Virtual machines just don't get "lost". Something changed between last week when it worked and this week when it didn't.

Another point - don't run on the VM in your backup location. You want to preserve it. Copy it from /restore using the Finder and try to open (not Import) that virtual machine copy.

"the properties are in order" - what exactly does that mean? Please post a "Get Info" on your virtual machine bundle. 

If you "expanded" the "image" to see the contents of the VM in the Finder (by right clicking and choosing "Show Package Contents" what are the files that are contained in that folder? At a minimum you should see .vmdk files representing your virtual disk, and a .vmx file. 

Assuming you still have the situation where the VM is "grayed out" in the Virtual Machine Library:

• use the Finder to find the vminventory file found in your account's Library/Application Support/VMWare Fusion folder
• zip it up (rightclicking on the file and choosing "Compress" will work)
• attach the zip file to a reply to this thread. 

For 3): Can you elaborate on the steps that you did to create that virtual machine?  If you have a valid ISO installer downloaded from Microsoft, a fresh virtual machine should boot it and go to Windows Setup. I wouldn't use easy Easy Setup to create the VM either.