Okay, I know it isn’t techinically the last day of July, but Fridays are What’s Blooming 😀 , so you get the wrap up today.

Halfway done with summer now – or more than halfway, I guess.  We had the hottest weather of the summer so far this week. Phew! I certainly don’t want to complain about the heat given the wretched winter we had, but this girl cannot take the humidity.  This is why I could never seriously think about living in the South – as much as I love New Orleans. Snow birding, maybe, but not year round.

Anyway, here are the results for July.

1.  Making some needed doctor appointments.  I am so lame. I didn’t do any of these. My PCP left the practice, so I need to find a whole new one. Probably in the same system, but in an office closer to our new place.

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2. Read more.  I read a couple books. 

The Emperor’s Edge by  Lindsay Buroker

My Amazon link. The Kindle version is free, so give it a whirl!  This is sort of in the steam punk genre and the first book in a series of a former female law enforcer and a male assassin that team up to save the emperor.  I found it to be an interesting book, although it had some problems with the narrative at times skipping over stuff.  I might look at reading some of the others as well.

Four: The Transfer by Veronica Roth

I read the Divergent series and other than the dippy teen romance angst, they were fun books to read and a good dystopian story. I actually thought this was a book told from Four’s point of view, and it was, but it was only a portion of his story. Apparently there is a collection of short novellas detailing his back story. I was surprised when I got to the end of this after only a short read and I knew there was a lot more to go LOL! That happens on the Kindle because you can’t really see how long a book is.

Prince Lestat: The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice.

Okay, I hated this book. Hated it. I am not even linking to it since it was so bad. In fact, I couldn’t finish it. Now, I love the earlier series of the Chronicles, so I was pretty excited to read this. They were fun and pretty well written for this type of story. Now it seems that when Anne Rice came back to this series after a hiatus she lost all the voices. The cast becomes a parody of itself from earlier novels and then too many new characters with no point. Certainly not anywhere close to her earlier writing. I had even figured out the ending within the first few chapters. I had to peek at the end before I quit on the book to make sure I was correct in my guess (I was). Thank goodness this was just on loan from the library.

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3. Scope out a volunteer position.  I have been looking at some possibilities here. The Red Cross is always a good one and since I don’t donate anymore because of my scarred veins, I was thinking about volunteering for the blood drives.  I also have been looking at Habitat for Humanity, but I don’t know quite what involvement that requires for my local chapter. The one in Albany is very busy, but that is too far for me to go to on a regular basis. So, I am still looking.

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4. Try some new vegetable dishes.  I don’t know as I would call them dishes, but I certainly have been eating more veggies other than broccoli!  Go me!  Like the squash:

And I have been eating more salads because it is hot.  I consider any veggie eating other than broccoli to be a victory for me.

All in all, a decent month. Room for improvement, as always.

Bike mileage update:  As of this morning, 1359 miles.

Tomorrow the blooming post 😀