Dot Matrix

This is from an e-mail I got awhile ago:

A little background: Neiman-Marcus, if you don't know already, is a very

expensive store; i.e., they sell your typical $8.00 T-shirt for $50.00.

Let's let them have it!

THIS IS A TRUE STORY

My daughter and I had just finished a salad at a Neiman-Marcus Cafe in

Dallas, and we decided to have a small dessert. Because both of us are such

cookie lovers, we decided to try the "Neiman-Marcus cookie."

It was so excellent that I asked if they would give me the recipe, and the

waitress said with a small frown, "I'm afraid not, but you can buy the

recipe."

Well, I asked how much, and she responded, "Only two fifty-it's a great

deal!" I agreed to that, and told her to just add it to my tab. Thirty days

later, I received my VISA statement, and the Neiman-Marcus charge was

$285.00! I looked again, and I remembered I had only spent $9.95 for two

salads and about $20.00 for a scarf. As I glanced at the bottom of the

statement, it said, "Cookie Recipe-$250.00". That was outrageous!

I called Neiman's Accounting Department and told them the waitress said it

was "two fifty", which clearly does not mean "two hundred and fifty

dollars" by any reasonable interpretation of the phrase.

Neiman-Marcus refused to budge. They would not refund my money because,

according to them, "What the waitress told you is not our problem. You have

already seen the recipe. We absolutely will not refund your money at this

point." I explained to the Accounting Department lady the criminal statutes

which govern fraud in the state of Texas. I threatened to report them to the

Better Business Bureau and the Texas Attorney General's office for engaging

in fraud. I was basically told, "Do what you want. Don't bother thinking of

how you can get even, and don't bother trying to get any of your money

back."I just said, "Okay, you folks got my $250, and now I'm going to have

$250 worth of fun."

I told her that I was going to see to it that every cookie lover in the

United States with an e-mail account has a $250 cookie recipe from

Neiman-Marcus...for free. She replied, "I wish you wouldn't do this." I

said, "Well, perhaps you should have thought of that before you ripped me

off!" and slammed down the phone.

So here it is! Please, please, please pass it on to everyone you can

possibly think of. I paid $250 for this, and I don't want Neiman-Marcus to

EVER make another penny off of this recipe!

NEIMAN-MARCUS COOKIES (Recipe may be halved)

2 cups butter

24 oz.chocolate chips

4 cups flour

2 cups brown sugar

2 tsp. soda

1 tsp. salt

2 cups sugar

18 oz. Hershey Bar (grated)

5 cups blended oatmeal

4 eggs

2 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. vanilla

3 cups chopped nuts (your choice)

Measure oatmeal, and blend in a blender to a fine powder.

Cream the butter and both sugars.

Add eggs and vanilla, mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking

powder, and soda.

Add chocolate chips, Hershey Bar, and nuts.

Roll into balls, and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes 112 cookies.

PLEASE READ THE RECIPE AND SEND IT TO EVERY PERSON

YOU KNOW WHO HAS AN E-MAIL ADDRESS!

THIS IS REALLY TERRIFIC!!

Dot Matrix

Sue Liener was a WOW in Arizona -- I think Pheonix.

She then went on to teach deaf children. I lost her address and have been looking for about 18 years.

Any of you know her?

Dot Matrix

Nobody saw this? I really wanted to know if you thought of TWI like I did --

Dot Matrix

I was on limb staff when the 6th corps was on their interium year.

There were some GREAT folks but I cannot remember their full names. I wanted to say hello to them and let them know they really did BLESS me.

One was a thin guy named Larry with blondish hair. He was SO funny. Then a guy named Marco I think -- he was adorable and always up-beat and fun to be around.

My sister was looking for Larry Booth (not the same Larry as above) to no avail. She was a WOW under him and said he was THE best!!! He was kind and funny and not into the CRAP.

Dot Matrix

Sorry,

There were so many of us --

I bet I would know with a picture but I can not remember him right now.

