Classic book list in author order

Author Order

Achebe, Chinua

 Things Fall Apart  (1958) 

Adams, Richard:
Watership Down (1972)

Anderson, Sherwood:
Winesburg Ohio (1919)  

Austen, Jane:
Sense and Sensibility (1811)
Pride and Prejudice (1813)

Northanger Abbey (1817)

Bradbury, Ray:
Fahrenheit 451 (1953)

Bronte, Charlotte:
Jane Eyre (1847)

Bronte, Emilee:
Wuthering Heights (1847)

Buck, Pearl:
The Good Earth (1931)

Burgess, Anthony:
Clockwork Orange (1962)

Camus, Albert:
The Stranger (1942)

Capote, Truman

In Cold Blood (1966)

Card, Orson Scott:
Ender’s Game (1985)

Carroll, Lewis:
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
Through the Looking Glass (1871)

Cather, Willa:
My Antonia (1918)
Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927)

Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de:
Don Quixote (1605 and 1615)

Chopin, Kate:
The Awakening (1899)

Christie, Agatha:
Murder on the Orient Express (1934)

Collins, Wilkie

The Woman in White (1860)

Cooper, James Fenimore

The Last of the Mohicans (1826)

Conrad, Joseph:
Heart of Darkness (1902)

Lord Jim (1899-1900)

Cormier, Robert:
The Chocolate War: A Novel (1974)

Crane, Stephen:
The Red Badge of Courage (1895)

Craven, Margaret:
I Heard the Owl Call my Name (1960)

Defoe, Daniel: 
Robinson Crusoe (1719)

Moll Flanders (1722)

Dickens, Charles:
Bleak House (1852-1853)
Tale of Two Cities (1859)
Great Expectations (1860-1861)

Oliver Twist (1838)
Hard Times (1854)

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor:
Crime and Punishment (1866)
Brothers Karamazov (1879-1880)Notes from the Underground (1864)

Doyle, Arthur Conan:
The Hound of the Baskervilles (1901-1902)

Dreiser, Theodore:
An American Tragedy (1925)Sister Carrie (1900)

Eliot, George

The Mill on the Floss (1860)

Ellison, Ralph:
Invisible Man (1952)

Faulkner, William

The Sound and the Fury (1929)

As I Lay Dying (1930)

Fitzgerald, F. Scott:
This Side of Paradise (1920)
The Great Gatsby (1925)
Tender is the Night (1934)


Forster, E.M.:
A Room With a View (1908)
Howards End (1910)
A Passage to India (1924)

Frank, Anne:
The Diary of a Young Girl (1947)

Golding, William:
Lord of the Flies (1954)

Hammett, Dashiell:
Maltese Falcon (1940)

Hardy, Thomas:
Tess of D’Urbervilles (1891)

Jude the Obscure (1895)

Far from the Maddening Crowd (1874)

The Return of the Native (1878)

Hawthorne, Nathaniel:
The Scarlet Letter (1850)

The House of the Seven Gables (1851)

Heller, Joseph:
Catch-22 (1961)

Hemingway, Ernest:
The Sun Also Rises (1926)
A Farewell to Arms (1929)
For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940)
Old Man and the Sea (1952)

Hersey, Jophn 

Hiroshima (1946)

Hesse, Hermann:
Siddhartha (1922)

Hugo, Victor

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831)

Hurston, Zora Neal:
Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)

Huxley, Aldous:
Brave New World (1931)

James, Henry

The Turn of the Screw (1898)

Joyce, James

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916)

Kerouac, Jack:
On the Road (1957)


Kesey, Ken:
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1962)

Kipling, Rudyard

Captains Courageous (1897)

Kim (1900-1901)

Knowles, John:
A Separate Peace (1959)

Lawrence, D.H.:
Sons and Lovers (1913)
Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928)

Women in Love (1920)

Le Carre, John

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974)

Lee, Harper:
To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)

Leroux , Gaston

The Phantom of the Opera (1909-1910)

