As the weeks of summer drift by, the pattern of my life changes a bit.  I am working hard to prepare my mindset for the start of what I call my “new year”.  But I managed to fit in a little fun.

I have not been compensated for any of the following.  My choices, my money.  Locations are NYC unless otherwise noted.  Ratings are 0-5.

Books

“Sacred Hearts” Sarah Dunant.  This book was well written, the characters were well developed.  The story was different than other books, and the language was easy to comprehend.  It centers around two women in a convent in Italy during the 16th century.  There is really nothing wrong with this book.  I just didn’t like it.  So how do I give a review?  I’ll give it 4 based on it’s merits, but it’s more for someone who likes historical fiction.  Or 16th century Italian convents.

“The One That Got Away” Melissa Pimental This is a modern retelling of “Persuasion” (Jane Austen)  It is chick lit.  I love chick lit, especially in the summer.  I love anything based on Jane Austen.  But (cause you knew there would be a but here…..) This book is just too trite.  Adjectives are repeated way too often, to the point I want to mail the author a thesaurus.  Though some of the dialogue is witty, it is more often cutesy. 3

Television

“Masterchef” Fox With 9 or 10 competitors left, I have no idea who is going to win.  I have no favorite.  I think they’re all good, but I don’t see anyone being consistent enough yet.  I think they all have highs and lows.  But I love Dino.  He makes me laugh, but I don’t think he’s good enough to win.

Movies

Logan Lucky  This is a heist movie.  I know, been there, done that.  Except….Soderbergh directed.  So it’s good.  It’s really good.  Clever and intelligent, well written, well directed, well acted.  Entertaining.  Adam Driver is fast becoming one of my favorite actors.  4.5

The Circle This is the movie based on the book that freaked me out.  The movie isn’t as good as the book- shocking.  The movie had potential to be great- the plot was good, the actors were good.  But they screwed up telling the story.  Bad adaptation choices.  3

Other

Eclipse.  I know this was generally underreported, but there was an eclipse last week.  Right?  I know- can you believe you missed it?  I was lucky enough to catch a sidebar about it, so I went to the park to watch.  In NYC, we had 71% coverage.  I thought this was so amazing.  Truly mind blowing.  But what was also great was that for 3 minutes, we were all doing the same thing- looking up at the sky.  People shared their eclipse glasses so that everyone got a little peak of history.  My daughter and I made an old school cereal box viewer.  We were so excited that it actually worked! 5

Josiah McElheny Prismatic Park – Art exhibit- Madison Square Park.  This exhibit consists of 3 large wooden/glass sculptures.  Are they called sculptures if they are wood and glass?  I don’t know if that’s the right word, but I’m going with it.  These works remind me of the game Connect Four.  It’s nice, cause they’re in the park, but I don’t see any reason to run to see them.  3.5

US Open Qualifying Matches  The week before the US Tennis Open begins, players compete in qualifiers- players who have good records, but not good enough to get an invite to the Open.  If you happen to be in New York, and you like tennis, this is a must do.  First off- free.  Secondly- great tennis.  And you just might see a future winner of a tournament- a future star.  We watched a match with the young woman who won Wimbledon Juniors this year. 4.8

Food

District If you need to be around East 94th Street and you want a simple meal, this place is fine.  Burgers, salads, entrees.  Everything about this place is fine.  But unless you are around 94th street, there is no reason to go out of your way to go to this place.  You can get the same food at about 1000 other locations in NYC. 4

Frank This place is old school Italian.  Lots of red sauce.  Lots of pasta.  Lots of bread.  Cozy atmosphere (this place is tiny) Very large wine list.  And the food is good, but they’re not reinventing the wheel.  There is not a thing on the menu I can’t replicate at home.  But Husband wanted to go there- so we went.  And you will get a very good meal. 4.3

Hill Country Fried Chicken Yes- you can actually get really good fried chicken in NYC.  This is a fast casual place, so we get our stuff to go, and eat in the park across the street.  The chicken is delicious.  The sides are delicious.  The pies are ridiculous good (though we didn’t have pie yesterday……) 4.6

Housekeeping

Thanks for all the incredibly thought provoking and thoughtful commentary this week!  I love having discussions with all of you!  You make me raise my game, and I love that!  Also- I welcome challenges and disagreement.  That also helps me raise my game.  We don’t have to all agree, but we all need to listen to different thoughts and ideas.  We should always be thinking.

I know I talked about parenting a lot this past week- and alas, I believe you will be treated to more of that this coming week.  I guess I’m on a roll.  As of right now, I also plan a little self reflection, a little bit about families….but as I’ve never actually written the blogs I actually think I’m going to write-  so who knows!!

I still experience WordPress issues.  I find it’s not when I use the website when I’m writing blogs on my computer- but when I use the app on my ipad or phone.  I edited something using the ipad, and it was all sorts of screwed up.  I am also having problems with reader- not all the posts are showing up on my feed, and even though I’m liking things, the like is not always visible.  I’m just a tad frustrated at this point.  I apologize to anyone who seems to be slighted by me.  Also- if it appears I haven’t been reading your blog, shoot me a message.  I noticed that some people I follow have mysteriously disappeared.  My problem is, I don’t remember or know who is on vacation, and I’m notoriously bad at remembering blog names.

On the decluttering- I brought another very large bad to donation center.  Yay me.  And we only purchased 1 non food/hygiene related item this week- and it was a replacement item.  Yay us!  I’m really trying to go down to as few items as possible.

Till tomorrow!