I have about 100 of us clearly in my mind, after that it gets blurred.

Sorry --

I have about 50 --9th corps I remember and maybe 50/75 --13th corps beyond that I have no names and faces for particular people I was in res. with.

But geez, I am getting older. The other day I could not recall my 4th grade teacher -- still can't. It bothers me a little.

Dot Matrix

I recall crawling looking for rocks -- Geez, I do not do that in my own lawn.

The yelling what horrid! I was always afraid they would get me for additional things like

I never memorized one of the retemory cards.

I would pray every corps night to be over-looked.

Thank God I was never called on!

I was not honest on my aerobic points, I did not abs, (who had any money left) and I hated corps night and LEAD.

I never understood all the ooohs and aaahhhs at what they would teach Wednesday nights and then

the after meeting!!! Like it wasn't awful enough!

Yet, I am upset that Pricilla and Aquilla died. For some reason, I am a bit maudlin over Emporia and Kip hall being torn down.

I guess it is a part of our past -- good bad and ugly!

And Steve -- you are pretty funny. Sorry if one of our corps were mean to you. Some of them were mean to "us" as well.

Dot Matrix

We just saw the movie Fraility. Written by Bill Paxton who also stars in it. It was VERY disturbing on a couple levels.

It is about this man who has two sons, his wife died giving birth to the yougest, so the family consisted of the three guys. Then, one day the father hears god tell him that they are all going to serve him (god) as demon fighters.

(At this point, I can see Craig. )

The father then brings home PEOPLE whose names god gave him to destroy because they are not people but demons inside.

(I am thinking about the M&A and homopurge period)

So, the father brings home these PEOPLE and is convinced they are demons and he forces his boys to be with him as he hacks them to death with an axe.

(I am thinking of the homo letter John R. posted "I could kill you.")

One son, Fenton, KNOWS this is wrong and goes to the police to report his Dad but they do not believe him.

(how many of you went to various leadership to try and FIX the ministry because things were not right.)

Fenton gets punished because he tried to convince his father this cannot be God's will. He is placed in a basement for weeks and not fed. While his brother who agrees with the father has the father's attention and praise.

(We all have examples of this crap)

Anyway -- it blew my mind how this guy gets tricked by the devil into killing people thinking he is doing God's will. The son who knows it is wrong wants to leave but stays to try and protect the younger brother...

(we all stayed when we knew to leave)

If anyone has not seen this movie (a little creepy with the killings) I found it interesting on how tricked the father (leader of the family) became and the similarities to our own entanglement. You may want to see it.

If you did see it -- what do you think?

Dot Matrix

[This message was edited by Dot Matrix on July 08, 2002 at 6:55.]

On a 1 to 5 smile ranking, 5 being the best.

We gave:

Minority Report 1/2

(Made me think of Weirwille's warning about fortune tellers/ precog's)

Bourne Idenity 1/2

(Kept interest all the way thorugh -- met the first rule of good writing "make me care" we did care about the characters)

Spider Man

(suprisingly delightful!)

The sum of all fears 1/2

(talking heads not enough action)

Mothman prophesies 1/2

(Based on a true story!!!)

D tox

(too dark, did not met the first rule of good writing "make me care" I didn't care if they all died)

Life or Something Like it 1/2

(Charming. Angelina Jolie does a great job!)

Mr Deeds 1/2

(Cute movie! Wynonia Wyder (spelling) does such a good job I almost forgave her for shoplifting)

Changing Lanes

This is one of those unusual movies as there is no bad guy. Just two half way decent guys that get into an altercation (result of accident) and wind up messing up each other's lives.

Dot Matrix

[This message was edited by Dot Matrix on July 07, 2002 at 14:44.]

To help prevent someone from hacking into your computer and stealing your addresses, username and password --

Download "Tiny personal firewall"

It is free.

