it was 114 degrees today. got off the plane last night after several delays (and 10.5 hours from seattle to phoenix) and started laughing like we'd magically stepped into a parallel universe called 'just-like-living-inside-an-exhaust-pipe'.

at 1:00am last night it was still 95 degrees. and it just doesn't stop.

realizing we had a few hours on our hands this morning we decided to find ourself a car (me: honey, what do you want me to get you? him: oh, a crown vic is fine... and so we drove around today in the retirement mobile, pushing the buttons, enjoying the comparative luxury). after finding said car, we drove out to taliesin west.

we're slowly filling in the catalog of frank lloyd wright buildings that we've seen. i want to take b. to falling water. taliesin west was great to see. i'm pretty sure that FLW would roll over in his grave if he could see some of the commercialization of his designs, but then again, he was the consumate salesman - so i could be wrong. still, there is magic in the place - probably less than some others - cedar rock in iowa or falling water are my favorites - but a magic none the less. here is a man who succeeded better than nearly anyone in recent history in controlling (for better or worse) his personal universe. if it wasn't what he wanted, he made up the answer, and then apparently made everyone else believe that answer.

while we were doing this my brother was arriving at the hotel. he walked over to get water at the local 7-11 and turned his head to the payphone only to see one of my oldest and best friends standing there using the phone (i'm not from here, neither is said friend, said friend was in the wrong state and a weird part of town). a completely random event. that's what happens when you don't have a cell phone. you have to stop in the 114 degree heat to use a payphone....

tonight b. and my brother and i all slipped into broadband coma. finally got hooked up in the hotel and in a strange 21st century ritual we were all pulling out power cords, finding a place to sit, preparing to insert the needle. each of us trying to appear that we were doing this casually, not like hungry baby wolves looking for a teat.

dad goes in for surgery tomorrow morning. think a good thought for him. please.