Cancer Genomes are like Garden Gnomes November 25, 2008

Who ever said that the topic of cancer is depressing and no one would want to read about it has not read about Cancer genomes. Cancer genomes research is getting exciting. Really! According to Richard Wilson of Washington University in St. Louis, in the next decade or two, a blood sample will determine which drugs will work best for individual patients. “Personalized Genomics, Personalized Medicine”. http://genome.wustl.edu/publivation.cgi.

 

The excitement of this work is that it looks at the entire genome, the entire DNA, rather than just the ordinary suspect or mutant genes in the body. The results find all the mutants in the body, not just the ones expected.

 

Like Garden Gnomes, Cancer Genomes are rarely inborn but develop later in life. Few small children ask for garden gnomes for Christmas, but Grand Ma or Grand Pa seem to acquire quite a few. Only 5-10% of all cancers are hereditary. Less than 5% of all garden gnomes are thought to be indigenous of their environment

 

Personalized medicine and personalized cancer treatments in the not so distant future is hopeful! Garden gnomes acquisition at your own risk.

 

Tie One On for The Giving Season November 18, 2008

National Tie One on Day, an apron of course, is November 26, 2008. EllynAnne Geisel of Apron Memories, www.apronmemories.com, started this giving day tradition the day before Thanksgiving three years ago. She encourages embracing a “giving opportunity that has nothing to do with shopping or even getting into a car, but everything to do with our recognition of gratefulness  and our ability to give to someone in need of spiritual or physical sustenance.”

EllynAnne goes on to say “Women clad in aprons have traditionally prepared the Thanksgiving meal and it is with in our historical linkage to share our bounty”

 

 EllynAnne has become the patron saint of the Apron.

She writes about aprons, www.apronchronicles.com, exhibits aprons, and sews and sells aprons on her web site. Her aprons have become famous with the Desperate Housewives character Bree wearing one, to the recent article in Vogue magazine.

 

When I came across the Apron Memories site I was infatuated. My very first sewing project was an apron, and I have loved them and sewing ever since. After I read about EllynAnne’s ‘Tie One On Day’, I knew I had to get the word out. Join me and other apron wearing women spreading thanks the day before Thanksgiving.

On Line Community Goes Live November 12, 2008

     Ever wonder what bloggers really look like from your favorite social net work sites? I am not talking about the posed picture they have next to their name, if that truly is their name, but a picture of what they look like when they are blogging. Many bloggers hit their favorite sites early in the morning or late at night, and don’t use their web cam for a reason!

 

     One of my favorite social networking sites is Women Etcetera, www.womenetcetera.com.

This site is geared for the woman over 50. It is a voice with topics on health, business, ‘Today in Herstory’, articles and of course blogs. This on line community is a wonderful group of women “embracing transitions and change”. They use their real names and write from their hearts. They are also brave enough to have a picture of themselves blogging.

 

     Like other online communities, Women Etcetera members want to meet each other in the flesh. They want to meet the other women that they now call friends. The first Women Etcetera conference was recently held in Pittsburgh, PA. It was so successful that the second full day conference will be November 15, 2008 in Raleigh, North Carolina.

If you can’t make it, check out the web site and join this wonderful virtual community.

 

 

Hot Flash Voting November 5, 2008

A friend of mine in another state told me she votes by mail because while in the voting booth, she gets a wee bit anxious and her anxiety triggers hot flashes.

 

Here in the state of Oregon, all voting is done by mail. Don’t want to mail your ballot, drop off boxes are located at libraries.  In tallying up the ballots, many of the workers wear gloves because some of the ballots are covered with food. Some of the ballots are hard to read because of coffee stains. The ballots come out 2 weeks before the election and people are at their leisure casting their vote. This is code for they may be eating at the same time.

 

My friend thinks Oregon is on to some thing great with their vote by mail. I personally miss the excitement of voting in person. I would suffer a day full of hot flashes to go to a voting booth. I always wanted to be one of those ladies outside the voting booth who takes your ballot. They always looked like they were having fun, eating cookies and coffee and talking with each other. They would scornfully look up the precinct when people didn’t know where to vote. I was asked once with perfect scorn “you don’t know what precinct you are in?”  Oh how I wanted that job!

 

Unless I move to another State or Oregon goes back to voting in person, my life career goal is gone, obsolete. The best I can do is stand in front of a drop off box sipping coffee eating cookies and hope someone will ask me the location of the box so I can make some scornful reply!