Owie ow ow

I was 24 when I was diagnosed with carpal tunnel and moderate arthritis.

It's something you expect to hear some time in your life, but usually not in your 20s.

They both do run in the family, but I still got it younger than most. It's a lovely combo of the symptoms from my dad's side of the family, and contributing factors from my mom's side. I got all the bad, and apparently my brother got none of it since he's still fine.

I can deal with the carpal tunnel enough, it's the arthritis that gets me. On a day like today, when a storm front comes through and the air pressure goes tens kinds of whacky, I'm about ready to chop my hands off.

When the carpal tunnel is the main problem, it's easy enough to fix. Wear my wrist braces and do all the things I should be doing all the time. When it's the arthritis, I'm just screwed. The braces only squeeze my hands and make it worse, and it's getting to the point where even Alieve won't do much good.

And I'm always amazed on nights where my hands are this bad when I don't slice off a finger getting dinner ready.

Tonight was the Chicago Deep-Dish Pizza With Mushrooms, Peppers, and Onions, which I've made before and I love. I am pizza-crust challenged and I usually just use a pizza crust from Trader Joes. This time, I pulled my crusts outta the freezer, and even after six months they were still decent. I usually do one pizza for me, and one for the hubby (he likes the whole "sausage patty" on his).

I should have checked my cabinets before I started. I forgot I threw out my cake pans about a year ago. I ended up using two pie plates, which worked well. I might do that from now on, in fact. I *know* I have a hunk of mozz cheese in my fridge that went invisible while I was looking for it (I'm sure it will turn up now that I don't need it anymore). The pizzas did get done, mostly because I was NOT running out in this cold, crappy weather to get take out. And they were good, as usual.

The week of "veggie" meals has gone well. I've actually been pleasantly surprised at how tasty some of the veggie stuff has been, even with most veggies out of season and not in their prime right now.

I'm already excited for spring... placed an order for gardening stuff and already got my Wall-o-Waters in the mail. Yay!!! Is it 6-8 weeks until planting season yet???