Settling in

I love love love my new house - she is totally perfect for me, very manageable in size and I am loving bringing her altogether.  I am even slightly surprised that I seem to have developed my own aesthetic and have at least some vision for each of the rooms.  I will share photos when I am done!  Irene is helping of course as she now has a sense of what I like so sends me cool options for furniture......note too that one of the rooms has been christened the "cocaine room".....which will become clearer when photos get posted!
Work is changing, again, as we expand the team.  Crazy Ironman Girl is rolling off (that is what we call it when someone is leaving the project), which is hugely sad for me as she is my running buddy.  I am hoping we stay in touch as she isn't leaving the firm but it won't be the same.  Another manager I worked with at Cisco has joined us as the team has been restructured.  I now have communications and one component of business readiness planning (which I know is meaningless to about everyone reading this!).  But it means I have the two comms resources and two others (including Monica, yay - I so wanted to keep Monica as she is great to work with and we totally get one another.....).  I don't yet know how I feel about all the changes.  It is definitely different and I am being invited into increasing levels of management (yay, I have been patient, learning the ropes but really hanker to step into more).  We shall see.
Now the house is settled and I don't have to justify every dime to the bank that comes in and out of my account I can really get to planning Berlin!  Mum is coming over and we will both fly to Berlin and spend a week post marathon checking it all out.  Mum will then head to Karen and Brice for a few weeks.  I am so looking forward to the whole adventure, including running the marathon and then being able to look around Berlin.
I have planned part of my trip back to NZ (although no tickets booked yet).  Will be there for Xmas and New Year.  Difficult time to visit given everyones family commitment but have managed to pull together a couple of grand adventures.  Will be lovely to spend Xmas in Napier with the family and Irene is coming over after visiting her sister who lives in Australia.  Irene's first time to NZ and my first time hosting someone from the US in NZ, so really looking forward to seeing it all through someone else's eyes.
This weekend is the San Fran Half Marathon......early start at 5am.....yikes.  All good though and going to be a great fun as it's on a (now) very familiar route.  Now I feel more casual about these things I'll take my phone and take some photos along the way!
Now I have been told posts with no photos are boring I've included a sweet shot of Lotte and I!