Today, a chat with an authority on my other obsession, blogging. Communications expert and author Aliza Sherman, who hosts more than half a dozen blogs (!) on topics ranging from doggie products to filmmaking to food, has just completed “The Everything Blogging Book” all about the why, when, where and how of blogging. As part of her virtual book tour, Aliza was kind enough to stop by at DiabetesMine.com to fill us D-enthusiasts in on the scoop.

Pull up a chair, folks, for Act 4 of The Diabetic Partner Follies: the unique forum for partners of diabetics to share what it’s like living with us PWDs (people with diabetes).

Confession time here: I am borderline innumerate. Meaning even though I made it through high school calculus with a (barely) B-, I am very bad with numbers. Which is very bad for diabetes management. But that’s a whole other story.

What’s cool for this hot summer with the ‘betes:

* Diet Soda Popsicles! My kids actually noticed these on the promotional pull-out from their box of sugary pops. So cool! Do you love Diet Dr. Pepper, Diet Orange Crush, and/or Diet A&W Root Beer? Well, enjoy them in an ice-cold popsicle now, from the original Popsicle people, Good Humor-Breyers.

You may have also read that last week the FDA approved another new “combination drug” called Avandamet (from GlaxoSmithKline) as a “first-line treatment” for Type 2 diabetes. And you may have wondered, like I always do at these Big Pharma Announcements, what the heck this means.

In San Francisco, that is. HOT, HOT, HOT! (which is not good news for everyone, it seems). We had to abandon the house for the beach all weekend, which was a bit of a challenge with my DexCom belly. I braved a bikini one day, and lay there covering my Dex with a pair of crumpled shorts. Still glad I have it, though. Had some serious BG swings in this weather.

Well, he did it. He said he would, and he did. Last night my husband and I were watching the BBC World News coverage, the anchors analyzing why he had to do it in order to keep 50+ percent of his conservative backers happy. They also said the issue will divide the US Republican party. Then they got to talking about the merits of stem cell research. The word “diabetes” got thrown around a lot.

– Announcements, Announcements, Announcements –

* First, an update on the blog plagiarism situation. The idiots at that wholly unethical site are still stealing my stuff, but are now under official investigation by the Google AdSense team, so at least there’s a chance their revenue stream will be cut off soon. Want to know how stupid they are? They even lifted my posts complaining about their blog plagiarism. I think it’s an automated content swiping service, because hopefully any real person would’ve noticed such a thing… he?

I’ve had the dubious good fortune of obtaining my DexCom in the middle of summer, so I’ve been sporting my little black box at the pool a lot. I was so disappointed at having to bypass the bikini collection and drag out that single one-piece swimsuit I own, usually reserved for ‘Mommy and Me’ swim class. But last week I suddenly remembered that I actually own a Tankini! Wore it the next day and it worked beautifully.