Short weeks and stuff

I am now in the second of three short weeks, yippee.  Today I have been out buying 4th of July decorations for a client event I have organized......well actually it's just a breakfast thing for the team....this is what life back in the land of comms looks like.  I will take pics of the decos though as I found the whole thing entertaining to say the least!
The weekend ended up being pretty quiet, for a bunch of reasons, although I enjoyed it.  Pride is a bit hit or miss for me I think and this year, well, a miss - or perhaps it all just feels too familiar; thousands of folk drinking/drugging, dancing in the streets in various stages of undress and general untidiness.  Just didn't hit a nerve for me this year.  Instead I enjoyed some quiet pleasant time, particularly on Sunday when Irene, Michelle and I took Lotte walking on the beach then went shopping for furniture for the new house and then into Chinatown for a late lunch.  Chinatown was particularly blissful as all the tourists etc were watching the parade three blocks away.  It's a rare moment to be able to traverse the streets with ease.  I think Pride was also a miss for me this year as I am more into running, house buying, work, small more intimate fun times with friends.....daily life that doesn't really map to big dance parties.  Although no judgement on those that do, so much as recognizing I am ambivalent.
House continues to progress.  Lots and lots and lots of paper work involved.  Yay to having an accountant, yay to getting a mortgage with the Bank you actually belong to and yay to being able to sign docs online. Oh and yay to being able to afford it in an environment that does make it tough to access credit. Nothing is done until it is done but we are marching rapidly towards settlement date.  In the interim neither Irene nor I can quite believe that we are, it would seem, about to buy a house in San Francisco.
Work is making some changes with the team being restructured.  All okay for me.....apart from that thing about being comms girl again.....still I might get some other responsibilities too.
Katy has done her Ironman and it was very fun to watch her progress online (they post various stats as racers cross certain points in the course) and also to be able to visualize where she might be on the course.  She has also been sharing "tales of the road" and it always has me ponder how tough I might prove (or not) to be when I hit similar pain points on the journey to and ultimately through the ultra-marathon.

The things other people find amusing

Michelle and Irene are delighted by this shot......I am ignoring them but dutifully posting it for everyones amusement.......

Pride week, visitors and houses!

Okay been a little slack updating this week. unPC arrived safe and sound on Saturday and, after coffee at home we headed over to the Golden Gate Bridge so she could get the iconic Facebook shot.  Afterwards down to the Embarcadero to enjoy a seafood platter and some bubbles.  Most lovely to be sitting their enjoying the food rather than running past it!  She then had her Costco and Whole Foods experience, both a little overwhelming after a 12  hour flight. Sunday we drove to the outlet malls where unPC spent 6hrs acquiring shoes and clothing.  The place is huge, but at some point does induce burnout.  We then came home via Santa Cruz where we ate on the wharf and went on the wooden roller coaster.  Funny how familiar it is to me and now I can even recommend places for people to eat and play.
Back to work for me Monday with unPC going to my fav sports shop and wondering around the Mission.  Was lovely to come home to a home cooked meal.  Wednesday we had the builders inspection for the house.  Very detailed and took two hours but I feel like I know the place inside out now.  Only the second time I have seen her and I am still very delighted about the whole thing.  No show stoppers so we continue the process, including all that tedious information gathering for the bank.  Our account guy is nice so not complaining of course.
Today is Friday and I have had the day off.  It's been nice to putz around and do not much.  Michelle flys in tomorrow from LA to come play with us for Pride, should be a busy few days!!!!

House buying.........

So been a little busy this week.........buying a house!  Irene and I spotted a house a couple of weeks back (two flat standalone) and have been working with our agent and mortgage broker to put an offer in.  All happened over Wednesday/Thursday.  Offer has been accepted contingent on a builders inspection - which may happen today or early next week.  WOW, can't quite believe it.  It's actually been a relatively quick, painless process.  Much helped by our having a pre.approved number to work to and awesome real estate agents.  Bless America where about everything can be done online too.  Currently we are in escrow, if all goes well we settle mid-July.  The place is sweetas, I will live in the downstairs flat and Irene and Lotte upstairs.  We naturally gravitated to each space.  The place is all newly rennovated, although not all the aesthetic is to our liking, these things are not big in the scheme of house buying.  So hope I'm not jinxing anything by sharing too soon but I'm so excited about it all.  Too funny, Irene is on the East Coast at the moment so literally bought a house on her i-phone!  I ended up doing all the direct conversation with the agent and then would quickly check in with her, agree next steps and hit send.  Really worked quite efficiently and I think the agents were a little startled at how quickly we were prepared to act (particularly as we tried to beat out someone else planning to put in an offer!).  In the scheme of stressful there were about two fraught hours after we counter offered and a couple of days of feeling a little anxious prior to that.  But certainly not the drama it could have been. I will post photos later if I can pull them off the real estate site.
Note for the record: I spent more time test driving the mini than checking out this house before buying it.......consummerism creates the oddest priorities don't you think?

CDL Rocks!

CDL is totally gorgeous and not unlike Queenstown.


After Spokane we drive the short 45mins to CDL. After work Katy put her bike back together (see last post) and we then briefly visited a bike shop before driving the bike course. This involved me holding to phones navigating the map and reading the course turns. Course is beautiful but involves some tricky hills and turns.


Afterwards we randomly chose some place to eat called "Raw Dead Fish", which was yum!
Saturday Katy headed out on her ride and I went to the gym.


