I got whipped cream on my smoothie today, and my stomach is much happier. Don't know about my arteries, though.

Took a near-complete break from the project from hell today. I am going to pay for that tomorrow. Yikes. But I had to. Yesterday ate me starting from my bottom.

Animal control nor the fire dept. would help.

Really? I always wanted to see a firefighter getting a cat out of a tree or whatever.

The fire dept guy said "You've never seen a cat skeleton on a roof, he'll find his own way down." And I guess someone else tried calling the city the day before. The cat has been named Bonehead, after a local barbecue restaurant who arranged for a guy in a cherry picker to try to rescue the cat earlier in the day. Unfortunately, the cherry picker couldn't reach the cat because of the power lines.

It's just IBS. They did an MRI and didn't find anything out of the ordinary. I thought it was odd to lose so much weight (I'm down 22lbs since I was diagnosed) but an internet search found that it's pretty common to drop it. I haven't been careful enough with my eating. When I'm in this much pain, it's hard to focus and I feel strange, like I'm about to nod off. It's weird, the only way I can describe it is angry hornets inside my stomach. My stomach bloats and feels tender. I'm sure, oddly enough, that I'm healthier in a lot of ways because of the weight loss. Despite the pain.

Timelies all!

Had a teacher in high school who called me "Sherry". (This usually led to me being serenaded with either "Oh, Sherry" or "Sherry Baby") She's the only one who did that, thankfully.

They haven't thought about any medication for you?

Prilosec. And peppermint. And fiber supplements. Peppermint does help, as does oatmeal in the morning.

Right now, I just want to stretch out on my bed and breathe. And sleep. And hope that the worst is gone by morning. I hate the inability to focus the most.

In other news, don't read the #hpv hash tag. The crazy is breathtaking.

I'm so sorry. Are you still smoking? I know it's said that can make it worse. (Not that I've stopped, of course.)

I skipped and skimmed like mad. Did I miss anything important? If so, ~ma to any who need it.

Right now I need cooking advice. Does anyone know a quick trick for stretching brownie batter. I have a mix - Betty Crocker Gluten-Free - and after I mixed it I thought "my pan is too big!". This is for a company thing tomorrow so I need to make the brownies and the mix is mixed. But my pan is 9 x 13.

Any ideas? Bueller?

Quester, you could try using foil to cut the pan in half, making a foil pan inside the pan and making sure the foil only was quadruple or quintuple strength.