The Friday Five, 6/23/23: 5 things I've been up to this week

This was another holiday week—Juneteenth was Monday, and I ended up only doing a half-day of work because emails were so slow. That being said, this week has felt very long, so I'm glad it's Friday—this weekend I'm going to the Walled Lake fireworks tomorow, and a friend is having a birthday party for her dog on Sunday, too.

Dinnerly Teriyaki Beef (steak strips) with cucumber and coconut rice

What I've been up to this week:

1. Cooking. We had Marley Spoon last week and Dinnerly this week, and next week is Marley Spoon again. MS doesn't give a ton of discounts but I've been getting some $16-18 boxes from them, which is great, and some $14 Dinnerly boxes—the only caveat with Dinnerly is that they don't give you printed recipe cards, so I usually print them myself, or you can use the app or website. 
2. Watching movies. Last Saturday during my infusion, I finally watched Renfield, which was as bonkers as I thought it was going to be—I'm giving away a digital code for it, too, which ends tomorrow, and you can enter that here. Yesterday I saw Elemental in 3D at the theater, and it was very good—I'd give it 4/5 stars, and the 3D was great too. The only bummer is that the two families that were there brought their babies and toddlers, and it was pretty loud during the whole movie. You can see my video review of the movie here. I'm seeing the new Jennifer Lawrence movie, No Hard Feelings, tonight, too, so we'll see how that one is; I haven't watched the trailer for it so I'm going in semi-blind ("semi" because I did read a synopsis of it). 
3. Watching TV shows. I started a few new ones this week—And Just Like That, the Sex and the City new show, is back on Max, and I watched both of the new episodes yesterday. The Bear came back on Hulu yesterday, also for season two, and although it's not QUITE as stressful as season 1, there are new stressors to be found. I started Drops of God on AppleTV+, and it's pretty interesting, as is the plot concept, but since it's in Japanese, French, AND English, I need to be able to pay close attention to it when I watch. I also caught up on Married at First Sight, finished American Born Chinese (Disney+) and Silo (AppleTV+, on the press app; the final episode is next week, otherwise, I believe), and watched both the Taylor Swift 2018 concert and Miss Americana, the documentary about her, on Netflix. I also have been watching Cruel Summer season two, on Hulu; the first season was a bit better but this one is also good.
4. Booking travel. We finally booked our East Coast vacation, to sightsee and also see my family—everyone in my family lives in MA and RI, except for a few scattered West Coast cousins, and some of my younger cousins, who now live in Philly, NYC, and DC. We took this trip last year too and went to RI—Newport, too—and MA, and this year we are thinking about maybe doing a Maine day trip too. We will be going end of September through early October, which is not really beach weather, but it should be very pretty with the leaves changing colors, around that time. I also highly recommend Costco Travel for booking car rental—since my boyfriend and I aren't married and do not technically live together, most car companies would charge us an extra ~$15/day to have a second driver for the car, but Costco Travel does not. They also have Alamo, Enterprise, and Budget options, and are generally a lot cheaper than the actual car rental sites. I keep checking it now and then too because the prices fluctuate a lot, and they allow you to cancel and rebook with no fee.
5. Eating out/getting takeout & DoorDash. On Friday night, I was super excited that HopCat was on DoorDash, and I ordered my favorite from there, their grilled cheese—unfortunately, it arrived not very hot, with the fries piled on top of it, so I wasn't a fan. On Saturday night we got Sidecar Slider Bar from DoorDash—I had been craving cheese curds since I didn't get any of them in Wisconsin—and SSB's are really good. On Sunday, I visited my parents for Father's Day and we had our usual, Hungry Howie's takeout, too.

Dinnerly Tortellini Pesto Primavera with squash and tomatoes