Category: Memories

Today is…National Shortbread Day

Shortbread is a classic Scottish dessert  traditionally made with: 1 part white sugar (I use powdered) 2 parts butter 3 parts flour (I usually use rice flour) And a bit of salt Shortbread is so named because of its crumbly texture which is caused by its high-fat content, provided by the butter.   “Shortening” is …

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Lockerbie Anniversary

  The Lockerbie Cairn, through its 270 blocks of red Scottish sandstone, memorializes the 270 lives lost in the terrorist attack on the United States when Pan Am Flight 103 was bombed Dec. 21, 1988, over Lockerbie, Scotland. It is a gift of the people of Scotland to the people of the United States, financed …

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December 18

I was always very proud of my paternal grandmother.  In the early part of the last century she had been living in Scotland with her husband and they had a young son – my father.  My grandfather was in the Black Watch during World War I, and he was killed in Peshawar, India. My grandmother left …

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Giving Thanks, Day 22

  I am so thankful for all my doctors but today I am thankful for Dr. Amir Al-Juburi who saved my life by removing my kidney cancer (renal cell carcinoma).   In 2006 I picked up my husband for a biopsy and took him to an outpatient surgical center. While I was there waiting for …

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Giving Thanks, Day 20

  November 3  was the 36th anniversary of my pituitary surgery at NIH. As one can imagine, it hasn’t been all happiness and light.  Most of my journey has been documented here and on the message boards – and elsewhere around the web. My Cushing’s has been in remission for most of these 36 years. …

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Giving Thanks, Day 19

I am thankful, believe it or not, that I had Cushing’s. Mind you, I wouldn’t want to have it now, although diagnoses and surgeries seem “easier” now.   Having Cushing’s taught me a lot, including how to stick up for myself, how to read medical books to learn more about my disease, how to do …

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Giving Thanks, Day 17

  Today, since it’s a “teaching day”, I’m thankful for my piano studio, my students, and my piano 🙂   When I was growing up, my dad was a minister, meaning we lived in whatever parsonage the church chose to let us live in.  The one we had in Pawcatuck, CT had an upright piano …

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Giving Thanks, Day 16

Adapted from https://cushieblog.com/2010/11/22/40-days-of-thankfulness-days-thirty-one-to-thirty-five/   Today is the fourteenth anniversary of my one and only zipline experience. I had been thinking about doing this since my kidney cancer surgery 3 years earlier.  I figured I had “extra years” and I wanted to do something kinda scary, yet fun. So, somehow, I decided on ziplining. All the following …

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Giving Thanks, Day 14

  TiVo. I love that I can fast forward through commercials and have all my favorite shows waiting for me when I lie down on the sofa (and fall asleep!) I probably wouldn’t have gotten one of these when we did but our son got us one for Christmas many years ago. He had it …

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Giving Thanks, Day 12

  Today I am thankful for my church choir.  A few years ago the “low voice choir” formerly the Men’s Choir will be singing this:     I’ve had a long history with singing from the time I was a kid singing in the choir at my Dad’s church in Springfield, Mass.   In High …

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