later.....

I have a cardboard box FULL of plastic bags in the back of my car.

I just re-use the ones I have.
I throw a handfull into my purse, and shop.

Pull them out when I check out.. ( I generally use self check out since I only buy a little at a time) then I am on my way.


Never thought about the bag situation though.
I did buy one of those green bags.

Sucks. Not enough room to position weight to keep things from tipping, smashing ..etc

waste of 2 bucks

I know what you mean Chai. I have a client who drives a Lincoln Navigator, lives in 3500 square foot house fully piped for A/C, has two hot tubs (an innie and an outtie), about 3 acres of irrigated lawn and a kitchen that looks like it belongs in a hotel. She always carries her little green bags to the market and hired me to do a 6 x 8 butterfly garden - so she "could give something back to nature".

oh my god.. I think I broke a rib

I have a 3200sf house with A/C. Heat too.

Big whoop. It would be unbearable without them.

Can i buy pink? Or purple?

I don't think the point was that she has ac in her house, but that she does everything enviornmentally wrong and expects a butterfly garden to make up for it.

You live in Michigan, try some fans. (California wimp)