Days to go and Rose has landed!

Counting down single digit days now......wow!  A lot of logistics involved in this thing.  Fly out of SFO late Thursday night, land NY 7am Friday.  Got to go to the expo and pick up my race packet (number, timing chip, teeshirt....and whatever goodies are included).  Also got to go to the Team for Kids desk and confirm my ride to the race start - special bus leaving at 630am from Manhatten.  They have a TFKs tent we can hang out in then we go to our start corrals.  I'm not due to start running until 10:10am.  There are three waves with a bunch of corrals.  TFKs have cheering stations along the way so going to see if I can get Rose into one of them so we are at least guaranteed to see each other once on the run.  My butt is finally coming right - ouch, that was quite a moment!
Post NY we fly to Dublin for four days then back to London overnight.  Because of the way my flights work I am go to stay at the airport in this cool little Yotel.  Tiny little PODs which suit me perfectly and they do have a bathroom.

Rose arrived Friday - yippee, lovely to see her.  Friday night we headed to the local Japanese restaurant and had a mega feast.  Photo on right shows the very impressive sashimi dish we ordered, complete with dried ice....made for quite and impressive feast.
Also had her shopping at Cosco for party goodies (this is a mega mega sized warehouse type place, everything comes in supersize).  Saturday we went dog walking with Irene and her pal Julia, beautiful dog park on the coast, little bit of wandering around the Mission (including Mexican food) and then parrrrrtay.  It was fab!  Around 30 people showed in the end and the whole thing just took off.  Some were meant to head off to other places and they just stayed around.  It was a very eclectic mix of folk so could have gone either way I guess.  As it turned out, went our way and there were lots of laughs and chatting.  House now totally warmed.  Sent Rose off to Santa Cruz with Michelle and Marcia so she could see the ole hometown.  She arrived back today and has dutifully headed off to the gym.  I've had to work throughout but still getting some nice time together.

My very cool artwork is now in residence and looks very fine hanging above my bed.  Love my room, this completes it.
Also got a little extra added bonus gift on the right, so little tastes of kiwi have landed (well not to mention all the kiwi lollies now sitting in my cupboard!).