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!
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Paul Bunion
"You should name it Paul."
"Name what?"
"Your foot."
"Huh??"
"Paul Bunion! Get it? Hahaha!"
That was a conversation I had with the V.P. of my department the other day. He's known for being kind of kooky, and regularly makes bad jokes. I'm constantly amazed at the amount of lame jokes the word bunion inspires. I've been hearing a lot lately, as it's now public knowledge within my company that I'll be taking time off soon for this surgery. Not a bad thing... actually it's kind of nice, because my work load has diminished greatly while we get the other admin geared up to take on the full work load.
I bring all of this up because I had my pre-op appointment today for my bunion surgery. I will be getting the modified lapidus procedure. If you're at all curious what this procedure is all about, check out this link. Warning: graphic surgical photos and mucho doctor speak!
The good news is that my recovery will not be as bad as I thought. I thought I was in for 2 weeks of couch rest, followed by 6 weeks of non-weight bearing. Actually, I'll be non-weight bearing for two weeks - but able to hobble around with crutches. And then I will get the Boot and will be able to put weight on my heel, and eventually add more and more weight. Doc said I would be in the boot for 2-3 months total. He also said that I would be able to go to work after a week, but it would be better if I waited two weeks. So two weeks it is! Hopefully I'll be working from home after a few days though. I've burned up all of my PTO, so I'll need the money!
The bad news is that the pre-op procedure is going to suck! Hopefully, I'll get the morning surgery spot, because I won't be able eat for 8 hours before the surgery. And then the last 2 hours, I can't eat or drink anything. I can't even chew gum or suck on hard candy. Anyone who knows me well, knows this is going to be hard for me. I know a lot of people wake up from anaesthesia sick to their stomach, but I have a feeling I am going to be STARVING. Vanessa, we might need to have some snacks ready in the car!
The surprising news is that my Doctor wrote me prescription for my post-op pain... and he gave me SIXTY oxycodones. I've never had surgery, but this seems like a lot to me. This says one of two things - My doctor expects me to be in a hell of a lot of pain for many days. OR My doctor is an extremely nice man. I mean, even if I took one every four hours, it would take me 10 days to go through all of that. I REALLY REALLY hope I don't need them that long. I will try to switch to Advil as quickly as possible.
So that's pretty much it. It was a really quick appointment. I was actually surprised that they didn't take any blood or anything. I did have to sign a form saying I would accept a blood transfusion if necessary (in the event of an emergency.) But how will they know what type of blood I would need? I don't know even know my own blood type. Hmmm. It all seemed so non-chalant. There is something both disconcerting and comforting about how casual doctors and nurses are sometimes. Disconcerting because - HELLO - you are cutting me open and rearranging my bones! It's an all-day decision for me just to rearrange my blog! On the other hand, it's comforting to know that my doctor has done so many of these surgeries that for him it's about as big a deal as me opening up my email in the morning.
Just another day at the office...
"Name what?"
"Your foot."
"Huh??"
"Paul Bunion! Get it? Hahaha!"
That was a conversation I had with the V.P. of my department the other day. He's known for being kind of kooky, and regularly makes bad jokes. I'm constantly amazed at the amount of lame jokes the word bunion inspires. I've been hearing a lot lately, as it's now public knowledge within my company that I'll be taking time off soon for this surgery. Not a bad thing... actually it's kind of nice, because my work load has diminished greatly while we get the other admin geared up to take on the full work load.
I bring all of this up because I had my pre-op appointment today for my bunion surgery. I will be getting the modified lapidus procedure. If you're at all curious what this procedure is all about, check out this link. Warning: graphic surgical photos and mucho doctor speak!
The good news is that my recovery will not be as bad as I thought. I thought I was in for 2 weeks of couch rest, followed by 6 weeks of non-weight bearing. Actually, I'll be non-weight bearing for two weeks - but able to hobble around with crutches. And then I will get the Boot and will be able to put weight on my heel, and eventually add more and more weight. Doc said I would be in the boot for 2-3 months total. He also said that I would be able to go to work after a week, but it would be better if I waited two weeks. So two weeks it is! Hopefully I'll be working from home after a few days though. I've burned up all of my PTO, so I'll need the money!
