My sweet girl

David was out of town this weekend, so I decided to drive to Morris to visit Emma.  I could hardly believe that it had been 10 months since we had both been there, and a visit was long overdue. 

I left from work on Friday (saving myself the drive back home and then turning around) and actually was able to get out of the office around 2, so I was at Emma and Tom's house by 5.  Friday night they made a fabulous dinner - meatloaf, roasted potatoes and salad.  They have a cute little dog - Jett - who is an Italian Greyhound and very active.  He likes to jump around from one person to another until he suddenly decides to settle in and take a nap.  They also have a cat - Boomer - who is a tiny bit aloof, but reminds me SO MUCH of a cat that David and I had years ago.  They are almost identical - except Boomer is a bit chunkier than our cat was. 

Saturday morning we lazed about.  I'm knitting a summer top for Emma so I was busy with that.  Tom made an awesome lunch (Asian chicken) and his folks came over to eat it with us.  His mom brought some yummy bars - we always called them 7 layer bars.  They have the graham cracker crust, chocolate chips, coconut, then you pour sweetened condensed milk over the top.  We had a nice chat.  I've only met them once before and we didn't spend a long time visiting that time. 

After lunch we drove to Alexandria.  Emma starts a new job today, and she needed a decent pair of nice work shoes.  We drove to the mall, which was CRAZY.  There was some sort of a 'lifestyle expo' that had everybody in town out at the mall.  There were booths set up down all of the halls, and there was some sort of dance exhibition with thousands of little girls.  (Well - maybe it just felt like thousands.)  We did persevere and found a couple of good pairs of shoes for Emma.  We were going to look for some nice tops for work and maybe a pair of pants, but after trying to look in a couple of stores, we decided to leave that for the next day.  We had dinner at a nice restaurant - I had an excellent Santa Fe salad with steak, black beans, corn, and a dressing that appeared to be Ranch with some salsa poured into the middle of it.  But they served it on the side, which I like, because so often I find salads tend to be overdressed.  I had about half of the cup still left when my salad was gone.

Sunday morning we got up and drove to their favorite breakfast place.  Then back to the house to hang out, play with the dog, do some knitting, go for a walk.  It was a beautiful day!  We took the dog for a walk, and later in the afternoon we drove (separately) to St Cloud, which is about an hour and half from Morris.  We had better luck at the mall there, and after shopping for a bit, we went to Olive Garden for dinner before we went our separate ways - Emma and Tom back to Morris, and me to Chanhassen.  I decided to stay close to work last night rather than drive all the way home, and then drive back this morning.  Plus David has lots of 'points' to stay in hotels since he's been travelling, so I was able to cash in some of them. 

It was a lovely weekend, and I had a great time.  Emma and Tom are picking up dog number 2 this week - a bloodhoud puppy.  I think it's good that I got the visit in BEFORE the new puppy comes! :)  At least while he's getting trained! 

So it's Monday, I'm back at work, Emma's started her new job (where she has an OFFICE that she only has to share with one person - something I haven't had in 15 years) and David will be home on Friday.

Now I just need to make it through the weather this week.  Looks like it could get crazy.