Day 122--Almost Through

Tonight is our last night in the hotel...at least, in this hotel. We're moving back to Fort Collins in the morning but will need to stay in a hotel up there for a few days while I finish reassembling our house. In the last few weeks--and with a considerable amount of help from family--we successfully got the carpet pulled up, refinished the wood floor in the bedroom, pulled off the grungy wallpaper in the office, repainted the office and the bedroom, got new windows installed in both, and had the exterminators in to seek and destroy any wayward mice . We've given away our rugs and a whole bunch of books--which in our house barely made a dent, but nevertheless eliminates the one open bookshelf in the bedroom with dust-collecting potential. We now have our new, HEPA-filter vacuum, which I still have to figure out how to use, and the new blinds are ordered and should be installed next week. We also have a new couch ordered, and we'll just have to throw a sheet over the old one for a couple of months until it arrives. All of this is wonderful, but right now, we have random books and furniture all over the house and sawdust from the floor still lingering in corners and, actually, right out in the open. So we'll be tackling that tomorrow, with much help from kind-hearted folk. And speaking of kind-hearted folk, Sandy (the hotel manager) and Celeste (the sales manager) came by our hotel room to say goodbye this afternoon. They gave us each a fancy hotel bathrobe and a box of chocolates, and they also said that they'll give us the staff rate any time we want to stay here in the future. That just about guarantees we'll spend some nights back here when we have to come down for any early-morning appointments. We've actually grown really attached to the hotel staff, from Miss Jean who runs the kitchen and makes really amazing muffins to the "tiny tornado" housekeeper Angelica, to Homero the maintenance guy, to Kelvin, Alejandra, Derrick, and Aaron at the front desk. I feel like I've actually gotten to know some of them a little bit, and I'll miss seeing them every day. (Of course, I've invited all of them to a CSU basketball or volleyball game next time they decide to enjoy their "staff rates" at any of the Hilton-family hotels in Fort Collins.) When we check out in the morning, we'll have been here exactly 4 months and a day--a third of the year. Anyway, better stop typing now so I can go finish packing.