April 21, 2008 - 7:04 AM.

At the lodge

When going away for the weekend, definitely take grandparents.

Punim's biggest thrill, during our 3-day stay in a 3-story log "lodge" (read: "private home built and decorated in most expensive style in 1985") -- 2 plastic flocked toy horses, the kind that drive 11-year-old girls wild. "The ponieth" were his constant companions, even keeping him up with Xmas-morning type excitement that first night, until MIDNIGHT. "Geeyup geeyup nahahay, geeyup geeyup nahahay," they were heard to say all over the house, as he tried to refuse pony access to his older cousin. The white (favored) one, even came in to wake up J. the 2nd day, shouting, "NEIGH! WAKE UP, DADDY! NEIGH!"

Scary weather the first night -- SNOW in April -- made scarier by the fact that this home is located way the fuck up a ridiculously steep "I'm so rich I need a view" hill. But the snow melted by late the next day, and apparently never stuck to the roads; the boys got to play in the snow plus we didn't freeze after the first night, when we all huddled Little-House style on the lower level around the wood stove. It took the house, which had been stone cold on our arrival, a good 12 hours to really warm up, but once it did it stayed nice and toasty. A hot Jacuzzi, bathrooms on every level, loads of food toted in, and periodic gifts for the boys, kept the social wheels greased (nothing like passing out construction paper and Play-Doh every few hours to keep little guys amused indoors in the cold). Periodic applications of ice cream, jigsaws, an old bingo set, and hauling firewood, kept us all from minding too much that apparently the owner had not paid her satellite TV, phone, or internet bills for some time! Thank goodness for the Teletubbie video.

All in all, a pleasant, busy few days of bonding.

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