I'm pretty shocked by this, since birth control is so highly effective. I suppose I simply assume that if you don't want to get pregnant, you'll make sure to take birth control each and every time! Accidental pregnancies can happen - but most are highly preventable.

12% of all our babies will be born prematurely!

Everyone has always known someone who had a preemie (a baby born prior to 37 weeks in the womb) but at this rate, we all know a lot of someones! The Center for Disease Control studied 7 million babies over a decade, in an effort to understand why so many babies are born prematurely and any adverse affects they may experience.

Let's not forget that in most cases a preemie baby is not anyone's fault and in most instances there is nothing that could be done!

A recent episode of the television show The Secret Lives of Women (seen on We TV @ www.wetv.com), highlighted women of different sizes. Some extremely tall or small and some extremely heavy.

The heavy women called themselves Big Beautiful Women or BBW's - a now common term used by women of size.

The women were gorgeous, smart, happy and successful, running a business devoted to the empowerment of large women.

Part of me really champions them. Why should they conform to the size society (or their doctor) tells them they should be if that's not what they want to do?

We all like a bit of drama in our lives. Nothing like something different, exciting or even scandalous to add interest to our day. Some of us like the adrenaline rush of extreme sports. I have to confess during my mad travels around the globe I have bungee- jumped, skydived and enjoyed hot air ballooning and white water rafting. I hit some dangerously fast speeds on the back of a motor bike too many times to count.

Exciting news!

Dr. John T. McDevitt, a biochemist at the University of Texas at Austin, along with colleagues, has developed a saliva test that can determine whether a person has had a heart attack. This test can be administered anywhere, even in an ambulance on the way to the hospital, lessening the need to begin tests at a later time, and allowing cardiac care to begin much earlier.

It is the protein in the saliva that can determine a heart attack and once the saliva is placed in a lab card, it takes 15 minutes for analysis.

Groups like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) are avid campaigners against cruelty against animals and the end of animal research.

One of my favorite Queen songs is Who Wants to Live Forever? I am not sure I do.

So I know I won't live forever, anyway, but I see so many headlines these days about how to lengthen our lives, and captions like "you too can live to be 120!" with a picture of some cute, smiling little old lady in a French nursing home underneath.

But I have a question. Two, in fact. One, do I actually want to live that long, and two, can I afford to?

A new documentary was aired yesterday on Frontline (PBS) called "Sick Around the World." This documentary focuses on health care in five capitalistic democracies - the United Kingdom, Japan, Switzerland, Germany and Taiwan.

Nope - no man-bashing here!

A new study from the University of Michigan found that the average woman with 3 or more children (um, yeah, that would be me) does an average of 28 hours of housework a week (again, that would be me) that does not include regular childcare.

And having a husband causes an additional 7 hours of weekly housework for women. See? You boys are a lot of work!