My summer has continued to be a good ‘un. Looks like after 20 years of working, I’ve finally figured summer vacation out. 🙂
We had Independence Day recently in the US and I got to see fireworks two nights in a row. On the 4th, I went around to mom & dad’s community for their community party. I brought brownies & mixed fruit (not a melon in sight!) I managed to not go too overboard during the carry-in and the next day weighed in the lowest yet at WeightWatchers. Whee!
Anyhoo, that night, one of the families in the community brought around some sky lanterns and we launched about 8 of ’em or so after it got dark. It was sprinkling a little that night, but we didn’t care. Mom brought out some glow-in-the-dark bubbles which I blew around to the delight of the 3-year old in the community. When the fireworks showed up around 10pm, our original placement (on the back patio of one family’s house) wasn’t ideal since the fireworks weren’t as high as they’ve been in the past. So we all meandered over to a better spot to watch them. Troy has improved their show – it actually lasted 25 minutes.
The next night, one of the folks just outside of town put on a fireworks show for anyone wanting to watch, so I wandered over to the other side of town to watch and was quite impressed. For store-bought fireworks, they were pretty decent. And the people who shoot them off take many safety precautions when doing it.
# of Bike Rides: Now up to 7 since the start of summer vacation. This includes a 19 mile ride that I did. Whew!
# of Books Read: 15 (and will finish another one tonight, I suspect).
# of Movies Watched: 14 (I think – I really should write these down as I see ’em rather than try to remember them later!)
The books continued (all of these were library books, either paper or eBooks):
Goblin Secrets by William Alexander
The Redeemer by Jo Nesbo (another knock-out from Nesbo!)
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (excellent handling of the story about HeLa.)
Dark Places by Gillian Flynn (probably my favorite of her three books, though I’m not entirely sure why.)
Relish: My Life in the Kitchen by Lucy Knisley
Wedding Night by Sophie Kinsella (this is quite a contrast to The Redeemer, Dark Places, and Henrietta Lacks, I can tell you!)
The Cheese Monkeys by Chip Kidd (I wasn’t sure I’d like this book at first, but it grew on me. Ending sucks, though.)
The Black Country by Alex Grecian (I really enjoyed The Yard so I was pleased his second book of the series is out now. Although his main characters are male, he writes very strong females in his Victoriana mysteries and I really appreciate that.)
The movies continued (all DVDs from the library):
Hotel Transylvania
Rise of the Guardians (quite a fun flick – decided to check out the books, too)
Ice Age: Continental Drift
Frankenweenie (I preferred ParaNorman)
Anna Karenina (not even Jude Law could make me enjoy this flick – a shame)
ParaNorman (a great stop-motion puppet flick)
Life of Pi (beautifully filmed, true to the book)
Still doing pretty well on my book and movie choices (apart from Anna Karenina, that is). Hopefully will get some more theatrical releases into the mix soon!