Happy Birthday, hope you had a great birthday.

I agree with them above, if he is telling you this, I think he is "warning" you that he suspects you may be interested in her and he sees you as a threat. The guy is obviously unbalanced and a threat, but he is making sure you know to stay away. She needs to make the move. If she calls you for help and you can help her get out to a shelter, you are still endangering yourself, you need to have the police go with you from the sounds of it. That is how these guys work, they totally isolate the women from everyone, friends, family, make sure they have no money, transportation, even telephones half the time. I spent 10 years in an abusive relationship, finally got the nerve to get out. I don't know about your reporting it, how that would help, but it could backfire as they stated if the police should show up to talk to him, he would absolutely take it out on her once the police left. She has to make the move herself. It is a hard situation, hard to watch but much harder to be in. Hopefully she will get out. Maybe your friend who is the neighbor could call the police when he sees him outside screaming and yelling, call it in as a noise disturbance or if he has weapons, as some kind of a dangerous situation. That would leave her out of it and the police would have him on record as being dangerous then. I hope she comes to her senses and gets out before it is too late. You are a good friend to care, but it is a really hard situation to be in too, when your hands are tied.

Gosh girl, so sorry your brother and everyone else who lives there is going through this. I hope the rain stops soon and he can get things cleaned up and back to work. So frustrating and stressful for him and everyone.

When I lived in a small town in the NW corner of our state (it rained a lot) we had 8 inches of rain in about 6 hours, but the ground apparently handled it okay and the rivers rose but nothing severe like what they have. We had 150 inches of rain the last year I lived there. It is wet out there.

Fruit Cocktail Cake
Another really easy, quick and yummy moist cake is to make a yellow cake mix, but put fruit cocktail in it -- drain the fruit cocktail and save the liquid -- when mixing the cake mix use the saved fruit cocktail liquid instead of the water for the cake mix, add some water if you need to to make it the right amount. Then mix the cake mix per instructions. After it is mixed, stir in the fruit cocktail (or can use canned chopped pears instead) - pour into the cake pan. You can sprinkle with chopped walnuts, even stir in some coconut (maybe 1/2 to 1 cup - sorry I tend to "measure" by "eye") and then bake it per the instructions. It may take a little longer, so just check it.

But it makes a really moist cake with the chunks of fruit, (coconut if you added it) and the nuts on top. No frosting needed. Is great for picnics or just a quick cake for summertime.

I may have a recipe for the red velvet cake floating around too, will check and post it if you like.

Give me a few days, I will find it and post it for you. Have a family reunion this weekend and usually take them (they kind of expect me to bring them now ) so will post it when I get the recipe out. It is my absolute favorite though. Is to die for, well, almost anyways.

There is a phenomenon known as "rebound" headaches too where after you have taken painkillers (even aspirin or Tylenol) for awhile and then you stop, your body will rebound with headaches due to you stopping the medication. I am sure you can google this and read up on it. Any med can give you a headache if it doesn't agree with your system, but you need to contact your doctor and ask their advice.

I have battled depression since I was a kid so I know about depression very well. I would never commit depression as I had a daughter to raise and would not do that to her. I now have grandkids and I would not leave them that legacy. I want to be around to watch them grow up. I still battle depression daily, but because of the grandkids maybe I work harder at not letting it beat me down. Maybe since I have had it for maybe 53 years of my life, I have developed some coping skills of some sort, I don't know, but when I was younger, I couldn't do it as it would have hurt my grandpa, he loved me, my parents were indifferent, but I knew it would hurt grandpa so I forced myself to go on living. Then married, had a daughter and such. I have always forced myself to work to support myself and my daughter and help support the grandkids. I have thought of suicide often, sometimes daily, but refused to give in to it because of what it would to do my family, especially my now young grandchildren.

I have had suicide plans since I was maybe 10 years old, but have not and will not allow myself to act on them for the reasons stated above.

I would love to visit Scotland, that is where my great grandparents came from. Have always wanted to see what it was like.

As far as living permanently, will likely end up in Oregon, eventually, where my daughter and grandkids are. I no longer have my dad holding me here, just hesitant to give up a good paying job and my part-time job to go to the unknown. I want to be around the kids though, miss them something fierce. But will miss this town and the beaches, but will be moving to a coastal town there, so won't be too bad, I guess. Have to sell a house first, etc. Oops, this was hypothetical, I got all serious, sorry.

Washington State now has a medically assisted suicide law for terminally ill people. There are stringent criteria, of course, but doctors can now help people take their own lives. I don't know the details, it is reasonably knew, but I have heard talk about it. I think it is a good law as long as the person wanting to use it is still of sound mind and can make the decision themselves. Some diseases have horrid endings like Lou Gehrig's where the people lose the ability to swallow and basically drown in their own mucous, and there are so many others.


I don't believe in suicide for people battling depression and feel they should get help. I always think about the family they leave behind, their children, spouse, parents, etc., what an awful thing to do to their family. It is all the more reason to get help and fight the depression and continue living, in my opinion, anyways.

It is a beautiful town, I love being surrounded by the water.
And it is small, maybe 7,000 people. Housing is very high, well down since the market crash, but still expensive. Hope you can get back her sometime Calleigh.

I have fought depression most of my life so understand life is a battle.

I care about people too and am on here to make friends more than anything else. Seems the people I run into are pretty much all users and looking for someone to walk on, and I get tired of their shoeprints on my forehead. I am getting smarter with age, but they seem to get smarter too. Almost a game with them, I guess, can't ever let your guard down it seems.

Karen has met someone and is happy from what I hear, and I am really glad for her.

The others drift in and out. I have been super busy with this other job so have been remiss myself in posting in here.

It is good to see you back. Take care.

Terry and his mom could use some extra prayers. If you would take a minute to send some positive thoughts and/or prayers in Vera's and Terry's direction, I am sure they would appreciate it.

Terry, as always, you are in my thoughts and prayers. Hope your mom is feeling better soon. Give your mom a kiss for me. Take care.

Oh and that article written by Chief Seattle, I live about 3 hours from Seattle. He was quite famous in this area obviously. Take care.

When you get a chance would you do Russ' sign? He is 12/13, the information you wrote above is very interesting. I printed it out for him. I am very curious to see where he falls and how accurate it is. Thank you so much.

I know what you mean, if I am alone, I don't bother with it myself. Doesn't seem worth the effort. Sorry no one has made you a cake for so long.

Not really a cake, is a "bar" recipe but I make it with extra pear juice in it so it comes out like a cake -- but it is "pear bars."
Made with bartlett pears, coconut, walnuts, wonderful, moist, just awesome.

Also like cheesecake. A friend at work used to make a strawberry daquiri cheesecake for my birthday and bring it to work, was killer. Also made a german chocolate bar cheesecake -- they were to die for -- more like a mousse, fluffy. She made incredible cheesecakes and I even managed to score some of her recipes .

I do hope you hang around for awhile Ken. It has been quiet for awhile. Even our poor thread has suffered. We seem to have drifted off into our different directions. I am working a part-time 2nd job and pop in and out when I can but am working nights now too, so don't spend as much time on here. My dad died in November, still cleaning up some of the paperwork and giving away his stuff, amazing how long that takes when you don't want to deal with something, hum??? I need to get it done, but then think about the typing and sit down and type instead.

Welcome back, I do hope you hang around for awhile. Take care.

Wow, MB, welcome back. I have been thinking about you off and on and hoping you were okay. Sorry things went so sour for you. But I am glad you came back, hope you stay around for awhile. Take care of yourself.