Thanksgiving Weekend!

Thanksgiving weekend included making delicious stuffing, visiting The C-Springs for Thanksgiving with Josh's family, getting "heisman'd" by Grandma, and hosting an impromptu tree-trimming party on Friday. Good times :-)

Halloween Weekend in Boston

Just another Sunday brunch...

Rockies 2009 NLDS

Pics from the last Rockies game of 2009 :-(

Obligatory fall leaf hike

Back to Golden Gate State Park for some fall leaf fun!

Eating a Hosea and drinking an Avery

A couple of weeks ago, I won two tickets to the below Harvest Dinner at Jax Fish House. 5 (+1 extra) courses cooked and personally introduced by Chef Hosea of Top Chef fame. Each course was also paired with two beers from Avery Brewing Company, an awesome local craft brewer of amazing beers.


The play-by-play:

• Pre-meal: Adam Avery, the owner of Avery Brewing sat next to Josh at the community table, which was awesome because he's super friendly and knowledgeable about all things beer. It was fun to just sit back and listen to him and Josh geek out about yeast strains and brewing and barrel-aging techniques.
• Course 1a: Hosea surprised everyone, including Adam, by announcing a special amuse-bouche of a single Kuushi oyster with an apple and radish mignonette. Because this wasn't a planned course, Adam didn't have beers ready for it, however the two beers for the salad course paired nicely. The 2009 Old Jubilation worked ok, but it was the White Rascal, a Belgian white with coriander, that stole the show. The coriander played off the radish so well, for me it was the pair of the night. I was kind of bummed we only had one oyster to eat. But I guess that's the point of an amuse-bouche!
• Course 1b: Heirloom Tomato & Melon Salad paired with the Old Jubliation & White Rascal. This was a fun salad because the tomatoes and melon were the same color, and in the dim lighting it was hard to tell exactly what you were getting until you tasted it. The lactard in me appreciated the use of goat cheese, but my favorite part of this course was the tiny cubes of balsalmic jelly. It tasted like a balsamic reduction that had been gellified and cut into tiiiiny cubes. This was the kind of plate that made me realize I was eating "Top Chef" food.
  
• Course 2: Rainbow Trout with corn macque choux paired with the Piglet Purgatory and 2009 Kaiser Imperial Oktoberfest. Oh yeah, and the trout with stuffed with crawfish butter! Need I say more? This was just plain delicious. The macque choux, which is basically creamed corn for grownups, had the perfect amount of spice, and the Kaiser went with this dish especially well. (The Kaiser also just won the gold medal at the Great American Beer Fest.) The Piglet Purgatory was a special brew from Adam's personal celler. "Halfway to Hog Heaven" in his words. It's a low-alcohol hoppy brew for "those times when you just want to have 8 beers" Ah, the life of a brewer...
• Course 3: Striped bass with pork belly, and a peach salsa paired with Sixteen Anniversary Ale and Good Sally. Obviously you can't go wrong with pork belly, and the peach salsa here was great - not too sweet and perfectly fresh and ripe. Tasted like the peach was picked that morning, and to be honest, it probably was. The Sixteen Anniversary Ale was brewed with peaches, which obviously paired great with this dish. But the star here for me was the Good Sally. Good Sally is a sour ale that was aged in Ferrari-Carano chardonnay barrels. Apparently sour ales are all the rage in the craft beer world right now, which is awesome since I apparently love sour ales. The sourness of this beer really cut the richness of the fish and fattiness of the pork. So good!
• Course 4: Lamb loin with goat cheese gnudi and mushrooms paired with Eagle Rare Reverend and Brabant Oak-Aged Ale. I'm not a big red meat eater, and when I do eat it, I like it cooked medium. So I was appreciative of the varied cooking temps of the lamb (mine was medium, Josh's more med-rare), although I'm sure the other diners were not. I loved the goat cheese gnudi and mushrooms. Gnudi is basically gnocchi made with cheese instead of potatoes. Yay goat cheese! ;-) Eagle Rare Reverend is a Belgian quadrupel ale aged in Eagle Rare whiskey barrels. Pretty strong at 10%, but it was a favorite pairing at the table. I don't know what it was about it that went with the lamb so well, but it was one of the few perfect-matches of the evening. The Brabant is aged in Zinfandel barrels and it was slightly sour, which was good, but I don't think the sourness went with the lamb well. I think I actually still had some of this left for the dessert course, and enjoyed it with the chocolate and cherries much more.
• Course 5: Chocolate lava cake with sour cherries and mint chocolate chip gelato, paired with Meloch and Straight Outta Hell. Pretty standard lava cake. Loved the sour cherries, and I even ate the gelato (thank you Lactaid!) The Meloch is a blend of their Reverend and Samael's beers aged in Buffalo Trace Bourbon barrels. At 13.5% alcohol and super bourbon-y, it was a bit much for me, but Josh loves it. Straight Outta Hell is "a one-barrel experiment… 50% Out of Bounds Stout, 50% Mephistopheles’ Stout, aged in a Heaven Hill bourbon barrel for six months." Smelled and tasted like dark chocolate. Yum!!

