It's a Dry Heat, My Ass

Over the weekend, we Ts went to Scottsdale, Arizona for my cousin's son's bar mitzvah. This is my mother's side of the family, most of whom moved from New Jersey to Arizona and New Mexico a while ago. I haven't seen the aunts and uncles since my father's wedding a year and a half ago, some of the cousins since my mother's shivah, and others since my own wedding, 15 years ago. When I was growing up, we saw each other a lot more frequently, so it was nice to catch up and meet kids, etc. Everyone's doing really well and looking good.

(John McCain was on our flight out.)

We only had a few hours of non-family time, so we managed to get only one hike in, up Pinnacle Peak. It was hot. 105 degrees in full son is hot, humidity or no. In the shade, it's a lot nicer, true. This is where the lack of humidity helps. But when you're in the full-on sun, with no chance of
shade, it's hot.

I'd never been to that part of the country before, and it's really pretty. I loved looking at the different kinds of cacti and plants. It's weird to see a city where there should be desert. It seems unnatural. In fact, the Santa Fe relatives and the Scottsdale relatives were talking about the fight over water out west. Sante Fe has far more water restrictions in place to try to control consumption, but Arizona does not.

A brotherly story: Sr. Jr. and Jr. Jr. sat with me on the plane out there. Jr. Jr. was by the window, Sr. Jr. in the middle, and I was on the aisle. At one point, Jr. Jr. began humming something classical. Sr. Jr. was getting annoyed, which, of course, only made Jr. Jr. do it more. Sr. Jr. kept saying "Mom, he's humming classical music! It's so annoying! Make him stop." I thought it was kind of nice and told SJ to just relax and ignore his brother. By this point, SJ was frustrated to the point of tears by his brother's humming. And just what was it that Jr. Jr. was humming? "Ode to Joy."

So here are some pics from the weekend. First, the hiking pictures:









And now one of us all dressed up:


There was no knitting. I didn't even bring it with me. Now Jr. Jr. is home sick, and there's still no knitting. I will have more knitting to show you someday.