The bad news is that the pre-op procedure is going to suck! Hopefully, I'll get the morning surgery spot, because I won't be able eat for 8 hours before the surgery. And then the last 2 hours, I can't eat or drink anything. I can't even chew gum or suck on hard candy. Anyone who knows me well, knows this is going to be hard for me. I know a lot of people wake up from anaesthesia sick to their stomach, but I have a feeling I am going to be STARVING. Vanessa, we might need to have some snacks ready in the car!
The surprising news is that my Doctor wrote me prescription for my post-op pain... and he gave me SIXTY oxycodones. I've never had surgery, but this seems like a lot to me. This says one of two things - My doctor expects me to be in a hell of a lot of pain for many days. OR My doctor is an extremely nice man. I mean, even if I took one every four hours, it would take me 10 days to go through all of that. I REALLY REALLY hope I don't need them that long. I will try to switch to Advil as quickly as possible.
So that's pretty much it. It was a really quick appointment. I was actually surprised that they didn't take any blood or anything. I did have to sign a form saying I would accept a blood transfusion if necessary (in the event of an emergency.) But how will they know what type of blood I would need? I don't know even know my own blood type. Hmmm. It all seemed so non-chalant. There is something both disconcerting and comforting about how casual doctors and nurses are sometimes. Disconcerting because - HELLO - you are cutting me open and rearranging my bones! It's an all-day decision for me just to rearrange my blog! On the other hand, it's comforting to know that my doctor has done so many of these surgeries that for him it's about as big a deal as me opening up my email in the morning.
Just another day at the office...
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
More Pod Camp
Check out George's blog for a more geek-ified review of Pod Camp Boulder. There are also more Thriller videos!
I think I might try and see if I remember it now...
I think I might try and see if I remember it now...
Snow Hike!
Went for a nice short hike in the snow at Chautauqua today. I've decided that I really love cold weather exercise. Especially when it's followed by hot chocolate and tea!
Saturday, January 24, 2009
That's right. I went to Pod Camp!
Today I went to Pod Camp. Actually, to be more accurate, I crashed the last hour of Pod Camp, drank some delicious Flying Dog beer, met some cool people, and learned how to do the Thriller Dance.
To all my fellow geeks out there - Move to Boulder!!!
Streaming Video by Ustream.TV
To all my fellow geeks out there - Move to Boulder!!!
Streaming Video by Ustream.TV
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Tahoe 2009!
This past weekend I flew out to San Fran again for the Annual RPbuds Tahoe trip. The RPbuds is this awesome group of friends - some of whom have known each other since high school, some since college, and then there's a bunch of random tag alongs like me. (I know them from visiting Maia in SF many times over the past few years. Maia knows them from befriending one of them when they both lived in Hawaii.) This is the 10th year they have organized this trip, and I feel super lucky to be able to have been a part of two of them!
I flew into San Fran on Thursday evening. Somehow my flight landed 30 minutes early - I think because it was a super empty flight, so we were able to board and depart early, and the lack of weight maybe helped the plane fly faster? Brian offered to pick me up from the airport, and we both felt like enjoying a low-key mellow night at home was probably a good idea due to the upcoming madness of the wknd.
Friday, Brian had to go into work for a bit, so I took the opportunity to explore the Marina District. I took a long walk down by the water, and almost all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge. I would have kept walking, but I had to get back to the house for the drive up to Tahoe. Several hours later we arrived at the Manzanita Lodge, and a few days of drinking, games, and drinking games had begun. Add some sledding, an open mic, and 50+ awesome people, and you have one awesome time.
Here's some of the less scandalous pics! :-) (I'm at work, so I'll be adding some more pictures and captions later!)
