June Recap 2017

Once again, we’re half way through the year and I’m like WTF? Where did it go? I know where a large chunk went this year (vacation), but seriously how are we in July and on to the waning part of 2017.

The month got off to an interesting start in that we came back from our London trip and my office at work wasn’t usable. Thankfully, we have a beautiful deck I have access to so I worked outside and from home for a few days. And then less than two weeks later I was on vacation again for an Alaskan cruise! I somehow managed to squeeze in SIX books this month on top of all the travel and hullabaloo. I’m really starting to have time to read again and enjoy reading again which is much-needed.

After visiting the UK for a wedding and having the opportunity to see so many friends I hadn’t seen in a long time we came back to the US for a quick two-week turn around and then set off to Seattle for a week-long Alaskan cruise! (Tim likes to take a trip around his birthday – so we cut that one in half in order to do the UK for my friend’s wedding.)

I wish I had the words to write about Alaska. It was one of the most beautiful and most pristine places I have ever been to and I’m looking forward to going back one day. By far the highlight of the cruise was the seaplane excursion we took. We got in this tiny seaplane and flew over five glaciers on our way to a salmon bake at the Taku Lodge. Seeing the glaciers from sea level is one thing, but seeing them from a plane is something else entirely. You get a true glimpse at just how big Alaska is and how incredibly beautiful these massive fields of ice are. Here’s a photo of the Dawe’s glacier we saw earlier in the day (left) and a photo from the sea plane of another glacier from above:

I will definitely go back to Alaska at some point. There were so many things we didn’t get to do that sounded awesome and we did a few things that were just meh.

Books and Bookish Things
Look at the book to the right, Mrs. Mike. I bought bought it in Ketchikan, Alaska from Parnassus Books (no idea what the site is, but it’s legit). The coolest part, was of course the stamp they had to “prove’ that you bought it there. It was such an ingeniously simple thing that it just made me smile.

The big highlight of the month, aside from buying a book in Alaska, was Book 500! I’ve responded to 500 books (give or take a dozen re-reads or so) since I started this blog back in 2010! I didn’t think it would take seven years considering how fast I read, but taking into account I’m on my fourth job, I’ve moved twice, and a whole bunch of other things 500 books read and responded to in just under seven years is pretty impressive! And without the blog I wouldn’t have had awesome interactions with authors like those here (They Like Me! They Really Like Me!) or the most recent one at 11:45 in this YouTube video with Evan Carmichael who wrote Your One Word who mentioned my response and my blog on his vlog.

Fun thing of the month was that Tim let me rename our new wireless network after J.K. Rowling’s American school of witchcraft and wizardry, Ilvermorny 😀 If that’s not love I don’t know what is.

This month I read six books. SIX! I feel like I’m starting to get back in the swing of things again when it comes to reading and blogging. Hopefully I can keep it going over the next few months. Summer will definitely give me some time to read.

496. The End (A Series of Unfortunate Events #13) – Lemony Snicket
497. Ordinary Goodness – Eric Viljoen
498. Remember How I Told You I Loved You? – Gillian Linden
499. The Laramie Project – Moisés Kaufman
500. Love and Freindship and Other Youthful Writings – Jane Austen
501. The Automatic Millionaire – David Bach

Part of the fun of getting back into books and blogging again is that I have time to find cool things to show you all like this cool pride pamphlet from the Boston Public Library:

I was surprised at how few of these books I’d actually read on the list. At the same time, I was so  happy to see the wide range of ages they provided recommended readings for.

Check out these other awesome links below that don’t quite have the hometown feel as the Boston Public Library, but still made me very happy:

Up Next
It wouldn’t be Pride without doing something super LGBT+ 😀 We saw Hedwig and the Angry Inch when it was in Boston. It was a lot of fun and minus the fact that we almost went deaf sitting in the front of the show.

We’re done traveling for the summer now and hopefully that means some time on the beach here in Boston. I’m hoping to finish up Jane Austen, the Secret Radical by Helena Kelley in the next few days and then finally make a big dent/completely finish my backlog of ARCs and galleys. It’s ridiculous and I want to be done with them!