Lewis, Sinclair:
Main Street (1920)
Babbitt (1922)
Arrowsmith (1925)

London, Jack:
The Call of the Wild (1903)
Sea Wolf (1904)

Machiavelli, Niccolo

The Prince (1513)

Marquez, Gabriel Garcia:
Love in the Time of Cholera (1985)

One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967)

Maugham, Somerset:
Of Human Bondage (1915)
The Razor’s Edge (1944)

Maurier, Daphne Du:
Rebecca (1938)

McCullers, Carson:
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940)
The Member of the Wedding (1946)

McEwan, Ian
Atonement (2001)

Mellville, Herman:
Moby Dick (1851)


Morrison, Toni:
Beloved (1987)

Nabokov, Vladimir:
Lolita (1955)

Orczy, Baroness Emmuska:
The Scarlet Pimpernel (1905)

Orwell, George:
Animal Farm (1945)
1984 (1949)

Paton, Alan:
Cry the Beloved Country (1948)

Plath, Sylvia

The Bell Jar (1963)

Potok, Chaim

My Name is Asher Lev (1972)

Rand, Ayn

Anthem (1938)

Remarque, Erich Maria

All Quiet on the Western Front (1929)

Salinger, J.D.:
Catcher in the Rye (1951)

Scott, Sir Wallace:
Ivanhoe (1819)

Shelley, Mary:
Frankenstein (1818)

Sinclair, Upton:
The Jungle(1906)

Solzhenitsyn:
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962)

Spark,Muriel:
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961)

Steinbeck, John:
Red Pony (1937)
Of Mice and Men (1937)
Grapes of Wrath (1939)
East of Eden (1952)

Stevenson, Robert Louis:
Treasure Island (1883)
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886)

Kidnapped (1893)

Stoker, Bram

Dracula (1897)

Stowe, Harriet Beecher:
Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) 

Styron, William:
Sophie’s Choice (1979)

Swift, Jonathon:
Gullivers Travels (1735)

Thoreau, Henry David

Walden (1854)

Tocqueville,  Alexis de

 Democracy in America (1835) abridged 

Twain, Mark:
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)
Pudd’nhead Wilson (1894)

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889)

Verne, Jules

Around the World in 80 Days (1873) 

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1870)

Voltaire

Candide (1759) 

Vonnegut, Kurt:
Slaughterhouse-Five (1969)

Cat's Cradle (1963)

Walker, Alice:
The Color Purple (1982)

Waugh, Evelyn:
Brideshead Revisited (1945)

Wells, H.G.:
Time Machine (1895)

Wharton, Edith:
Ethan Frome (1911)
The Age of Innocence (1920)

Wilde, Oscar:
The Picture of Dorian Grey (1891)

Wilder, Thorton:
The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927) 

Wolfe, Thomas:
Look Homeward Angel (1929)

Wolfe, Virginia

To the Lighthouse (1927)

Wright, Richard:
Native Son (1940)

Classic book list in title order

TITLE ORDER

 (I have read books marked with an *)

*1984 (1949) by George Orwell

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1870) by Jules Verne

*The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) by Mark Twain

*The Age of Innocence (1920) by Edith Wharton

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass (1871) by Lewis Carroll

*All Quiet on the Western Front (1929) by Erich Maria Remarque

An American Tragedy (1925) by Theodore Dreiser

*Animal Farm (1945) by George Orwell

Anthem (1938) by Ayn Rand

*Around the World in 80 Days (1873) by Jules Verne

Arrowsmith (1925) by Sinclair Lewis

As I Lay Dying (1930) by William Faulkner

*Atonement (2001) by Ian McEwan 

*The Awakening (1899) by Kate Chopin

Babbitt (1922) by Sinclair Lewis

The Bell Jar (1963) by Sylvia Plath

Beloved (1987) by Toni Morrison

*Bleak House (1852-1853) by Charles Dickens

*Brave New World (1931) by Aldous Huxley

*Brideshead Revisited (1945) by Evelyn Waugh

*Bridge of San Luis Rey (1927) by Thorton Wilder

*The Brothers Karamazov (1879-1880) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

