The shortest month of the year has come and gone. I feel like I just wrote the recap for January and I'm already writing one for February. It's a month that flew by but when looking back it was a great month.

RECAP OF THE MONTH

Jenn and I haven't done much for the Super Bowl in a long time. I just have begun to watch less and less football over the years. I think I might have watched a couple of regular season games this year and a couple more playoff games. For the Super Bowl we stayed in, grabbed a pizza from Fresh Brothers and enjoyed an evening in. It did turn out to be a much better Super Bowl then either of us expected (even if Jenn fell asleep during the first half).

Valentines arrived almost a week later. Jenn surprised me with a trip down to Los Angeles to go to a restaurant that I've been wanting to eat at for years, Ink Well. I've obviously already written up a full recap of that weekend. It felt like we were able to get away by just driving 50 miles which was really nice. Not to make me sound like a slouch but I did get Jenn symphony tickets for May and some tulips (her favorite).

The month ended up being pretty quiet after that. We ate at a couple new restaurants during the month. The highlights were Haute Cakes in Costa Mesa, Hiro Nori Craft Ramen in Irvine, and Nguyen's Kitchen in Costa Mesa. We've been trying to expand out where we eat with new places each month and in February we actually did.

Sure our time in Los Angeles was amazing but there's one memory that I'll never forget from February. Jenn had mentioned on our trip in November that she wished that one night we'd go make a late night run to Mag's Donuts. Well on a random Tuesday in February we went out and got Jenn a late night donut and you would have thought I gave her a $1000 to go spend at Fashion Island. Sometimes the simple things in life are the best.

TV WE WATCHED

We spent the first half of the month not watching a ton of TV. Jenn and I were both so busy with work that most nights we watched an episode of Will and Grace and called it a night. But towards the end of the month we finished up the second season of The Crown which was fantastic. We then proceeded to start two new shows, The End of the F***ing World and Altered Carbon two new shows on Netflix which we've enjoyed so far.

BOOKS I READ (OR LISTENED TO)

February was a great month for reading. Both A Gentleman in Moscow and Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki were both great books. Sadly Artemis from Andy Weir wasn't as wonderful as The Martian.

MOVIES WE WATCHED

Although Jenn only saw the horrific Independence Day Resurgence this month I saw four movies this month. Black Panther was by far my favorite movie of the month. Powerful, fun, action packed, and just a great message. It might be my favorite Marvel movie yet. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri a front runner to win Best Picture at the Oscar's in a week was a powerful movie as well.

GAMES I'VE BEEN PLAYING

I've finally completed Assassin's Creed Origins. It took me over 60 hours to complete Assassin's Creed Origins and I loved every second of it. It took me longer then it used to 5-10 years ago but I'm so happy I finally beat it. I am thinking about going back in and playing the DLC for the game now.

2018 GOAL TRACKING

I'm modifying this section. Instead of talking about the various stats I'm collecting I thought it would be more useful for me to track how I'm doing to the goals I set out for the year. So here we go:

Goal #1: Read 32 Books: I've read 6 books and ahead of schedule.

Goal #2: 250 Days of Perfect Performance on Habitify: 55 days of perfect performance. Ahead of schedule to make the goal.

Goal #3: Run 300 Times: I've run 57 days so far in 2018.

Goal #4: Keep Weight Under 140: I've yet to go over 140lbs

Goal #5: Write 12 Chef Joel & Jenn: I've written 2 so far. On track.

Goal #6: Complete Travel Photo Books: I've completed one but have a lot more to do.

ANYTHING ELSE

Its almost a year into the Trump presidency and in my opinion it has been worse then I thought. I'm not talking about his incompetence leading this country which is hard to argue against. But what worries me the most is the constant arm shrugging that happens with his behavior. Do we now not care that he lacks any empathy? Do we not care that he's paying off porn stars? Do we not care that his administration is dropping like flys? There was a video that the Washington Post put together showing how President Obama and President Trump both responded to similar tragedies. Obama with Newtown and Trump with Parkland. This is what scares me more then anything. That we've lost the ability to care.

Look Back - February 2018