0830 done and casted, a photo by Lady Birchwood on Flickr. Yesterday morning i had an arthroplasty of my right thumb where it articulates with the wrist. this procedure was done to relieve the pain of chronic osteoarthritis in that important joint of my dominant hand. a major component of this procedure was harvesting tendon [...]

I have had symptoms of osteoarthritis at the base of my right thumb for about the last 10 years.  The symptoms I have are pain, swelling and stiffness.  I often experience sharp pain when doing simple things like twisting doorknobs, holding a pen to write, opening jars, trying to hold a sewing needle, etc.  I [...]

A couple of years ago, I wrote a post about my job with the Minnesota Department of Health.  I work with food and waterborne pathogens of public health concern.  I mentioned that we had had a birthday party for one of our team members, and the cake was one of these “poop cakes.”  We all [...]

Bubba Remembers Kate, a photo by Lady Birchwood on Flickr. I spent a couple of hours last night, writing a letter to an elderly friend in Akron, Ohio. She is in her late 70s and resides in her small apartment with her two cats, Mindy and Annie. Dear Colleen, Happy Spring! I hope that this [...]

I haven’t been on WordPress in a few weeks to check on my blog stats.  I was surprised that on March 12, I had 45 hits on my blog and the search engine terms following this post were used to find my blog.  Any Devereauxs out there looking for me?  My maternal grandmother’s name was Devereaux.  [...]

Letter to my husband, composed yesterday afternoon: Hi Hon, It’s 6:30 in the morning Shanghai time and you must be getting your stuff together soon to head for the airport.  I’m not very good at keeping track of what time it is here when you’re leaving Shanghai and Tokyo.  That’s too much for my meager brain to [...]

My thoughts on “against spanking” … My parents whipped my butt and I learned the Switch Dance… I didn’t hate them… I didn’t have trust issues with them because of it… I trusted I was in big trouble when I screwed up and did things my way!!! I didn’t fear them… I feared getting caught [...]

Bubba’s 18th Christmas, a photo by Lady Birchwood on Flickr. Bubba was a 9-month-old kitten on his first Christmas in 1994. That year, we pulled him out of the tree, had broken and chewed ornaments as his contribution to the holiday spirit, and took to wrapping the tree in a king-size bedsheet to keep both [...]

To send or not to send? ‘Tis the season to read in blogs, Facebook updates, and advice columns about how folks don’t like getting a card with only a signature or a printed name and no personal note at Christmas time. ‘Tis the season to read about how folks dislike the newsletters people send out. [...]

My cat, Bubba, has acquired a “fan club” on the Project 365 site where I posted his photo on Saturday.  It was an unplanned photo shoot.  I saw him lying on his stool by the living room window, the sun shining on him, and thought a nice capture might come out of those circumstances.  I shot [...]