*The Call of the Wild (1903) by Jack London

Candide (1759) by Voltaire

Captains Courageous (1897) by Rudyard Kipling

*Catch-22 (1961) by Joseph Heller

Catcher in the Rye (1951) by J.D. Salinger

Cat's Cradle (1963) by Kurt Vonnegut

*The Chocolate War: A Novel (1974) by Robert Cormier

Clockwork Orange (1962) by Anthony Burgess

*A Color Purple (1982) by Alice Walker

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court  (1889) by Mark Twain

*Crime and Punishment (1866) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

*Cry the Beloved Country (1948) by Alan Paton

Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927) by Willa Cather

Democracy in America (1835) abridged by Alexis de Tocqueville

*The Diary of a Young Girl (1947) by Anne Frank

*Don Quixote (1605 and 1615) by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

*Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker

*East of Eden (952) by John Steinbeck

*Ender’s Game (1985) by Orson Scott Card

*Ethan Frome (1911) by Edith Wharton

Fahrenheit 451 (1953) by Ray Bradbury

*A Farewell to Arms (1929) by Ernest Hemingway

*Far from the Maddening Crowd (1874) by Thomas Hardy

*For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940) by Ernest Hemingway

*Frankenstein (1818) by Mary Shelley

*The Good Earth (1931) Pearl Buck

*Grapes of Wrath (1939) by John Steinbeck

*Great Expectations (1860-1861) by Charles Dickens

*The Great Gatsby (1925) by F. Scott Fitzgerald

*Gulliver's Travels (1735) by Jonathon Swift

Hard Times (1854) by Charles Dickens

*The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940) by Carson McCullers

*Heart of Darkness (1902) by Joseph Conrad

Hiroshima (1946) by John Hersey

*The Hound of the Baskervilles (1901-1902) by Arthur Conan Doyle

*The House of the Seven Gables (1851) by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Howards End (1910) by E.M. Forster

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1831) by Victor Hugo

I Heard the Owl Call my Name (1960) by Margaret Craven

*In Cold Blood (1966) by Truman Capote

Invisible Man (1952) by Ralph Ellison

Ivanhoe (1819) by Sir Wallace Scott

*Jane Eyre (1847) by Charlotte Bronte

Jude the Obscure (1895) by Thomas Hardy

The Jungle(1906) by Upton Sinclair

*Kidnapped (1893) by Robert Louis Stevenson

*Kim (1900-1901) by Rudyard Kipling

Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928) by D H Lawrence

The Last of the Mohicans (1826) James Fenimore Cooper

*Lolita (1955) by Vladimir Nabokov

Look Homeward Angel (1929) by Thomas Wolfe

Lord Jim (1899-1900) by Joseph Conrad

*Lord of the Flies (1954) by William Golding

Love in the Time of Cholera (1985) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Main Street (1920) by Sinclair Lewis

*Maltese Falcon (1940) by Dashiell Hammett

*The Member of the Wedding (1946) by Carson McCullers

The Mill on the Floss (1860) by George Eliot

*Moby Dick (1851) by Herman Mellville

*Moll Flanders (1722) by Daniel Defoe

*Murder on the Orient Express (1934) by Agatha Christie

*My Antonia (1918) by Willa Cather

My Name is Asher Lev (1972) by Chaim Potok

Native Son (1940) by Richard Wright

*Northanger Abbey (1817) by Jane Austen

Notes from the Underground (1864) by Fyodor Dostoeavsky

Of Human Bondage (1915) by Somerset Maugham

*Of Mice and Men (1937) by John Steinbeck

*Old Man and the Sea (1952) by Ernest Hemingway

*Oliver Twist (1838) by Charles Dickens

On the Road (1957) by Jack Kerouac

*One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962) by Solzhenitsyn

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1962) by Ken Kesey

*One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967) by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

