These chips won’t melt in the heat!!

We dealt with quite a heat-wave here in New England over the last few days and everyone is feeling mushy and fried.  (And also?  The heat is wrecking havoc with my emergency chocolate stash - which is sorely needed this week, if you catch my drift and sorry for the over-sharing . . . )  It seems my email in-box is as hot as the weather, crammed with so much stuff it’s ready for a melt-down.  I could try to devote a whole post to each and every tidbit I’d like to pass along, but by the time I got done there would likely be snow on the ground and the information would be stale.  Instead, I’ll give you some fresh tasty “Bitter~Sweet Chips” that withstand our high 90 temps much better than my beloved emergency stash!

• On the first day of Friends for Life, several great “Focus Group sessions” were offered and it was difficult to choose which ones to attend.  I’ve already blogged about Lee Ann’s wonderful Diabetes Art Session.  Another one I chose that day was “Targeting a Cure For Type 1 Diabetes: How Long Will We Have to Wait?”,  presented by diaTribe.  The team shared some fascinating information about the different research projects currently happening.  You can find out more here: http://www.diatribe.us/cure  Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of that page to download your copy of the““Targeting a Cure For Type 1 Diabetes” eBook.
• Also at Friends for Life I had the opportunity to meet with several representative from Eli Lilly about a brand new Lilly/Disney collaboration.  Usually hearing of any new diabetes diagnosis makes me sad - but in this case, I was delighted to hear of a Disney character that has Type 1 diabetes!  Coco, pictured to the right, sports a medical id bracelet and a backpack of d-supplies!  As a kid who spent much of my teen years hiding diabetes from my friends, I applaud this initiative to help kids with diabetes feel more confident about their disease.  I also love that this campaign will help to raise awareness and information about what diabetes is and isn’t.  Included in the campaign will be a series of books aimed at younger kids and tweens - one of which, called “Coco and Goofy’s Goofy Day”, was provided to me by Lily. along with a “Birnbaum Guide to Walt Disney World” that had a section of Type 1 tips (which came in handy as Pete and I navigated the parks in the blaring July heat).  Also worth checking out is the new online section of Family.com  for families with Type 1 and the Once Upon a Time contest where the prize is a trip for four to next year’s Friends for Life conference!
• This Friday Wego Health will be hosting their first Twitter Chat for Health Activists. The topic?  It’s all about empowerment, which has been Wego’s focus for July.  Be sure to follow the #HAchat hashtag on Friday, July 29th at 1 p.m. EST to participate and be empowered and inspired!
• Has the heat fried your bloggy-mojo?  Too overheated to come up with a blog topic?  Well hop on over to the DSMA blog and participate in the July Blog Carnival!  It’s your chance to weigh in on what you’d like to see in terms of technology for our diabetes devices.  Go ahead and put your wish list out there - you never know who you might inspire!