Although I love to travel, sometimes it’s nice to be home, relax, and just enjoy life. If I were to describe August (outside of our quick road trip to Portland) it was what I love most about life, food, theater, and being with Jenn and Frasier. And in August I had an abundance of all of it.

August was a great month It was the first one in a long time that neither Jenn nor I had to travel for work. Instead, we started off the month celebrating both of our birthdays at home, together as a family. When my birthday rolled in it was just a normal Wednesday, I went to work and afterward met Jenn for dinner. OK, it’s not every day you get to go to one of the most popular restaurants in the city, but otherwise a normal day. After work, I met Jenn at Tatiana an unbelievable African restaurant in Lincoln Center that exceeded the hype. The icing on the cake was to get two signed copies of his book when we left (one of which I’m currently reading). That evening we opened some gifts, Frasier had fun with the wrapping paper and we took the little guy for a walk. A perfect birthday if you ask me. Jenn chose to be lazy for her birthday the next day and we stayed in and had takeout getting ready for our road trip the following day.

The day after Jenn’s birthday we packed up the Mercedes and drove towards Portland Maine for a weekend getaway. On the way, we dropped off Frasier at Far Fetch in Chatham and kept going north until we finally reached Portland. I already recapped the entire trip but needless to say that although we don’t do a lot of them, we really enjoy the short road trips exploring areas of the east coast that we haven’t been to before.

When we arrived back from Portland we had a full month of work and normal life ahead of us. Unlike the last few months, we did an excellent job of getting out on the weekends. Between seeing two Broadway shows (The Cottage and Hadestown) and going to a few new restaurants we spent most of our Fridays and Saturdays out and about in the city, a lot of it in the West Village. We went to two new restaurants Semma a Michelin-star Indian restaurant and L’Artusi an Italian restaurant that’s nearly impossible to get a reservation at. Both were solid but we probably won’t be return guests at either. But when we were out galavanting the city we were walking Frasier around Central & Riverside Park and enjoying what turned out to be a mild August.

We closed out August and the blistering heat welcoming Jake back to New York for the second time this year. He arrived on the last day of the month and after he got here from his Blade helicopter from JFK we had dinner at Jenn’s favorite Italian restaurant Felice before starting a long weekend with him here. It was a wonderful August, one that I will cherish for a long time.

TV WE WATCHED

Although we did watch a bit more TV in August we still aren’t anywhere near as much as we were doing a year ago. We finished both Ted Lasso and Hijack. Ted Lasso didn’t end as strongly as the first season but there’s something beautifully attractive about a show that is driven off positivity. Hijack although a ridiculous premise was excellent.

The only real dud of the month was Five Star Chef one of the worst reality food competitions we’ve ever watched.

BOOKS I READ (OR LISTENED TO)

These are the months that I as a reader live for. It was a chef’s kiss of a month. The best book I read was Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen a beautiful novel about a family during the 1960’s each at different phases of their life. The book was perfectly written and the narration made it easy to devour. It will be around for the conversation of my favorite of the year.

The Invention of Wings an expertly crafted novel focusing on two young girls in the south during slaverly, State of Terror a paper-thin but fun thriller, and the Tik Tok most recommended book of the year Fourth Wing

MOVIES WE WATCHED

I’ve missed watching movies. I’m not sure what it was about August but it reminded me of being in High School and going to see a few movies a week, some good, mostly bad. Ironically, we re-watched Notting Hill nearly a year after watching it last year. Such a great movie.

The movie of August was Barbie a funny, witty, and a movie that absolutely lived up to the massive amount of hype. We were late to see it but it was a great movie.

THEATER WE SAW

Two of my favorite shows of the year were The Cottage and Hadestown. The Cottage which starred Eric McCormack (Will from Will & Grace) was a great comedy with excellent plot twists and an altogether enjoyable evening. I loved it probably more than most. We also finally saw Hadestown and even though we didn’t get to see it with its original cast it was a musical that I really hope we get a chance to see again, if not its a soundtrack I now play all the time.

GAMES I'VE BEEN PLAYING

We are starting to get to the more interesting part of the video game schedule where the games I’m interested in are coming out. Between the annual release of the new Madden and the surprise release of Age of Empires IV on Xbox Series X I’ve been switching between the two most of August.

2023 GOAL TRACKING

Goal #1: Read 35 Books: I've read 25 books and am ahead of pace.

Goal #2: Get Weight Under 140: I got back below 140 at the end of July and all of August but need to do more work to give myself some distance from 140.

Goal #3: 12 Monthly Recaps: 8 for 12.

A Look Back - August 2023