You can do it at:

http://download.com.com/3000-2092-6313778.html?tag=lst-0-1

You will get a message that will alert you when someone is trying to get in to your pc and you say "permit" or "deny"

(Wait 'till you see how many times information will be on its way out of your pc!! Then hit deny, unless of course it is like your e-mail company or something you wish to permit then hit that button.)

Dot Matrix

[This message was edited by Dot Matrix on July 01, 2002 at 15:11.]

Wife of Steve Jacobs(11th corps) passed from Cancer, I have been told.

I think Mary Jo ws 8th corps -- anyone know for sure?

Mary Jo was a very nice woman and will be missed.

I tried to find Steve to let him know how sorry I am but nobody seems to know where he is.

Steve, if you see this please know my heart and prayers are with you.

God Bless you always

Dot Matrix

Looking for Sue --

Sue, I worked with you at Woodies and witnessed to you! Lost your address and phone number while in CA!!!!

Been looking for you since ( do not worry I don't want to involve you in another cult -- so sorry about that)

Dot Matrix

[This message was edited by Dot Matrix on July 07, 2002 at 15:56.]

Well, since we moved from ez board we lost all the previous chatter.

Let's start over, hello 11th!!!

Dot Matrix

Thanks!!!

Dot Matrix

Hope you said:

That's why I asked if any of you found yourselves wanting or needing to be part of some kind of group since leaving TWI, and did you take the new group as seriously?

In answer to this question, I saw almost everyone I knew leave TWI and go into something else. I personally did not want to join or go to ANYTHING where I might have to join, stay, be nice to people -- anything. I departed and wanted to hide.

I felt as though I was trying to outrun a pyroclastic cloud. I left during the big out in the 80?s and we were all kind of scrambling for validation. We left and kept fighting the draw to go back. -- Not that we wanted to return but it was like driving by an accident and having the need to look, Then later maybe search for it in the newspaper to see WHAT HAPPENED?

I disconnected from people, changed my phone number and disappeared. I could not be comfortable in any MEETINGS. I had this feeling it would never end -- like in the corps. Looking at it now, I, who was very sanguine (having a need for people and approval) became withdrawn and tried to recover and figure things out by myself.

But my friends? One became HUGE in Mary Kay because it was just like the ROA and her meetings were just like twig. Another went on to join an immediate post-POP splinter. A male friend did sell that weird brown drink K something, etc.

I think people look for things in common. When I was on a first date and if the guy like the same color I did, I was thrilled we had that in common. It was part of the first date magic . However, after I discovered he was a lazy drunkard, then I did not give a crap what colors he liked.

Did I originally get involved because of like-mindedness? No. I got involved because I desperately needed to see the power of God in my life and I saw it upon taking PFAL. I hated a lot of the likeminded concept i.e., like if you were not smiling people would ask you what was wrong all the time, because we were all suppose to be so da^^n happy. I hated the way we were all suppose to be nice all the time.

I recall a "LEADER" wanted to butt in line corps week when the food was slow for those of us last in line. He went up the line asking each person if he could get in front of them and they all politely say YES! He!l, I am from the North East and we hardly ever let someone butt in line!!! So, I said "no, I have been waiting here for a very long time and I have to be some where just like you do, so you can just get in line."

It did not bode well.

I was never a fan of the likeminded bull.

I was a fan of the legitimate love (like-mindedness?) we all shared for God. I did love a large group of people worshiping God. I did love being around people that loved God and that I could grab almost anyone and say, "do you want to pray?" I LOVED that.

I did like being in a large group that sang praises to our Lord. I enjoyed we all were doing it at the same time (like minded, I guess) But it is not why I got involved. It is perhaps a strong reason why I stayed.

Hope, it factored in I am sure but was not the original reason I got involved.

Dot Matrix

Please pray that Marc is cured of his cancer. Virgina has peace of mind and strength and that Jeff is able to get through this stressful time as well. Also please include Jeff's wife who is having her own problems. Thank you

Dot Matrix