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