Sunday, July 31, 2011

SF Half Marathon done

Early start up at 4am - Irene drove me to the start line.



Still dark of course but the Bay Bridge looked fab.


Plenty of runners out there an glad to have been in an early wave, not so congested.


Finish line always a welcome sight.


Then time for the free Irish coffee.


All done by 8:30am.....what to do with the rest of the day?
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Friday, July 29, 2011

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!

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

New house busyness

Loving the new house! Although she is still a little empty she's perfectly peaceful and I am not missing the crazy of the Mission.



Moving day saw "visitors" next door and one of the local characters across the road arrested.  Loved Potrero - got my badge of honour "lived in the Mission".......
Sunday was Irene's birthday so got up and ran my 14miler (not so optimal as I missed breakfast....lesson in fueling up!).
Got home and a bunch of us headed over the Bridge to walk Mt Tam to celebrate the birthday girl.



It was steep and beautiful.



With mega views.











Got home latish tired but happy!


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Saturday, July 23, 2011

Move-in day




Organized, as only some with German genes can!


Celebration bubbles on our last night at Potrero.
New house back deck complete with "lap pool".


Big empty house....okay little empty house.








Need more furniture I am thinking....

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Friday, July 22, 2011

Woohoo house is ours!

Move in tomorrow - two flat property, me downstairs, Irene and Lotte upstairs!


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Thursday, July 21, 2011

Sunday's adventures

Okay so it's Thursday and I am only just posting this! Sunday, after a big day at the ultra, I headed out for what was meant to be a 19mile run. It did end up being 19 but a little stop start and trail road mix ..... Some great sights along the way.






Golden Gate from the "other side".







About to head on to the beach trail.







Bunch of stairways along the way.







Beautiful beach where I found the Sand Ladder that one of the Bootcamp courses uses for training!







This shot my fav as I explored the old gun batteries!






Last part of the run a little chaotic as I crossed GG and hit all the tourists, finally grinding to a halt along the Embarcadero.
Although interrupted I had a great 5hr adventure....taking on a little less of the roadrunners drive to get the job done and replacing it with the trail runners "enjoy the journey".
PS house settles tomorrow!
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Monday, July 18, 2011

Big busy weekend

Woke up at 5am Saturday to head off to the Marin Headlands to help out at the 50 mile ultra and marathon.....awesome day.
This is, apparently the food of champions:



M&Ms, pretzels, pb&j sandwiches, beef jerky, gummy bears and more. All served in luxury of course:


On a cold misty day.




As runners came in we filled water bottles and offered encouraging words. People were unfailingly kind and thanked us for being there! Around 10am I got asked to go to the finish line to help out, against the back drop of a rugged surfing beach:








This was where I served up chili and chicken noodle soup, more food of champions and gave out teeshirts. Also watched the first runner come in in an incredible 6 hrs 59s:



Also looking like he was out for a stroll. Trainee Dr by day mega athlete always!
First woman 9hrs 24s:




I'd been chatting to her husband throughout the afternoon (he is from Bulgaria and won his greencard in the lottery too) with no idea his "running wife" was among the elite athletes!
Then there was this:



Can you see?



What's that?



There!
Day ended for me at 7pm...12hrs...course time limit 15hrs; I am totally inspired!



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Thursday, July 14, 2011

Unconditional.........

Yesterday we signed off the final contingency for the house (that would be financing!!!!) and.........well, it's a go!  House settles on Friday July 22nd, so maybe 6 weeks from when we started the process, which is kind of remarkable in this market.  Given the debarcle of the last few years getting finance is a little bit of a trial if you don't 100% stack up.  Stacking up isn't easy.......not only do you need a substantial deposit, but you have to be able to pay some pretty hefty processing fees AND (this is the kicker) demonstrate 12 months reserves i.e. cash/cash assets that is equal to one year of mortgage payments.  I have no idea how young families can buy a house these days!!!!!
Marathon training in full swing and work crazy busy......back soon!

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Running The Sahara Movie Trailer

I watched this last night......wow, kind of amazing.....well not kind of, totally amazing. I've just finished the book Running on Empty, which is about a 57 year old endurance runner running across America. One of the characters in this movie (Charlie) also features in the book. They (or rather he) has cleverly edited the movie so that you only get to see shades of just how obnoxious some folk can become faced with these types of challenges (he's a total jerk in the other story, almost sabotaging the whole expedition). Some bad behaviour aside, both stories are a testament to guts, good planning and dreaming big!

Fort Funston

At the dog walking beach!





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Location:Skyline Blvd,San Francisco,United States

Thursday, July 07, 2011

Scooter

Two nights ago Irene and I headed over the Bay Bridge to pick up her newly purchased scooter!



This made all the more "fun" as Irene had hired a U-Haul....



That didn't come with a ramp. Two 4/2s scavenged from a local yard and precariously placed side by side somehow resulted in a successful loading (note the boards to the right).



Even more startling (having had three of us loading in), Irene and I managed to heft 250lbs onto the same boards to successfully unload the scooter injury free!



Irene is now happily scooting around town.
House update - all on track....more soon.

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Monday, July 04, 2011

Mission to Sausalito

Gorgeous 14miler across the bridge. Up before the maddening crowds and arriving to a cute 'lil 4th of July parade.





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Location:Fishermans Wharf,San Francisco,United States

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

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.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

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.......

Friday, June 24, 2011

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!!!!

Friday, June 17, 2011

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?

Sunday, June 12, 2011

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