Ah MAY…a month of…the continued explosion of springtime blooms and pollen and green…a focus on Dad’s recovery from back surgery…long work days as a new project ramps up…more work travel…the anticipation of summer…

A few minutes of sunrise along the lakefront on a Friday morning

In the midst of it all, these are the things that filled my May days…

Airplane Reading

Reading…lots! 8 flights plus some downtime while home in the ‘Ville yielded a lot of completed reads…Goodreads tells me that I finished 8 books during the month – an assortment of fiction and non-fiction: The Travelers by Chris Pavone; The One in a Million Boy by Monica Wood; Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem by Kevin DeYoung; The Sound of Wild Snail Eating by Elisabeth Tova Bailey; Wrapped in Rain: A Novel of Coming Home by Charles Walker; The Avalon Ladies Scrapbooking Society by Darien Gee; Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter; Eight Hundred Grapes by Laura Dave – a mid-June round-up of reviews on these (& more) is planned…

Watching…the season (& series) wrap for some of my favorites, including Castle, Mr. Selfridge, Wallander…

Streaming…when “The Republic of Doyle” popped up as a suggestion in Netflix I started on it and am hooked – I’m thoroughly enjoying this fun crime serial set in New Foundland – likable cast of characters surrounding a father/son PI business – beautiful scenery – great soundtrack (including a longtime fave, Great Big Sea)…

Listening…to the Beach Boys – while enjoying their performance on the National Memorial Day concert, I immediately snagged one of their albums on iTunes & have been listening to a favorite sound…

Comfort meal = Spinach + Eggs

Cooking…keeping it simple while home to balance all the eating out while on the road…a recent Sunday dinner routine has been a pan seared steak plus roasted green beans and a bit of blue cheese dressing – the leftovers pair with spinach and fruits for salads…keeping spinach & eggs in the fridge ensures a simple supper option on many a week night…

Early morning at the airport

Traveling…on the road 14 days in May…every other week in Milwaukee for some meetings – one of the May evenings included a return to another favorite restaurant from my time there in 2001…with both trips, I managed to grab a few moments of the sun rising over the lakefront before beginning my day…

The 5th Annual Brewers game with this crew!

Relaxing…with WI-fam at the end of my first Milwaukee trip – when I saw that I couldn’t fly out till Saturday due to the meeting schedule, I quickly reached out to see if they were available to come down for a bit of fun. As the work day ended on Friday, we met up and managed to cram a lot of fun into a short amount of time. Friday evening was a Brewers game – our 5th “annual” time at the park. W was thrilled to meet his favorite racing sausage – I was thrilled to get a picture with Hank! The game was fun, the beer & hot dog delicious, the time with Wi-fam a treat! On Saturday morning, the boys were waterbugs in the hotel pool for close to 3 hours as the adults caught up on life over breakfast treats on the pool deck.

Play Ball!

Cheering…2 major league baseball games in 2 different stadiums within a span of 4 days…after a Friday night Brewers game, the following Monday my team from work used our company tickets for a fun evening of connecting away from the busy that we all are experiencing these days – it was a perfect spring evening for a Phillies game…

A rainbow spotted after a busy day of meetings in Milwaukee

Texting…it’s a good thing we have unlimited texting on our family mobile plan…there’s no telling how much texting was going on between Mom, Rebecca & me as we focused on Dad’s surgery and recovery…the emoji game has been strong among us – auto correct has provided some good laughs…

Surprising…Dad by “detouring” to the ‘Ville for Memorial Day weekend! This was a much needed trip for all of us!

Looking ahead…more Milwaukee travel on the calendar…wondering if I’ll get any patio planting in this summer with my schedule…Dad’s continued rehab from back surgery…ready for the return of Saturday farm stand runs…finalizing summer plans with friends…

Linking up with Leigh’s monthly What I’m Into round-up. What are you into these days?