Greetings from Phoenix, Arizona!

And it's a blazin' hot time in Phoenix, lemme tell ya! Why it's hotter than Brad Pitt in Legends of the Fall...uh...anybody?!? Is this thing on?!?

Hi all! Well, I made it to Phoenix on an uneventful flight - that's a good thing! There was no turbulence and I was able to catch The Reader on my very own TV screen! Add to it, I had no one in my aisle...sweet!! I arrived about 40 minutes early, and was picked up by my bro, John. Now John has lost a good deal of the belly he had when I last saw him in November, so I'm quite proud of him!

I came back to his place and hung out by the pool for a couple of hours. Now people, it's BLOOMIN' hot by the pool. Even the deck, which is supposed to be a special heat-resistant material, was smokin'! I'm pretty sure that, if I hadn't moved my chaise to within rolling into the pool distance, I would've had blisters on the bottom of my feet. Seriously! Needless to say, we popped round Wal-Mart last night where I bought a cheap pair of flip-flops...and some yogurt...and some almonds! All good!!!

It's been an eventful week of networking and hanging out. I went to Ernie's "Good-bye CIBC " bash and had a BLAST ! I saw alot of people I hadn't seen in a long while. It was a good time, that's for sure. I did fall a bit off the path, though. Ernie and her friends did ALOT of baking and I simply could not resist a Turtle Bar...yummy! But it was a good decision since I only ate one and resisted the other delights that were calling my name. It was all good!

I should mention that I finally broke the plateau and am down another 1 lb. so that's 45 in total!! Yeah!!

So...back to Phoenix....

As I'd mentioned before, John has lined up at least 2 hikes for us while I'm here. The first, with Frederica, is tomorrow (Thursday) morning. In preparation for it, I got up with John this morning (at 4:15 am, thank you very much) and went into the gym with him. I did a pretty good workout on the treadmill (hill program) then started to flounder my way through some other workout! I did free weights for the arms. I only did 10 lbs. and could hear The Evil One calling me "Woosy". Well, perhaps it wasn't Werner as his expression would've been much worse. Anyway, next time I go, which will probably be Friday, I plan to kick it up some more. I was feeling a bit out of sorts and unsure of where everything was. That made me feel a bit awkward. Now? Who cares?!? I'm going for it! It will be a much better workout! In the meantime, I'm really looking forward to tomorrow's hike. It will be good to see where my endurance is at this point!

OK poppits! I hope you're all well. Once again, I apologize for not sending something sooner. Hopefully I'll be able to send more greetings from Phoenix!

Cheers!
(a) yt xox