Lupus is a hard to diagnose autoimmune disease, that affects mostly women of child bearing years. This post will address the facts about Lupus - What is it? How is it diagnosed? What are the symptoms? Then you can read about several women who are living with Lupus, and blogging about it. What is Lupus? Lupus Foundation of America

Of all the differences between the two major party tickets for the US presidency, one of the most profound may be their disagreement on the limits on the authority that the Constitution grants to the Vice President. That difference emerged in bold relief during last week's vice-presidential debate when Gov. Sarah Palin said:

There was talk of the economy, of bail outs, of Fannie and Freddie and Russia and Afghanistan...but nothing had the blogosphere buzzing like two little words uttered by Senator John McCain during tonight's debate: "That One"

During one of my daily writing procrastithons, I perused Forbes and found this: Forbes list of the World's Best Paid Authors. After looking at the list I decided that Tom Clancy probably doesn't stare at Twitter for three hours when he isn't up to writing just five. more. words.

Wednesday at sundown is the beginning of the most sacred and deeply introspective Jewish Holy Day, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It marked by solemn prayer and 25 hours of absolute fasting. Yom Kippur is the culmination of the High Holy Days, which began at sundown September 29 with Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year.

I have been online in one way or another since 1990.  I had a website in 1995 and started blogging shortly after that.  (Of course, back in the '90's it was referred to as online journaling.)  The gift that online writing gave me was invaluable to me when my children were young.  I found my salvation during those sleepless nights and never-ending days through online communities.

I want to encourage folks to support the Appalachian History project at DonorsChoose.org. To be honest, it was tough to pick just one. This particular project however has life changing possibilities. Mrs. L's class needs 15 non-fiction books on Appalachian history and culture. The transfer of cultural information is a crucial element in visualizing success in your future.

We're all pinching pennies, hoping against hope that "all this financial stuff" will sort itself out and we'll all, somehow, escape mostly unscathed and the bad actors who created this house of financial cards will find themselves staring at four walls for a long time. But in the mean time, we have to keep on keepin' on, we have to do our jobs, our kids have to go to school, we have to call our parents and kiss our spouses and and and and and. Somehow, some days, it's just all too much.

I have been turning the Nebraska child abandonment cases over in my head since I heard about them last week. First, two children were abandoned--a mother abandoned her 11-year-old son at one Nebraska hospital and an aunt left her 15-year-old nephew at another. Both adults indicated they couldn't handle behavior problems. Next, Gary Staton, widow and father of 10 dropped off nine of his children because he could not afford to care for them any longer and feared they'd become homeless. He said he believed the children would be better off without him.

BeTwinned found a breast cancer support group that was worth going to on a Saturday morning. The speaker got me thinking about so many things … where am I going? What am I leaving behind? Is it peaceful at the center of my own labyrinth? Shedding, doing some things differently like I’ve been trying to do — is that a part of the journey to the center of the labyrinth, or is it a part of the coming out, since one goes out of the labyrinth the same way one goes in? Just thinking about it is labyrinthine!

Happy birthday to me! If I was going to have a birthday cake, which I'm not, I'd be happy with a pumpkin cake. Not one shaped like a pumpkin or frosted in orange goo, just one that tastes like pumpkin and nutmeg. As someone smartly commented in the Pumpkin Spice Latte thread, it is the nutmeg that is the "crack".

Perhaps you've noticed that the search feature on BlogHer now has a Lijit logo in the search box. Under that, you see two options. Search blogher.com or search the BlogHer network. If you search the BlogHer network, you find posts on your search words found in any blog that is part of the BlogHer network. The Lijit search is perfect for BlogHer. It helps BlogHer fulfill its key mission of locating and linking to the world of women's blogs.