I Need Your Thoughts!

Happy Monday, everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend. We ran yet another race - the Re-Run Run. It's a benefit for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and all the t-shirts, medals, food, etc. is donated from other races so that all the money from race registrations goes to the Society. The fun side of this is that you don't know from which race your goodies will come. We ended up with the Chicago Distance Classic t-shirts and finisher's medals - luck of the draw and very exciting since most 5Ks don't have finisher's medals! We both won our age group, so so both also got a very nice medal from the Catalina Island EcoMarathon, which looks like a great race! It's partially on trails, which is so much more interesting (albeit challenging) than a purely road race.

Here's where I need your thoughts: I'm planning on starting a feature on Wednesdays called Wellness Wednesdays (I'm a sucker for alliteration.) I want to provide the crafting community with health and wellness tips specific to our needs. In case you're wondering, I'm also an ACE Certified Personal Trainer, though I should take this opportunity to point out that nothing on my blog counts as medical advice and I assume no liability should you attempt anything you read here. ;-) So does anyone out there have any diet/exercise/fitness/wellness problems they'd like to see discussed here? I'm open to suggestion and welcome your input! Thanks!

Have a great day!

Product Review and bit of Sisters of Mercy

Lately I've had some pain in my hands and wrists, and yesterday my hands were so weak I could barely grip anything. I kept dropping stuff and generally feeling clumsy. I realized that the wear and tear of using two pairs of pliers for a good part of the day, stringing beads and gripping little tiny objects, combined with typing and using the mouse was giving me carpal tunnel. In my years as a secretary I never got carpal tunnel, but now I am!

By chance I had seen some crafter's gloves made by F.A. Edmunds at Michael's when I was buying crack, uh, I mean embroidery floss. So many colors... drool... sorry, where was I? Oh, right, my gloves. Today I went back and bought a pair. I was bit put out by the price ($9.99, for one glove!) but I tried one on and my pain went away. Whoa! Totally worth it! $8.50 online, if you're so inclined, but it was buy them now or have another unproductive day of pain. Hmmm....

I got home and suited up, and I'm so happy with them. They're like support hose material. There are four finger holes; one for the thumb, one for index, one for ring and middle and one for pinky. They're comfortably tight and they really help my hands. I don't feel like I'm doing permanent damage now. I do feel a teed bit silly in them, since they're basically wristlets but frumpy looking. Along the lines of orthapedic platform goth boots. What's really great is that I also have a pair of black fishnet goth wristlets. Which do you think I should wear to the Sisters of Mercy show?
Bottom line: they let me get my work done in an almost miraculous fashion. I was cranking out jewelry with mad abandon this afternoon. Yes!!

Oh, and since I didn't have MTV when I was younger, and YouTube didn't exist, I had never seen their videos. I still love them (okay, him, Andrew Eldritch) but, wow.