*A Passage to India (1924) by E.M. Forster

The Phantom of the Opera (1909-1910) by Gaston Leroux

*The Picture of Dorian Grey (1891) by Oscar Wilde

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) by James Joyce 

*Pride and Prejudice (1813) by Jane Austen

The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961) by Muriel Spark

The Prince (1513) by Machiavelli

*Pudd’nhead Wilson (1894) by Mark Twain

*The Razor’s Edge (1944) by Somerset Maugham

*Rebecca (1938) by Daphne Du Maurier

*Red Badge of Courage (1895) by Stephen Crane

*Red Pony (1937) by John Steinbeck

The Return of the Native (1878) by Thomas Hardy

*Robinson Crusoe (1719) by Daniel Defoe

*A Room With a View (1908) by E.M. Forster

*The Scarlet Letter (1850) by Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Scarlet Pimpernel (1905) by Baroness Emmuska Orczy

Sea Wolf (1904) by Jack London

*Sense and Sensibility (1811) by Jane Austen

*A Separate Peace (1959) by John Knowles

Siddhartha (1922) by Hermann Hesse

Sister Carrie (1900) by Theodore Dreiser

Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) by Kurt Vonnegut

*Sons and Lovers (1913) by D.H. Lawrence

*Sophie’s Choice (1979) by William Styron

The Sound and the Fury (1929) by William Faulkner

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886) by Robert Luis Stevenson

*The Stranger (1942) by Albert Camus

*The Sun Also Rises (1926) by Ernest Hemingway

*Tale of Two Cities (1859) by Charles Dickens

*Tender is the Night (1934) by F. Scott Fitzgerald

*Tess of D’Urbervilles (1891) by Thomas Hardy

*Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) by Zora Neal Hurston

*Things Fall Apart  (1958) by Chinua Achebe

*This Side of Paradise (1920) by F Scott Firzgerald

*Time Machine (1895) by H.G. Wells

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974) by John le Carre

*To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) by Harper Lee

*To the Lighthouse (1927) by Virginia Woolf 

*Treasure Island (1883) by Robert Lewis Stevenson

*The Turn of the Screw (1898) by Henry James

*Uncle Tom’s Cabin (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe

Walden (1854)  by Henry David Thoreau

*Watership Down (1972) by Richard Adams

*Winesburg Ohio (1919) by Sherwood Anderson

*The Woman in White (1860) by Wilkie Collins

Women in Love (1920) by D. H. Lawrence

*Wuthering Heights (1847) by Emilee Bronte

We love him

Isn’t it interesting, which things are difficult to find?

I had to drive quite a ways to get this.

We have had a traditional/one wheeled barrow for many years. Like maybe 30 years.

It caused me to fall twice last year. I thought it was me, but it nearly took middle down too. And my husband struggled with it. I sold it.

We got the above as a much needed replacement. Two front wheels keep it sure footed.. Super sturdy.  And the tires are hard/no air needed. It is a really great wheelbarrow.

It was expensive, but worth every penny.  I use it constantly. And at the rate I was going, one day a fall was going to cause an injury.

I had a heck of a time finding one in stock. We had to drive over a hour to get it. But it felt good to get out and Lowe’s has curbeside available.

First monarch of the year in my milkweed!

Enjoyed hugely, listened to the whole book in one day

Prime, decided to watch on Prime, rather than buy on audible

Here is the second one, which includes Bosch also

Audible

I finished
Scott Turow
Kindle County Series
Presumed Innocent (Kindle County #1), 1987
The Burden of Proof (Kindle County #2), 1990
Pleading Guilty (Kindle County #3), 1993
The Laws of our Fathers (Kindle County #4), 1996
Personal Injuries (Kindle County #5), 1999
Reversible Errors (Kindle County #6), 2002
Limitations (Kindle County #7), 2006
Innocent (Kindle County #8), 2010
Identical (Kindle County #9), 2013
Testimony (Kindle County #10), 2017
The Last Trial (Kindle County #11), 2020

I skipped Presumed Innocent, because I remembered it.

