if it tasted any fresher it would still be on the tree

I am in Phoenix this week for work meetings, and while I sometimes pretend that there is anything at all that I enjoy about work meetings I think my family is clear that the real reason I’m excited about Phoenix is that I get to spend some time with the lovely Housewife and her Jim Bob and Munchkin. Our Utah life included very few married friends (we love the friends we already had when we were single and saw absolutely no reason to get some new ones when we got married) and were sad to leave this one married friend behind. They left right after us, though, and are living it up in sunny Phoenix.

Anyway, we love these kids. We feel okay calling them kids because they are young and we are old, and we like to joke about how they are kids having kids, and what is this world coming to what with all the kids and their Hammer pants?, but then I see the great outfits that Housewife puts together and I listen to Jim Bob talk about noodling, and I know the future is safe in their hands.

Housewife picked me up from my hotel and took me straight to the mall where I could be good and jealous that they have a billion stores that I could only dream of shopping in. Then we went back to their place and they rubbed in my face the fact that they live in a house with five citrus trees in the backyard. I know. Green (orange?) with envy over here.
Oh, the happy days I would enjoy having all the oranges I could care to eat. Jim Bob got busy making some juice and I ruined my dinner by downing every last drop.
But people, it’s not the mall or the juice that made this evening wonderful (although the juice was pretty high up there). It was the company. The complete comfort of not having to worry about having things to talk about, or making sure you always agree, or having commonalities (we already know we have them!). These kids, well, they are smart and funny and engaging and just a delight to be with. When I relayed Somebody with tales of the evening he actually asked me to please stop telling him because he was so jealous that he couldn’t be there, too. Yeah. They are that cool.

Shopping. Oranges. Excellent conversation. I think I like Phoenix.