T minus 79 days

It is done.

The Beary Scary Hairy Swimsuit has been ordered.

Now, as each one is "custom made - hand printed and constructed to order", delivery will take at least 4-6 weeks.  Now that I have actually lost the "bet" and am having to give some thought to the horror that will be me, posing in public in a swimsuit - here's the deal.

You only get to see me in the swimsuit AFTER i've completed the half marathon.  You see, there is still a good chance I won't actually survive 13.1 miles of slogging round the Napa hills in July (yes - dammit - i forgot there were bloody hills in Napa), so I'm not going to put myself through the humiliation of Bearmaggedon until I know I really, really have to.  Also, I need several months to regrow a winter's length worth of leg hair to complete the look.  That amount of foliage doesn't just sprout up overnight you know.

So - mark your calendars, blog watchers.  I can now announce that D-Day for the Photo Shoot Of The Century will be during my first swimming lesson AFTER the half marathon - specifically Thursday 23rd July 2015.

Its going to be epic.

*sigh*

Well, then.  What now?

Seeing as you guys blasted through my original goal of double my sponsorship target, from $1000 to $2000, I figured it was probably worth setting you all a new challenge.  One you couldn't possibly hit.  And so it was that, on Monday, I publicly set myself a new fundraising target - this time raising my target from $2000 to $3500!!!   I mean - that's just bonkers!!  I haven't even yet come up with a consequence/forfeit/task that I can dangle in front of you all as an incentive - a few have crossed my mind (parachute jump out of an airplane, for example or take a weekend survival course, learning how to make fire out of spiders (you rub their legs together very quickly) and tea out of leaves (shouldn't be too difficult if you think about it)), but nothing has quite stuck yet.  I'm sure the more evilly-minded of you out there (you know who you are) could come up with something spectacular should I meet this s...t....r....e....t...c...h... goal.

So, that's now my new target, as of Monday.  And I thought I should be fairly safe.

Well, arse.

You lot don't know when to quit, do you?

My last blog post and email update on Monday prompted a fresh round of incredibly generous giving that has made me feel very humble and grateful.  The Star Donors of the week so far (and its only TUESDAY!!) are Kirsten, Ashley, Sam G., Jeanny, Esin, Linda, Sam H and Ian.  You guys are amazing so THANK YOU for your support - I'm really just blown away.  Sam G. gets a special shout out as it was his asymmetrically generous donation of $101 that put me over the top and into the Bear Zone (please private message me on Facebook with a mailing address and I will send you your special "prize" - you lucky thing!).   For those of you blogwatchers that have yet to donate - there's still time to join this exclusive club!  Just click on this link and let your credit card work its (tax-deductible) charitable magic!  http://online.ccfa.org/goto/Sholloway

So then.  With that pre-amble, just how worried should I now be?  The answer is - actually, probably quite a bit.  Because my new total raised so far (with 83 days of fundraising still left to go) is.....

$2,826!!!!

That's a mere $674 USD or 439 GBP or 1,792 TRY or 614 EUR or $844 AUD or $811 CAD or 644 CHF shy of my supposedly crazy ass new target - and that suddenly doesn't seem out of the realms of possibility!!  So... thinking caps on, blogwatchers - what do you think should happen if I actually reach my goal of $3500??  Answers on an blog-comment-shaped postcard, please....

I'm off now to go sob quietly in a corner.