Birthday Bash

It's a strange phenomena in our family...multiple birthdays. My husband and I share a birthday. One of my brothers and sisters share a birthday and...yes, two of my kids share the same birthday. Pretty coincidental. Maybe it's destiny. The fates bringing us together.

And, you might think sharing a birthday would make people super similar...sort of like twins.

Nope. That's not how it works.

We're totally different. But sharing a birthday creates a bond that can't be broken. But, we share so many things...more important than birthdays.

How 'bout you...any strange coincidences in your family tree?

Meg Cabot's Overbite

This was a fun book. Meg Cabot is a wonderful writer and anyone who knows me knows I'm a true fanpire. And I love all those vampires lurking in the shadows of this story.

This is another one of those "Twilight" romantic triangle stories. The big difference here is that this story is about a wonderful guy gone bad...well, he's been bad since birth but you can't really blame him. After all, he's the son of Dracula. The Prince of Darkness is a charismatic, gorgeous guy and if that's not enough to draw you to him, he's all powerful--or at least nearly "all" powerful. He can rip doors off cars without any effort and he comes to the rescue of ... yep, once again, it's a beautiful girl named Meena. But Meena doesn't want to become another demoness of darkness. Instead she becomes a kick-butt beauty who goes into battle against the forces of evil by staking those vamps. But she never gives up hope for Lucien.

And she has good reason to hold out hope for him. His Dad might be Dracula but his Mom was an angel. So, while the war of good and evil is ramping up the drama, Lucien has his own battle of good and evil waging a war within him.

Now, if you want to find out which side wins--you'll have to read the story. And, I recommend this one.

If you read it, please pop back by and let me know.

Word for Wednesday

Word: Riparian


Do you know what it means?


You might if you ever watch the OPB/PBS series "Keeping Up Appearances". It's a show with British Humor written by Roy Clarke for the BBC. It was a series that ran from 1990 to 1995. But my husband and I still sometimes watch it on Netflix.

Anyway, that's where I learned this word for Wednesday.


So, do you know it too? If not, take a guess.


Now scroll down for the answer.




Further




Further



It means "of, pertaining to, or situated or dwelling on the bank of a river or other body of water: riparian villas."


If you want to read more about it, check it out here on Dictionary.com

Hats

I have loved hats ever since I read Bartholomew's Hats. And when I went to Art in the Pearl I fell in love with Lauri Chambers' hats. So, I tried a few on.

How 'bout you? Do you love hats too?

Help the Shelters

Midnight is the Deadline!


I don't usually post on the week-ends, but my friend Anne at Piedmont Writer found this at The Eagle's Aerial Perspective. And it's a worthy cause. I have simply pasted up what The Golden Eagle has on her post. If you can join in before midnight, you will be helping a dog. And that's a pretty nice way to say Happy Labor Day!

Pedigree is resurrecting its insanely successful Write a Post, Help a Dog program. In 2010, 391 bloggers wrote about the program and with each post, Pedigree donated 20 pounds of its Healthy Longevity dog food to shelter animals. In all, 7,820 pounds of food was donated to two shelters renowned for their care of senior dogs: Muttville Senior Dog Rescue in San Francisco and Castaway Critters in Harrisburg, Pa.

How you can help in 2011

Simply spread the word about Write a Post, Help a Dog 2011 and once again Pedigree will donate 20 pounds of food for each blogger's post. Here's all you need to include in your post:

The Write a Post, Help a Dog program is aimed at raising awareness and food for the more than four million dogs that wind up in shelters and breed rescues each year.
For each blog post mentioning the Pedigree Foundation from now until midnight ET on September 3, Pedigree will donate 20 pounds of its new dry Pedigree recipe food for dogs -- its best recipe ever -- to a shelter, because every dog deserves leading nutrition.

The Pedigree Foundation -- a 501 (C)(3) nonprofit organization is committed to helping dogs by providing grants to shelters and rescues and encouraging dog adoption. This year the Foundation has already raised more than $376,570 against its goal of $1.5 million to carry out its work to fund grants that not only help shelters operate, but to further shelter innovations.
The Pedigree Foundation depends on charitable contributions from individuals to carry out its mission to help dogs find loving homes. In addition to writing a blog post, here's how you can help:

Donate online at http://pedigreefoundation.org/donate.aspx
Apply for a shelter grant from the Pedigree Foundation by completing a form at www.pedigreefoundation.org
Purchase Dogs Rule Gear at www.dogsrulegear.com where the proceeds go to the Pedigree Foundation to help loving dogs find a home. SPECIAL OFFER: Get 10 percent off Dogs Rule Gear by using the promo code BlogPaws10 from August 22 - September 30.


Now, the deadline for this is TONIGHT, and the link is at The Eagle's Aerial Perspective blog. So please go there, link up, copy and paste, or blog what you can to help this fabulous cause

Flowers for Friday

Nothing could make the sun seem to be shining - even when it's raining outside: nothing but sunflowers.

And nothing could reflect the moonlight like orchids gleaming on the table


So, if you need a little sunshine or moonlight to help make you happy, simply add a couple flowers around the house - they will bring the bloomability back into your life.

Pints to Pasta

Once again it's time to sign up for the Pints to Pasta run and it's for a couple good causes.

This is one race worth running because it's giving a portion of its proceeds to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training AND The Boys and Girls Clubs and there are more than a couple great sponsors to help kick this off.

The Old Spaghetti Factory and Widmer Brothers Brewing are a couple of the tastiest sponsors - thus the meaning behind the name: Pints to Pasta.

It's a fun 10k run that starts at Adidas (another sponsor) and the run begins on a downhill slope :) then it's off to the waterfront and finally the runners are making feet to the festive food at the Spaghetti Factory.

Plus for those who don't want to chug a beer at 10 in the morning, there's always a cold glass of Jamba Juice waiting at the finish line.

The run is on September 11th so you still have time to sign up. I hope to see you there and I've got my fingers crossed that the weather will hold out and we'll have a little more sunshine for our run.