Re the origami discussion, this was a hobby of mine as a teenager. (My favourites were a rather lovely rose, and a stegosaurus that took two hours to fold.) the names of folds within the literature were simple and descriptive, like valley fold and mountain fold.

I don't know what a hamburger fold would be supposed to look like.

She's also the person with whom I had this conversation when I was a teenager. (This was at the dinner table, and my mother had made it very clear to me when I first went vegetarian at age 13 that statements like "beef is dead cow" are NOT appropriate for the table, so I was trying to be polite and phrase all of this in dinner-table-appropriate ways.)

Her: Why are you vegetarian?

Me: For animal rights reasons.

Her: But what does that mean?

Me: Uh? I care about the animals?

Her: But what does that have to do with being vegetarian?

Me, glancing over at my mom for silent permission to be a bit more explicit, because this is just getting frustrating: I don't think it's right to kill animals for food when I can survive perfectly well with doing that.

Her: But what animals are killed?

If you eat gluten free but once in a while decide you really want a pancake, well, it's not my job to police your choices or consistency or whatev. It is my job to respect your stated restrictions as best I can.

exactly, but if I'm respecting your stated restrictions, and you're ignoring what has been done (i.e. claiming that "all" margarine has dairy), then I can't help you.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. I've had a lovely, low-key birthday. I cannot quite get over that I am 41. I am so much more immature than that number!

I have lived with vegetarians and vegans and think nothing of accomodating them. And I know so many people with Celiac that I usually make sure there's something gluten free too.

I eat nothing from the sea and am not afraid to declare it. Though I have choked it down on occasion to be polite. I do try it every once in a while...

Hil, your cousin reminds me of my crazy ex Best friend who was a vegetarian and developed food allergies as it suited her. It turns out she was hiding an eating disorder from everyone. It kind of came to a head at a birthday dinner her Boyfriend's mom had cooked and when she brought out the cake, she made a point of saying that she had made a white cake, since my friend was allergic to chocolate. Me, being drunk and kind of shocked by that statement blurted out, "WHAT? But she eat my chocolate chip cookies ALL THE TIME." It got a little awkward because the boyfriend's family very much wanted to ignore the little lie and kept making excuses, and me being drunk, kept poking hole in all the excuses and wouldn't let it drop.

Also, I learned to type putting book titles in a database so I do tend to Capitalize the Important Words without realizing it.

(Most brands of margarine and "buttery spread" type things do have some dairy in them. Fleischmann's, Willow Run, and Earth Balance do not. I prefer Earth Balance, because it tastes the best. My mom prefers Fleischmann's, because it's available at most regular grocery stores.)

Hi Hil. Somehow I had the impression you were vegan. So you will eat dairy? Is that just a non-purist-thing because buttery spreads don't have much dairy, or will you eat stuff with significant amounts of milk and cheese?

I am vegan. (Well, except for honey, but that's another discussion.) The three brands of margarine I mentioned are the ones that don't have dairy.

We just had the big go-live-success celebration.

Sheeit. That was a big go live. And I went live with a hospital once. I kinda got teary.

Spent some time "bonding" with the chick with the name like mine. Now she can be on the lookout for the guy who thinks he's spoken to her. She has also not been party to this sort of confusion before.

I'm glad you're getting to celebrate. Nice catharsis.

Congrats ita.