Righty ho! Very behind on this. But, we’ve been busy socialising, and the only times I turned on the computer since Friday were to type in story ideas when Teresa and I were brainstorming for some anthos, and to download e-mail this morning. I’ve been reading and answering it in the airport and now on the flight from Boston to Denver. It’s down to a dull roar.

Let’s see. Friday we drove down to Teresa and Jeff’s. Ken’s tooth had been hurting him a lot and his face was starting to swell, so I called ahead and asked Teresa to call and see if any emergency dentists were available that night or early Saturday. We hit a little traffic, but nothing bad. Got there, many hugs and much excitement. She was having trouble getting any dentists to answer, even ones that said they handled emergencies. She left Ken’s cell # with some of them, and then we all went out to dinner, picking up her mom and her mom’s friend on the way. We went to a nice Italian restaurant, and I had calamari to start and ravioli with cheese and spinach in a cream sauce as a main; Ken had lamb with risotto; and we all drank nice wine and chatted. Back at the house, we were up far too late talking to T&J, plus Suzy & Finn and Leslie & Sean, who were also spending the night.

Saturday we got up stupidly early because a dentist was able to see Ken at 8 a.m. The upshoot is that his root canal, which was first done in Britain, failed, and was redone in Irvine in February, has failed again. Very annoying. But they prescribed good painkillers and antibiotics. He slept the rest of the morning, until we had to get ready for T&J’s handfasting, and the swelling was down by Sunday night. He’s feeling fine now and has an appointment scheduled for Monday.

T&J’s handfasting was lovely. I called South/Fire, which was strange for me because I call quarters differently and equate East with Fire. But I figured I could deal. When I put my hand up and started calling, my palm got hot. so I obviously did something right! Afterwards, not everyone grounded (although I did) and I ended up with way too much energy. First I got food because I was starving, then went upstairs to change into something cooler (it was extremely hot and muggy, and I was in my purple t-tunic). Ken came up to help me, and let’s just say that it was quite some time before we made it back downstairs. [wicked smile] I wore a long, black lace skirt and a black lace tanktop with hooks-and-eyes down the front, and got many compliments. I also managed to put my hair up in such a way that it looked good, not haphazard and silly.

We’ve started our descent; more updating soon.

Now we’re on the plane from Denver to Orange County. Ken tried to get a direct flight to Portland but the only one that had space would have gotten him in after he would arrive by flying to OC first. He said he would have taken it anyway but for me, so we could fly together. He is a wonder to me.

Sunday we lounged for most of the day, as the other houseguests were still there until late afternoon. Eventually we all managed to shower and get out of the house, whereupon we shopped for food in preparation for Return of Lobzilla. We returned home and Teresa and I started talking writing, especially about one of our nearly finished collaborations and ideas for future ones. We came up with two story ideas that we plan to write jointly, and then two that we’re writing separately. It’s such a joy working with another writer, bouncing ideas, etc. There’s an energy you just can’t get when you’re alone, and I’m amazed at the ideas I come up with during that energy.

Dinner was rare steak, lobster, a salad that I made, and bread. Major yumminess. Ken was sweet enough to crack the tail for me; I hate having to fight for my food, which is why I never order crab legs. Afterwards, we lounged and had a lovely evening of the four of us enjoying each other’s company.

Monday morning, Ken and I slept in (bliss! we hadn’t slept well the previous four nights), and leisurely got ourselves showered and dressed and packed. He dealt with a bunch of work stuff (phone calls, pages, downloading e-mail), and I dl’d e-mail and read some of it while waiting for him. We left after noon sometime, had pizza for lunch, and headed north to Salem.

I wasn’t sure what to expect in Salem, and I was pleasantly surprised. We did the “Salem Witchcraft Experience” or some such, which was a little hokey, but given that it’s for all ages, it wasn’t bad. I guess the only thing that’s really weird is that the women are still called “witches” even though they’ve all been officially recognised as innocent. But that’s what brings in the tourists. The static display was nice, with three tableaus: a Celtic pagan, a Hollywood witch, and a modern pagan couple (the voiceover claimed that they dressed normally except for rituals and what they were wearing were their ritual clothes, which were [shudder] crushed velvet, but other than that…). There was also a wall display showing how hysteria and fear leads to persecution, which I liked. Bring it full circle, and make it clear that paganism is an accepted religion.

We wandered around a bit, saw the cemetery where many of the women (and men) were buried, and poked our head into some of the shops. There was an Renaissance/goth/fantasy clothing shop, and basically it made me want to make some clothes like that, for fun and parties. I’ve got a bunch of purple stretch velvet that someone gave me; I ought to do something with it! I ended up buy a pair of white socks with black cats on them, and a mug. Both things seemed more useful than Yet Another T-Shirt.

We also saw the coolest house! It looked like an old church (and probably was) and was painted entirely black, with the windows blacked out. We drove by it and had to park and go back to see it. There were gargoyles out front and faux chains across the front doors, and a small plaque that said, “It’s not a church. Get over it.” And a hearse outside with a University of Transylvania sticker. This isn’t our thing per se, but I really respect the people for going all out and having fun and believing so strongly in who they are and what they want. Very silly.

After that, we drove back south, crawled through the tunnel under Boston during rush hour, and got to Mitch and Ray’s at about 6:30, I think. They have a gorgeous apartment, one floor of a three-story Victorian dated 1900. They’ve done a beautiful job with it, repainting and refinishing and furnishing it with antiques, yet they’ve got updated/modern touches as well. They had the table set and fed us lots of extremely yummy homemade pad thai and two kinds of wine. Afterwards, we sat out on the back porch and had more drinks and just talked until 10:30 or so. Mitch seems really happy and content, and is more relaxed than I’ve ever seen him, which is just wonderful. He and Ray are good together.

And that brings us to today. Mitch made waffles with fruit for Ken, and I ate leftover pad thai (yum!), and then we headed out. We barely hit any traffic, so we were nice and early to the airport. We sat in the waiting area and I plugged in the laptop and finished off e-mail (there’s a pile of stuff in the In Box that I need to deal with—look up something or whatnot, and a few drafts to answer, but that’s about it). And that’s that.

We get in before 4 p.m. local time, and I’ll see Ken off before heading home. I need to pick up some groceries, and then I can unpack and relax a bit. I’d like to exercise, to get back in the groove, and definitely do some writing. I want to finish “Ellipse” (which will probably end up being called “The Final Magic of Katherine Mullett O’Banyon”, but “Ellipse” is shorter to type here [g]) for Spinners, even though I’ll probably mail it to everyone next week, so that Ken can photocopy it at work. It’s weird, though. It doesn’t feel like a Tuesday, and I don’t really have a concept of how many days are left in this week. Hard to explain.