All in all, it was the most amazing meal I've ever had. I had hoped to take pictures, but being at a community table, I didn't really want to be "that girl" and annoy everyone with my flash. Plus, I doubt I would have done the beautiful presentations much justice. The food and beer were like works of art (hence the "eating A Hosea", like enjoying a fine Bordeaux.) I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to top this, but I'll certainly try!

Josh with Adam Avery

Of course we had to go back to Avery during the Great American Beer Fest to sample more of the limited-time-only brews. Love the fall colors! :-)

Kelsie and Matt's Wedding

Thanks to Stephanie and Alex, here's some awesome photos from Kelsie and Matt's wedding this past weekend. I guess I was too busy enjoying the festivities to take pics. I'll try to be better at Steph's wedding next month! And yes, I actually attempted to curl my hair. Ran out of time, but the back never shows in pictures right? ;-)

Labor Day weekend

Had an awesome Labor Day weekend full of baseball, tapas, pig, and even dim sum for breakfast. Though I think we went a bit overboard on that last one. ;-) Here's some pics!

6 months later...

I realized today that it's been 6 months since my foot surgery. It's still not 100%, but I can now run, hike, and pretty much do everything I could before. (Still working on the wearing of the heels, but it's not like I did that all that often before anyways.)

In honor of this milestone I updated the before/after photo series, probably for the last time. It's pretty amazing how far it has come, and how different it looks! I can't believe my foot once looked like that. So happy to have gone through the process! Long, hard, annoying, frustrating, painful - but TOTALLY worth it.

Steamboat Staycation

Last weekend Josh and I went camping up near Steamboat. It was extremely laid back and relaxing. Friday morning was spent packing and prepping food for the trip. The drive up was smooth and quick. I've been trying to get Josh to read the 4th Harry Potter book for a while now (how can you love the movies and not the books??), and he finally caved and let me put the audio book on for most of the drive. I think it's safe to say that he's hooked! This was also extremely reminiscent of Road Trip summer 2003, in which Maia and I shared much audio-Harry-Potter (both on tape and read aloud), so I was in an extremely good mood.

After we found a nice campsite on Rabbit Ears Pass and set up camp, we headed into town to have a beer at the Double Z, watch some baseball, and hit up the Strawberry Park Hot Springs. By far, the treat of the weekend. I wish I had some pics, but I didn't want to bring my camera down there. Suffice to say, it's gorgeous, there are about 10 different pools of varying temperatures, not to mention amazing scenery, and a tasty smuggled-in Riesling taboot! I'm not sure when we made it back to camp, but it was late, and there were foil packs to be had. Once we could get the fire started with all that wet wood...um.. yeah...Can we say "too many cooks in the kitchen"?

Saturday was pretty lazy. Sure we could have gone for some crazy hike, but where's the relaxation in that? Instead we went for a "walk" on a "trail" we found in our campground. It turned out to have lots of downed trees that we had to climb over/around, so we got a LITTLE bit more exercise than we planned for (probably a good thing!) Saturday night we decided to head down to Steamboat again for some Rockies Action - this time to the Tap House - which has the BEST WINGS I've had in Colorado. I'm really wishing I bought some of their sauce now.

Sunday we packed up fairly early for the ride back, stopping for a picnic lunch at the bottom of Berthoud Pass. And what better way to end the weekend than staying in vacation-mode and going out to the movies to see The Hangover. The Inbox can always wait til Monday morning.

Unfortunately, I don't have too many pics of the weekend. Probably due to my laziness... I mean relaxation... and thus boring photos. But here are a few from our "walk" on Saturday.




Editor's note: Josh would like me to clarify that "hooked" on Harry Potter may be a little strong. (Says the guy who willingly listened to 8 hours of Harry Potter book on tape...)

I <3 Golden Gate State Park

Truly, I think this might be my favorite park on the Front Range. Sure, Rocky Mountain National Park is great, but it's just too crowded most of the time. Golden Gate combines lower altitude, diverse forests/environments, backcountry camping, lots of looping options, fewer crowds, and all different levels of difficulty for a hiker's paradise within an hour of Denver/Boulder. Hopefully before the summer is over I'll do a short backpacking trip here. But for now, here are some pictures from our short 3-mile adventure Saturday morning.

July 4th fun

Mom & Dad visit

Playing tourist with Mom & Dad:

Range Road

Camping with V outside of Colorado Springs:

Kezza Reports

Here's my funnel cloud video on the news!

