This is a quote that Keith Ellison had in his book:

Humphrey said in a speech, “The moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life: the children; those who are in the twilight of life: the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life: the sick, the needy, and the handicapped.” Those weren’t just words for Humphrey, it was his personal credo, and I quote it quite often.

It is still a good question…

How do you define crazy? We all define crazy a little differently.  I say Ironman and ultra-marathons are crazy. But some people say I’m crazy for running at all. We were discussing crossfit tonight and I called my younger sister crazy for her daily workout routine.

So how do you define it?

Google says it is someone who is mentally deranged or wildly enthusiastic. For many of the above examples you could go either way…

What are you reading this summer? My Kindle and my bookshelves have a ton of good books that I need to read. My Amazon wishlist also has quite the collection.  That doesn’t count the free book a month I’m eligible for and the new Kindle First program, where you can keep a book from their editors choice of books before they are released.

Being eligible for 2 free books a month it is hard to read anything else. Using the Kindle Lending Library, the book you borrow has to be read on an actual Kindle device.  You can borrow a new book on the 1st of each month after you return your previous book. The Kindle device policy is a little annoying, especially since I’m not a fan of their Fire products. The OS seems to clunky, I prefer the traditional Android operating system. I’m pretty sure I’ve borrowed a book every month that I’ve been eligible to do so, which is probably 2 years or so. The Kindle Lending Library has a ton of books of all genres and styles. Some are pretty short too. I’ve found some new authors and read at least 2 series of books this way!

The Kindle First program is newer and you get an email with 4 editors picks that you can choose from. I’ve read several this way and downloaded a couple of other to read. This program actually let’s you keep the book, no strings attached.

So, what am I reading? Over the weekend I finished Superior Death by Matthew Williams . It was a relatively short legal thriller based in Michigan on Lake Superior.  It came from the Kindle Lending Library. I returned it and borrowed First to Kill by Andrew Peterson. I haven’t started reading it yet. I did stumble upon Supreme Justice which sounded interesting and happened to be a Kindle First book, haven’t started it either.

I’m almost 80% done with Plaster City by Johnny Shaw, which I’m pretty sure was a Kindle First book. It started slow but has improved if you can handle harsh language and some violence!  I’m almonst halfway through My Country ‘Tis of Thee an autobiography of Keith Ellison,  our Congressman. I paid full price for this and it has been an interesting perspective into his life. The other book that is currently part of my thoughts is The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou, which I purchased shortly after her death. I used it to finish last month’s 30 day challenge of poetry reading.

I have a lot more books that I started and got bored with. What about you? What are you reading?

This is Nadia… I ran in the North Star Bike race tonight. Yes, I said I ran. I didn’t want to do it at all. But Daddy kept tricking me (lets go get a number, lets go see your friends, why don’t you put your helmet on for a picture, did you know you’d win a medal) and I finally did get excited about riding with my friends and winning a medal.

Sadly, the race organizers were a little disorganized and made us wait around forever… and they almost created a disaster by not telling the 6 year olds which way to turn and they turned into oncoming bikes…

Finally just before they let us go I had enough of sitting around on my bike and refused to ride. Daddy did say that if I ran it they would still give me a medal. So I ran/walked the course. Lots of people cheered me on! I’m really proud to say that I wasn’t last! And that I won and got a medal! 

Maybe next year…

Enjoy some pictures