A Look Back - April 2017
Over the last couple of months, I've been trying to figure out what the right cadence was for posting. I've gone away from reviewing every TV show and movie we watch. I still post my book reviews but even that feels like it's not really adding much to my blog. My main goal of blogging is to capture memories, moments, and things I want to look back on. Instead of trying to keep up 5-10 posts a month, let's do a recap of each month with some highlights, what we've been watching, good meals, and the like. A recap if you will. This is my first go at it, not sure if it will stick, but going to give it a shot.
Recap of the Month
2017 has been off to an intense beginning. The year began with Jenn accepting a new job and April 1st was only the second day in our new Newport Beach apartment. We've had a lot going on. We started off April dropping off our keys at our old the high rise apartment and fully moving into the new one. I will say we made more trips to West Elm (in South Coast Plaza) in the last month then we did the entire time we lived in Santa Ana. In a future post I will write about our apartment and take pictures of the final product, but I will say as of this writing the place is stunning. Jenn has truly outdone herself with our new places decor.
Of course, April also brought Passover and Easter. Passover is easily one of my favorite holidays of the year. I like the tradition, but more than anything Passover has become as much a wine festival as a cedar. We had a really nice Passover cedar at my parent's house and enjoyed a quiet Easter morning cooking our own Eastern brunch.
Jenn and I joined Jake, Ryan, and Amy at the Orange County Wine Festival which was held down in Dana Point (the Irvine Wine Festival was canceled). We arrived an hour after the festival started and closed the place down, taking in a ton of wine and great food. We finished the month off celebrating Jake's 26th birthday at North Italia in Irvine for brunch. Yes, there was a lot of family time happening in April.
Although it was our first month back in Newport Beach after a 2+ year hiatus it's like we never left. We've rekindled old traditions like walking around Fashion Island. While creating new ones like putting on our apartment complexes putting green or trying our hand at the bocce court. It's good to be back.
TV We Watched
We've watched quite a bit in April. We finished off the first season of The Crown on Netflix which is about Queen Elizabeth and the first two seasons of the show Casual on Hulu. Towards the end of April we started the first season of Netflix's, Narcos. Outside of our ritual watching of The Daily Show, Last Week Tonight, Real Time with Bill Maher and Full Frontal With Samantha Bee, we also started the 20th season of The Amazing Race. And of course wrapping it all up we continued our daliy watching of one episode of Seinfeld.
Books I Read (Or Listened To)
In a given month I average anywhere between two and three books. April I fell off a bit but did finish two really exceptional books which are pretty different from each other. The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury and Morning Star by Pierce Brown.
Games I've Been Playing
Between the move and work, I haven't had a ton of time to play games, so when I do I've spent the majority of the time playing NBA 2K17 (my go-to) and reviewing MLB The Show 17. I did go back to Horizon: Zero Dawn at the end of the month to restart it and try to do a full playthrough after reviewing it at the beginning of the year.
