October Check-In
The biggest thing to happen in the month of October was probably celebrating Lauren's and my 9 year anniversary. Other than that, it was mostly a quiet month.
The Gaslight Anthem
The month started out well, I ended up going down to Washington D.C. to see The Gaslight Anthem with my best friend who lives just outside of D.C. in Maryland. They had gone on an indefinite hiatus years ago so when they announced they were getting back together earlier in the year, recording new music and going on tour, I jumped at the opportunity. The show in D.C. was fantastic, and I ended up seeing them a second time two days later in Philly. If you haven't listened to them, I would highly recommend them. They put on amazing shows.
9 Year Anniversary
In the middle of the month Lauren and I celebrated our 9 year wedding anniversary. We've normally gone to Congress Hall in Cape May for it, but we decided to save some vacation time and some money and kept it low-key. I ended up cooking Filet Mignon and Scallops for dinner and we had a nice romantic evening in.
The next day we ended up going out to a restaurant the next day to have a dinner pairing with a local distillery. We had some good gin and bourbon drinks paired with some delicious food. We both had pig's head for the first time. It was a little on the fatty side, but fantastic. Their homemade barbecue sauce went really well with it.
We finished our anniversary celebration with a trip to the Lehigh Valley Phantoms home opener. We both love hockey and it was a fun evening. Starting with a trip to Fegley's Brewery for dinner and drinks, and then an evening cheering the Phantoms. They sadly lost in overtime, but it was a good night.
Phillies World Series Run
I've been a huge Phillies fan since I was a kid. Despite thinking they'd end up collapsing (again) in September, they managed to make their way into the playoffs. All October I've been following along as they swept the St. Louis Cardinals, knocked out the Atlanta Braves in 4 games in the NLDS, and then won the NL Pennant by beating the San Diego Padres in 5 in the NLCS. They're currently in the World Series constantly making me both anxious and excited at the same time. They ended up losing 4 games to 2, but the unexpected playoff run has been fun and hopefully they can build off the success next season.
Digital Family Cookbook
My initial version of the .NET version of my little side project is nearing completion. I was able to get a lot done with it over the course of October. I still have some little things to finish up, but I'm hoping I'll get around to them over the next several weeks. I'm gonna have to figure out where and how to host it though.
Twitter Drama
At the end of the month Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter was finalized and he is now in charge of the bird site. I've enjoyed Twitter, but for the forseeable future, I'm not going to be using it. I have re-discovered my Mastodon account, so please follow me there...it's awesome.
Monthly Round-Up
🏃🏼♂️ Running & Biking
- Running: I ran a measly 3.78 miles in October...I should get back on the road more even without the marathon
- Biking: Nope
🏋🏼♂️ Lifting
- No new PRs or even really close to a new PR in any of the major lifts, but I've gotten back into some consistency lifting.
📚 Reading
Continuing
Started
- Chokepoint Capitalism by Rebecca Giblin & Cory Doctorow
✍🏻 Writing
🎮 Gaming
- Continued to play World of Warcraft
- Continuing Jedi: Fallen Order
📺 Watched
- Finished watching The Office
- Finished the current season of Star Trek: Lower Decks
- Continuing Yellowstone
- Started Daria
- Started It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia