Big Sis is already here; Little Sis flies in Wednesday; and I'll be driving up to The Aged's after work Thursday (I've taken Friday, Monday and Tuesday off work). It gives me a bit of a strange week. As far as work is concerned, it's a four-day week, but as far as home is concerned, it's a three day (or evening) week.

The occasion for this near-unprecedented family reunion is The Aged's 80th birthday and a family party on Saturday. This is already causing nightmares - sending invitations, chasing up people who didn't respond, working out a seating plan. But I think all that side of things is done now. The Aged even agreed with the first draft of the seating plan.

There's a bit of a battle going on over the menu. The Aged wants a set menu; Sprog and I have pointed out that this doesn't allow for dietary needs and personal preferences, so a buffet would be better. But The Aged has a bee in his bonnet about people having to queue to get their food. In the end, I suspect The Aged may have won as Sprog has been away for the weekend so he'll have been able to go to the venue and order the food with no one around to stop him.

I've created a montage of various photos to display. How difficult can it be? Find some photos, print them out, stick on a board (my original intention wasn't to bother with a board but Sprog insisted we used one. First challenge: find a display board). It took a few hours (and several gallons of printer ink) to select, crop, resize and print the photos until I eventually had versions ready to laminate. Then the laminator ate my work. OK, how about photo paper. Hmm ... not a good result. The high quality of the print highlighted the low quality of the photos. Maybe I should have used "normal" rather than "best" print quality. Back to plan A. I bought a new laminator, laminated the sheets, cut out the photos and then spent a patient couple of hours sticking them to the board with photo corners (I didn't know you could still buy photo corners). But I'm not showing my sisters until the party, as they will want changes and I've spent so long on producing it, I'm not doing any changes.

Then we had the problem of what to get him for a present. The original idea was for us to club together and get him one decent present between us (advantage from my side is that they do the shopping). But what do you get an 80-year old who already has pretty much everything he is ever likely to need? I suggested a hotel voucher or similar, and we were all set on that until Sprog decided we should get something just for him, rather than something he would share. Then she announces that she can't afford to pitch in as much as we originally intended because she had to pay for an air fare and take unpaid leave and blah blah blah. I would have more sympathy had she not spent a few hundred pounds on a stopover in Dubai; a few hundred more on a trip to Dublin; and generally been spending money as if it's going out of fashion.

Here's an example of my sister's spendthrift ways. She bought an expensive set of suitcases last week. I can't see the point of travelling halfway round the world to buy something you can get at home, but apparently they are cheaper here. What she hadn't taken into account was the cost of getting them home, which probably costs as much as the saving made.

Yes, I know what you're thinking. Why doesn't she just use the new cases to take her luggage back to NZ and leave the ones she came with behind? Well, apparently she needs ALL the suitcases. Yeah, I don't get it either. Why would anyone need more suitcases than they can possibly carry?

I completed my third proper road race at the weekend. This was only five miles, so a bit shorter than previous ones. The course was described as "flat/undulating" which doesn't make a whole lot of sense until you run it and find that it means downhill for a mile and a half; flat for two miles; then uphill for a mile and a half. But I finished in a reasonable time (42:41) and position (196 out of 523).

The end was a bit like queuing at Disneyworld - you can see the goal and think you are almost there, then there are turns and zigzags that make the distance further than you thought, ultimately running three-quarters of the way round the outside of the stadium and then three-quarters round the inside of the stadium.