For a third straight month, my monthly updates continue. Although I enjoy pretty much everything I write for my blog, looking back at stuff is one of my favorites. So without further ado lets talk about the start of our 2017 Summer.

RECAP OF THE MONTH

I'm probably sounding like a broken record at this point, but June has been quite the month. The first part of the month was us catching up on sleep after two mini vacations in May (Chicago and Grand Canyon). We spent our first few weekends at our apartments pool and took in our last play of the season, The Bodyguard at Segerstrom.

The second weekend of June was E3 2017. This year I decided (it's a tough decision each year) to watch the conferences from home rather than going to Los Angeles for a couple of days. So sadly I don't have a picture of me in front of the Los Angeles Convention Center this year. It was another solid (not great) E3. There were some standout games like Uncharted: Lost Legacy, Assassin's Creed: Origins, and even Madden NFL 18 looked great this year. It should be a fun holiday 2017 and early 2018 for video games.

The same weekend as E3 we started our first of two Blue Apron deliveries in June. We've been cooking so much at home lately that it's nice to use a service like Blue Apron to both try new foods and become better cooks. Although there a lot of work I can already see that I'm learning new techniques and styles of cooking that I just hadn't tried before. All six meals have been really good but the standouts were the pasta dishes and the Persian chicken.

The following weekend was Fathers Day. Jenn spent the day with her Dad going to church and a movie (47 Meters Down). I went down to Riverside, braved the heat, and enjoyed a nice brunch at my parent's house. After brunch, I got to take a tour of Amy and Ryan's new house which was very exciting. Still sort of boggles my mind that now all the kids are out of my parent's house. It was surreal walking into her house, just another indication that time is passing faster then I'd like.

For the last couple of months, I've been really wracking my brain trying to figure out what to do for Jenn's 30th birthday. And I finally (after a ton of back and forth) landed on Machu Picchu. I wrote an entire post on the day, and the surprise, but it was really the highlight of June. As of this writing, we're literally less than a month away from boarding a plan and going to Peru. Both Jenn and I cannot wait!

One of the things Jenn and I were most excited for in June was going to the Orange County Food, Wine and Music Festival in Dana Point. After our amazing time at the Wine Festival a couple of months back, we were pumped for a full day of fun in the sun. Before we left Jenn went on a shopping spree at Anthropology to find an outfit for our adventure. We took an Uber from our apartment down to Dana Point. I made the mistake of telling the Uber driver to take PCH which was a nightmare. Luckily by the time we got to the festival, the lines were non-existent and we walked right up, got our VIP passes and enjoyed a couple of hours of wine, food, and music. Although the wine wasn't nearly as good as the Wine Festival, it was nice to walk around Dana Point in a nice overcast day.

We closed out the month going to the first ever movie on the lawn at our apartment complex. They showed my favorite movie of 2016, La La Land. They also served popcorn and cupcakes for all residents as well. It was a beautiful evening in Newport and we enjoyed watching La La Land again.

And so June is now coming to a close. We're leading right into the 4th of July weekend.

TV WE WATCHED

Jenn has been insanely busy with work this month so we really haven't watched as much TV as we usually do. We have our nightly routines of Last Week Tonight, Full Front, The Daily Show, and Bill Maher. In terms of scripted TV we finished Season 4 of Silicon Valley and Season 6 of Veep. Sadly both shows are having off years. We're two episodes in on Season 5 of House of Cards as well and it seems like another great season.

Oh and we did finish Season 8 of Top Chef, its All-Star season. We both were pretty sure Richard Blais would win and sure enough he did (so we both rightfully picked the winner). Now we just need to go eat at his restaurant.

BOOKS I READ (OR LISTENED TO)

I only finished one book in the month of June and that was Michael J Sullivan's Age of Myth. That book came in at around 400 pages so took two weeks to read. The next book which I'm reading for GamersRead is Dune and that's about 800 pages so I should be finished with that in early July. So good news, next month I should have read more than one book.

MOVIES WE WATCHED

I've really missed watching movies. I did it so much in High School and College but with the golden age of TV, I've dropped off. I saw six movies in June all of which were either good or great. I even saw three movies in theaters this month: Wonder Woman, Rough Night, and Baby Driver. I loved both Baby Driver and Wonder Woman, and cannot wait to re-watch them when they come out.

I also rented Spit which is a weird movie for me, but I was curious of how James McAvoy would handle 24 personalities, in short he was brilliant. The movie wasn't great, especially the ending, but it was not bad. LEGO Batman was more LEGO Movie which was fun and Lion was the heart wrenching drama we expected it to be.

GAMES I'VE BEEN PLAYING

I really look forward to the month where I have more then just three games on this list. I'm still plowing through Horizon: Zero Dawn and finished my second season of the career mode in NBA 2K17. The one new game I played was The Golf Club 2 which I'm reviewing for Darkstation.

ANYTHING ELSE

Last month I didn't have anything, in particular, to write about so chose to forgo the section. Much of June has had me thinking about politics (no surprise to anyone I'm sure). I've made it clear that I'm not a fan of Donald Trump, and it seems like most Americans and the rest of the world aren't either. What Americans seem to approve of even less then Donald Trump is this Senate health care bill. I've been thinking a lot about this over the past couple weeks after the House passed their health care bill and now the Senate is considering voting on their version.

I just outright disagree with the notion that we should repeal Obamacare. I won't reiterate the Democrats talking points about Obamacare being flawed because that's self-evident. Everything is flawed. But the idea that anyone thinks that we all shouldn't have some level of basic care just boggles my mind. And so I sit back in bewilderment at this country. We elected a moron, we are on the brink of eliminating over 20-million people's health care, and there's no end in sight. It's downright depressing. I thought I was sad the night Donald Trump won the election, but the insanity currently taking place in our government is embarrassing.

I guess the one positive "political" thing to happen this month was the German's finally legalizing same-sex marriage. A beautiful thing, that at least we can take some solace in.

A Look Back - June 2017