Late and exhausted, but still going!

Dear Friends,

I miss you more than ever, having not posted last weekend. I had promised my sister that I would go with her and her friend Marjie to the mountain house on Saturday. But I had a 20-page paper due on Monday that I hadn't started as of Saturday morning, so I was torn between going and staying home to work.

Mulling it over, I realized that Fer and I were much more connected before I left NH - we used to talk every day for at least a few minutes. Since I've been in CO, we've both been over-the-top busy, rarely home at the same time, and typically working when we are. If we do finally get a minute to catch up in the kitchen, say, we're usually interrupted within a few seconds by a child or a husband or a phone call. So I decided to go. I typed all the way up and back (a challenge on some of those mountain switchbacks!) and all of Sunday morning and still had to pull a near all-nighter to finish, but it was worth it.

The Mountain House, located in the Granby Ranch development at the Sol Vista ski resort in Granby, CO, is about 20 minutes from Winter Park. My sister chose this development because it offers activities in four seasons and is family-friendly. It's quiet and peaceful and there's a spectacular view out of every room except the loft (although I discovered the desk in the loft is the perfect study spot). We hung out, took a walk, slept in front of a movie (at least this part of we did), and hung out some more. On Sunday afternoon, Fer treated us to massages. MMMmmmmmmmmm

We went for a walk and discovered this piece of abandoned farm machinery lurking in a field.

It reminded me of some bizarre mechanical elephant.

Berries brighten the path.

The Fraser River, where Tina and Tony went fly fishing this summer.

This building seemed to be snuggled into the bosom of the earth.

We hiked up to a little gazebo. Pant, pant, puff, gasp. Wow, am I out of shape!

It took a long time for the darn thing to get this big.

But the views at the top were rewarding.

Western beauty.

The Mountain House, seen from the gazebo.

The gazebo, seen later (whew!) from the Mountain House deck (the view over my cocktail).

 

The hot tub at Devil's Thumb Ranch Resort where we luxuriated in massages on Sunday.

Our night away was such a treat! Last Thursday I had two papers due - the usual weekly paper, plus an important bigger one - so that required burning the midnight oil. And when we got back, I had Sunday night's blitz for the 20-pager, followed by another marathon Wednesday night for a paper due yesterday. Today I delivered my umpteenth paper at 4:47, 13 minutes before deadline. Haven't tallied up all that's due this week, but I know it's even worse. Only four weeks to go - must hang in there, must hang in there, must hang in there...