Amateur Tornado Chaser

Anyone who knows me for more than 5 minutes, quickly learns that I'm a huge weather geek. Even my coworkers have learned to come to my desk to check out the radar, because if there's storms around, I will always have it up. Some will even call me before heading home to see if there are any storms/possible tornadoes on their drive home. What many people may not know is just how deep this geeky hobby goes. Yes, I was that nerdy 10yr old girl who watched the weather channel religiously, owned every tornado and hurricane documentary, and even shadowed the local 9 news meteorologist for a day. If anyone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer was "meteorologist - but not the tv kind, the tornado chaser kind." (That is until I realized I'd have to live in Kansas or Oklahoma. Then I switched to flying through hurricanes.)

The past couple of weeks in Denver/Boulder have been particularly ripe for severe thunderstorm formation. Last weekend a small tornado ripped through parts of eastern Denver, causing damage to a shopping mall. The tornado warnings may have interrupted the Rockies game Josh and I were watching, but following the storm on the radar, as well as the pics posted on twitter, was more than entertaining. (I think I may have converted a new weather geek!) Yesterday - same routine. Watching the Rockies, occasional storm warning, skies kind of grey. But then... what's that noise... is that a tornado siren?? Yup!! Quick, grab the computer, pull up the radar... Holy #*@%! HUGE storm, the middle so dark red it's almost black, covering most of Denver. Josh runs to the front door and takes a peek outside.

"See anything?"
"Yes! The tornado is forming right across the street!!"
"What?? Shut up!"
"I'm serious!"

I thought he was messing with me, but how do you not go look? Sure enough, there was a wisp of cloud, spiraling down into the sky like it was being sucked down a bathtub drain. As I grabbed my camera to start filming, it transformed from a wisp, into a much thicker funnel formation. Josh was opening the basement, preparing for the worst. I knew I probably shouldn't be outside, but I couldn't stop watching it. It was incredibly scary, beautiful, breathtaking, and exciting. Now I know why all those tornado chasers live in Kansas and Oklahoma.

Later, after the danger/excitement had passed, (the funnel never touched down, but that's not really important), I posted the video and pics to twitter. Local news station CBS4 Denver, also on twitter, saw the video and asked to use it on the news. Apparently they also used it in a commercial for the news as well. We were hoping they would include the sound, and Josh would get *bleeped* on the news, but they didn't include the audio. :-( But it was still cool to get some recognition for my amateur-funnel-cloud-chaser film work ;-)

Solar cube!

Yet another coworker's last day:

Random photos from the month of May

Bay to Breakers 2009 and other San Fran misadventures

Went to San Fran last weekend for Bay to Breakers. Basically this is a running race. But it's SF, so nothing is that boring/simple. Most of the "runners" dress up in crazy costumes, consume copious amounts of alcohol, and some build floats. It just so happens to go right by my friend's house, so we chilled out on the stoop and watched the madness. The rest of the wknd was pretty relaxing - filled with gorgeous gardens, good friends, old friends reunited, good food, and of course fun bars!

Happy Birthday Vanessa!

Some pics from a celebration at 858... Vanessa turns 28 AND gets her license back!!

Rooftops and Rockies

Went to a Rockies game on Tuesday with a bunch of new (and old) friends. BBQ'd on a nearby rooftop both before and after the game. So much fun. Hope this becomes a regular part of my summer!!

Garden!

Vanessa and I did some yard work and gardening last weekend. Planted a bunch of beautiful flowers - geraniums, peonies, lobelia, begonias, and fuchsia. I even took a stab at weed wacking. I don't know if I should be allowed to weed wack again. Not only did I break the wacker cord 3 separate times, but I fear I might shoot my eye out. I'll stick to flowers.

Apparently Das Boot = Das Grass Magnet

Vanessa mining for gold

Our awesomely clean green back yard

Farewell to Das Boot

I had my 3 month post-op appointment on Monday. I am FINALLY cleared to walk barefoot/in a shoe/whatever is comfortable!! My foot looks great! It is still swollen, more so now that I am actually walking on it, but it's so exciting to see a straight toe when I look down.

All week I have been wearing Chacos or flip flops to work. Like I've said all along, now is when the pain begins. My foot literally feels like it was run over by a semi truck. Every single tiny muscle is being rebuilt and they are sore as hell. Also, the entire bone alignment and structure of my foot has been altered, so there is some pain associated with that adjustment too. The good news is that the big toe joint itself is not too painful, which was my biggest fear. Since my foot didn't hurt too much before the surgery, I was (and still am) really scared that my foot would hurt a lot or I would lose function after the surgery. Thankfully, this does not seem to be the case! When walking long distances, or when I don't feel like dealing with it - I'll still rock Das Boot.

I imagine my foot is also in some pain due to the increased aggressiveness of my stretching/rehab exercises. When I was at the doctors on Monday, he grabbed my second toe, which is kind of floating up due to having the big toe under it all of those years, and pushed it down/curled it up HARD. I was screaming OW! and almost crying from the pain. He said, "This is what you need to do. If you can't do this to yourself, I will find someone who will, and they will charge you lots of money for the privelage." Nice. So I've been abusing the hell out of my foot every night in the hopes of regaining full range of motion. This basically involves pushing my toe as far as it will go... then pushing a lot more. It kind of feels like I am trying to break my toe, but this is what I have to do to prevent too much scar tissue build up. Good times.

