Rothenburg

Hotel Burggartenpalais

The beautiful hotel

Manhole on the way to "walk the wall"

A sweet treat following the eerie, but hilarious, Night Watchman's tour

who sent us to Hell - we went twice (amazing wine down there!)

TnT

Tim and Tami 

Shawn met Tim a couple of years ago on Xbox (the new playground), which led to BFFs, a spot in the BIG day

and a fun meet up in Germany, where Lt. Tami Bishop is whipping her new troops into shape. 

Bier!

Hofbraeuhaus

I heard there's a breathalyzer on the premises, but it's a good thing we didn't find it. These Germans don't just drink a beer. They have a BEER. In a beer stein, which is like three beers' worth. And then you have another one. We went to two places with Tim and Tami, and that was before the three hour beer tour of Munich biergartens and beer museums and other various pubs before we even reached the Hofbraeuhaus at around 11. I'm sure if we blew into that thing, it would have exploded.

TravelLISAty

Upcoming Germany! Castles. Rivers. Beer gardens. Porsche Museum. Seems like a good place to celebrate a couple of 50th birthdays and the little Princess' new degree.

Then the Lisas are going to burn up Nashville.

Spooky October takes a couple of Formula 1 fans to Austin to cheer on Lewis.

Why Is There No Great Arizona Novel?

Changing Hands - Phoenix location

Tuesday, August 11th at 7

Purple Mountain Majesty

The mountain stopped me. In the parking lot, after a two hour, two drink girls' night, it stood up. Strong and purple in front of waving light orange stripes, and pink. And blue. I turned my friends around to look up. See that? But they didn't grow up with Camelback hovering over their back yards. They weren't shushed by it every night as it turned to red, then purple, then black as the sun sank down. I got my daughter on speakerphone as I headed north to home. She understands her mom's obsession, especially on nights like this, smack in the middle of monsoon season when the humidity changes things. Go look! See that? Do you see that?

Now shush.

Leslie's 30 (again!)

Dancing in the moonlight

Feelin' Beachy

Amy knows how to spontaneously squeeze every little drop out of a weekend. Piers, plays, Laguna festivals, sandy intervals, bananas, Taco Surf, Slomo.

Not bad.

Munchen!

The English Garden

When I'm Six(feet) Four

Two of our favorite patients passed away. Claude, age 95, on July 1st, and, on the Fourth of July, his lovely bride, Adeline, age 101. They had been coming to the office for as long as I can remember, with smiles always on their faces and invariably a little joke from Claude. They were a team, an inspiration, a pleasure to be around. As they got older (and shorter), they would lean on each other as they slowly walked down the long path from the elevator to our office, then back down again. Every Spring, Claude would load up a couple of bags of sweet grapefruit from his prized tree and bring them up for me. Last year, he started to ask me to walk downstairs with them after their appointments so I could get the heavy fruit from his trunk. I worried about them a lot. They were active in their church and the V.F.W., but their families lived out of state. I wondered what one would do without the other and how sad it would be when that day came. Today at their funeral, the priest described how they would lean on each other as they made their way down the aisle to receive communion every Sunday, including the one the week before they died, slowly helping each other. Following the beautiful service, Shawn introduced himself to Claude and Adeline's son. At an even six feet, plus maybe another inch with his fancy suit shoes on, Shawn shook the son's hand and offered condolences. The son smiled and said, "Oh. I thought you'd be taller. Dad said you were 6'4". He thought the world of you."

Ditto. Now we get to look up to them.