Happy 8th Birthday, Tinks!
It started like this 8 years ago A couple of weeks ago, we gathered the clan together to celebrate the Tinks’ 8th birthday a little early. The stars of the day hung out with friends and family. I caught Liam in a rare quiet moment while Morgan explained something to someone. As a true Andersen…
The Miserables
Last weekend, I and three really good friends of varying ages did the proverbial girls’ night out and saw Les Miserables. It’s been getting great reviews and they were all right. It really was spectacular. I’ve seen the show before, in fact, this was my fourth time (I think?) and as usual, I bawled my…
Santa and His Peeps
Last Sunday was the annual invasion of Santa hats, red noses, reindeers and marching bands. In other words: The Santa Claus Parade! And, as usual, I was in attendance. This year, I dragged my sister along. Before we get to the festivities, I wanted to follow up on an issue mentioned in last year’s post….
10 Questions You Should Ask Your Doctor about RA
This week on HealthCentral, I go back to basics… “Your doctor has just handed you a brand-new diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis. On the one hand, you’re relieved to finally have an answer, but on the other hand, your head is spinning. The next step is to find out more about your disease, but you don’t…
A Farewell to Underpants
With a title like that, I should probably hastened to clarify, in case someone out there jumped to conclusions: no, I’m not going commando. The farewell in question relates to a particular model of underpants made by Victoria’s Secret. Or, more accurately, no longer made by Victoria’s Secret. They are a perfectly soft blend of…
2014 Calendar, Holiday Cards & Gifts
We were officially reached the time when a nice, sunny day means that it’s cold outside, I am wearing socks (and not presenting it) and the Santa Claus Parade is this weekend. It’s inevitable. The holidays are just around the corner. Which naturally means that it’s time for the annual The Seated View Calendar! This…
Muddying the Waters
Late Monday night, through a perfect storm of triggering factors, I experienced a nasty migraine aura, the likes of which I haven’t had in a very long time. This was no namby-pamby aura. No, this was the kind that came with flashing lights and shapes obscuring half of my visual field, leaving me with a…
Liquid Zoo
Two weeks ago, we went to the new Ripley’s Aquarium in Toronto. We’d been waiting on tenterhooks for months, if not longer in this wasn’t helped it owl by their really excellent buzz building marketing before opening. I’m pretty sure thousands of people in Toronto were bursting from anticipation. It’s taken a while working through…
Thoughts of Suicide and RA
Chronic illness and depression go hand-in-hand and so it is with RA. According to Johns Hopkins, chronic pain exacerbates depression and from an intellectual standpoint, it’s not surprising that some of those people who are depressed consider suicide. And some do more than consider. But this is not an intellectual post that delves into the…
Ready for My Close-Up?
Never in a million years did I imagine that someday, I would be in this situation. But I get ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning. You may have noticed that I’ve been rather absent from the blog lately. As you may have suspected based on that photo up there, I have a…