I flew into San Fran on Thursday evening. Somehow my flight landed 30 minutes early - I think because it was a super empty flight, so we were able to board and depart early, and the lack of weight maybe helped the plane fly faster? Brian offered to pick me up from the airport, and we both felt like enjoying a low-key mellow night at home was probably a good idea due to the upcoming madness of the wknd.
Friday, Brian had to go into work for a bit, so I took the opportunity to explore the Marina District. I took a long walk down by the water, and almost all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge. I would have kept walking, but I had to get back to the house for the drive up to Tahoe. Several hours later we arrived at the Manzanita Lodge, and a few days of drinking, games, and drinking games had begun. Add some sledding, an open mic, and 50+ awesome people, and you have one awesome time.
Here's some of the less scandalous pics! :-) (I'm at work, so I'll be adding some more pictures and captions later!)
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Monday, January 12, 2009
Thursday, January 8, 2009
I left my heart...
... in Oakland?? Not quite, but that's where my plane landed on New Year's Eve. That's also where I almost left my luggage, after the conveyor belt sucked up someone else's duffle bag and broke the whole carousel. 45 minutes later, we were on our way to the city. Finally arrive at Brian's awesome apartment and it's 10pm and we're still sober!! Always prepared for emergencies such as this, I pulled out the bottle of Gruet Demi Sec Sparkling New Mexico wine (yes, New Mexico... what?). I think I need to start traveling with my own wine more often! One bottle of champagne and a short stroll later, we find ourselves entering Bar None with 10 minutes to midnight. Somehow we even managed to get a drink at the bar before 2009 hit. Not the right drink, but still tasty none the less. And if there's any way to ring in the New Year, it's by going with the flow and enjoying your tasty Vodka-Cran-not-Tonic!
A while later we decide to head back home with a few of Brian's friends who are visiting from Big Sur. On the (short) walk back to Bri's house, one of his friends... let's call him Tanner... started to run full speed down the sidewalk everytime we'd be waiting for a Walk sign at a corner. The first time he caught back up to us on the next block. The second time, he did not. Tanner's (somewhat new) girlfriend was kind of weirded out by that. Is it strange that I wasn't really? I figured he'd find his way back to the house eventually.. which Brian reassured us he would. 2 blocks later, we reach the corner across the street from Brian's place and wait for the Walk signal once more. Across the street, Tanner runs up from nowhere, jumps onto the street light pole... and starts CLIMBING it. He climbed two stories worth of the pole, stood on a street sign, and leaped to the window frame. Then kept climbing!
The blob between the "LI" and the window is Tanner. Note the Christmas tree in the window.
He somehow successfully made it to the top of the third story and onto the roof. This all happened while we were waiting for the signal to change, and I don't think we did anything but stand still in amazement and say "What the....?" interspersed with exclamations of how impressed we were. Here is a shot from the window, of the street sign Tanner stood on and JUMPED to the window sill. Now that's a leap of faith!
The light changes, and we start crossing the street. About this time I say, "Hey, I think I just saw your tree move in the window..." Brian: "Nooo.. Tanner can't even be inside yet.. he just got to the roof." Kezza's inner monologue: "Hmmm... must have been that last Red-Headed-Slut shot."
Well, they say a picture's worth 1000 words.... THIS is what we walked into when we entered the apartment:
As you can see, the Christmas tree that was formerly in the window has been somewhat dismantled... and there is a new HALF of a real Christmas tree in the middle of room. Yes, HALF of a Christmas tree. The top half has been mysteriously sawed off. The red bulbs have been taken off of the other fake tree, and when we walked in, Tanner was in the process of trying to take the lights off of the fake tree to put them on the real tree. The lights, however, were part of the fake tree, and I think we walked in just in time to prevent some serious fake-christmas-tree-dismantling.
Here is a video, shot shortly after discovering the madness:
Needless to say, this whole scenario was pretty mind boggling. I mean, we had just witnessed this dude climb two stories of a light pole and one story of a house. And somehow he dragged in half a Christmas tree and managed to half decorate it in the time it took us to walk across the street and walk upstairs???
