It was snowing this morning here, but it didn't stick.
Kid's pod-school arrangement is in remote mode this week after the host family's younger kid was exposed to a COVID-positive preschool teacher. With a bit of luck they test negative soon (a number of days after the exposure). I am re-discovering how loud he is while on Zoom, and we're back to having to take shifts to keep him on task.
For a bit of non-crappy news, it looks like there has been a genuine breakthrough in a field adjacent to mine.
I was withholding judgement until I saw the article in Nature, because non-science news outlets have a history of credulously declaring that protein folding has been solved, but this looks like the real deal. At least as close to "solved" as we could reasonable expect.
We solved the problem of folding fitted sheets by only owning one fitted sheet per bed.
Anyway, ask yourself if the protein sparks joy before you spend time folding it for storage.
A very quiet Thanksgiving weekend, though I did help with errands for the store on Friday. Back to not seeing people for a couple of weeks.
We ate well; I roasted a chicken for the holiday. I also picked up a Costco turkey breast which was huge -- like 4 pounds -- so we're set for leftovers for quite a while. Somehow, there's plenty of turkey to get to sick of leftovers before we get through it--probably because we didn't devour it on Thanksgiving, and lunch meat for cute sandwiches on rolls only goes so far.
6: I got two legs and two breasts, so we aren't over run with turkey, but turkey tetrazzini is, IMO, a delicious way to use up turkey. Maybe it's hopelessly basic, but I love it.
Two items to vent about, which I'll split into separate comments.
First, every single member of Jammies' family traveled for Thanksgiving. Two siblings flew on planes (with their families/significant other). Parents and remaining sibling and his family drove to a different state, (which does seem less egregious to me.)
We are currently pretending to live in a world where it makes sense for us to drive out and spend Christmas with everyone, like normal. I have absolutely no idea what we'll do. They're all just living as though this pandemic is a pesky intrusion but at least you're able to score really great deals on flights and resorts.
Second gripe: At 7:30 pm, Sunday night, the high school announced that the students would stay in pods for the next two days. That means that students go to their first period class, and then sit in that room for the rest of the day. Classes after 1st period are attended/taught remotely.
Which is fine, but that's the first time that all the teachers were told this. Basically Jammies found out when his phone blew up with teachers complaining that they were being told this at 7:30 pm on Sunday night.
We thought maybe something had happened that caused them to change course at the last minute, but our school board friend said nope, nothing that they'd heard of. So there does not seem to be any reason why this couldn't have been announced before break.
Furthermore, the way it got announced is that the principal sends out a weekly set of announcements. In the side column, there is a calendar of events for the week. It said "PODS" by Monday and Tuesday. There's no formal announcement. In other words, there was no notification whatsoever. Teachers would just have to notice, or be on text message threads or social media with other teachers.
It's basically fine - all the teachers are already synchronously teaching their live and zoom students. But it could easily alter your lesson plans for those days if you had advance notice that everyone would be remote.
But also: this is just the worst behavior, management-wise. Why would you behave like that? what the fuck.
8: Aaron Carroll, a pediatrician and health services researcher in Indiana, did a video on how to manage travel safely for Thanksgiving. His 10 second message: Don't do it; it's not safe. Don't do it, heebie.
What does he say about being shitty to teachers for the hell of it?
Homemade crusty bread plus leftover turkey breast slices plus mayonnaise plus cranberry sauce (the gel from a can kind) is absolutely the best sandwich ever invented. Add lettuce or other greens if you like that sort of stuff. Kid #2 had a low grade fever and cough, which was surprisingly anxiety-provoking for us olds though not for him. Probably not Covid but who knows. We're waiting on the results of the test he got yesterday.
His 10 second message: Don't do it; it's not safe. Don't do it, heebie.
It has occurred to me that if they all get Covid and share it with each other from Thanksgiving, it would be safe for us to visit in December.
But yeah. What I'm actually hoping is that the fallout from Thanksgiving makes it easier to break the news that we're not coming, in 1-2 weeks.
You could try coughing when on the phone with them.
"I'm looking forward to that wonderful Christmas ham, although its funny how I can't seem to taste food anymore...."
Speaking of pork and joy, the McRib is back later this week. I'm wondering if maybe I should not get one out of fear that it was only memory that made it taste great. Maybe it won't even be available around here.
The last time I got a McRib must have been about 7 or 8 years ago in Albuquerque, and I remember being surprised that I'd ever found them good.
But maybe you have a more sophisticated palate than I have.
That seems kind of likely, to be honest. Let us know.
Maybe I'm just sick of turkey leftovers?
16- Did anyone here post the Yankee candle complaint thing?
That people give them to other people?
Well that's a constant, but someone noticed that complaints and bad reviews mentioning that they lacked the promised scent tracked with COVID waves.
The candle thing is great. I have a coworker whose wife manages a shop in the mall so I'll have to pass that on.
I slept so much over Thanksgiving. I felt great on Sunday right until I had to go to work to clean equipment for yesterday, when I worked 11.5 hours. Now I'm tired again.
At least two of my in-law step siblings have had COVID this last month. One is a physician's assistant in a pediatrician's office; the other is working from home but her kids are in parochial school in person and she's had some unrelated medical issues requiring more visits than normal. Not sure whether their spouses have been asymptomatic or got tested. Both are fine, but one still can't taste anything.
