Fun family activity

Daily podcast from Dani started yesterday

Great gift idea

https://www.whitemountainpuzzles.com/

Variety

Switch where you sit to watch TV.

Rearrange a room a little bit.

Work in a different room or outside. Relax somewhere different on the weekend.

Utilize your whole living space.

*** We are going to scrub the two big porch swings in the next couple days, and use our front porch this spring. The neighbors dogs cannot see us there. It is very secluded and WiFi works on the porch. It stays cool. Swings are very relaxing. ***

TV Ideas

Middle and I are watching The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazon Prime
Truly some of the best writing ever filmed. Also perfectly cast and directed.

I had seen seasons 1 and 2. Middle had seen season 1. We started a couple episodes from the end of season 1, to refresh our memory, and will finish thru Season 3. Season 4 was ordered but obviously will be indefinitely delayed.

We just saw the episodes from the resorts in the Catskills. Those resorts were new concept to middle. She looked them up and I was surprised to know they are all gone, fallen to utter decay. Evidently when flights became common and affordable, NY emptied to other places in the summer. That is really sad and what a shame.

That lead us to Dirty Dancing which Middle has never seen, so probably we will do that next.



In looking for other movies set in the Catskills, I found this link if you are looking for a virtual vacation:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.brickunderground.com/escape/vacation-town-movies-nyc%3famp

What a diverse list that is!



If you are struggling to find things to watch/distract, let me suggest themes/lists.

Super fun to pick an actor or theme and watch that set. Jimmy Stewart, Doris Day, Barbra Streisand, Alfred Hitchcock, Star Trek, John Wayne are some of my favorites.

An author, Agatha Christie for example, who has had most of her books filmed is great fun too. I just did that last month. I had seen most of them, but still enjoyed that large volume of film.

Many TV apps can be picked up for just a month or two at a time. Be sure to unsubscribe as soon as you sign up so it does not automatically renew.

https://babystepsv3.blogspot.com/2020/03/cancellations.html?m=1

BBC (Britbox) and musicals (I am sure there is an app) would be two very fun things to binge. If you have exhausted Netflix, move on to Amazon Prime. If you have exhausted both of those, try HULU.

An example is my mother, who somehow had never watched anything on BBC/PBS. I think she started with Downton Abby. One of her great loves is now Doc Martin. She went on to watch everything with Martin Clunes that she could find.

If you are not as well read in the classics as you would like, could find the film versions of many many classic titles. That would be a great list. I would start by goggling 100 classics everyone should have read. I just rewatched all the Jane Austen movies and really enjoyed them as an immersion set.

Documentaries is another good idea. Ken Burns is a favorite of my husband.

Reality competitions is another good subset. The seasons of Top Chef and Project Runway are available. I am not sure if American Idol and the Voice are available, but even if you know the winners of some years, the singing would be very distracting.

Long running TV series are also possibilities. There are a lot of them.

https://www.wga.org/writers-room/101-best-lists/101-best-written-tv-series/list

Good writing is good writing no matter how old. (I have yet to see The Office or Parks and Recreation or 30 Rock.)

Find a Grave

This is the online system where genealogy/family graves are linked and there are pictures of gravestone inscriptions (and sometimes) family photos and obituaries added.

Very clever people are answering photo requests. This is happening in a wide spread way. More than one person is clearly taking photos, because I have had many requests filled in multiple counties in the last week.

So they are going to cemeteries, hunting graves, taking pictures of the stones and loading them in the system. Very clear social distancing. I am sure most cemeteries are deserted.

These particular cemeteries are mostly out in the middle of absolutely nothing and nowhere. Old country sites. So I know there is major social distancing.

Great solo activity. It takes a long time to find graves. And they are getting fresh air and sunshine and a real sense of accomplishment, I am sure.

CBS

I liked the Good Wife very much. I liked the Good Fight (CBS All Access) even more.

Season 4 of the Good Fight just started streaming. It is being released one episode at a time.

All seven seasons of the a Good Wife are also available (CBS All Access).

Kale Chips

Wash kale, dry.
Remove stems, utilize leaves.
Place leaves on cookie sheet, I use a jelly roll pan.
Drizzle with olive oil.
Sprinkle with scant sea salt.
In my oven, 12 minutes at 350 is perfect.

