We're now in the heart of summer and the new monthly "A Look Back" series has been going for three months strong. This month might be the shortest yet, but I wouldn't expect that to be the norm for the remaining five months of the year.

RECAP OF THE MONTH

July has been a relatively quiet month, sort of the calm before the storm. We started out the month with celebrating the 4th of July. I'm not going to beat around the bush about it, but celebrating this country with everything going on politically just didn't feel the same this year. However, we did our best to ignore the politics and enjoy a beautiful long weekend in Newport Beach. We played Pandemic (the board game) for the first time over the long weekend and fell in love with it.

We also went to brunch at Red O in Newport Beach with Jake, Amy, and Ryan and I may have enjoyed the unlimited libations a little too much. The same day Jake and I went tried to fly his brand new DI Spark drone and sadly it went up and out of our apartment complex never to be seen again. Jake and I spent at least two hours looking for it. Afterward, we talked to Amazon who was gracious enough to send him a new one. Crisis averted. The rest of the long weekend was spent lying by the pool and walking down to Balboa.

July of 2017 also had us using the public grills at our apartment complex a couple of times. Both times we used them to grill corn and burgers and both times they came out amazing. As our complex continues to fill out, the busier the public spaces get. Both times we used the grills, they were both occupied within minutes of us arriving. So if we do want to continue grilling (which we do) we have to get there early.

Towards the middle of the month, we had the incredible Sunday that I already wrote up in a post. In the same day that we watched Roger Federer take the Wimbledon crown, we also got to watch the first episode of the new season of Game of Thrones. It was a pretty glorious day.

The end of the month had Jenn and I board a plane to Peru. I won't be writing about that in my monthly recap, but instead, will be posting the normal day-to-day recaps of our adventure. And thus closed out a very quiet, but enjoyable July.

TV WE WATCHED

Because the weather has been so beautiful in Newport Beach, it has been tough to want to stay in and watch TV. Thus you will see pretty quickly that our TV consumption in July is way, way down. The main television we've been watching as a couple is finishing the latest season of House of Cards (Season 5), starting the second to last season of Game of Thrones, and binge watching Friends From College while in Peru.

BOOKS I READ (OR LISTENED TO)

After spending June reading really just one book, I plowed through three in July. The first one, Dune was no slouch either, coming in at a little under 1,000 pages. Had I not been reading that for GamersRead I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have even made it half way through that book. The real stand out though in July was The Hate U Give, which I will be posting a review of shortly.

MOVIES WE WATCHED

This summer has been such an incredible year for movies. Not only have we gone to the movies more this summer, but most of the movies we've seen have been incredible. The Big Sick is easily one of the best movies I've seen all year, Spider-Man did not disappoint, War for the Planet of the Apes was thrilling, Dunkirk was good, and Beauty and the Beast was surprisingly good.

GAMES I'VE BEEN PLAYING

The summer is a notoriously slow time for video games. I did however finish Horizon: Zero Dawn which I reviewed in a tight schedule earlier in the year and replayed it over the summer. I adore that game. Jenn and I continue to play Mario Kart quite a bit, and I have been using FIFA 17 as my quick 20-minute game time choice. I shouldn't forget though the game I probably put more time into then any other in July was Hearthstone on my iPhone.

ANYTHING ELSE

Towards the end of July, Elon Musk handed the keys to the new Tesla Model 3 to 30 Tesla employees, the first to hit the road. As I mentioned back in March of last year, I put the $1,000 deposit down on a Tesla Model 3 before it had even been unveiled. Now that we've seen the full production car I have to say I'm still insanely impressed. The one thing that worries me now is the price. The $35,000 model that Musk promised is still there but the range is only 220 miles, in order to get more range you have to upgrade to the long range which is $45,000. I'd also want Auto-pilot which is another $5,000, and the Premium Upgrade package, which is another $5,000. All told the $35,000 car is more like a $55,000 car and I'm not sure I really want to spend that much on a car.

I'll continue to hold my reservation but if you asked me today I'd probably cancel. I love what Tesla is doing, I love the Model 3, but that's more than I like to spend on a car. Time will tell though, I can't wait to start seeing more of these on the road before making a final decision. It sure is a beautiful car.

A Look Back - July 2017