I do hope I can get the Palm to hotsync when I get home, because otherwise any work I do here will be for naught. Or at least, annoying to transcribe. I've actually been wanting to write but been avoiding it because of the problem. Now I throw caution to the wind. Ha ha!

I'm at Meg & Matt's; been here since Thursday early afternoon. I made Caesar salad to go along with the T'giving dinner: turkey marinated in champagne, stuffing, potatoes, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, mixed veggies with wild rice, crescent rolls and honey butter... I think that was it. Muirenn, Eichling, and I got silly on wine. Beforehand, some of us were weaving, spinning, luceting, etc.; afterwards that continued, although I switched to beading the neverending cotehardie. (An end may be in sight, though! I'm on the last panel! I'd like to finish it for Twelfth Night, but no stress if I don't.)

Anyway. Dinner was Meg, Matt, and Julian, of course, Muirenn, Eichling, Eilidh, Kedrin, Charlie (from Seattle), and Colin (from Michigan). Lots of people, lots of fun. Ken called after we were finished, and it was really good to talk to him. After that, I confess I got a little maudlin, either because I missed him or I was coming down from the food-, wine-, and silliness-high.

I realised today (or maybe it was last night) that I needed some alone time. Too many people, not a lot of private space. Thursday night, I read in the bathroom for a little while because it was the only room in the house where I could turn on the light and not bother anyone. (I was sharing the study futon with Muirenn, who had already gone to bed.) There is also a second dog. Hobbes the Greyhound is a wonderful dog, but Kendrin's Scarlet is not. Big galumphy, slobbery, underfoot. Yesterday as Kedrin was making her annual awesome sushi, she kept feeding bits of fish to Scarlet. Finally she decided that was enough, and told Scarlet so. But a dog doesn't understand that, so Scarlet remained underfoot.

Grumpy ol' me, apparently.

Yesterday we hung out, mostly. I've been helping out by doing lots of dishes and kitchen cleaning. In the morning, we made a foray to the Northridge Mall. Yeah, on the busiest damn shopping day of the year. But Meg & Matt needed a new stove, and Charlie needed reading material for the train home, and some folks wanted to go to the Apple store. I tagged along instead of saying home and working, and I kind of regretted that. I mostly sat in Borders and read (a KKR story in AHMM, part of a Charles de Lint book, and part of a Robert B. Parker book).

Lots and lots of sushi for dinner last night, which was wonderful. Colin, Julian, Muirenn and I played Candyland. The second game degenerated into Speed Candyland. I literally "dealt" cards and Colin moved the pieces. (We all kept getting up to get more sushi or dessert, and Julian got distracted...) It was actually kinda fun. And the look on Julian's face--confused astonishment--was priceless.

Today a bunch of us went to an SCA event. It's a new one called Medieval Marketplace, with an emphasis on shopping and merchants rather than fighting (although fighting was scheduled). It was hard to tell if it was well attended or not, because it seemed like people were showing up, making a round or two through the merchants, and then leaving. I fear it won't be successful overall, alas. Bad timing, being on the holiday weekend. I picked up presents for two of Ken's nephews, and for Fiona. I wanted to get more, but Meg and Julian needed to leave (we three were the only ones left from our group). Ah well.

Now it's kind of mellow. Kedrin and Muirenn should be showing up later. Some other folks may be showing up. It's basically down to MM&J, me, Colin, and Charlie. I've been a wee bit antisocial since we got back from the event. I showered and dressed, cleaned up my stuff in the study, then unloaded the dishwasher, did more dishes, etc. Now I'm in the study typing. The door's open, but I'm not quite ready to take the Palm out to the living room to work.

Although I do have the munchies...