Month: April 2009

Let’s Move Together! Arthritis Walks Are Here!

Posted on by sherYl555

Just wanted to send out a reminder that we are in the midst of Arthritis Walk season! I’m kicking off the season by attending the New York City walk in Battery Park on April 26. I’ll be visiting a friend there that weekend and couldn’t think of a better way to spend a Sunday morning in NYC. I’m excited to see how the NY chapter rolls. The following weekend I’ll be attending and volunteering at my hometown walk — the San Fernando Valley Arthritis Walk in Valencia, Calif. at Magic Mountain. Then, on May 17th, I’ll be attending the Irvine, Calif. walk with my mom and my brother, which I’m very much looking forward to. And that will conclude my 2009 Arthritis Walk tour. I’d like to attend the Los Angeles walk at Santa Monica beach, but I will likely be out of town that weekend. 🙁

What walk are you attending? Are you bringing friend?. Are you raising money? Are you walking for someone special to you? Share your walk stories in the comments and feel free to post a link to your donation page!

Check out the national walk site for information about walks around the U.S. Find a walk in your area and start a team!

I’ll leave you with the words of my arthritis friend Jenn’s husband: Why run, when you can walk?

Annoying Arthritis Moment of the Week

Posted on by sherYl555

We all have them, right? For me, they sometimes occur several times a day. I’m talking about small incidents that sprout into a slap across the face that translates to, “You can’t do that, you dolt! You have an f’d up immune system.”

Yesterday, at lunch with co-workers, I couldn’t complete a seemingly simple task. I tried to cut off a piece of pizza with that server/spatula thingy (not a knife) and after what seemed like two long minutes (it was probably 15 seconds) of frustrated slicing with a dull object and no wrist strength, I finally gave up and asked my co-worker to finish what I started. I felt defeated. 

Defeated! I realize this sounds completely ridiculous. But it’s inane times like these that I often get most frustrated with my arthritis. A day of 24/7 dull pain? No problem. Can’t separate a piece of pizza piece from the others? I become seriously annoyed.

I can’t be the only one who feels like that. Am I? Bueller?

Great Gadgets: Electric Peeler To The Rescue

Posted on by sherYl555

Zyliss Multipeeler Electric Peeler CNET’s Appliances and Kitchen Gadget blog features an uber-cool electric peeler. Yup, you heard that right. Electric peeler. Now you can skin potatoes, apples, and carrots like a bad ass. The peeler even features an intimidating (if not a bit redundant) name: the Zyliss Multipeeler Electric Peeler.

In all seriousness, this tool looks like it is a great gadget that will diminish the “strain-saving factor when peeling a large pile of fruits or vegetables.” The review mentions that very little effort is required to operate this gadget. I don’t own one of these yet, but I think I see one in my future.

Brian Krepshaw, the kitchen gadget blogger writes, “Sometimes it’s nice to have a tool that actually makes the job easier.”

Amen to that!

Peeling at the speed of a button press [via CNET]

Check out the Zyliss Multipeeler Electric Peeler on Amazon.com

Do you own this or another arthritis-friendly kitchen gadget? Let us know in the comments!

Arthritis Today Magazine Boasts New Website

Posted on by sherYl555

Arthritis Today Website

I recently took a self-guided tour of the new Arthritis Today website and I must say, I’m very impressed! I think the site has the potential to be one of the top resources for people diagnosed with arthritis.

A few features that I liked:

The Tin Mom’s Blog: I’m glad ArthritisToday.org has a featured blogger who will share her stories on a bi-weekly basis. Reading about someone else’s struggle and success is comforting and inspiring.

Your Great Ideas: This is an excellent feature. I love reading about how people have handled a situation that I have been in. It’s great to get different perspectives on things. I hope that the web editors soon begin to categorize the items posted in this feature to make it even more useful to sift through what will probably turn out to be a massive archive.

Web Extras: It looks like each magazine issue will feature content that is exclusive to the website. Cool.

Exercise Videos: An email I received about the website touts 40 free exercise videos. I checked out a couple and found them brief, but very useful. Photos of exercises are sometimes just not enough for me to figure out how to properly execute a specific exercise. If photos are more your style, those are offered, too.

Community: I love that there is a community aspect built into nearly every part of the website, allowing for further discussions of the material presented. Leave comments after most articles, tips, blog posts, etc.

I can’t determine if there will be an archive of older issues or if they will only keep two issues online at a time. Currently, portions of the March/April and May/June issues can be found on the site. I hope they decide to build an archive of all issues, going forward.

The information available on the website is varied and hits all the major topics that I think people with arthritis would be interested in reading about on a regular basis. I look forward to watching their content grow!

One more note, then I’ll let you go explore… Not all content from the current issue is posted online, but that’s okay. I’m sure a lot of the content that is featured in various categories on the site was, at one time, featured in the magazine. I like that the website offers something more enhanced from what you can get in a single copy of the magazine. And I think the ability to interact with the content and with other people via this website will make it quite popular.

Go check it out and leave your thoughts below about what you liked or didn’t like.