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Rant: People with ambition. They make me look bad . . . Rant: People who won't shut up and let you take a turn at talking.

Mark me down for a no.

My wife had gastric bypass (Roux-En-Y). They had recommended against lap band based on how much weight she needed to loose ( a similar amount that you want to loose. they didn't think lap band would do enough or that the results would last; i don't quite remember the details). I don't think sleeve was on the menu, so either not around back then (10 years ago?) or not in widespread use? She drank Pure Protein brand powdered chocolate protein shakes (powdered was cheaper than the cans, and the cans tasted funny to her). She had tried several other brands. I recall them saying it would boil down to individual preference on what brand/variety to go with. So, she was able to loose a lot of weight, which made her less self-conscious going out and about, taking some classes at the local college. It also helped with getting active in some physical hobbies. Some of the weight has come back. She still has to watch what she eats. I view the surgery as more of a jump-start to weight loss, that still requires lifestyle changes if you want to keep it off. Also, to this day certain foods don't sit well with her and she has to go throw up the meal. My recollection is that they told her she would need to eat a certain way and take multi-vitamins and extra this vitamin and that vitamin for life, and she doesn't really do any of that. She's not exactly withering away, but I wonder if she is not doing herself some harm. (But she won't listen to my nagging so I don't bother.) A couple of financial cautions: Although insurance covered a good bit of her surgery costs, it only covered a small part of anesthesia. I had asked the doctor's office before surgery and at the hospital the day of, to make sure we got an anesthesiologist that took our insurance, and was told not to worry. Then I found out when the $1200 bill came that no anesthesiologists take our insurance. (I wrote the ins. company a letter and they ended up paying all of that in the end.) Also, that kind of weight loss left a lot of loose skin that would not ever contract. So after a couple of years she had plastic surgery to remove it, and that was not covered by insurance (many thousands of bucks). (And it was very painful; afterwards she kind of regretted it for a time because of the pain.)

Rant: I guess it's OK for other people to shit on me all they want, but if I squawk about it I'm the biggest asshole on the earth.

Argo. No sex so far (and I don't think there will be).

Rant: Charlie Horse in the back of the leg. While doing the wife doggie style. Right at the moment of climax! With all the writhing and wriggling I was doing, trying to straighten my leg out, the wife thought I was having the most awesomest orgasm ever. In reality it was a fizzler, as I had to stop pumping and plunging at the worst time.

Jeeze Louise, Ouch. I like the loop to attach a dog leash, though. Seems like a fitting feature . . .

(bungee jumping)

Getting force-fed corned beef and stinky cabbage. And I might get sucked into a nearby local parade . . .

I am sorry too. And if you were talking having a kid with 'em, there must have been some seriousness to the relationship.

Well enough. Nothing exciting, but busy as hell lately, both at work and home (and still don't ever seem to get anything useful done!)

Some disclaimers first. No, never dated someone with kids. And two, even though I have three of 'em, I can't say that I know very much about raising them or am any good at it. So I don't have any answers for you. Nonetheless, a couple of thoughts here. The kid is two, and that can be a tough age to deal with on its own. Second, his parents are split, so there is probably some turmoil going on inside him that might benefit from an outside counselor's help to get a handle on, and it still probably won't be easy. You mention maybe having a kid with the guy at some point. What I see as a bigger potential issue than how you raise your kid versus how they raise their kid, is that you will be at odds with boyfriend over how the two of you raise your kid. If he is OK stuffing his first kid with marshmallows and soda, he's going to want to do it with the kid you have together. What to do about it? I have no clue. Good luck, and I am curious what you learn and figure out.

I had gotten the wife a butterfly toy with straps, with having her use it in public in mind, but it didn't work out. (Didn't stay in place and was a little too audible.)

The wife has with some of her closer friends. But no, not me, I don't have any friends I would feel comfortable talking about sex details with.

A girl playing an instrument really well, like a guitar or fiddle or drums.

Thanks. As it says, this is something a lot of people don't think or talk about, the effects that can arise after the treatment is done.

The CB radio comments made me smile. For a while there it seemed everyone had to have a "handle," whether they had a CB radio or not. Bookstores sold CB lingo dictionaries. And I wondered why Smokey Bear meant a police officer instead of a firefighter. I remember phone numbers were a word and a number, then four more numbers, like "MUrray hill 5 - 5473" (The name was some sort of telephone exchange name, and the first two letters corresponded to the first two numbers of the phone number). Postage stamps were 11 cents. Choo-choo train passenger cars had windows that opened instead of air conditioning, and toilets that just dumped straight out onto the tracks. On long car trips, curling up to sleep in the back seat foot well with my legs tucked under the front seat; man, if we ever crashed I woulda lost my legs. The announcement of Lynden Johnson's death over the radio; they interrupted the music for a special announcemnt. We had relatives living outside Washington D.C. that had a steel bomb shelter in their basement; I guess that's what people had built into their homes during the height of the Cold War. Gasonline shortages and implementation of the 55 mph national speed limit; it made those two-day summer vacation drives a lot longer. Most tractor trailer cabs were cab-over-engine style. Farrah Fawcett bed sheets. Cigarettes could be bought from a vending machine. People dressed up to get on a jet airliner. Hippies. Predictions that another ice age might be coming.

Driving in the car with the kid. The kid askes, "Dad, when did you learn to disect stuff." Meaning disecting things in biology class in school. But what my ears heard was, "Dad, when did you learn about sex stuff."

Slim

funny

I remember you. How have you been?

An article on sex and cancer from CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/06/health/sex-cancer-clinics-programs/index.html?iref=obnetwork

So does it make me a male chauvinist sexist pig dog because I still use "waitress" instead of "server"? Because I use "actor" and "actress" instead of "actor" as a unisex term? Because I use "stewardess" instead of "flight attendant"?