Monday Musings

Highlights of the week: The two non-fiction books I ordered from Book Depository arrived. I'm just in love with both of those covers! And, as we know, book mail is the best mail! ;)

On Thursday I headed over to the beach on base with my chair and my book for an hour or so. Between the planes taking off and the playing kids, it was too noisy to get much reading done, but it was nice just to stick my toes in the sand. We've been in Hawaii for two months now and I've spent so much time inside (between staying in base lodging and then moving into our house with no stuff for two weeks, and then unpacking) that I feel like I could be anywhere! (Granted, since this is our second time around living here, we've already done all the touristy stuff so there's no rush to get to a luau or check out every beach. We already have our favorites. But still -- I need some sunshine and crashing waves in my life!)

Reading: I finished "The Fireman" by Joe Hill (loved it -- review) and read the memoir "When Breath Become Air" by Paul Kalanithi, a young neurosurgeon who is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer (also an amazing read -- review).

Then I started "Burial Rites" by Hannah Kent, which is on track to be my third 5-star read in a row! It's set in early-1800s Iceland and our main character is Agnes Magnusdottir, an accused murderess sentenced to death. But did she do it? The writing is stunning and the setting is vivid and I'm so glad I finally picked this title up after it languished on my TBR list for years. Plus it's kinda fun to read something that takes place in a polar opposite setting from perpetual-summer Hawaii.

Knitting: I'm almost done with my Cap Sleeve Lattice Top! Last night I finished the last couple rows of the bottom ribbing, and now it's time to finally learn mattress stitch so I can seam up the sides. I'm really pleased with the way it came out -- it looks like it'll be something stylish enough that I'll actually wear it. So this week I'll sew up the sides and block it and then... I'll hopefully have a handmade sweater fit for Hawaii!

Watching: We watched the season finale of this season's "Game of Thrones" on Saturday night and ooooh, what a revelation! I think it was something that readers of the books may already have known, but it was sure fascinating to me! We also watched the dramedy "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot" starring Tina Fey, about war reporting in Afghanistan, based on the memoir by Kim Baker ("The Taliban Shuffle"). I haven't read the book, but I thought the movie was just-ok.

Listening to: "Fast Car" by Jonas Blue and Dakota.

Buying: The entire downstairs of our new house is faux tile (aka linoleum) and the hard surface has been killing my feet, not to mention it's the world's biggest pain in the ass to mop. This weekend we finally decided on and brought home a rug for the living room. It's actually a bound 12x15-foot berber carpet remnant from a flooring store. It's perfect and it was a great deal, and I wish we would've come up with this idea sooner rather than spending weeks and weeks scouring stores and the internet looking for the right area rug.

Eating: Chocolate chip banana bread, as seen in the above photo. Yum!

Dropping: For the first time I can ever remember, I dropped an egg on the floor! It happened during the making of the aforementioned banana bread, which, for being a simple thing I've made a million times, was unusually fraught with problems!

Enjoying: A thunderstorm! I wrote last Monday that I was craving a thunderstorm, something Hawaii rarely gets. Apparently Mother Nature reads my blog, because last night Tropical Storm Darby actually brought us some good hard rain and a bit of thunder and lightning!

Looking forward to: Getting our patio set up this week! Now that our sod is looking great and the raised garden bed is built (though not yet filled) we can finally get to work cleaning up and arranging the patio. We bought a fun outdoor rug and some patio lights, and I've been fantasizing about a fountain. I'm so excited to sit out there and read! (Though first we need to deal with the ants and mosquitoes...)


I'm linking up with Kathryn at Book Date for It's Monday! What Are You Reading?