San Luis Obispo and Central Coast

It's official: I'm definitely not a "blogger"
I find living my life far more enjoyable to blogging about said life!!
When more than a month goes by without any desire to blog... it's time to switch to being merely a photo site! Here are a few random pics from the weekend we spent exploring San Luis Obispo (we love this town!) and the central coast.

above: wild orange poppies abloom everywhere in spring!

California spring green everywhere. like rich velvet. you can't stop looking at it.


Pismo Beach. 15 minute from SLO.
Great beach for long runs... and lots of sand dollars to be found!

I was obsessed with wildflowers growing everywhere... John obliged me by standing in them


(above and below) Montana de oro Park: Go there someday! Stunning.


Below: Rt 1, driving north to SF. Wildflowers all along route.


Above and below: beached seals (we missed seeing the elephant seals this time!)

Spring Wildflowers in Borrego Springs Desert

John recently had his first biz trip since the staph infection. I took advantage of the time to go on a solo-roadtrip... something I used to do annually, for reflection. It had been way too long! I spent a couple days exploring Borrego Springs, a desert area well known for its spring wildflowers. I've have fully determined after both Joshua Tree and now Borrego that I am not a desert person, but it was cool to see so much life and color spring forth from such seemingly drab, parched, dead earth. I set out to see wildflowers (only), but ended up stumbling upon a wild bighorn sheep. Or it stumbled upon me, rather. When that sucker came within 5 feet of me, those horns were looking particularly huge.

United We Stand

I love the small glimpses of Americana one often stumbles upon during rural roadtrips.

In light of today's loud, crazed, obnoxious ranting from both right-wingers & left-wingers ... and how polarized and bitter people seem to be right now... I am unfortunately not too sure of how United We Stand anymore. Sad and rather pathetic really.

So long San Diego

A few last pics of San Diego:

Boo! I still don't have any pics of Thea! It was so great to have lots of time catch-up with Sarah, Zack and sweet li'l Miss Thea. I will miss them!! Thea blew me away with her verbal skills at 15 months. My favorite line of hers is a sassy little "excuse me" everytime you are encroaching on her turf or if you are in her way... hilarious! Oh, and she has a killer head stand / downward dog on demand. Sweet Thea... you stole my heart! Hey Randelsons -- come to Mill Valley!!!

PS, Zack, payback is hell. Remember all those daddies who worried about you dating their daughters? Based on her personality at 15 months, Thea is going to be the biggest flirt in town. Hearts will be breaking right and left.

Pretty Posers

I've accepted that our current lifestyle is not conducive to pets. But one day I'd love to have a chocolate lab and a pet peacock. I guess I'll put them on my "urban refugee" planning list... give me 10 years more of urban life. Then I'll be ready. I think.

Mateo visits us!

I guess it's old news now that Matt is moving to Orange County. Today was his first day of work at the new job in Irvine. It was just a few weeks ago that he was flying out from B-town to escape the snow and bask in balmy San Diego with us! Now snowy winters are ancient history for Mateo. It was fun to be tourists for a couple of days with us. I hadn't been to a zoo since elementary school... was something I was saving for when we have kids! But everyone raves about the SD zoo, so we did it up right!

Proof that God has a sense of humor. Just look at these guys!

Time's-a-flyin.

Been slightly distracted, immersing myself in all things but time spent on computer... hence my last post was, oh, 7 weeks ago. Perhaps I'm not cut out for blogging. I never was one to maintain journals. So much California loveliness took place the last few weeks... rather than boring y'all to tears, here's just a few last pics of the San Diego coast. One quick update: John is all better now! The staph infection is fully cleared out and he's slowly building his leg back up to par with short runs and lots of PT.

Great day. Great peeps. Great news.

On Valentines day, I busted John out of the house for 5 whole hours of play... that's the most time he's spent out of the house in 4 weeks of dealing with staph. We had a great picnic in bird rock, watching all the surfers and kite boarders from the cliffs above, explored different hoods around SD and ended the day at Point Loma Nat'l Cemetery... wow, such a beautiful and peaceful place to honor those gave their lives for our country.
On Monday, I finally got to meet Sarah and Zack's baby, sweet & spunky Thea... hopefully soon I'll have photos to post of them. Thea's so cute and a big flirt. At 14 months, she is hyper verbal. She greeted me with "Hi Annie. How are ya?"... ummm, did I mention that she is 14 months? Wow.

John's good friend Pat was in town on business. We enjoyed hanging with him for a bite to eat. Later on in the evening the adorable Em Stoltz surprised us with a last minute visit from Santa Monica. What a pleasant surprise to see her twice in one week! A huge highlight yesterday... and I can't emphasize how BIG this is... was our check-up appointment with the surgeon. After looking at the healing progress of the wound, he surprised us by removing John's wound vacuum!! WhooHooo!! No more changing of those !@#$ sponges, no more nonstop wound-sucking machine, etc. One machine removed... One machine to go! And if all of that is not enough great stuff... this was our valentine's sunset...

Another tough winter day

After a kickin masters swim workout in 70 degree weather today & some time with John on the beach... I came home to the below headline. No complaints from us in San Diego.

49 States Dusted With Snow; Hawaii's the Holdout

ASSOCIATED PRESS, February 12, 2010: There was snow on the ground in 49 states Friday. Hawaii was the holdout. It was the United States of Snow, thanks to an unusual combination of weather patterns that dusted the U.S., including the skyscrapers of Dallas, the peach trees of Atlanta and the Florida Panhandle.

Sexual Healing... is good for me

I always did love that song... now I'll always have such special memories when it plays. Not sure if I'm bringing levity to John's day. Or not. Maybe not.

Pilgrimage to Mecca

When it comes to John's recovery, we're takin whateva we can get!

Flea market find

Our latest flea market find. She has a contemplative quality that sort of grew on us...

The Wound Vacuum

Warning: this post is going to be pretty ugly. Literally. We decided to track the healing progress over the 6+ weeks. Yes, it's raw... but it's a fascinating up-close look at how the body heals. We're typically sewn up after surgery, and we don't get to observe what's going on in there. So.... here it is.

They surgically removed a big chunk of inflected flesh out of John's left hip -- about the size of a smallish lemon -- leaving the wound open to monitor the infection. It will heal from the inside out.
This photo is one week after surgery...
that ridge you see along the inside edge is new growth in just one week's time. The day after surgery, this wound was completely scooped out -- a clean hole. That first week's growth was amazing.

They stuffed the wound with sponge to soak up all the fluid. A plastic tube sucks the fluid from the sponge into this portable machine attached to John... the "wound vacuum" (that's really the name).





















Every M/W/F a wound specialist comes to our house. She gives John lots of local pain meds. She pulls the old sponge out of his wound, cleans the wound, and stuffs a new sponge back in. The white one goes into the deep tunnels & the black one fills in the surface area.















When she's all done, she attaches the plastic tubing and seals up the wound.





When the wound-vac is turned on, it compresses, air-tight, and continually sucks 24-7.




Ummmm, can we give a little shout out to the pain meds!!! After viewing this, you may need some pain meds yourself! John's all about good drugs these days. Sorry if this was a bit much visually... but it's what we're living & breathing these days... our routine until March 15th.