It was supposed to be sliced roast beef, potatoes and gravy and steamed veggies. However, the roast beef slicing apparently wasn't accomplished, so we had shredded beef in gravy on our potatoes, which was delightful/

We were seated with a couple from nearby who weren't very sociable, which was OK with Karen and I; we were really just "into" each other anyway, and bound to enjoy ourselves and each other, so that didn't bother us much.

After supper, we went up to the room and relaxed a bit; I did some reading and Karen just made herself prettier, I guess. Before we got bored with each other, we put on our bathing suits and went swimming. Well, not really... we got into the pool and then I talked her into the hot tub, which was much warmer than the pool was. We probably would have enjoyed swimming too, but I really didn't feel like putting out the effort to maintain my body temperature; the water was probably only about 85°F. Which is just about right, but... the hot tub was right there, and I'd been cold for a coupla days, it seemed..

And the hot tub was wonderful, of course. We spent about 15 minutes there, then went back upstairs. Karen had bought some champaign, and we drank a little of that, and then she went to sleep.

I spent a coupla hours reading, then I went to sleep too. I'm reading Black Hawk Down, riveting, it is.

I kept looking out the window, waiting for the snow to start, but it didn't.

But I woke up about 04:00 to go to the bathroom, and it was snowing then. Great big flakes, straight down, there wasn't a breath of wind, it seemed. The snow was settling beautifully on the trees outside of the window.

I went back to sleep, of course, and got up around 08:30 or so. The wind had picked up a little, and the trees were bare of their marshmallow toppings.

Karen is beautiful in the mornings.

Karen woke up for good before I did, and while she was getting her makeup on, I went downstairs and got some nicotine and brought some coffee back to the room.

Then we went down and had a wonderful breakfast, sitting with the people from last night. They weren't any more sociable than they were last night, unfortunately.

We just kinda hung around, watching the continuing snow and enjoying each other's company. Checkout time was 11:00, so we went up and packed.

Karen had brought some candles, and we had to do a little clean-up from waxy droppings, but no major damage done, and the candles were very romantic.

Altogether, a very nice little time-out for us.

We checked out about 10:30 or so, and I scraped snow off of the Camry and away we went.

There was probably 6" of snow when we left, and in Topeka we had maybe *" total. The highways weren't too bad coming in, but the city streets were, as usual, untouched.

since we got home, I've done absolutely nothing but get caught up on web stuff. Well, and play music, of course. Fur Elise has been running through my head relentlessly, it was on a CD that we played coming back from Wichita. Such a haunting melody, I wish that I could write something like that, or even imagine it.

And it's not even 21:00 yet, but I think that I'll try to get some sleep tonight in our wonderful waterbed, and I think that I'll start on that right now. Well, after I get this posted up, anyway.

Tard, and that's a *fact*.