Getting charged for routers you do not use

I am not sure I mentioned this, but when Best Buy installed our WiFi system (AMPLIFI), I called Frontier to return their router and get its fee taken off future bills.

Nope.

They took the router back at their service center. They did not reduce my bill.

Here is an article on this topic:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/01/us-finally-prohibits-isps-from-charging-for-routers-they-dont-provide/%3famp=1

Call the midwife, season 9, started last week

On the PBS app and website, shows that have already broadcast, are available for a short time.

Distilled water

Distilled water is very hard to get

I rinse my sinuses 2-3 times a day. Helps a lot.

I know I am not going to be able to replenish my stock.

So as I empty a jug, I boil tap water and refill it. Then I will never hit the day where I am out. I will stay full.

We discovered we like the collage puzzles best

So glad to have a lot of puzzles

This is what our kitchen table looks like on a daily basis.

Sometimes you stock up on things and regret it.

Sometimes it turns out to be great.

Someone had 1000 piece puzzles, unopened, listed on Facebook Marketplace for $3 each months ago. I bought them all.

When youngest used to come home for college breaks, she enjoyed family jigsaw puzzles.

Coming home for break may now be a thing of the past.

She was one of the first college sent home, three weeks ago.

The governor understood early on what was at stake.  Her university president acted very quickly. At 9pm on a Tuesday he said grab only what you need to finish the semester online at home and everybody out by 6pm Wednesday.

I drove there in the wee hours that Wednesday, way before dawn. We loaded her car/my car, with us, her roommate, the roommate’s dog, plants, everything from the refrigerator, text books, lap tops, electronics, medicine and were gone before we saw a soul.

Obviously, had we known, we would have taken another car and gotten more.

Her stuff is in permanent limbo on campus.

All summer programs were canceled, including the last rotation of her engineering coop. Summer classes are online. We are pretty sure fall classes will be online too. It is her fifth and final year. Chemical engineering (5 year program) and Spanish double major.

So she is immersed in finishing her semester online. Middle and my husband have been working from home for almost two weeks. Oldest and his girl have been working from their home even longer.

And we do puzzles.

My first online grocery order

I ordered online thru Kroger.

I started my list on the weekend, I added, as I thought of things, up until Tuesday night at midnight.

I pulled into a order pick up parking spot at Kroger at my assigned time (Wednesday 1pm).

I called the number on the parking spot sign and gave them my name.

My order rolled out about 15 minutes later.

I opened my trunk, paperwork and groceries were placed in my trunk. I had put a $5 bill in trunk for delivery person tip.

I did not get out. I did not open my window.

I had ordered almost $200 worth of groceries. I was missing 17 items, my total was $120.  My paperwork included a list of what was missing. My neighbor has been averaging 2/3 of her orders. She suggested over order and diversify. I did not get peanuts, yeast, rice noodles, onions, asparagus, bell pepper, Mrs Grass soup, pizza crust.

I pulled in driveway and my husband helped me “wash” groceries. We worked directly out of the trunk of the car. We did not carry bags in the house.

He opened boxes and I pulled out clean liners full of food (cereal, crackers), he put the boxes straight in recycling, I took the food in the house and put it away.

He opened containers and I held clean bag/container for transfer (raisins, flour) and put it away while he put container in recycling.

He carried things in the house one at a time for washing. He washed all the produce and all plastic containers on a tub full of soapy water in the kitchen sink. I dried and put away. I also prepped produce as we went. I switched towels several times in the process. He emptied and refilled the tub several times. We used Dawn as our soap.

The plastic bags from the grocery never came in the house, they went in a bag for recycling.

I did not feel like the kitchen was contaminated. Nothing got set on a counter or the floor.

My husband is the “dirty hands” and I am the “clean”. We both washed our hands many times. We propped open the back screen door so we did not touch anything on the way in and out.




Everyone at my house was very excited by this whole shopping process. They were curious to see what we got and what we did not get.

I started my 2nd order for next Tuesday morning.




Every morning I send a text to my husband, Middle and youngest with food for that day. Today’s said - Spanish tortilla (eggs and red potato) for lunch; stir fry veggies, tofu, rice for dinner.

In the afternoon, I often send them a text that there is something in the kitchen for a snack. Yesterday everyone got 1/4 of a tiny watermelon. Today everyone had 1/4 of a package of strawberries.