I'll spare you from the gross feet pics until the swelling goes down. But here are some cool x-rays!!

Eight-Five-Eight

From www.eight-five-eight.com, our new house blog:

Roller Derby and Karaoke

Here's a smattering of what I've been up to these past few weeks:















"Lightning Crashes" if it was covered by Bob Dylan?? hehe

UMass visits and Kezza learns to walk!!

Last weekend Jamie and Maia came to visit! Yay!!! It rained and it snowed... a lot. We spent way too much time indoors. We stayed up way too late every night. We probably drank too much (although we did have leftovers, so perhaps we are getting old!) I learned how to walk without crutches! I danced for the first time in months! James turned into a vampire. Vanessa lost her wallet and then it was found! George got addicted to wii. We definitely had an insane amount of fun. It was like being back at UMass, but 10 times better. I miss you guys!

I honestly don't even know what to write about that weekend. My absolute favorite part of the weekend was witnessing close old friends meet close new friends, and within hours EVERYONE was old friends. I love when that happens. I know I say it all the time. But I seriously love my friends. And someday, when I get married, holy crap is that going to be the best party ever!! (Yeah, I dream about the party, not the guy.)

I think it would just be best if I post some pics now :-) Some from me, most from Jamie. Some captions also stolen from Jamie. Enjoy!

Baseball & Beerster

Pics from this past weekend - First Rockies game of the season with James on Saturday, and BEERSTER on Sunday!! Best new holiday EVER.





Theme song by Ef (written in 5 minutes):






More pics can be found here (courtesy @mattgist) and here (courtesy @andrewhyde).

Baby Steps

I had another check-up with the doctor yesterday. X-rays were taken, toes were wiggled, extra screws were discovered. Apparently my foot was so floppy it required three screws instead of the usual two to secure things into place. I am also a "floppy-jointed" person in general, demonstrated when my doctor started grabbing random appendages - arms, legs, thumbs, and flopping them around like a rag doll. Perhaps I have more muppet-like qualities than I realized... (George).

Unfortunately, I am stuck in "das boot" for another 4 weeks. However, I can take it off to sleep (yay!) and can also start walking without crutches whenever it feels comfortable. Of course I tried to walk with one crutch immediately. Luckily I was next to the couch, so the fall was not so painful. In my head, I totally remember how to walk - but my foot seems to have forgot! This will take some practice it seems. Part of the problem is the boot itself. It has a lot of protection/padding, so it feel like wearing a 1-2" platform shoe on one foot. It also has a rocking bottom, supposedly to make it easier to walk. So you don't have to put as much weight on the front of the foot to propel yourself forward. However, when I step and my weight goes forward, ALL of my momentum CONTINUES forward and it feels like I will fall if I don't get my other foot forward FAST. This results in a really bad limp/hop .. not so much of a walk. Working on it though!

Stay tuned for video of my First Steps. Coming soon hopefully....

Top Ten Things I Learned While on Crutches

1. Don't put the keg next to the Irish girl on crutches.
2. Enjoy the pity party while it lasts.
3. If you can play it drunk, you can kick ass at it on one foot (pool, air hockey, etc.). Just ask James!
   
4. Go with the flow, and limit expectations. I *might* be able to start walking on Thursday, but I might not. I can't control it, so there's no point in getting upset about it.
5. Walking is NOT overrated.
6. Boulder is amazingly shitty when it comes to handicapped accessibility/parking.
7. Hiking is an extremely important part of my mental well-being.
8. Being carried to/from/around bars is humbling, but fun.
9. Apparently, I like to put myself in challenging situations to see how I'll react.
10. This spring/summer is going to fucking AWESOME. Boulder, you've been warned. (For a preview of the madness yet to come, check out these pics from Saturday.)

Kegs & Kites

I'm not really sure how it all began. I think it involved a conversation over happy hour about how awesome kites are. And how someone should plan a party with kites. And of course drinking would be involved ... Voila! Kegs & Kites was born. The brain child of George, Stepan, and Ef - it was as simple as it sounds. A free keg of Flying Dog, some kites (if you chose), and a park. What more could one ask for on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon. How bout a small blizzard the day before and some sleds? Bring it on!




Stepan's Kegs & Kites photos HERE.

WATCH THIS

If there's anything you absolutely must do on this beautiful Friday, it's watch this 11minute video. Seriously. If you don't, you'll never get to eat any of my delicious chili ever again.



The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.


And check out more of Jonathan Jarvis's work here. http://www.jonathanjarvis.com

Boulder Blizzard 2009!