Tanner wouldn't say where the tree came from, other than he "found it". His motivation was that he wanted to give Brian a real tree, and I have to say - for half a tree, it smelled pretty damn good. We ended up calling it a (somewhat) early night, thinking/hoping the tree mystery would be solved the next morning. However, Tanner was a little too Irish to remember the details of his late night tree-smuggling, so we never did find out where the tree came from, or how he got it into the house so quickly. I like to think it was a little Christmas magic :-) And also a great freakin way to start off 2009!
I wish the rest of the weekend was as exciting and dramatic as New Year's Eve (or do I?) However, things were pretty mellow compared to that. New Year's Day, Maia was flying in from San Francisco, and thought Brian was picking her up from the airport. She had no clue that I was in town. I was hoping to wait inside the airport with a big sign that said "Maia P. Burns", but her flight came in early, so Brian had to pick her up outside instead. Plan B consisted of hiding behind the passenger seat covered in a big trench coat. As Brian started to drive out of the airport, I jumped out from behind the seat and scared the crap out of Maia. It was pretty awesome.
That night we hosted a dinner party at Brian's. I cooked the chili and Brian made the most amazing salad ever. Let's see if I can remember all of the ingredients: organic mixed greens, chopped olives, crumbled feta, crumbled bacon, diced mango and avocado, crumbled pita chips, craisins, a little diced onion, poppy seed dressing, and topped with sesame seared ahi tuna steaks, thinly sliced. My mouth just started watering....
Here's some fun party pics:
Chili in progress. It actually filled three pots.
The spread!
Maia's awesome dog Wildabeast
Jenga! Whoever made it fall had to take a shot of Crown. Ick.
Crazy Jenga = Put the pieces wherever you want. It took many rounds, but I finally had to succumb to a shot of Crown.
Jenga with dishes
Hoa practicing Eagle claw??
I love this shot.
This is super cute too.
Friday was a (much needed) mellow day. Later that night a few of us enjoyed a relaxing but super tasty and delicious dinner at Osha Thai.
Whole sweet and sour crispy fish. My favorite dish of the evening.
Panang Curry
Panang Curry, Drunken Noodles, Papaya Salad
The next morning, on very little sleep, we woke up and drove up to Tahoe for a fun day of riding with some of Brian's friends.
On the way back from Tahoe, we stopped at this awesome produce market. Just that market alone makes me want to move to Cali. Affordable produce! I'm in heaven!! I spotted this sign at the market. A questionable brand name? Perhaps. But a great way to end this epic blog! :-)
A while later we decide to head back home with a few of Brian's friends who are visiting from Big Sur. On the (short) walk back to Bri's house, one of his friends... let's call him Tanner... started to run full speed down the sidewalk everytime we'd be waiting for a Walk sign at a corner. The first time he caught back up to us on the next block. The second time, he did not. Tanner's (somewhat new) girlfriend was kind of weirded out by that. Is it strange that I wasn't really? I figured he'd find his way back to the house eventually.. which Brian reassured us he would. 2 blocks later, we reach the corner across the street from Brian's place and wait for the Walk signal once more. Across the street, Tanner runs up from nowhere, jumps onto the street light pole... and starts CLIMBING it. He climbed two stories worth of the pole, stood on a street sign, and leaped to the window frame. Then kept climbing!
The blob between the "LI" and the window is Tanner. Note the Christmas tree in the window.
He somehow successfully made it to the top of the third story and onto the roof. This all happened while we were waiting for the signal to change, and I don't think we did anything but stand still in amazement and say "What the....?" interspersed with exclamations of how impressed we were. Here is a shot from the window, of the street sign Tanner stood on and JUMPED to the window sill. Now that's a leap of faith!
