A weekend at the beach, what fun. We couldn't have picked a better weekend. I got a ride with Dianna in her van with Aurora riding shotgun. The Willamette valley was having its hottest weather of the summer. The drive to the coast on Friday was hot and miserable at least until we made it within throwing range of the ocean. Okay, it cooled down a tad bit before then, but not much!

Jay fed us all and fed us well. Dianna fed us well, too. She brought cobbler!

We critiqued three stories on Saturday and three stories on Sunday. I regretted not getting a story done for critique.

On Saturday morning, between breakfast and the first critique session, everyone went down to the beach to practice martial arts. David Moles had his swords for kendo and he looked striking (and a bit dangerous) in his uniform. Jenn and Greg each had their own MA skills to share. Unfortunately, I had to miss it because I was catching up on the reading and critiquing.

There were many conversations and true to my nature, I was quiet most of the time. Curse my introvertedness! However, in smaller groups and one on one I had fine conversations.

I snuck a moment of tango during a walk on the beach. I missed Ximena.

Jay, Damien, and David Levine left us on Sunday night. On Monday morning we all went to the R&R cafe, mostly because I talked about the bananna bread french toast incessantly.

During the weekend I did manage a mere moment of writing in my notebook--notes for the next novel. And on the drive home, Dianna played a tape of Sue Grafton speaking at a writing conference. That was good capper for the weekend--Grafton said a lot of good things.