A Look Back: June 2016

The Month:

*It's been a fairly quiet month here in Hawaii. We arrived May 25 and spent three weeks living in a hotel on base while we were house-hunting (a stressful and grouchy time, but we won't go into that!) and then we moved into our new home two weeks ago today. And today, the moving company is finally delivering our stuff! (For some crazy reason, they were backed up enough that they needed four weeks to deliver, so we've been making do with the little bit of loaner stuff available from the Air Force. I have never been so excited to sleep in my own bed -- or to vacuum!) After living for two weeks in an almost completely empty house, I am so looking forward to making this place feel warm and homey! And to have some patio furniture so I can sit outside!

*On June 15, the day we got the keys to our house, Jarrod and I celebrated our 8-year wedding anniversary by picking up and hauling in our new washer and dryer, then eating at our favorite burger place (we're super-fancy around here!).

*Our kitty cat, Lily, joined us in Hawaii last Friday! We had to delay bringing her out because we couldn't find any decent cat-friendly lodging while we were house-hunting, so she spent an extra couple weeks with her grandparents in Colorado. She's already found her new favorite perch, the living room windowsill where she can watch the birds and our occasional mongoose visitor.

*We had several days between moving in and DirecTV hooking up our cable, so we binge-watched season 1 of "Mr. Robot" on Amazon Prime; perfect timing because the new season starts in a couple weeks. It's a unique thriller about a cyber security expert/hacker/schizophrenic and we both enjoyed it. And now that we have our cable hooked up, we've been taking advantage of our three months of free movie channels to catch up on this season's "Game of Thrones" on OnDemand.

*I finally had my first Moscow mule cocktail! It was delicious and I totally want to learn how to make them myself. Maybe I'll even buy some cute (faux)copper mugs!

*We had an unpleasant surprise last weekend when we encountered a scorpion crawling across our master bedroom floor. YIKES!

The Books:

Books finished: 6

Favorite book: "The Wolf Road" by Beth Lewis... but "Written in Red" was so good too (in a completely different way)!

Biggest let-down: none this month! :)

Most excited about reading in July: "Sleeping Giants" by Sylvain Neuvel. I have it on hold at the library and I'm hoping it comes in soon; I've been dying to read it since before it came out, but the timing was all wrong with our move and being able to get it from the library.
Books added to to-read list: 17 (I actually added a couple more since I started writing this post, but I'm too ashamed to count and add them!)

Books added to maybe-to-read list: 27 (Houston, we have a problem!)
Most intriguing TBR addition: "The Last Days of Night" by Graham Moore, out in September. From Goodreads: From Graham Moore, the Academy Award–winning screenwriter of "The Imitation Game"...comes a riveting historical thriller about the "War of the Currents," the famous race for glory and riches between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse.
Books read from my summer reading list: 0
Books read from my must-read-in-2016 list: 1 ("Written in Red")

Favorite Bookstagram: (below) I just love the cover of "Lily and the Octopus" and it was fun turning it into an Instagram photo. I seldom read e-books until I started requesting advance-reading copies from NetGalley recently, and it's been interesting taking photos of my iPad (and battling that glare!). Follow me on Instagram @knittinglindsay!

The Knits:

I've made some good progress on my Cap Sleeve Lattice Top (pattern from Purl Soho) this month! It should be done shortly; I just have to finish the stockinette body and bottom ribbing on the front, then it'll be time to seam the sides together! It's been a fun and easy knit, and I'm excited to have a handmade sweater that I can actually wear in Hawaii without getting heat stroke! I've been scouring Ravelry for more short-sleeve sweater patterns and I'm sure I'll start another one soon!

The Blog:

Favorite post: 10 Things I Love About Harry Potter  I put this post together at the last minute and it turned out to be such fun! I really enjoyed looking back through the photos from our February trip to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter (one of these days I'll write up a whole post). It also made crave a Harry Potter movie marathon, so maybe that's what I'll do this next week in between unpacking.

Favorite link-up post: 25 Gorgeous Bookish Art Prints to Add to Your Wishlist  So much for Top Ten Tuesday, we've got Top 25 Tuesday! Looking at this post just makes me happy... so many pretties!

Book reviews:

"June" by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore (4.5 stars)

"Lily and the Octopus" by Steven Rowley (4 stars)

"The Wolf Road" by Beth Lewis (5 stars)

"Age of Myth" by Michael J. Sullivan (4 stars)