I can't watch the whole show yet because it won't air here for a few months, but my mom had a single mastectomy in April and it was BRUTAL. Not just the actual surgery of removing the breasts but the taking skin from somewhere else to make the flaps to cover the chest muscle (Mom's came from her back. They sliced an area and wrapped it around to build it...) Then there are the drains into the area you keep for months. Then the expanders, which are a continual and often painful process... Then the reconstruction of the one. Then the matching reconstruction of the second. Then the next surgery to make the nipple and that can be tattooed on or made from the genital area.

Before all of this, I thought she would go in, they'd remove it and put in an implant right then. Not so....It's brutal and not all completed yet.

But it saved my Mom's life....

Soooo brave of Christina to do both and preventatively. It could not have been an easy choice. At all.

I'm a Georgian living in Norway. I know a woman from Washington State and another from Texas living here as well.

All haters...

(with absentee ballots, too...)

If they get elected, we should expect more of this...

In the state where we got married, if you want to change your name after you get married it can only be FirstName MaidenName MarriedLastName.

It's really rude, you can change your name easily, but only if you change it to the convention they'd like you to use...UGH...I could understand it I wanted to change it to something Radically Different, but I don't.

I have always gone by middle name and my last name. It's on all of my documents. I just want to drop my first name and add my husband's last name.

(And I would have dropped my maiden name, but I have loads of bylines...)

My husband doesn't care a bit what I do and frankly now we live overseas and I'm pregnant so everything has been put on hold because of the registration at the hospital

(seriously, it's a big deal with residence permits and all of that and we can't get lost in the process right now...)

He suggested that we hyphen or make a new name, but I thought just changing mine would be easiest...

It's not a thing about "respect" at all. We just like the thought of having the same name.

So now, I have my old one legally (taxes, passport, etc...) but use the one I want to use for everything else...

I absolutely agree with you. I decided to treat my last boyfriend exactly as I would treat any friend (albeit one I was completely hot for). The Rules people would say I pursued, he says we just handled ourselves normally and without creepy dating games. It was the first completely honest relationship I'd ever had and we're happily married now.

Rules are crap.

But, for just a second, when I initially read the beginnings of the post, I completely understood why McKinney chose to do it, especially when I looked down at my sweet Lillie, my American Bulldog (rescue) who is snoring peacefully at my feet right now.

And while I will never decry the Southerners as a non-thinking or ignorant bunch, this irony is lost to many. This is merely going to divert the attention to this instead of the issues we should be talking about.

Also, along with all of her fantastic songs she's written, she sings "Hard Candy Christmas."

That is all.

It all started about 30 or so years ago when the government noticed their plummeting family size. So they instituted some amazing social programs, which include, but are not limited to:

54 weeks maternity leave for full time workers
8 weeks paternity leave
one time payment at birth (about $7000 US per baby)
monthly payment of about $400 US for misc. until the age of 18
free medical treatment for child
free daycare (barnehage) or a payment if the barnehage is full, which it is this year

and this goes for any child born in the country, regardless of nationality or citizenship.

The catch, if there is one, is that the healthcare is much more of a "wait and see" philosophy.

Also, for most people, it's incrediably hard to get a work permit, much less a full time job if you are a non-Norwegian.

I still love it and it's in constant rotation in my CD and iPod (along with the rest of Phair's albums.)

(yes, i am going with some of my friends...don't shoot me. nothing comes here except for movies that need to recoup their production costs and can't in the states...lately we've had such stellar fare such as 10,000 BC and Reservation Road.)

the norwegian kids wear them with everything, everyday and in every color.

but then again, i am all for getting RR's face off any advertising. she bugs me.

i do miss good donuts, though.

I am also horrible at poker.

JFP is just gross.

Janka-whats-his-face is just slimey.

ewwwwww.

Changing names is a pain in the behind. Also, when I got married earlier this year, I wanted to drop my first name (i'm called by my middle name). Then would be called Middle_OldLastName_Husband'sLastName.

There's no way to do that either without a legal issue as well. So right now, we are petitioning the court, etc...

And it's a big deal because we moved overseas and it all has to be done by proxy and if it doesn't get completed in the next few months before my passport and DL comes up for renewal, then it becomes an even bigger deal down the road.

So I don't know what's more annoying, that I am not allowed to be called whatever I want to be called or that there are so many assumptions.

i covered his concert last year and really, it was good and he's hot and hilarious and i totally agree that he's a dork who got famous and doesn't care because he makes piles of dough, dates good looking women, wins awards and did i mention the piles of dough.

(and i think that he is HOT and kind of want him to come get naked with me)

okay, now i am done.

Mine are two different colors as well. One is brown and one is green. I just mark hazel.

Hey Alia,

You're awesome and I'm going to forward this clip around to all my friends with daughters.

And I think you're awfully nice to speak up for Ann, but I'm with the rest. Cure cancer if you want to, but really just keep on with your bad self...

Enjoy New York!