I slept pretty badly on Tuesday night, and finally, after tossing and turning for a while, got up at 6.00 a.m. and took a walk around John and Alan's land. They have such a beautiful, secluded place. I sat down on the landing at their large pond - small drifts of mist were rising from the water, and the frogs were croaking.

Early morning on John and Al's pond

John had asked me if he could take photos of me as studies for his artwork, and that's what we did for most of the morning.

John doing a photo shoot

John and I also had the opportunity for a long talk about relationships, not that I have anywhere like John's experience with them. I can see why John and Al's relationship works so well - they both bring very different qualities to their relationship, but both of them possess a lot of humanity and intelligence. They're also very supportive of one another's goals and interests. At one point during the day while we were discussing how Al seems to get a lot of lucky breaks, Al said that the luckiest thing that ever happened to him was meeting John, twenty years earlier.

By 1.00, the guests for the barbecue started to arrive, and by four, everyone was here. It was great to finally meet some of the people I've been corresponding with for so many months. John and Al had thrown together an incredible barbecue, and I gave myself a day off from my diet and stuffed my face. One thing I'd never had before was a very tasty local delicacy called a spiedie, which is chunks of meat marinated in a special Italian sauce on a skewer.

Dinner

In the picture above from left to right is Bob, Keith, Bill, Alan, Mitch, John, Dave and John.