That's what friends are for

What a difference a day makes - especially if it's a day spent with a wonderful friend in another town beside a blue river - and tomato-cheese soup is involved. When Katie discovered I was having a rough go, she called me up and says, "I can be done with work in two hours if you want to meet up." The car was packed and the kids in their seats in fifteen minutes!

We drove an hour and a half to Eugene and parked ourselves in the courtyard of the Fifth Street Market.

The fountain is full of ducks for an annual event (Eugene is home to the UofO Ducks and is where Katie and I met all those years ago as freshmen) but Owen was hooked. He busied himself collecting one of every "species" and making them race in the jets of water. What a perfect place to wait for a few minutes.

When Katie arrived we hugged and squealed and proceeded to Seize the Day: window shopping, walking in the sunshine and exclaiming over old and new sights, setting up camp in the lush green grass at Skinner Butte Park to pour over knitting magazines and watch Aidan eat cheerios off the blanket while Owen kicked off his shoes and played in the sand pit. Pretty soon our stomachs got the better of us and it was off to the Glenwood for some of their cannot-be-replicated tomato-cheese soup.

Dreaded Mondays rarely ever turn out so well. When we got back home around ten o'clock I was pooped but by spirit was refreshed. It's so nice to have friends who are as happy to see you as you are to see them. Thanks again, Katie, for our mini-vacation - it was just what the doctor ordered!