Decisions, decisions....

Well, arse biscuits.  I guess it was inevitable, really, wasn't it?  Thanks to the generosity of my latest star donors, Kellie, Karole, Barri, Candy and Lori, I am duty bound to report that I have now officially smashed through my supposed-to-have-been-unobtainable-so-I-dont-have-to-do-another-forfeit target of $3500.   As of writing, the exact total stands at $3603, so a HUGE thank you to my latest donors and everyone who has already contributed so far!  It really is quite incredible, so thanks for making my first ever fundraising experience such a wonderfully successful one.  Lori - your donation was the one that put me over the top so, like Daniel and Sam, you will also be the "lucky" recipient of a fabulous keepsake, once this whole nightmarish ordeal... sorry... fabulous running experience is over.

BUT WAIT!  Its not too late to donate, dearest blogwatchers!!  In true, annoyingly competitive fashion, I am now raising the stakes for the last time and increasing my target to $5000.  It feels terribly un-British to keep doing this, but there you are.  Must be the A-mur-ican part of me coming to the fore.  I know there are several of you out there who would like to donate and haven't yet gotten round to it - so there's still time and a new incentive!  I'm also now invested in trying to stay on top of my company's fundraising leaderboard, so you'll not only be helping a very worthwhile charitable cause but you'll be helping maintain my exceptionally fragile ego.

Here's the link: http://online.ccfa.org/goto/Sholloway

Before we get down to the business of selecting my $3500 forfeit, a quick update on what I've been up to this week.  Its been another busy one - I've been away all week on a work trip, and just got home from Boston, after having first spent 4 days in Washington DC.   I left Chicago on Saturday evening after what was a spectacularly disappointing Dessert Fest.  Earlier on in the day I'd run SEVEN miles in ridiculous humidity and 70 degree heat (even at 7am) for my group training, so gorging on sugar and champagne was to have been my reward.   It was Simply Dreadful.

It was held in this barn of a sports bar (the type of place you should never go to during daylight hours lest you see just how much of a bio-hazard all the soft furnishings really are) so perhaps that should have been the first clue this was not going to be the high quality event that I was expecting.  Rather than the smorgasbord of delicate artisanal patisserie offerings I was expecting from local bakers and cake makers, instead the desserts were mainly produced by the crap bar themselves and were basically various inedible lumps of synthetic crap.  Sarah, Cochon 555 this was not!  I think there was one dessert offering that was mildly tasty (a lemon tart thing) but everything else was bad, bad, bad.  And, to add insult to injury, we didn't get the free glass of champagne that was supposed to be included in the ticket price either!

So we stayed for about half an hour then left in disgust and headed off to find proper sustenance (and alcohol) at a riverside cafe instead.  By this stage it was about 1pm in the afternoon and roastingly hot and I discovered that poor-quality sugar and too much sun are not the ideal way to recover from a 7 mile run, so after a vague attempt to eat a burger, I excused myself for a bit of a lie-down before heading to the airport.

First stop was Washington, DC (again - I was only there last month) - this time for the Digestive Disease Week conference.  Its the premier gastroenterology conference of the year, so it was great to go and learn lots of stuff.  Best new phrase of the week: biliary sludge.  Even better was the chance to connect with colleagues and just hang out, getting to know people outside of the office.  Our group at work is now so small, I sometimes don't see many people during the day, so it felt really nice to be back as part of a bigger team.

Its THE statue from THE rolling boulder scene from
Raiders of the Lost Ark!

I didn't have much time to spare while I was there but I did manage to go for a 3 mile training run (DC is armpit drenchingly humid - it was like running in a tumble dryer again!) and, just before heading off to Boston, a quick hour's trip round the National Geographic Exhibition.  It was a pretty small exhibit but what it lacked in size it made up for in unexpected awesomeness as one of the exhibits featured none other than my childhood hero, Indiana Jones!!  It was a tie-up of props and clips from the film, alongside genuine artifacts and treasures and it made for a very fun hour reminiscing! (along with the original Star Wars films, the first three Indy films made up a huge part of my childhood - amazingly, its part of it that I can actually remember!).

Here are a few pics from my favorite parts of the exhibit - as I write this, I just plugged "Indiana Jones" into my Pandora station and am now listening to the Grimethorpe Colliery Band play the James Bond theme tune, so I'm having a lovely nostalgic time here...

The original sketch laying out the boulder dodging scene

OMG! I found it!  The lost Ark of the Covenant!

The Headpiece of the Staff of Rah

Costume from Temple of Doom  - as expected,
she was pretty tiny!

Scary stones from Temple of Doom - keep hold of your hearts!

I chose my exhibition.... wisely

Me and my new boyfriend.
He doesn't say much.  The perfect man....

