Last Friday, I got word that this blog would be shut down after March 31st – exactly a year to the day that it was first launched. So, we have about a week to say everything we want to say to each other, seven whole days to fill cyberspace with as much information on health and beauty as we care to share . . .and then, we must go our separate ways.

On that note, what would you like to discuss? What haven’t I covered in 12 months that you think is worthy of a post? Let’s get the dialogue going, even if it is just for a short time.

    Yesterday, Paul McCartney agreed to pay his estranged wife, Heather Mills, $33 million in a divorce settlement. Did you hear that right – this former model gets $33 MILLION for being married to a former Beatle for only four years! She originally wanted more than $300 million, but was happy to settle for the $33 million. How kind of her.

    They have a daughter together, 4-year-old Beatrice. And what I find interesting is that he has been ordered to pay only $70,000 a year in child support (plus nanny and school fees). I would think that most of that $33 million would be for child support, since the Paul and Heather weren’t married that long.

    Their epic divorce battle has raged on for more than 2 years, and it was rumored that their divorce settlement could be the highest divorce settlement in British history. But in the end, it wasn’t.

    Considering that McCartney is worth about $1.1 billion, do you think this was a fair settlement? I agree with so many other Brits, if you read the many posts all over the Internet, that Heather is a gold digger and does not deserve to be vastly wealthy for the rest of her life for being married to Paul McCartney for less than 5 years. He’s 65 and she’s 40, which means he had already made multi-millions of dollars before Heather was even born. Linda McCartney, Paul’s real love and wife of many years who died of cancer in 1998, would have deserved that much. But not Heather.

    Paul needs to write a new song: “Heather in the sky with diamonds.”

    Since everyone is talking today about the resignation of New York’s governor, Eliot Spitzer, I thought I should, too. But I don’t want to talk about all the titillating, sordid details behind this story. The man is an idiot, plain and simple. He threw away EVERYTHING dear to him just to have meaningless sexual encounters with hookers. Something he will live to regret the rest of his days. And if I were his wife, they would be severely numbered.

    As this is a website for women, let’s talk about his wife, Mrs. Eliot Spitzer. Let’s call her Silda, because that’s her real name, a name she will probably be using more and more when she comes to her senses and divorces the shamed governor. What I am completely miffed about every single time we see a press conference with some once-glorious politician or public figure admitting he has had inappropriate sex or misused funds or WHATEVER, is WHY their wives are standing stoically next to them, looking equally pained and sympathetic.

    If my husband had spent an “alleged” $80,000 cavorting with prostitutes over a 6-year period, the LAST thing I would be doing is standing by his side. I would be behind him kicking him in his ass. No, scratch that. I would be home packing up every last thing he owned and tossing it out on the front lawn AFTER I called the locksmith to change the locks at the Governor’s mansion.

    What is wrong with these disgraced women? Forget those damn vows of “for better or worse.” This is way worse than worse. Not only did Spitzer humiliate Silda, but he also put her at risk for sexually transmitted diseases. The best thing she could have done would have been to NOT show up at the press conference. To send a message to other disgraced women out there that this kind of behavior from a man is egregious and obscene and will NOT be tolerated, excused or supported in any way.

    In fact, had Hilary Clinton divorced Bill after the whole Monica Lewinsky scandal, not only would she have my utmost respect, she’d have my vote this year, too.

    A new follow-up study has been released in the Journal of the American Medical Association that offers good news and bad news for women who have taken estrogen-progestin pills after menopause.

    First, the good news: Any heart problems associated with these pills disappeared once women stopped taking them.

    However, the bad news: These women are at new risk for cancers, such as breast cancer and lung tumors. Researchers noted that the increased risk for all cancers was only 3 extra cases per year for every 1,000 women on hormone pills, compared with nonusers.

    If you participated in the Women’s Health Initiative study in 2002 (or know someone who did) that was halted 6 years ago because of the increased risk of heart disease and breast cancer in women on HRT, you’ll want to read the findings in this important, follow-up study:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23468941/from/ET/

    I used to have beautiful legs. Long, smooth pretty things. Probably one of my best assets. I never thought twice about throwing on a pair of shorts or opting for a daring mini skirt. But now, the thought of wearing anything above the knee frightens me to no end. In the last few years, I have developed some unsightly spider veins, tiny clusters of red veins that sometimes seem to pop up overnight. My dermatologist tells me they’re partly caused by genetics, birth control pills, childbirth and standing around a lot. I test positive to all those causes.

    So now that the weather is warming up and it’s time to show more leg, I’m going in for sclerotherapy, a procedure I have done 2-3 times a year. My dermatologist says it’s the most effective procedure for treating these tiny veins. She injects a saline solution into the vein, which causes it to stick together, and then it eventually gets absorbed by the body. It’s not fun getting poked by needles for 20 minutes, but come June, the discomfort will be long forgotten and I’ll be less self-conscious in a skirt.

    It usually takes a few treatments to get the results you want, so be patient. If you need to show off your legs NOW, get an airbrush tan. The darker, healthier look lasts about 5-7 days and does a good job of covering up the veins.