July 18, 2004
Another scorcher. Stayed close to the pool all day. Swam twice, went for a walk early and got rocks (3). Kathy and I met Deena and her boyfriend Mike up at El Encanto for brunch. Sat inside, but a surprising number of diners ate outside by the lagoon. Had the machaca and eggs. I bought ($35 bill, $7 tip, cash). Deena and Mike brought me home while Kathy went down to Costco for groceries, etc. I made Mike and Deena watch the first 30 minutes of “The Good, The Bad And The Ugly.” Mike had never seen it. He seemed to be awed by it, or at least I got him to admit he was, so I let him up off the floor and took my knees off his neck,

Carol from Casa Grande picked me up at the airport on Thursday night. She drove me out to Cave Creek. We go way back to KSLX days, when she was “Carol from Casa Grande,” and must have been all of 18. Also took her to El Encanto and treated her to margaritas and Mexican food. Kathy joined us ($95 house account, includes tip).

Worked on graphic novel most of the day. Did part of a scratchboard. Deena and Kathy went over to Grandma Betty’s to check on her, then they picked up some pizza from Barros’ on the way home. I went for another walk, hoping to meet them on the road but they still aren’t here (7:49 p.m.). Finished up in office, wrote this up and went over to the house to watch “The Girl With The Pearl Earring,” recommended by a certain editor of ours with the initials RG. We’ll see if he has a job tomorrow.

“Use an accordion, go to jail! That’s the law!”
—Vigilante’s warning