The light changes, and we start crossing the street. About this time I say, "Hey, I think I just saw your tree move in the window..." Brian: "Nooo.. Tanner can't even be inside yet.. he just got to the roof." Kezza's inner monologue: "Hmmm... must have been that last Red-Headed-Slut shot."
Well, they say a picture's worth 1000 words.... THIS is what we walked into when we entered the apartment:
As you can see, the Christmas tree that was formerly in the window has been somewhat dismantled... and there is a new HALF of a real Christmas tree in the middle of room. Yes, HALF of a Christmas tree. The top half has been mysteriously sawed off. The red bulbs have been taken off of the other fake tree, and when we walked in, Tanner was in the process of trying to take the lights off of the fake tree to put them on the real tree. The lights, however, were part of the fake tree, and I think we walked in just in time to prevent some serious fake-christmas-tree-dismantling.
Here is a video, shot shortly after discovering the madness:
Needless to say, this whole scenario was pretty mind boggling. I mean, we had just witnessed this dude climb two stories of a light pole and one story of a house. And somehow he dragged in half a Christmas tree and managed to half decorate it in the time it took us to walk across the street and walk upstairs???
Tanner wouldn't say where the tree came from, other than he "found it". His motivation was that he wanted to give Brian a real tree, and I have to say - for half a tree, it smelled pretty damn good. We ended up calling it a (somewhat) early night, thinking/hoping the tree mystery would be solved the next morning. However, Tanner was a little too Irish to remember the details of his late night tree-smuggling, so we never did find out where the tree came from, or how he got it into the house so quickly. I like to think it was a little Christmas magic :-) And also a great freakin way to start off 2009!
I wish the rest of the weekend was as exciting and dramatic as New Year's Eve (or do I?) However, things were pretty mellow compared to that. New Year's Day, Maia was flying in from San Francisco, and thought Brian was picking her up from the airport. She had no clue that I was in town. I was hoping to wait inside the airport with a big sign that said "Maia P. Burns", but her flight came in early, so Brian had to pick her up outside instead. Plan B consisted of hiding behind the passenger seat covered in a big trench coat. As Brian started to drive out of the airport, I jumped out from behind the seat and scared the crap out of Maia. It was pretty awesome.
That night we hosted a dinner party at Brian's. I cooked the chili and Brian made the most amazing salad ever. Let's see if I can remember all of the ingredients: organic mixed greens, chopped olives, crumbled feta, crumbled bacon, diced mango and avocado, crumbled pita chips, craisins, a little diced onion, poppy seed dressing, and topped with sesame seared ahi tuna steaks, thinly sliced. My mouth just started watering....
Here's some fun party pics:
Chili in progress. It actually filled three pots.
The spread!
Maia's awesome dog Wildabeast
Jenga! Whoever made it fall had to take a shot of Crown. Ick.
Crazy Jenga = Put the pieces wherever you want. It took many rounds, but I finally had to succumb to a shot of Crown.
Jenga with dishes
Hoa practicing Eagle claw??
I love this shot.
This is super cute too.
Friday was a (much needed) mellow day. Later that night a few of us enjoyed a relaxing but super tasty and delicious dinner at Osha Thai.
Whole sweet and sour crispy fish. My favorite dish of the evening.
Panang Curry
Panang Curry, Drunken Noodles, Papaya Salad
The next morning, on very little sleep, we woke up and drove up to Tahoe for a fun day of riding with some of Brian's friends.
The cabin we stayed at.
On the way back from Tahoe, we stopped at this awesome produce market. Just that market alone makes me want to move to Cali. Affordable produce! I'm in heaven!! I spotted this sign at the market. A questionable brand name? Perhaps. But a great way to end this epic blog! :-)
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
New Years Pics coming soon...
Sorry for the lack of updates lately! I've been crazy swamped with work since I got back Sunday night. That's what happens when you take almost two weeks off I guess. Hopefully tonight I'll have some time to type up some fun stories and upload some pics!! In the meantime, here's a pic of Brian and I at Tahoe:
Michelin Man in full effect.
Michelin Man in full effect.
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