This is what happens when you are stuck inside during a blizzard, with one good leg and no cable. V and I decided to have a lip syncing contest/session and broadcast it live on ustream. (I used the scooter-stool to move around, which is why I glide in and out of frame oh so gracefully.) And yes - we were sober!! I imagine there will be more shenanigans like this in the future, so if you don't want to miss out, better click that big Twitter banner on the left and follow me on twitter!

The best clip is from 47:20 - 50:25. If I figure out how to clip it out, I will. But for now, fast forward!



It was like being back in college! (Thank god we didn't have webcams in college.)

I also worked from home this snow day, and helped/watched Vanessa make Oatmeal Rum Cookies. Here's some pics:

Go Orange!

New shirt from ebay to replace my long lost vintage SU basketball t-shirt:


BTW, does anyone else find it ironic that the SU mascot is an orange?? Well, an orange-man. Seems more appropriate for a place like Florida or California. If I had to choose an appropriate Syracuse icon, it would definitely be something snow related. The Syracuse Snowflakes ... or Syracuse Blizzard are both intimidating to me. Don't find snowflakes intimidating? Have you ever seen palm-sized lake effect flakes falling at a rate of 2 inches per hour??? I also like Blizzard because it reminds me of a frozen dairy treat, and we all know Syracusans like to eat. Anyone got any other good Syracuse mascot suggestions?? Kaplow, I know you've gotta have a couple!!

(I do have to say though, that Orangemen is MUCH better than Sky Chiefs. WTF?)

March Madness

My favorite type of gambling...



Click bracket to see full size.

Wobble

Today I was discussing with a friend my upcoming transition from crutches to wobble. He vowed to follow me around all day with a tuba.

Welcome to my future....

4 weeks!!

I can't believe it, but it's actually been 4 weeks since my surgery. This is definitely one of those times when I'm glad time flies. Unfortunately, the blog has been BORING lately, but I guess that is pretty indicative of my life as of late. Not that I've been bored, per se. It's just not really blog worthy to report that I spent 5 hours the other night reading "Wicked". And that the highlight of my week was the arrival of my new Blackberry Pearl this past weekend, or maybe my new cobalt blue hoodie that I never want to take off. Ever. I suppose the biggest news is that my friend Vanessa is moving in with George and I at the end of the month. Woohoo! 858 is going to be awesome this summer. By then I'll have tons to blog about ;-)

I'll spare you all the pictures of my foot. But I did update the before/after set, so if you're curious, click here. Highlights include - no more skin flaking, reduced swelling, healed incisions, increased toe motion, and a slight rebound of atrophied calf muscle! Enjoy!

Happy Noodle House

Checked out a new restaurant in Boulder this wknd. It was so good on Friday that we went back Sunday night. Not only do they have delicious noodle bowls and appetizers (can we say deep-friend-5-spiced brussels sprout leaves??), but they make pretty unique tasty beverages. I guess that's what a mixologist is for! Oh, and the ambiance is nice too. Can't wait to walk down there this summer and enjoy a beverage on their nice patio. As always, here's some pics:

Three Week Update

It has officially been three weeks since surgery-day! This week's milestone was that the steri-strips got to come off! So my foot almost looks normal. Minus the swelling and incisions.

No blog posts, because I really didn't do anything exciting this week. Went back to the Mountain Sun for the end of Stout Month on Sunday, and that's about it. I also went back to work this week. Boo. It was exhausting at first... I think more mentally than anything, but now it feels like normal again. I have to wake up a bit earlier so I can ice my foot in the morning, but other than that, it's the same. I've also been doing some stretching exercises of my ankle and toes. The jury is still out on whether I'll need physical therapy or not. I guess it depends on how my range of movement is when I go back in 4 weeks for my next check-up. But so far it seems pretty good. I have no idea what is expected or normal at this stage, but I can wiggle all of my toes! It took a good 15 minutes of concentration and effort on Saturday, but finally my toe twitched! It was very exciting. Can I really go from toe-twitching to climbing a 14er in a matter of months?? I'd like to think so :-)

Here is the updated before/after album with week 3 pics. Check out how much the swelling has gone down!!

Two weeks post-op

Well, the cast is gone, the stitches are out, and for the next 5 weeks, I am now the proud owner of a big, heavy black boot. (With air pump a la early-90s Reeboks!) I can put minimal weight on my heel, with crutches... so I'm not much more mobile than before. Actually, I walk much slower and it takes a lot more effort than it does to just be one footed. But I think I just need to practice and get the whole kinda-sorta-walking thing down. I'll probably still use the scooter-stool around the house though.

Although my foot is swollen, and multi-colored, it looks SO GOOD. In my humble opinion anyways. Still not perfect.. still a little angled inward, but SO much better than before. From what I've seen on other bunion blogs, the toes really straighten out, and figure out their true place, once the patient is allowed to start putting weight and walking normally on the foot. I've got a long way to go before that happens, but it's great to see progress already!

As promised, here are the gross Removal of the Cast photos:




And here are some awesome Before/After shots!