Work is cracking down harder on distance in the cafeteria. They're now having security guards remind people to sit at marked spaces only, and mask up when finished eating. I gather from the somewhat cryptic emails that there has been some community spread on site.
1:. Update - it snowed again in the afternoon and that time it stuck. It's a fuckin' winter wonderland this morning.
23-25: I once watched an episode of Under Cover boss with the CEO of Yankee Candle. He was an Exeter alum, and he seemed personally offended that his frontline retail staff didn't all love everything about Yankee Candle quite as much as he did.
We also have a scented candle, but we're saving it for when the aliens attack and the smell of burning pine trees is our only defense.
We have snow, but not in ways that you'd understand.
Up north, we have like five or six words for snow.
NMM to the Arecibo telescope, if giant inverted boobs were your thing.
33: A sad photo from the apparent aftermath --
https://twitter.com/DeborahTiempo/status/1333741751069192195
My boss got COVID. He's better now, mostly.
Boy, do I ever hate my family's taste in Christmas tree decoration.
If you don't tell them, how will they ever get better?
I'm going to guess... plasticky seems too obvious. Tinsel is out of style. Maybe too modern and cold? Or too country-grandma? Whereas you prefer...I'm going to say mid century modern xmas decor and homemade kid ornaments.
Specific guess: Too many felt ornaments with big contrast stitching and homemade ornaments made by adults from very rigid kits that involve painting commemorative wooden ornaments with the year?
38. Donald, I agree the handmaid robes were a little wild, but I think this year your trees look ok.
Today I bought a tin of Bird's custard powder. Tomorrow I make Nanaimo bars.
(Christmas baking = a kind of therapy for me.)
43: Well, if I were a better person, I'm sure I'd make my custard from scratch. But yeah: custard powder.
I'm also going to make shortbread biscuits, gingerbread cookies, chocolate brownies, and peanut butter "blossoms."
I guess it's basically like pudding mix.
I guess it's basically like pudding mix.
Exactly. It's basically a shortcut to a French version of an English custard (crème anglaise).
I didn't know about Nanaimo bars. I looked them up and now I need them immediately. According to the NYX, custard powder is traditional.
You just missed doing NaNoWriMo at Nanaimo. Maybe next year.
Just back from a nice lunch at an Italian place (outside in a garden area) and a 2.3 mile hour long walk at the marina with a good cow-orker friend. It's been too long since I've been taking regular walks.
51 Yes we still fairly regularly text each other (not daily as when she was here but a couple or more times a week). She's doing well in Gdansk. Sends me pics of her weekend walks in the woods near her place. Poland looks lovely.
My company's lead drug got approved by the FDA yesterday, with Japanese and European approvals likely in the next few months. My stock options just got much more valuable.
Nice! And this is the new company you hopped to after getting laid off, so it's not even as if you've been there long?
54: Only since the summer. Getting laid off turned out to be such a blessing in disguise. I would never have gotten off my ass to look for another job, and everything about the timing of it all worked to my advantage. Guess I had some karma banked.
COVID is bad here. Massachusetts town based government is usually pretty good, but unlike a lot of places our counties don't do much, so each of our 350 town health departments feed into the state's data collection efforts.
I got an e-mail that 9 kids had covid at the local catholic school. Yesterday, there was a robo call message saying that there was community transmission in my town. The wastewater tracking data are as bad as they were in the spring - on the Southern side it's worse than what we saw before. And Bake4 hasn't closed restaurants and gyms.
I'm super careful, and I'm scared for myself even.
Locally, it's nuts. The two highest death days for the county are today and yesterday.
The state is well below its peak deaths because Philadelphia got hit hard early, but we mostly missed that.
At my nonprofit board meeting, I learned they're planning a gala in a few months where the few premium tickets get people in person rather than virtual, to the event in a hotel's outdoor space. I know they'll be following rules scrupulously, and will for example change plans if outdoor dining is banned again by then, but I'm still conflicted about it, as I'm not sure outdoor dining is a good idea even if it's legal.
If it help keep pressure off weakening a ban on indoor dining, it might be a good idea even if it increases risk somewhat. Not that it's really an option here now that winter is started.
61 has too many words working against each other for me to parse.
I'm going to the pub tonight for a meal* with friends, which will be outside in temperatures that are quite close to freezing.
* enforced by the current lockdown rules where we are, although we do usually eat anyway
My confused point is that outdoor dining being allowed can make it easier, politically and socially, to ban indoor dining which I think is much more dangerous.
In some cases, I guess. Indoor dining is currently banned in like 99% of California.
Because something's wrong with me, I was just compelled to actually check that 99% number. I was closer than I expected to be - 99.15% of the population is at that tier.
A little exciting news. Rory has officially come out to her friends and family stateside, and it went beautifully all around. I am particularly proud of my dad who, despite being an old contrarian, took it entirely in stride, showing more interest in what color she dyes her hair than who she does or doesn't date. (Rory thinks he had figured it out before she did.)
Precise category of "out" still in flux, but she is currently in a relationship with a lovely young lady we will call Blossom.
66: Supposedly, the bars were basically full out in the Trump zone for the last Steelers game.
Hooray Rory, and hooray for relationships with your kids that make coming out a low-stress thing!