So, all Indy'ed out, it was time to make like a rolling boulder and run for the airport for my short flight to Boston.  This was for another work meeting and again, it was a great opportunity meet with new people and make new friends.  We had a work dinner on the Weds night where I actually received a recognition award from the rest of the group which was completely unexpected and made me blush deeply!  I was very touched.

Another thing that made me blush deeply was the acute embarrassment of having forgotten to tell the management company of the new place I'm renting that I'd reactivated the alarm system in the property.  I'd remembered to tell my new cat-sitters (I have my priorities straight) but it had totally slipped my mind to tell the maintenance guy who was coming on Thursday to fix my front door bell.  Well, at least I now know the notification system works.  Because I was in work meetings, my phone was on silent so i didn't immediately see the phone calls and notifications that were flooding my phone with an alert that the front door had been opened.  Of course, as soon as I did, I deactivated the alarm system via the app on my phone (which is pretty snazzy) and phoned the management company to sheepishly apologize and to give them the code.  I'm not sure if the police actually turned up or not but at least its now been given a full-on test run.  Doh!

While in Boston, I also managed to fit in another training session - my schedule has me running 3 miles three times this week in advance of our Saturday morning group run of EIGHT miles!  (count'em!  EIGHT I TELL YOU!)  As a sign of my dedication to the cause, I'd brought all my running gear with me on this trip so had to check in a bag for a change (when you travel as much as I do, this is a big deal - frequent business travelers take a perverse pride in seeing just how many days they can be away on a trip with just an overnight sized bag - my personal record is 8 days - this is one of the reasons I always wear dresses to work!).  I was supposed to run on both Weds and Thurs, but messed up my alarm clock on Weds, so in the end I only ran on Thursday.  There was a lovely trail running right alongside the Charles River that makes for a very scenic outing - or at least would have if i'dve been able to find it!  It was only a block or so from the hotel, but I completely failed to find it instead ending up running round multiple building sites, which gave my workout a rather more exciting dynamic.

Anyway, so that was my week.  I got back late Friday evening and just enough time to say hi to the boys, climb into bed and sleep badly, before it was time for my longest ever run.  Each week now we are in new territories - i'm rationalizing it now by comparing it to the week before and telling myself "well, its only one more mile than i did last week, and I survived that OK".  So this week was 8 miles - again down by the lakefront.  Unlike last week, though, it was not as humid this time so that helped enormously.  It was only me and coach Bill this week (not sure where Katie and the other lady were) so absolutely no chance for slacking off during the run!!  Well, I'm amazed to say - it was actually OK!  I think it helped enormously that Bill chatted to me most of the way round, which kept my mind off the fact that my body was engaged in the heinous act of running and I am still quite amazed with the fact I can actually do this, given where I started from only 8 weeks ago.  Perhaps next week will be the killer (its NINE miles next week) and i'll get to 8.5miles and then just keel over.  (hopefully not, though - its almost Machu Picchu time, so an untimely death now would be really rather inconvenient.

So, to business.

As it stands, here's the deal.  Here are the list of forfeits that you evil-minded individuals have brewed up for the $3500 target.  What you now get to vote on is the method of selection.  I thought it was high time we brought back a couple of our favorites for decision-making: yes, you get to pick whether you want to place my fate into the hands of the Wheel of Fur-tune, The Kitchen Appliance Unholy Alliance or our old friend, the Potato of Destiny and Despair!   If you remember, the P of Double D is now enjoying life as an ex-pot on the sunny island of Cyprus with Loopy and the gang, occasionally being brought out of retirement to referee International Duck Days.  Loops - perhaps you can talk to the P of Double D and see if you can convince him to fulfill this one last civic duty?

(For those of you unfamiliar with these highly-scientific selection methods, here's a refresher:
Wheel of Fur-tune:http://sazzinthecity.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-wheel-of-fur-tune-has-spoken.html
Blender Action: http://sazzinthecity.blogspot.com/2012/09/a-kitchen-appliance-unholy-alliance.html
P of Double D: http://sazzinthecity.blogspot.com/2012/10/u.html (yes, I really did become a US citizen because of a forfeit picked out of a Mr Potato Head)

So, dearest blogwatchers, you get to choose which of the 3 selection methods will be used to pick one of the forfeits below.  You have til next Saturday (when I go on vacation for 2 weeks) to state your preference.  Assuming a safe return from Machu Picchu, i will then Get Right On It on my return.

• Learn how to waltz - and then post a film of myself dancing as proof I did it
• Do a tandem skydive
• Record a CD, filled with requests from my donors.  If you've donated, you get to pick a song for me to sing.
• Do the Korean girls cockroach challenge - but replace the cockroach with a Malteser

And FINALLY, "what's the forfeit if you hit $5000?" I hear you cry.  Well, to open up those purse strings again, it would have to be a biggie.  Daniel, lets just say I'm seriously considering your latest suggestion.....