Thanks for all of the encouraging thoughts everyone! I definitely have those "Damnit, why can't I just get up and WALK to the desk that is 4 feet away?" downer moments. But thoughts of hanging out and hiking and climbing and doing all these fun things with all my awesome friends this summer, gets me through those moments! So thanks!

My boss just called...

...to tell me that I got a bonus this year!! Woohoo! This couldn't come at a more opportune time. My next two paychecks are going to be smaller than normal due to some unpaid time off for the surgery, and also because disability only pay 60% of your normal pay. This is just seriously awesome, and makes me feel a lot better about going back to the office on Friday. It's nice to know you're appreciated!!

Tomorrow! Tomorrow!

I love ya! Tomorrow!

I know you hate me right now for getting that song in your head, but it's worth it. Tomorrow I go to the Doc's for my post-op appointment and cast removal! And possible stitches removal? (Not sure if they are dissolveable or not.) I also don't know what will be put on my foot in place of the cast... probably a small bandage of some sort? But I do know that if all goes to plan, I'll leave in a big black boot, walking on two feet! Well kind of walking. I'll only be allowed to put 10% of my weight on my left heel, but it's better than no weight at all.

I can tell that my foot is ready for this next step. It involuntary twitches a lot... like it just wants to MOVE. It used to kind of twinge and hurt when it would twitch, but now it doesn't. It kind of feels good to move my toes every so often. Sometimes I move them just to make sure I still can. It's weird that it takes so much effort to move my toes the tiniest bit. I feel like Uma Thurman in Kill Bill, in the back of the truck, willing her toe to move. I have a feeling there will be more of this in my future. Especially when I go to Physical Therapy.

Anyways, it's been a while since I had a real foot update, so I thought I would post since I am SO excited about tomorrow. Mostly I am excited to be able to get my foot wet!! Yay for clean feet.

Oh, and yes... there will be LOTS of gross pictures posted tomorrow. :-) Stay tuned!

Stout Month!

The Mountain Sun, a local brewery, turns all of its taps over to stout every February for Stout Month. So tasty. My two favs are the tangerine cream stout, and the hazelnut latte stout. The cherry dip stout was also pretty good. I was not a fan of one of the super hoppy Imperial stouts we tried. Hops smells and tastes like soap to me, so that kind of ruins it. Here's some pics from the evening:

Ignite Boulder 3

Last night I ventured out of the house for Ignite Boulder 3. "Ignite is a night of presentations on a variety of topics, with a twist. Each presentation has 20 slides, that automatically advance after 15 seconds." Almost all of the presentations were hilarious, all were entertaining, and of course highly educational. I was completely exhausted from my night out on the town, and literally slept most of the day, but it was totally worth it. I met a bunch of awesome new people and got lots of signatures and pictures for the cast! Sometimes it's fun to the be cripple girl in the corner ;-)



Check out more of my friend Stepan's pictures here.

Check out presentations from Ignite Boulder 2, and soon 3, here.

And if you live in the Denver/Boulder area, follow @igniteboulder on twitter so you'll know about the next one!

The Getaway

See George's full post here.

Kezza Goes Shopping

And the best video is yet to come!!

Smack it!

This is a true statement. I especially have a hard time letting other people do things for me because there are a lot of times when I am alone and need to do things by myself anyways. Therefore, I have perfected the technique of hopping on one foot with the aid of a crutch, while carrying something with the other hand. This is how I get things like food and cups onto the little table next to my bed. Around the house, my little scooter/stool-on-wheels makes me pretty mobile, so I can do most things on my own. Still have trouble reaching things, but that's nothing new. But I have to say, it is kind of nice when people insist on helping and do things for me anyways. I will admit it's easier.

I'm feeling a billion times better. I stopped taking the oxycodone yesterday. I really just didn't like the way it made me feel - head, body, digestive system - the whole package really. I maintained a regimen of Advil yesterday, but have even been scaling that back. Don't want any stomach ulcers or holes in my stomach. Sometime the lack of pain makes me worried - like did they cut a nerve they shouldn't have? But I'll deal with that later. I'm sure it will start hurting once I start walking on it. And I do have little moments of pain - especially when I involuntarily twitch my toes. I also took a shower yesterday, which felt SO nice. It wasn't super comfortable to sit on the shower chair and put my leg up on the corner of the tub, but it was nice to get clean. I'm sure it will get easier with time.

