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I have a little girl who has been living with type one diabetes for four years now. She wears two "gadgets" attached to her body, deals with blood sugar highs and lows, and never really feels "normal." It's a lot for anyone to deal with, much less a sweet 8-year-old. We are so very close to amazing technology (bionic pancreas) that would make living with this difficult disease much easier ... and maybe even a cure, as Thursday's news out of Harvard was amazing.

All year round, I do everything I can to promote awareness of this

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On Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014, the heat in my house kicked on in the overnight hours.

Say what?

With the exception of a semi-uncomfortable warm day here or there, August was a mild, lovely month, filled with temperatures in the 70s and blue skies. Twice in August I ventured to evening shows at Tanglewood and ended up needing long pants and jackets.

Lovely. As someone who hates extreme weather - on both ends - I have enjoyed this month immensely. And this last weekend of August, Labor Day weekend, the unofficial end of the summer, looks like it will start off just as perfect, with bue skies and temperatures in the 70s predicted for Saturday, Aug. 30.

So why not get out and

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Disney's "The Little Mermaid" came out when I was around 16 years ago. I very clearly recall rolling my eyes in typical teenage fashion when my mother asked if I wanted to watch it. Watch a Disney movie? That was so for babies.

But I watched it anyway ... and fell in love with everything Disney. Within a few years I had amassed a collection of Disney VHS videos, videos that I still have, videos that are the reason I might be one of the two people left in Massachusetts with a couple VCRs still in my house, videos that I could not wait to show my own daughter. "The Jungle Book." "The Fox and the Hound." "Aladdin."

Magical.

I have

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I promised you a column of summer family fun. First I'm going to start with theater, not only because there is so much family theater in a Berkshire summer but also because I live with a little actress who likes nothing more than being on stage.

One of our favorites is Shakespeare & Company's Rose Footprint productions, outdoor theater under the big round tent, where the audience sits in lawn chairs and the actors run around and through the audience and interact with them. This year, the production is "The Servant of Two Masters," billed on S&Co's website as "a comical blend of the Italian classic Commedia dell’arte and contemporary

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Can it possibly be Memorial Day weekend? It seems like two weeks ago it was snowing. Plus it seems that Memorial Day should mean school is nearly out, when from where I sit in Williamstown we have more than a month left, thanks to five snow days plus the recent "there's no power" day. Everywhere I look people's summer plans have been messed up, from kids either missing the last week of school or the first week of a summer camp.

But I digress. It is indeed Memorial Day weekend, and while it really doesn't feel like it, it is the unofficial start of summer here in the Berkshires.

But first, let's not forget what Memorial Day is actually about.

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