Phoenix for Father's Day

I figure I'll try to catch up on the blogging I meant to be doing while life got crazy around me. Two weekends ago, I was out in Phoenix visiting my dad and his wife, Linda. My brother, his wife (Carla) and I went out there for Father's Day for a nice relazing visit. I stupidly didn't take any pictures of my dad's place out there (which is awesome, like a ranch-resort type dealy, pool with fountain, hot tub, etc), and the only pics I got were this random one of my dad and brother working on the 1966 Cobra my dad is building in the enormo-garage:















and Linda's horse, Toby, that she got a few months ago:



















Our days were spent pretty much as follows:

Wake up
Check the world cup game that was on at the time
Have some breakfast
Maybe ride Toby before it gets too hot
Watch more soccer if it was a good game (holy crap, Ghana vs. Czech Rep was awesome!)
Head out to the pool to laze around and read for a couple hours
Eat lunch (oh yeah, did I mention Linda is a gourmet chef?)
Watch more soccer
Head back out to the pool and read
Take a nap
Eat dinner
Play Doppelkopf (yes, I taught my family and they took to it like true Germans!)
Go to bed early and do it all again the next day

This was repeated about 4 times. SO RELAXING. Its been a long time since I did utterly NOTHING for several days in a row. NICE. :)

Oh yeah, and Phoenix is HOT. It was about 108 while we were there... and yes, I know, its a "dry heat" -- people really do say that out there, all the time. (One guy, where we rode Toby, was raking his dirt-and-stone "lawn" and this parched dust was rising up in the heat and drifting off as he was saying, "Yep, I don't care how hot it gets, as long as its not humid..." Everyone says stuff like that out there. I had to laugh.) Like I don't know? Yes, I REALIZE there's <10% humidity, but its still damn HOT. It feels like your skin is burning off if you're in the direct sun too long. But I was safe and used lots of sunscreen and took cover in the shade a lot, after I was satisfied with my tan...

Anyway, I should have taken more pics cause its really nice out there. But I was too busy napping and laying around. :)