Did a short treadmill in anticipation of Katy coming back and heading out on a six miler.
Afterwards I had booked us massages (this as a thank you to Katy as she used points for our flights and accommodation). The spa was gorgeous and we ended up hanging around for three hours.
Sunday morning up mega early for Katy to brave the frigid lake. She's out there somewhere.


Changing in the carpark we then headed out to run 13miles. The CDL ironman is 26.2, an out and back course so we ran one loop.


Incredibly beautiful with stunning views at every turn.


Finishing was a lovely relief and we visited the local moose.



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Location:E Lakeside Ave,Coeur d'Alene,United States

Why I don't do ironmans

Reason one: breaking down bikes to stow in boxes:



Reason two: that then have to be rebuilt:



Reason three: involving at least some swearing as you realize the TSA searched the box and you have to remember how the damn thing fits together, even if you are smiling through it all:



Followed by googling how the derailer Thingy works (my interpretation).
Cap, shirt, barter bullets and I'm ready to go....

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Location:N Beebe Blvd,Coeur d'Alene,United States

nzalien on the move

I am sitting in a hotel in Spokane in Washington state. As far as I can tell Spokane is a truck stop! Which may well be unfair as we got in around midnight last night and are staying near the airport. We are both working remotely and will drive the 45mins to Coeur d'Alene at midday....this will have me visiting Idaho for the first time! Random point of interest for Spokane - claims to be some kind of ice skating capital having hosted several world champs, or at least that's what the very large display cabinet at the airport said.


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Location:W Hwy 2,Spokane,United States

Trying something new

This is a little experiment. I found an i-phone app that lets me post to the blog from my phone. I'm checking to see if it works. Awesome if it does because it always kind of frustrates me when I can't share a photo or something immediately - now I can blog on the move.


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Nisene Marks Forest Santa Cruz Half Marathon

Got up mega early, as in 4:45a.m, to head down to Santa Cruz  for the Nisene Marks  Half Marathon.  The weather was t.e.r.r.i.b.l.e, bucketing down big time.  This was Marcia's first Half and the course was really gnarly (gutsy her to choose it for her first experience!  The course itself wound up 1100ft (335m) and was mostly single track, including little rivers cascading down the hill as the rain was relentless.  Puddles were inches deep and often required some very artful leaping or a total commitment to plunging in (seemed that was Marcia's preferred method.....I was a little more conservative.....wimpy you might say).  That said, it was also gorgeous with moss covered trees and the smell of damp forest.  At times it  was eerie as we ran through the mist and looked for the markers so we didn't stray onto the wrong trail.  We met up with Andreana, Joan and Lourdes afterwards and headed to the local bar for food and drink (good me though, not drinking, being good, enjoying my steak sandwich and soda with lemon!).  Shot on the left Marcia and I before we headed out and on the right as we headed to the finish.  Below, Roadrunner gets his first taste of a trail run in the rain!

Working from home

The client has had an offsite for the last two days so it's been blissful working from home!
Last night I went out for an 8miler and tried out my new toy - love her!  She tracks precisely and is easy to read on the run, all the info downloaded easily and, even better, the program creates an actual map of where I ran so I can save it and compare my times each time I run it....these are the things I care about.
Today this book arrived in the post, it's made me very happy and I am already about a quarter of the way through it.  Very informative and a great buy.
Picture on the right is what we woke up to last week - a giant Aids ribbon on Twin Peaks.  It's a an Aids memorial marking 30 years since Aids was first recognized.  It's very impressive and, given how far Twin Peaks is away it's also very large.

Just for giggles I've added a pic of Monica (one of the consultants I work with).  I'm sure she wouldn't be overly delighted that I've posted it but I can't resist.  She's wearing one of the St Patrick day hats one of the other vendors was handing out.  She spontaneously put it on so I couldn't resist the pic.  She's one of those people who initially come across as very quiet then her humour rolls out.  And I gotta say she's one of the smartest people I've ever met.....I figure she could do anything she puts her mind to.  We've made a great team as we have complimentary skills in alot of ways (she's like a rat up a drain pipe with detail!).  Between Katy and my chattering about training we've managed to lure her into running....although she's tiny, I'll have to encourage her to eat more or she might fall over!

Also included a cute pic of Lotte, this an example of the very sad little depressed girl when Irene leaves her at home.......well it's either this or lounging on my bed in the sun....this was particularly cute though as she wandered into the lounge leapt upon the couch and just propped her head on the couch to gaze out the window.
Back in the office tomorrow, Friday- bunch of meetings but also bagel day (Tuesdays are fruit day) when bagels and the various condiments spontaneously arrive in the office.
Saturday cruising down to Santa Cruz to run a half - given I ran 18 last Sunday I figure I'm good for it.  Although it's a trail run so different type of running so not being smart alec about it so much as know I can do it - gone are the days when a half terrified me, whole new terrors to be explored.
Oh and the run on Sunday was totally lovely, tough but lovely.  I got to Sausilito to discover that, despite my having traversed half the city and crossed the bridge the town center was 14miles, so I had to keep running the extra four or face telling Katy I didn't do what I said I would.  Being in integrity can be a total arse sometimes.  I caught the ferry back and had a lovely chat with a Canadian family, lots of laughs about accents etc and, would you believe, their adult daughter had spent 10 days in New Zealand!