The one really great thing about this whole ordeal, is how truly amazing my friends are. I love how in times of strife, you see how awesome your friends really are (and how lame others are.) Everyone's true colors really shine. Some examples of awesomeness: Matt bringing me food and being a true lifesaver on Thursday. I think that will be a meal I'll never forget - I was STARVING! George for WD-40ing the scooter stool and for being all around awesome for putting up with me these next couple of weeks. Alex for bringing me Jamba Juice and watching The Office. Alex for coming back on Valentine's Day with flowers! Yay for getting flowers on Valentine's Day and not even having to ask! Especially since she looked like a lesbian at the flower shop on Valentine's Day. hahaha. Truman for bringing me my favorite Thai food, letting me live vicariously through his mountain adventures, and trying out the Smackit Racket with me (see pictures below.) Jamie for sending the best care package ever including said Smackit Racket! Vanessa for video chatting with me, and for being an awesome friend with whom I can talk about poop! hahaha. And Maia, Hoa, Rahul, Jay, Chris, Stepan, Ken, Stephanie, Leah, Dave, and all my other friends and family who I have yet to see, but who have made the effort to check in with me one way or another, keep me entertained, give me advice, and in general - make me feel loved! Thank you so much!! :-)

And now... here's some pictures of me and Truman trying out the smackit racket. It's incredibly difficult, and the only thing that got smacked was our faces. But still, good times... Next up - Bible Coloring book!

Kaplow!

Got the best care package ever from Kaplow! Check it out:

She even wrapped everything!!

Pictures of Truman and I attemping to smackit the racket coming soon. I think the only things that got smacked was our faces.

Cannot WAIT to color Jesus!

Please excuse the gross hair and face. I hadn't yet figured out the whole showering thing yet.

The Surgery Story

OK folks, as promised, here is my surgery experience. Sorry if it's not completely coherent - feeling a little funny at the moment from the drugs.

Bret picked me up at 5am for the drive down to Aurora. So early. I did manage to squeak in 3 hours of sleep, but I was still exhausted. Checked in at 6am and paid my $250 co-pay (not too bad, but it's weird to think about paying someone to cut you open. At least they are well trained professionals!) And cute at that! Yes, my orthopedic resident was very attractive. Helped distract me from the nervousness that's for sure. So after checking in with the nurse, getting changed into the gown, and getting snuzzled up in some warm blankets - I love the warm blankets!! I want a blanket oven in my house! - it was time to get IV'd. Not the most pleasant experience, but also not as bad as I thought it would be. Then the anestheticians came and consulted with the Doctor, and it turned out that because they would be cutting a tendon in my upper calf, they would have to do a form of general anesthesia. It wasn't a "deep" level - in that they didn't have to intubate me, but they did still have to put some sort of tube down my throat - which has made it sore.

One minute I was in the operating room and laying down on the table, the next I was waking up in Stage 1 recovery, and I was shaking a lot. My muscles were shaking - like I was shivering, but I wasn't cold. They started putting a bunch of those warm blankets on me but they started making me hot. It was mostly my butt and leg muscles that were shaking, so I kept saying to them "I'm not cold - my butt is shaking. No my butt is shaking. I feel ok.. but my butt is shaking." I guess that's normal though - to shake like that when coming out of anesthesia. Then I guess my doctor came and talked to me, but I don't remember that. And then the nurse talked to me for a bit and was helping me get out of the phase. It took me a while to get used to the feeling of my foot - I think it was mostly numb, but it felt weird and it was hard to articulate, and I think the nurse was getting a little annoyed cause she couldn't tell whether I needed pain medication or not. But we figured it out eventually. My throat felt really swollen and it was hard to swallow. For a minute I was kind of freaking out, thinking I was having some weird reaction to something - but then the nurse got me some ice to suck on and that helped a lot. Then some graham crackers and cranberry juice. Yum.

Finally, around 11am, I was able to get dressed and go home. I took a pain pill shortly before leaving the hospital and on the drive back I was SO out of it. I kept giving Bret wrong directions (even though he knew where he was going), and when we got back to the house, he shot that video below.

The first few times of taking the pain pills it made me feel like this - hard to think, articulate words, understand anyone. Basically I just felt really dumb. But then last night, my friend Matt brought me some food, and that made all the difference. I think it was just a mostly empty stomach that was making the pills do that to me. Since I've eaten real meals, it hasn't happened.

For all of yesterday, my foot was under some sort of local or nerve block - not completely sure exactly what it was - but my foot was numb all day. I think it has worn off now, but it's kind of hard to tell because I still don't feel much. But that very well could be the pain killers. My foot hurt when I woke up this morning, even though I followed the pain meg regimen throughout the night. I think because it got pretty swollen, and it actually got better once I moved around a bit this morning. I've also been taking 600mg of ibuprofen in 4 hour intervals (off set with the pain med), to help control the swelling. So far so good!

And now... some gross feet pictures!

Rockin the crutches

Sorry for the sideways video at the beginning... it gets right-side-up after a few seconds.

Kezza After Surgery

It's no David After Dentist, but here is me all drugged up after the surgery today. I'll write a full account tomorrow! Also, feel free to call me anytime. I'm already getting bored and would love to chat!

Awesome friends

Vanessa made me this...


Thanks for all the well-wishes and good lucks everyone! I have awesome friends. See you on the other side...

