Simple needs....

We enjoyed a lovely Shabbat dinner with Rabbi Sarah Leah (Ayla) Grafstein and her husband, Steve, and a friend, Tiferet, in very very hot Scottsdale.  As they said, "We hardly ever have visitors for Shabbat in the summer!"  Perhaps people are tiring of me saying it, but it is SO HOT in the Scottsdale-Phoenix area!
For me, I like 4 definable seasons which required different wardrobes.  I love autumn (my friend Rebecca HATES autumn).  I love some snow.  I love the spring.  I tolerate the hot and humid winter.
One thing I can say about Phoenix, they have cheap gas.

Shabbat dinner was delicious and such good conversation.  We had chicken, which was the first meat I /have eaten since the eco-glatt ranch two weeks before--not much kosher meat in Utah, on the Navajo reservation, etc.  Anyway, we stopped at Trader Joe before making the long trek through the desert to Joshua Tree National Park/Twentynine Palms.  I stared longingly at the organic kosher meat and chicken at Trader Joe......

We drove through Joshua Tree (pictures later) but it was really too unbearably hot to get out of the car much.  Definitely a winter visit will be better.

We get to our hotel, and the clerk is so nice, he's telling us everything about the place.  He says, "Oh, if you want to grill, we have two gas grills out by the pool."  If only I had known this BEFORE passing by those steaks at Trader Joe....Kenny wondered if the supermarket across the street might have Hebrew National Hot Dogs.  I wasn't too optimistic......but they had a wonderful selection!  And they sell beer in supermarkets in California!

We answer to a higher authority

Straight from the supermarket

Happiness is a hot dog and a PBR 32 ouncer (don't worry--we shared)