I wish had not, because characters repeat and I did not remember all the characters.
So when I finished, I went back and relistened to it. But I wish I had done it in order.

Now I am listening to

I have not seen the movie. I am enjoying the book. There is a sequel, I will do it next.

Peanut bird feeder

Wild birds Unlimited is my go to company for bird supplies. (Great gift ideas.)

Higher prices, much better quality, I have a feeder from them that is over 20 years old.

We added four new (speciality) feeders and a third birdbath to our bird area in the back this year.

A hummingbird, oriole, core/solid and the peanut feeder (above).

The peanut feeder empties shockingly quickly. We thought it was squirrels, but it is the birds. I need to find bigger peanuts that are harder to remove. They are natural/in shell with no salt.

Watching

Very interesting. I am watching on Acorn, but I think it is on Prime too.

I have started pulling all the dry goods and letting them “set”. They still get handled carefully/washed/repackaged. But another day.

That (below) is a large table in our garage. You can see all my “for sale” stuff (on other tables) behind the Grocery table.

After I pulled the dry goods, I still had this much (below)  left that had to be handled immediately. The paper sacks hold freezer goods. The rest is refrigerator and produce. All of that gets washed in a tub of soapy Dawn water in the sink.

I do curbside Groceries once a week. And it is tiring.

Mr Whicher

If you like BBC, these may be new to you.

I just found them on Amazon Prime.

Starting on the first one today.

Another planter

Last year we turned an old bench into a planter. The bench was falling apart. It needed a redo or it was headed for the garbage.

This year we turned an old flower box into a planter.

The house has to be resided in that area. The flower box was no longer visit or from the street, a hedge grew.

And I wanted a “flower box” look on the other side of the house.

Very pleased.

Can be used as a seat in either position and also as a kneeler

This would make a great gift.

We now have two because my husband and middle both use it too. Woodworking, projects on the ground, gardening.

Makes a huge difference in our backs.

I use Lowe’s curbside service a lot.

I order these wide mouthed, one piece lids, with inner seals to go on jars

Containers

I thought I mentioned this, but maybe not.

Luckily I still had all my Tupperware.

Two rectangular Tupperware containers hold all my raw eggs and another holds my hard boiled eggs in the refrigerators.

Four Tupperware containers hold my husband’s oatmeal.

Etc.

The outside containers from the store go in recycling immediately. We have been moving things from one to the other.

So the Tupperware has been very valuable.




In this new mindset and practice, our glass mason jars suddenly were prime real estate in the kitchen.

Particularly the big ones were in high demand.

The thing about mason jars is ONE is expensive. A case of them is not expensive.

I looked for you -

ONE 1/2 gallon wide mouth from Target -

SIX 1/2 gallon wide mouthed from Tractor store -

Now you might look at that and think it is because we are comparing Target prices to Tractor store prices, but no. A case of jars at Target is same price comparison. Half gallon wide mouthed mason jars are just not readily available.

My local tractor stores offer curbside. I have been back twice to buy these jars.

Yes, I realize tractor stores might not be close to you, but the point is the same. Look for cases if you need jars. And jars are very very handy in kitchen now.

Confidence

I did major plant work last year. I added a couple perennial/bulb beds. I reworked other beds. I added borders. We pulled a hedge. We pulled a tree. We pulled assorted bushes.

Middle just made me a large paper plot of our property with the beds detailed. I am going to write in the names of plants as they come up this year. Some I remember, some I do not. For the ones I do not, the app  (below) will help.

I have beds with almost no weeds. I have other areas with weeds.

This app also gives me the confidence to weed. I no longer have the “better let it grown so I can see what it is” approach.

It is very easy to use with my iPhone. I simply take a picture of the plant and it tells me what it is.

Oldest has sent me pictures of plants and I have pulled them up in the app and told him what they are.

I paid for this app. It was not very much. I have it set so it does not automatically renew this fall. But I will probably do it again next spring, if I have weeds.

Puzzles back in stock

This is my favorite company -

What I have been watching

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.