Mom and Dad's visit

For my birthday in October, my parents gave me the most wonderful gift: they came to visit. We had a blast the entire time they were here. I don't know how we managed to pack in everything we did, but it was awesome. We went to the Desert Botanical Gardens and spent hours strolling through spiked cacti, some of which look an awful lot like oceanic coral and other-worldly creatures, and tiny-leafed trees, and flowers which desperately struggle to attract bugs to pollinate them. Here are a few of the photos from that adventure. As you can see, I thought the people were more worthy of pictures given the limited life of my camera's battery. Mom got more photos, and they are much better. I'll see if I can get them from her.
After that, we went to Monty's which is a restaurant here in Tempe that is in one of, if not the oldest standing building in the valley. It was yummy and fun and so wonderful.
The next day Danny and I took them to our favorite grocery store, Trader Joe's, and they were mightily impressed with all the natural, healthy, inexpensive and various items for sale there. They loaded up on all sorts of food they can't get at home. Back at the house we sat around and talked and ate cheese and crackers and fruit. It was so wonderful to just sit with them and discuss ideas and politics and religion; all the things people tell you not to talk about with family, but we loved it. It's sad to me that religion and politics are such taboo subjects because if you think about it, religion and politics are pretty much the two most powerful things in this world that can have the power to build or destroy entire civilizations because of their influence over people's agency. They should be discussed regularly, deeply and thoughtfully. If we could learn to really discuss these two things respectfully, I think we'd be well on our way to figuring out how to live peaceably. After we couldn't sit anymore we went into the back yard and worked together on removing some of the oleanders that I've been chopping at for months making no progress. I have missed working in the yard with my parents. It was one of the things our family did together on a regular basis, and I think it's the reason I developed many of the character traits I like most about me. My parents are so wonderful. I couldn't, in a million life times ask for any better. I love you Mom and Dad!