my new cast (aka "nice toes" by your friendly neighborhood toe fetishist

my new cast (aka "nice toes" by your friendly neighborhood toe fetishist), originally uploaded by ashleyv.

This photo has been getting an outrageously high number of views (255 views as of 06/22/07), and now I know why. Sigh. Sometimes, interwebs, I just don't get you. Or I do, and you freak me out a little.

it's design week on AVTV!

Tonight, after meeting other designers for drinks at House of Shields, we're going to go see Helvetica. I am very geeked about this - I tried to go see it at SXSWi, but the theatre filled up way too fast. They could have had 2 other showings at the same time and still not handled everyone in line.

Last night, we joined BayCHI and went to the meeting/speaker series. Christina Wodtke (IA expert, founder of boxes and arrows, eleganthack fame, etc.) gave a presentation about Going from Designer to Founder that was very entertaining and enlightening.

Tomorrow night, it's either SFlickr or a class at TechShop, we haven't decided. One of the things that was so appealing about SF was the flickr community here, and we've been here a YEAR and have yet to make a meeting. By Thursday we're both so tired. But we're determined to fix that.

Friday I get my cast off, which has nothing to do with design, but THANK YOU JEEBUS!!! I'm at the point where I don't think I can take another minute of it. And JR offering to saw it off himself isn't really helping.

So that's this week in a nutshell. I have so much back-blogging and back-flickring to do... So you'll be getting a little traveling back in time for a while. You'll take it, and like it!

also fractured! (my ankle)

Well, I'm glad I followed the advice of Dr. RickB (my coworker) today and went for x-rays, because what I hoped was just a really bad sprained ankle is actually a fracture. With a nice chip of bone broken off to boot. :(

I've got a temporary fiberglass splint on now and I'm supposed to keep it elevated and not put any weight on it. I also have good pain meds. And a dawning re-realization that I'm really bad on crutches. These things in combination make for a dangerous flight of stairs to and from our house.

So for my safety and yours, I'll be working from home on Tuesday, as this equation shows:
naturally bad balance + crutches + yummy pain meds != safe combination.

badly sprained, episode #73

I have sprained my ankle, again, and it's sprained very badly, again. And it was due to these damn SF sidewalks, AGAIN.

Saturday was gorgeous, and we were on our way to the park with Winston. We had blankets to lay on, and beer, and my camera. Halfway there I stepped on the edge of a newly carved hole that the Noe Valley Neighborhood Association has been cutting out to plant trees. But these holes are in the sidewalk, and lots of them aren't filled to the brim with dirt. As we know, if I step on an edge it's a disaster. My ankle rolled out, and I came down with my full weight on the side of my ankle. I felt and heard a snap. I really thought I'd broken my ankle. I went down, fully face down, and I think I actually might have slid a few inches. I was fortunate not to end up with road rash on my face.

A very nice postman dragged a chair over for me, he and JR helped me into it, and then JR ran home and got the truck and picked me up. Here's the drawback to SF: a gazillion steep steps up to your own front door. I had to drag my ass up the stairs because I couldn't hop up, and JR definitely couldn't carry me, as I'm not down to my "fighting weight" yet.

So I spent the entire weekend laid up in bed with my ankle elevated, icing it for the first 12 hours. I can't even put weight on it without excruciating pain. And oh, the goose-egg it became! We finally found crutches this morning, so I'm at work, and I'm barely able to manage the crutches. Even though I do this a lot, it's been a long time since I used crutches. And I was thinner then. Bonus: every step pulls my shirt up further, so I have to keep stopping to pull my shirt back down.

Ah... The Life and Times of Ashley the Klutz. Good stuff.

Update: Not just badly sprained, but also fractured. Even chipped a little bit of bone out as a special bonus. It just gets better and better!