Last week I was in Portland, Oregon visiting a client. The trip took less time than I thought it would, so I had a chance to head down to Eugene to visit the Forresters.

Kathy is one of my oldest friends who I never get to see in person. Her husband TJ and I share a birthday (he is much, much older than me though – an entire year) and while I don’t like kids I find Haley and Adam delightful to be around.

When you pull up to their house, the first thing that hits you is the smell of wood. It’s great. TJ does some serious woodworking out of his home shop. They are also in the middle of redoing their back deck, so there is lumber everywhere. Now whenever I see potential furniture grade lumber, I think of TJ (I was at a neighbor’s house last week where they were slowly cutting a huge hickory trunk up for firewood. The thing was at least three feet in diameter, and all I could think of was TJ trying to find some way to get it home).

Although my visit was a short one, they rolled out the red carpet. We had fresh tuna on the grill (that TJ caught), curried rice, caesar salad and a delicious almond cake-thingie for dessert.

While I was lapsing into my post meal sugar coma, I got to listen to Kathy read to her kids from The Lord of the Rings (it was the second book in The Two Towers where Frodo, Sam and Gollum make their way toward Mordor). It was cool, as she even did the voices.

Even though I had to get up at 4am to make it back to Portland to catch my plane, it was worth it.