Props to our hosts and benefactors

Wow! We had so much phun in Phili! Hashifa and I began our adventure bright and early Thursday morning. She spent the night in the Casita at the LamFam casa so as to avoid getting up super-super early and driving in from Casa Grande (can you handle all of this southwest gringo lingo?) Mom made some muffins for our journey. They were bran muffins with raisins, walnuts, craisins and chocolate chips. This is a very typical perversion of a normally good idea. She loves to take something in it's natural, healthy state and molest it until it is a junky, distant cousin of it's natural-born state.

Dad and H.V. picked me up at 6:00 a.m. and we headed toward the airport. He dropped us at the curb and we went inside to check in. We did not check in on-line and were flying Southwest. We ended up in group C. Bad news. We entertained ourselves at the airport with the local fare: hamburger persona cutouts, big, fancy men dressed in high heeled cowboy boots, high-waisted jeans and button down shirts with the sleeves rolled up and cut-off at the waist to reveal a little tummy , you know, just stuff.

Anyway, we had to sit apart, being in group C and all, so that meant me and William Faulkner worked it out visa-vi As I Lay Dying (which I threw down violently on my lap tray at the sucky, sucky ending!) But if I tell you everything about this kind of stuff I'll never get to the good stuff: THE LAMIGRAWS!

Did God make such a couple ere before? They are like no other. They are entertaining (we awoke to many the Neil Diamond revelry), gracious (I drank a lot of their beer and H.V. ate them out of everything), knowledgeable (Emily knows all the rules of public transportation and street walking), educational (Micah knew the historical sights to see and the ones to avoid, like the Liberty Bell because he said it's broken), cultured (Emily performed her Adults show for us and they were always singing Lamigraw originals like: Micah McGraw is a son-of-a-bitch, a son-of-a-bitch? a son-of-a-bitch!)

Everyday we slept until 9:30, drank coffee and ate yummy breakfasts like puff pastry stuffed with eggs and bacon and maple yogurt with granola. We left the house around noon and set out on various adventures involving shopping, eating, eating, eating. Aunt Patty gifted us some money, so we indulged in a few yummy extras that made things even more fun. Thanks Aunt Patty!!

I have nothing bad to say except that Regis the Cat was not as gracious. He was constantly getting stoned on cat nip and acting CRAZY! He wouldn't leave our room and every time we picked him and threw him out he left behind a rotten fart. He was constantly drinking out of Hashifa's glass of water on the end table. Naughty kitty.

Phili was great. The Lamigraws shared their great food, great friends, great weather, great lifestyle all with us. We had fun being sisters together again. I enjoyed time away from my precious, precious children (insert gratuitous eye roll here) and Hashifa enjoyed her last, big travel hurrah before she issues her first wee babe.

Fun times all the way. Our trip home was uneventful. Engaging our noodles, this time, we pre-boarded on the basis of Hashifa's disability AKA pregnancy. Although we were able to sit together, I forgot to pack the headphone splitter, so we had to watch Anchorman with subtitles, which is its own brand of funny. We arrived back in Penix on-time and quickly collected our bags and fed the hungry one. Again.

And now, we're back to our own, boring suburban lives sans taxis, trolleys, trains, and Lamigraws. Love to Phili. We love all things Lamigraw.