PKD Walk

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Some pics from the PKD Walk on Saturday. We had perfect September weather and the volunteers did a great job organizing everything. Some of the walkers had kidney disease themselves, some walked for family members and friends with it, and others walked in memory of a life lost to kidney disease as we did. That’s Meagan’s mom Debbie next to Andy, Meagan, me, and Doug (a.k.a. Mr. bookbabie) holding pinwheels with Kylie’s name on them. We raised over $1,200 in just two weeks, thanks to all of you who donated! It was so inspiring to see so many people get together to make something positive out of adversity and heartbreak:)

It isn’t for the moment you are struck that you need courage, but for the long uphill climb back to sanity and faith and security. ~Anne Morrow Lindbergh

psychic eye

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A friend of mine turned me on to the writer Victoria Laurie and her Abby Cooper Psychic Mystery series. It’s been a long time since I “discovered” a new author that I liked so much I looked forward to reading all of their books in a series. Victoria is a psychic (in real life) and the main character in her books, Abby, also makes her living as a professional psychic. The books are fun, not too intense, and knowing that she bases some of Abby’s antics on her own experiences makes them that much more fun! If you need an escape from politics and the lousy economic news, check out Victoria Laurie’s books:)

birthday blues

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This Sunday is my birthday and it’s going to be a rather bittersweet one. Our first grandchild was due last Sunday, on Grandparents Day, so I was hoping to be holding my first grandchild on my birthday this year. But during a routine ultrasound this past spring my daughter-in-law’s doctor discovered that the baby had Bilateral Multicystic Dysplastic Kidney Disease and because her tiny kidney’s were failing, she was unable to make enough amniotic fluid to sustain the pregnancy. Our son and daughter-in-law named the baby Kylie Nicole and we are walking in the PKD walk to help raise money for kidney disease on Septmeber 20th. Our granddaughter’s kidney disease was similar to Polycystic Kidney Disease which is one of the most common life threatening, genetic, diseases affecting an estimated 12.5 million people worldwide. In fact, PKD is more common than Down syndrome, cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy and sickle cell anemia – combined. If you would like to learn more about PKD, or support Meagan and Andy, please click on this link or on the PKD Foundation logo at the top of this post.

… joy and sorrow are inseparable. . . together they come and when one sits alone with you . . . remember that the other is asleep upon your bed. ~Kahlil Gibran

My Photo Friday shot for the theme Relationship is of Andy and Meagan and their puppy Tonka, who is now much bigger but is still just as cute!

what’s in a name?

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The Bookseller recently named the oddest book title in 30 years, the award went to Rural Greek Postman and their Cancellation Numbers. The contest was dreamed up in 1978 by the Diagram Group founder Bruce Robertson as a way to pass the time at a dreary Frankfurt Book Fair and they have been choosing an annual winner ever since. Here’s a few past winners, make your pick in your comments and don’t hold back on the witticisms:)

1995: Reusing Old Graves (Shaw & Son)
1996: Greek Rural Postmen and Their Cancellation Numbers (Hellenic Philatelic Society)
1997: The Joy of Sex: Pocket Edition (Mitchell Beazley)
1998: Development in Dairy Cow Breeding and Management: and New Opportunities to Widen the Uses of Straw (Nuffield Farming Scholarship Trust)
1999: Weeds in a Changing World (British Crop Protection Council)
2000: High Performance Stiffened Structures (Professional Engineering Publishing)
2001: Butterworths Corporate Manslaughter Service (Butterworths)
2002: Living With Crazy Buttocks (Kaz Cooke – Penguin US/Australia)
2003: The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories (Kensington Publishing)
2004: Bombproof Your Horse (J A Allen)
2005: People Who Don’t Know They’re Dead: How They Attach Themselves to Unsuspecting Bystanders and What to Do About It (Gary Leon Hill – Red Wheel/Weiser Books)
2006: The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America: A Guide to Field Identification (Harry N Abrams)
2007: If You Want Closure In Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs (Simon & Schuster US)

(almost) wordless wednesday

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Me and the mister were sitting out on the deck last night listening to summer come to a close in our northern state. The sound of the crickets, tree frogs, and buzzing cicada’s got so loud at one point we looked at each other and laughed out loud. I remembered laying in my childhood bed with my head on the windowsill listening to the same sounds, knowing that September had arrived bringing cooler nights for sleeping and a new school year. That’s me on the right with my brother David, my sister Amy, and our happy little baby sister Carrie.

I walk without flinching through the burning cathedral of the summer. My bank of wild grass is majestic and full of music. It is a fire that solitude presses against my lips. ~Violette Leduc

Take a peek at other Wordless Wednesday entrants here:)