Thanks for all the AB advice, y'all. Will pass it on.

Fred, that's terrible about Rigatoni. Kitty kidney~ma is winging northward.

Hippo birdies, Perkins!

If you have to say that you can't say something because people might think you're a racist? It's because you're racist.

Word.

Cereal - yeah, Steph, she has IBS, too. Bad enough where they thought she had Crohn's or colitis.

Cereal - yeah, Steph, she has IBS, too. Bad enough where they thought she had Crohn's or colitis.

Honestly, then IMO she should try the Align. It's actually undergone clinical trials that have shown it to be effective. My own anecdata match up with that.

My brother says that kombucha tea will also help with IBS. I have no official opinion on that yet, though I have started drinking kombucha.

Larger drugstores (CVS et al.) have very good probiotics now that do not need to be refrigerated. The 2 brands I recommend are Enzymatic Therapy's Pearls (don't get the "YC" kind; get the Pearls or the IC Pearls), and the appallingly expensive but super-effective Align.

You know my hippie mother is never going to buy that, right?

The thing is, they don't work right away, like taking Tylenol for a headache; it takes a good 2 weeks or more for the bacteria levels in the gut to get back to a more balanced place.

My 'like a charm' sense may be because I tend to take them all along.

anecdata

This is an awesome word. I just had to say.

You know my hippie mother is never going to buy that, right?

Does she drink kombucha? (I respect the hippies; I just like being able to buy my probiotics when I pick up my 2,000 prescriptions.)

The thing is, they don't work right away, like taking Tylenol for a headache; it takes a good 2 weeks or more for the bacteria levels in the gut to get back to a more balanced place.

My 'like a charm' sense may be because I tend to take them all along.

I've accepted that I probably need to do that, too, since my GI tract is like a bombed-out drug-dealer ghetto.

anecdata

This is an awesome word. I just had to say.

I stole it from someone/somewhere on the Internets.

Does she drink kombucha? (I respect the hippies; I just like being able to buy my probiotics when I pick up my 2,000 prescriptions.)

I know not.

After the first round of "not as good," however, she'll launch into her litany of things "the hippies have been doing all along that doctors are just now catching up with..."

That's actually a fun rant.

If we live in a world where we are only one of several sentient space-faring species, then we ARE NOT THAT FUCKING SPECIAL.

I kinda like Brin's UpLift books for this reason; the big impressive aliens come along, look at us bumbling around, and basically go, "Where are your owners? No-one gets to be like this accidentally; you have patrons, they're IRRESPONSIBLE, and now look at the mess you've made! Gah!"

For several books.

(I also like the idea of Kanten, which are large, ambulatory, intelligent broccoli - and the Tymbrymi, who are like the Joker, all the time, sans homicidal mania)

I want to like Brin, but his writing style gets under my skin.

I like Brin very much but I got lost in his various series somewhere and haven't been able to puzzle out which I've read and which I haven't. I am trying very hard to stop buying books I think I haven't read just to realize (usually only after I've finished or gotten far enough through it that I might as well finish) that not only have I read it before I've got a copy of it with the same damn cover art right over there, why didn't I see that before?

Yet another reason why I need to finish my bookshelves and get all my books unpacked so I can at least figure out what I own.