I have had the same job for a little less than ten years now.  I consider myself quite lucky to have been able to work with almost the same group of people the entire time.  One fellow has been with the company for slightly longer than I have.  His name is Jamie palsgrove.  Like all long running relationships, Jamie and I have not always agreed on everything eye to eye, both personally and professionally but we have always managed to stay friends throughout.

This past weekend he and his wife, Jennifer,  invited my wife and I to have lunch with them as a thank you for some web work I did for them.  I thought this was a great gesture and it made me feel great.  I never mind doing webwork for friends at little or no cost and I tried to make is clear to them that they didn’t owe me anything but they insisted.  (you know you have a good friend on your hands when they insist on stuff)

My wife doesn’t usually like to go out with my friends and I but over the years she has gotten to know Jamie and his wife pretty well and she warmed to the idea right away.  We were expecting to have a great lunch and head home where I had some yard work calling my name.  What happened was one of those rare things that you just remember for a long time.

We met up at the Palsgroves’s house. They just moved in a year or so ago and Laura my wife and I had not had the grand tour.  Jamie offered to show us around and we took a tour of a very nice home. They have the cutest little baby Mya, so we had to coo and awe at her for a while too. We then jumped in the Palsgrove family truckster (a ford explorer actually) and took off to the Mellow Mushroom in downtown Nashville. It was so nice not having to drive on the weekend. Seems like whenever I go anywhere I have to drive so I really relish those times when I can be a passenger.  Some great adult conversation and a nice drive later, we reached our destination.

We met another friend from Work John Gentry our office manager who was in the neighborhood getting a haircut.  We all sat down for some Pizza!  It was out of this world.  If you get a chance you must experience REAL pizza from a REAL pizza baker. This place did everything right!  Once we were stuffed and couldn’t eat any more the Palsgrove’s asked if we wanted to check out a nearby park (the tid bit could swing and slide and play there) so we said sure!  What a joy it was to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather and see the little tykes darting in and around. I took some great pictures which I will post later.  After a while at the park we could have gone back and said we had had a wonderful day out on the town, but the Palsgroves weren’t finished yet.

On the way back to their house they asked if we wanted to join them in having some ice cream.  Now anyone that knows me knows I NEVER turn down ice cream, so off to the Marble Slab Creamery we went. Laura and I both had some DOUBLE DARK CHOCOLATE ice cream, yum yum.  Jamie took us on an impromptu tour of Gallatin where they live showing us some of the new construction going on in their area.  You might think that would be boring but somehow it was NOT!  We drove round and looked at some awesome architecture and beautiful lake views and just had a ball.

Sadly it was at this point we all had to part ways as we all had things to do but Laura and I left feeling like we had had a marvelous day away form the kiddies, with some real grownups for a change.  Did I mention the Palsgroves wouldn’t let us pay for a thing?  We had a superb time.

Thanks Jamie and Jennifer, we had a blast.