This past weekend was a real contrast.  On the one hand, it was the most fun I've had in a long time.  On the other hand – well, not!  Let's do the fun stuff first.  Lorette and her hubby, John came up with their dogs, Lewey and Riley, and spent the weekend with us.  Lorette and I went to a two-day spin-in held at our local high school.  Over 200 spinners showed up with their wheels and crowded in for hours of fiber goodness:

There was a merchant mall with all kinds of enticements:

Both Lorette and I did our best to put a dent in the offerings so the merchants wouldn't have to pack up too much to take home!  You can see Maggie licking her lips and the lusciousness of it all:

I'll post more specifics as I spin each of them up, but suffice it to say, I have enough to keep me busy for months to come, thanks to a generous $$ donation by hubby!

The program was put on by Amelia Garripoli of Ask the Bellwether fame.  The subject was spinning for socks, and more specifically, spinning a self-striping yarn.  We were issued a fiber pack and got some actual hands-on instruction.  Although this skein doesn't prove it, Lorette and I were very pleased to discover that we can indeed spin fine enough to produce a 3-ply sock yarn!  The fiber we were issued had a lot of silk noil slubs in it, so was a little more difficult for us to spin, but I still produced some passable yarn:

It still needs to washed and set, and a second skein spun to match.  Then they will become a pair of fingerless mitts.

While Lorette and I went crazy, the boys found plenty to keep them busy:

Actually, they spent a whirlwind weekend doing sight-seeing on the island and just over the mainland.  They saw the tulip fields:

And indulged in ice cream treats:

We were very pleased at how well the dogs got along together. 

Maggie has issues with other dogs, but she welcomed both Riley and Lewey into her domain with no problems at all.  She and Lewey even played a bit, although Riley let it be known that she was much too dignified for such shenanigans.

The not so pleasant part of the weekend is that I have been struggling with dental issues for the past three weeks.  It started out with extreme sensitivity to cold and constant, throbbing pain.  It was determined by my dentist that I needed a root canal, and I dutifully went to the endodontist and had it done.  That only solved part of the problem.  The sensitivity to cold went away, but the constant pain did not.  It was the most excruciating pain I've ever had.  Pain meds helped some, but left me almost comatose.  Then the pain started getting worse and making me nauseous.  Finally, after a week and a half of the endodontist telling me it should be getting better, he saw me again and determined that there was another tooth causing the problem.  This was a wisdom tooth and it needed to come out.  The oral surgeon couldn't get me in for at least a week, but my original doc came through for me and got me in immediately for an extraction.   Even that did not go well.  Despite his best efforts, the tooth broke off in the socket.  I saw the oral surgeon the next day and he said the tooth was so fused to the bone, that it would have probably happened in his office too.  He advised leaving the root tips alone and allowing things to heal.  If I don't have further problems, no more treatment is necessary.  He also upped my pain medication (to morphine!) and gave me something to help the nausea.  FYI – neither helped, but last night I was able to just back off to Ibuprofen.  For the first time this morning I am feeling almost human.  I'm still going to take it easy for a few more days and try to get my appetite back.  I've hardly eaten anything in three weeks (a diet I do NOT recommend), but nothing sounds good because of lingering nausea.  So there you have my tale of woe – probably more than you wanted to know.  I was beginning to feel as if I would never feel good again and I'm so happy to be on the road to recovery.  In fact, I may even feel well enough to spin today!  And FYI – I can actually knit lace on morphine without screwing up.  Who knew!