use real butter

I prepared a going away dinner for Fiona, who came up to Ned with Jeremy on the 6:10 Ned bus. We are so very sad she’s moving. The more time we spend with her, the more we realize how we shall miss her. The appetizer was artichoke dip, the meal was grilled marinated flank steak, roasted brussels sprouts, potatoes au gratin, a nice Shiraz from SE Oz, and for dessert – carrot cake.

Today was a soup day for sure. Overcast, cold (like 30 degrees cooler than yesterday’s high), and by this evening, raining. We have ice on our deck right now! All the better to be making soup. Tortilla soup!

We never get to bed early. Even when we do get to bed early, we read, talk, get back up and take care of things we forgot to take care of, play with Kaweah (or fight with her over space on the bed)… Last night was no exception. So this morning, I woke up and asked Jeremy if he wanted to go for a hike. I knew he didn’t. If you ask Jeremy every morning (when I wake up) if he wants to go for a hike, the answer is probably going to be “no” 90% of the time, because he likes to sleep. But I hate to sleep, and I like to hike early, and so his answer is usually a question, “Do you want to go for a hike?” Even if I don’t feel like going, I say, “yes” to force myself to get out because I usually don’t regret it. And so Jeremy eventually drags his ass out of bed and we are on our way. This morning, our goal was Mount Toll.

Mount Toll is an extra mile tacked on to the Pawnee Peak trip with a 500 foot drop and a 500 foot scramble up the southwestern slopes to the summit. When we got above Lake Isabelle, it was cold and windy – autumn. When we approached Pawnee Pass, it was colder and windier. Atop Pawnee Peak we eyed Mount Toll and debated what to do. It was 11 am, we had a party to get to in Boulder at 4 pm, we estimate it would take an hour to reach Toll’s summit. So it was a quick decision to leave off and try Toll some other time. It is the same height as Pawnee Peak, so we didn’t feel like we missed out too much. It was good to hike a 10-miler because I don’t think I have gotten any decent exercise since we backpacked the Bells.