The visit with the office and DD

The trip up to my office was terrible traffic just getting out of the town my mom and in-laws live in. 22 minutes to go the first 4 miles! Then when I got on the freeway it was pouring down rain most of the way. I finally got up to the office (20 minutes after I had planned to). Parked in the lot next our building and immediately noticed that, a year ago, when there used to be one or two rv's (homeless people) parked along the fence parking across the street, there were now 4, nose to tail. Permanent residents for all intents and purposes. Good grief!

It was lunch time when I arrived, plus for half the office it was their half Friday off. It was so quiet in there. But that was good - it gave me and my boss a nice uninterrupted time to just sit and chat for like almost 2 hours (didn't feel like 2 hours). I did get to say hi (and hugs) to a few people and meet a few of the new faces. All is going good and she said everything is working great on her end with my remote working. She has been very busy and now they are getting ready to move into the new office at the beginning of next year. Lots of TI (tenant improvement) work that needs to be completed to the new space before they can move it.

I had kind of planned on only maybe being there an hour (thinking I didn't want to keep her from her work too long) but it was 2:40 by the time I left to head up to DD's house. Ugh. Friday afternoon rush hour to drive through two major cities to get the 45 miles to her house. I figured it was going to take me 2-3 hours. But it "only" took me an hour and 35 minutes and thankfully the rain had stopped. I got there about 4:15 and we had the whole evening just to relax and visit. Her BF went and picked up Costco pizza so that was good. Their new little puppy is a cutie and so tiny. Only 3 pounds. Saturday DD and I went and did some shopping at stores like Target and Lowes. (she needed some baby gates to block off their puppy from going into the living room, where it's carpeted and seems to be his favorite pee spot). Stopped and got coffee's. Then we went to her town's older downtown area, which is just small shops now and we went through all the antique and gift shops for a couple of hours. That was very fun. She was looking for a little stand to put out on her front porch to put a plant on. Found a cute metal one for $12. She also found a wine rack at a thrift store. I found what DH and I have been looking for - an old hand water pump.

Eventually to be used as a garden/yard display. We then stopped back at Lowe's because her BF texted he needed more woodchips for his smoker bbq. She found a trailing outdoor plant to go on her new plant stand for half off at $3.50.  We had a late lunch/early dinner of salmon and brats, compliments of her BF's cooking. We just spend the afternoon and evening watching some shows on Netflix and visiting. I was heading home Sunday morning. A short visit, but it was nice to see her. She is supposed to be coming for Christmas, so only about 2 1/2 months more until we see each other again.

Sunday morning I headed out about 8:30am for my 6 hours and 45 minute drive home (plus I lost an hour) and got home about 4:15. I was pretty pooped by then. Thankfully DH said lets go get dinner at the restaurant, where we both had breakfast for dinner. I had Monday off work, too, knowing I'd be pretty tired from the trip. We went to the city, to stop at the well drilling company and pay our bill and talk to the guy about well pumps and what he would recommend. Then we went to the feed store and stocked up on 3 bags of dog food and then to the grocery store. Back home about 1:30 in the afternoon where I took a much needed nap.

I'm such a homebody and would rather just stay home, but I'm glad I went for the trip. Mission accomplished.