Sun Aug 7 - What started out as a Brunch invitation turned into an all-day affair. Dayle and Ken have the most lovely home, and sometimes when there's a gaggle of friends over for a party, we have a great reluctance to leave.

First thing in the morning, Lilya and I still needed to go to the store for our potluck offerings to the brunch. I'd been meaning to buy a small coffee pot and coffee supplies for Dayle's house for a while now, since they don't drink coffee but often their houseguests do. So I had fun picking out the coffee pot and what bare minimum supplies would be needed, both for future guests and for the brunch itself.

When we got back from the store, there were already guests arriving and tons of food being prepared in the kitchen. Ken made crêpes (that were fanTASTic), Dayle made an egg casserole with cheese and jalapeños, Bill & Lynn brought tri-tip, someone cooked up bacon, sausage patties, and sausage links, there was lemon curd and hazelnut chocolate spread and whipped cream cheese, crumpets and english muffins, orange juice, rasperry peach juice (or something like that), tea and coffee, china and silver, and a groaning table from the weight of all the goodies. It was a lovely brunch, and it went on for hours with people arriving and going and returning, and returning for seconds. *grin*

We lounged around all afternoon, alternating between sitting in the living room and sitting around the table and more food. Finally late in the afternoon we had to order pizza to round out dinner.

Last night, on the way home from the restaurant/revel, I stopped off to pick up my mail. I received two more packages of goodies that I had purchased off eBay to replace all the spinning supplies that were stolen. I received one box with two large wooden spindles, and one box with a pound of white angora (bunny) fiber for spinning. The merchant who sold me the small painted spindle with the grey angora had included about 8 little samples of blue and purple and green and brown woolen fibers that she also sells on her eBay store. The merchant who sold me the white angora included a sample of her black merino wool.

So while we lounged around all day at Dayle's, I finished spinning the wool that Astra gave me yesterday. Then I started working on the white angora. I've been blending occasional splashes of the sample wools in with the shimmering white angora, and this yarn is coming out amazing. Amy (the gal I'm going to do the ASL class with) happens to knit and crochet. So I'm excited about giving her the angora to create something with... otherwise I just make baskets of yarn that never gets used. So I prefer to spin with some idea of who I want to give the yarn away to so they can make something from it. After the move I plan to dig through all my spinning boxes and find all the older yarn I've made over the years so I can start finding homes and projects for those skeins, too.

The only problem with spinning angora is that you get fly-away fur in the air, trying to go up your nose, and landing all over your clothing like a white cat has been shedding on you all day long. And of course, Dayle *has* cats that also like to shed all over us, so I was just covered in white fur!

Finally, Lilya and I packed up to head home and had long, long discussions on the drive. Some of it was hard (on each of us) and some of it was amazing and wonderful. I am so thankful for all the new friendships in my life, and she's one of the good ones. *grin*