Tough Decisions

I have to be at the hospital at 6am. I must stop drinking all liquids at 4am. Obviously this means I must be awake by at least 3:55am so I can chug a glass of apple juice. That part is easy. Now the question is - stay up or go to bed?

Ready or not...

T minus 2 days. I've cleaned the house so the roommates won't hate me too much. (It's messy again.) I have almost everything I need - still working on the foot covering for in the shower. Do I go with the rubberband and garbage bag, or a buy a fancy waterproof cast cover? I've got the shower seat and the roll-stool ... although apparently I need to WD-40 the stool. My roommates might have nightmares from the sound of the stool rolling down the hallway. I foresee a bored future me filming some sort of homemade horror flick.... hmmmm...

Tomorrow at 2pm I call the hospital and find out my surgery time. I'm REALLY hoping that it's in the morning. Apparently, I cannot eat anything for the 8 hours pre-surgery. I can only drink apple juice, black coffee, tea and water. The last 2 hours I can't even drink anything. It even says that chewing gum and sucking on hard candy is not allowed. So basically, no saliva allowed. Geez. So anyone who knows me well, knows that it will be MUCH better if those 8 food free hours occur while I am sleeping. I apologize in advance to Bret if I'm crankier than normal that morning. At least all this food and drink deprivation will help me pass out easier.

I'm planning on requesting the twilight anesthesia versus the fully-knocked-out general anesthesia. For both they give you a nerve block, so my leg will be completely numb for 24 hours. That will be an interesting sensation. Instead of knocking you out completely, for twilight, they gently sedate you. This means that you could be awake during part of the surgery. However, they also give you a medicine called Versed, which is essentially an amnesia drug. So if you do wake up and talk, you have no recollection of it. So Harry Potter-ish! I guess it's a lot easier on your body to not have to deal with full knock-out. So hopefully I'll be all amnesia'd and happy and won't remember a thing.

I'd like to extend a HUGE thank you to my ride, and my former ride. You know you are. Former ride could not make the trek to Aurora with me due to unseen circumstances, and current ride stepped up to the plate like the awesome friend he is. And to everyone else who offered, or who has offered to hang out and keep me company, etc. You all rock too. I will definitely be collecting on those offers to hang out, as I imagine boredom setting in very quickly. I will most likely be hopped up on pain killers. I can only hope to be as entertaining as this kid:




I'll update again as soon as I am able!! Love you all!!

Vanessa starts her car...

(If you're at work - put on your headphones! Lots of swearing and inappropriate subject matter.)

Pictures from the week of culture

It started and ended with Twin Peaks. In between there was some live coffeehouse jazz, a Broadway production, a comedy club, a seedy blues bar, an Irish pub, the Colorado Symphony, a fancy hotel restaurant, a cool underground Mexican bar, a much-needed solitary brunch, a movie, an awesome happy hour, a quiet night at home, and a hike. It's been quite the week. Here's some pictures:

Boston's Famous Chicken! It's wicked good!

A conversation I had last night:


ME: Rubber Chicken? That's not a very appetizing drink name.
Anonymous: It must be a Boston drink.
ME: Huh??
A: You know ... Boston Chicken!
ME: What? Are you trying to be funny?
A: No... Boston is famous for its chicken!
ME: No it's not... what are you talking about?!?
A: Yeah my friend Paul is from Boston, and when I first saw his car I knew it was his cause he had a rubber chicken on the dash. Ya know, for Boston.
ME: Dude, that doesn't make any sense. I don't think people in boston even eat chicken. Are you thinking about baked beans? Clam chowder? Tea parties?
A: Come on - you lived there... Boston chicken! Ya know.. from Field of Dreams!
ME: WHAT?!?
A: You know, how Boston always has chickens hanging in the shop windows....
ME: You mean a Vietnamese open air market??
A: Nooooo! Come on! Boston chicken!!

Culture bomb!

Apparently this is my week of culture.

It started Monday with Twin Peaks and delicious Spicy Cinnamon-Sugar Popcorn.

Tuesday it continued with jazz night at a coffee house.

Last night was obviously dress-up-fancy-theater night.

And tonight it continues with comedy down in Denver. We'll be seeing Kyle Kinane, who is a friend of V's. Here's a clip:

Lipschitz...

I'm sure I've blogged about this before, but I'm excited so it's worth a second entry. Tonight, V and I are getting all dolled up and going to...


Yay new dresses and awesome musicals!

Denver Botanic Gardens

Another trip to the Gardens with good friends. This time, instead of focusing on flowers, I took my inspiration from all of the cool patterns plants make. So this first slide show is mostly pictures of patterns.




This second slide show is all the people pics. Most of them are Vanessa's photos. After the Gardens, we headed to Zaidy's for some delicious potato latkes with sour cream and homemade strawberry applesauce. Then Vanessa and I went next door to Big Fat Cupcake for some dessert. YUM!

New word

I'd like to introduce you to the "clock dock".