Where to start... backwards! Tracy, I'm so glad to meet Dan and you. Definately neat! With you and Pat and Kate and Curious Labs willing to host parties (and I'll surely do this again), we can have friendly get-togethers into next year, and who knows who else will join in. :) Kate, I'm pleased that Jim enjoyed the party, too. I wish that I'd thought about possible cat allergies sooner (especially since you were so gracious). I do have generic over-the-counter antihistamines which can help in a pinch. The large color dolphin piece is mixed media (everything but salt in it). The black & white picture below it with 2 dolphins against an eclipsed sun ("So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish!") is a numbered print, and if Jim had said something, I could have just given him one. The original is ink and gouche. I really prefer working in black & white, especially scratchboard, but it doesn't pay the rent. If Jim wants a print, just let me know. One of the hardest decisions involves giving art to someone else... what we like is such a personal matter for each individual... and technical merits have nothing to do with it. Quixote, There was hardly a dent in the jelly beans, but I'd lay in an extra supply for you! (gourmet flavors, with weird spots and such, almost as interesting as those magical candies which change flavor each time) Rob, It sounds from the other thread like those of you in Britain are going to have your own party in the next few months... then it will be our turn to be wistful. ;^) Karen, I thought your face appears on one of the AvatarLab heads? Signing in blood? I would have, although with my needle phobia, someone else would have had to prick my finger. (A friend said that "phobias" are fears of things which can't really hurt you, so needles don't apply... but I remember being taken for my first polio shot: holding the doorjambs and screaming like a banshee.) But, if I could calm my fears and hold out that finger, I bet that everyone else in that room could have, too. Shelby(?) is an artist? That explains the nose-prints on the glass! (When I purchased one of Alicia Austin's paintings, her manager said with a smile, "oh, the one with nose prints?") so I guess it was pretty obvious that I liked it. At one point, she said something about being bored... if I'd known she was an artist, I could easily have pulled out sketchpads and a couple hundred colored pencils (they were pushed back for the party, but reachable). Next time! I've given workshops in most of the traditional media, so if she wants to work with scratchboard or coquilleboard, I can keep her out of mischief. For both of them, I might have to bring origami paper. :) I'm just glad that everybody felt relaxed and there was so much good cheer in the room. We have a nice nucleus here. Genny, We will do this again, and the parties will probably be all over the Bay Area. If CL has a picnic on the beach, that will be even closer. We WILL get together! Steve, Politics? ::chortle:: Well, my constituents would know exactly where I stood on the issues and why... but honest politicians don't survive very long in the arena. People with a dash of discretion and wit can serve in more subtle ways. I like being a catalyst, but other people can take the glory and the limelight. We are indeed a diverse community, with politics and beliefs so varied that we might resemble a kaleidoscope rather than a spectrum... but even a kaleidoscope has structure and pattern. With Karen watching our reactions, she probably also sensed those things which bring us together: not just our concern for the tool, but for what we'll be capable of doing with it as we all grow. We may be making art to different ends, but we were all seeing possibilities and getting excited about the future. Good energy. :) Carolly