Bus B3 Reunion

Aisling with fan

Last night, we had a reunion of the Bus B3 folks from our trip to China last year. We decided to do it right around Chinese New Year, it seemed like a good time to do it. As is normal around Chinese New Year in the Bay Area, the rain *poured* down, but even so, we had a great turnout, including people like Fengyi & Alex driving all the way from Davis. The food was great, Gordon dug into his chinese cooking book and made a delicious spicy eggplant dish, spicy noodles, curry crescents (yum), smoked chicken. We also had pork and chicken that Fengyi and Alex brought, along with a green bean cake, made slightly sweeter than normal by Fengyi for dessert. Siegrid also brought the obligatory watermelon. And lots of people brought wine! There were a lot of empty winebottles at the end of the night. Siegrid brought the Bus B3 photo, plus the Great Wall photo plus some prints of other photos to share. It was also a nice opportunity to meet family members who weren't on the tour, Dara, Zach and Aidan (who wasn't even born at the time!) and Malaika's boyfriend Eric.

We had a great time. More photos are posted on my flickr site. Click here to see them.

Chinese New Year Run

Helen at Chinese New Year Race

Today, Aisling and I did a 5K run in Chinatown in San Francisco. It was the annual Chinese New Year run. It's the year of the rat. We had to get up at an ungodly hour to get in to register before the 8 a.m. start. We registered, got our numbers and t-shirts, and were at the starting line on time, though. The t-shirts are very attractive. There were a lot of people, probably 3000 or so. It was really well organized, it got started on time, and the traffic control was great. The streets were open to cars on one side and runners on the other.

It was cold in San Francisco, the fog had not burned off, which is okay when you're running I guess. It's all on pavement, and there were a couple of hills. We tried the running some and then walking some to keep our pace where we wanted it. We both came in at about 32 minutes, which is a little slower than I'd like, but considering the hills and the crowd, which also slowed us down, so it wasn't bad. After the race, and some water and coffee, Aisling played at the Portsmouth Square playground for a while, and we were home before 10!

Dara's Wedding

Last week, or maybe the week before, Dara and Zach told us they were getting married. She's going to wear my dress from my wedding. I have a picture of her in it, but I don't want to put it on my blog because supposedly it's bad luck if Zach sees it or something. But here's her ring. It's very pretty. We're all very happy, Aidan included. No really, he doesn't actually know what the heck is going on! They've set a date for April 18th, and we've reserved the Rockefeller Lodge in San Pablo for the reception. It's very nice. So we're all aflutter, and in the throes of preparation. Dara printed the invitations today and should be getting them out in the mail soon. More updates to come!