Am I a quitting quitter that always quits?

So SO SOOOO not a quitter! You're recognizing your limits. That's actually the very opposite of a quitter. You're going to do this. I know you will. You didn't go through all of that pain with the GREs to quit. I know you better than that.

I forgot to say earlier, Jilli, that's wonderful news about your friend.

I think I'm going to procrastinate by taking down the Christmas decorations. It's January 19. They really need to come down. Plus, I'm going out to my parents' tomorrow, so I can put them back in the basement. Everyone wins.

Interesting.

I guess I never really thought about the use of cow's milk in India. Not that I've really gone beyond the "some inhabitants of the region believe the cow is sacred" level.

Oh, they drink everything over there. Cow milk, buffalo milk, goat milk. I mean, you could just walk down the road and grab an udder if you were thirsty.

Nova, I sympathize with the iPod breakage. My buttons quit working the other day. Thankfully I have the Apple Care thing so they are sending me a new one as we speak. If your is less than 1 year old or you have Apple care, you can do the same? (They even gave me a new one once when I dropped and broke mine, but sshh, let's not mention that again.)

My grandfather used to shoot us with the milk when we watched him milk the cow, aeons ago. I always thought raw milk tasted a little funny, but I learned to make butter from my grandmother.

My father's uncle owned a dairy farm in PEI (now dad's cousin owns it). I loved the raw milk, but won't drink it again, and wouldn't let my kids have it.

My uncle owned a dairy and we used to drink fresh, warm, whole milk as kids. I also wouldn't do it again.

(BTW, what do you get from unpasteurized milk?)

Oooookay. The tales of drinking warm milk have me shuddering. Eeeeech. I can't even touch the super-processed cold stuff, much less milk au naturel.

I think you can get salmonella from raw milk? Is that right?

According to Wikipedia, the most significant diseases trasmitted by milk are mastitis, brucella, and tuberculosis. (Also dysentery, and, yes, salmonella.) Apparently all kinds of pathogens can be transmitted through the milk. And when you consider factory-farming practices, where the cows are penned up very close together and they get all kinds of nasties (or at least the potential for nasties) in their feed, there are lots of potential pathogens that can make it through.

I think you can get salmonella from raw milk?

And listeria, e-coli and an assortment of other things. It depends on what the cow has been exposed to and on the handling conditions. The problems are worse today, with modern factory farming and an over-reliance on antibiotics to improve condition, than they were years ago. You can get pretty safe raw milk from certified dairies, at which the cows are tested for disease and the handling facilities checked.

That's good news about your friend, Jilli. I hope he continues to improve. May Deena and Nora get better.

My question is: why was I much more awake when I got up than I am now?