I need to hard boil some eggs again. I did it once and he ate some but I felt like they were overdone and I threw out the rest! I also want to cook up some rice and noodles to have on hand. The few days he was here before he got his job he was able to cook for himself but now he runs from gym to work to baseball so I’m trying to keep the fridge stocked with prepared food.
But I haven’t been able to cook much lately…the personal hits keep coming. DH’s dad died last week so funeral was yesterday. DD sang at the funeral and did well but it’s been a rough week.
College is supposed to make a decision tomorrow on academic calendar. They are looking at the end-by-Thanksgiving plan with online finals and DD is okay with that.
@SJ2727 Chicago opening very slowly. D21 and I went into the city on Monday to go to the Bean and Maggie Daley park since it was the first day it was open. It was a ghost town and you can’t get within 100 feet of the bean. Only one entrance to the entire park with policemen guarding it and masks required. It was not fun and I just wanted to go home to our suburb where there’s never been much virus and we can be out and about without stress.
Lakefront opens next Monday but just to people moving - running, walking, biking. Can’t sit and beaches won’t be open. I don’t know if there’s a timeline to open much more right now. I think tourist boats are running on the river. Guessing you need to wear masks.
All festivals have been cancelled. Summer is Chicago is one of the best reasons to be here but not this year. Cases are dipping in Illinois and the city. The state did a good job of staying closed. Who knows what will happen now.
One of the busier bar/restaurant streets in the city (Broadway) now closes down for a few blocks on the weekends to allow restaurants to put tables on the street. That looked fun. Started to turn into a bit of a street fair, though, and police came in to discourage people from standing around. You had to keep moving or stand in line six feet apart in a certain area to wait for tables.
Was just in Chicago visiting my kids a little more than a week ago. Most happening things were the protests, figuring out where the National Guard would be stationed, and racing back to the hotel as the city went under curfew. Everything else seemed shut down but admittedly that was right before Phase III re-opening (which seemed to be delayed due to the protests and the looting). Parking’s a breeze, however
@SJ2727 Michigan Avenue stores still boarded up. Lincoln Park Zoo closed as are all museums. I really don’t think it’s a good summer to come here. The only thing we are considering for a get-away is getting a house on a lake somewhere in Wisconsin or Michigan just to get out of dodge for a while. I don’t think we will bother going back to the city.
@zipstermom thank you. Probably being a theatre kid helped, and being at the back of the room. She stood over my shoulder at the piano and just focused on the music. I would never try it myself!
@bjscheel - So sorry about all the losses and stress in your family.
Yes, I do need to make sure to teach S some of the vegan recipes I’ve been making for him this summer. He doesn’t expect me to do all that for him, but I find that if I don’t, he won’t eat that much. And he’s not fussy, so he can live on rice, broccoli and veggie burgers. I just hope the dining halls can maintain some of the same kinds of meals they had given their new system so he’ll have a little variety. I guess “adapting” will be the theme of the school year.
Speaking of vegan cookery: The latest issue of Cook’s Illustrated just arrived in my mailbox yesterday, and they did a taste test of the new-style meatless burgers, with an eye toward which ones replicated the taste and feel of beef-based burgers best. The Impossible Burger topped their list, with Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger and Beyond Beef products running close behind.
I can’t help it, my gut feel tells me there is something inherently wrong with vegan stuff that tastes like meat! I was mostly vegetarian (other than the odd chopped liver craving I guess when my iron levels fell) for most of my earlier adult life until I got married (my husband is a big meat eater). I’m in the camp of - if you don’t want to eat meat, just don’t. D19 however is a big impossible fan and keeps trying to get me to try.
@homerdog and @JBStillFlying, thanks for the Chicago feedback. Definitely doesn’t sound like much fun at the moment. I think we’ll keep an eye on if the museums, plazas etc open by the time we’d go. I don’t mind no festivals, in fact the idea of Chicago in summer without crowds is quite attractive to me…but only as long as we can actually do stuff. If the museums are still closed by then it’s a definite no.
Also, at least in the Bay Area everyone seems fed up with being stuck at home and is driving somewhere !! We decided quite late to try book somewhere for 4 July weekend as some places are opening up for leisure travel. It was really quite difficult even looking at a range of destinations!! Seems only the cheap chain motels and the top end hotels still have capacity.
Hi all! I haven’t been on CC since our kids were sent home and wow 555 posts to catch up on. S19 did spring quarter in the mountains with other Dartmouth frosh friends. They had 2 months of food and never left the mountains. He’s got an outdoor job lined up but logistics are hard. He’ll work it out but it is a summer of “adulting” and I can’t help much as he is on the other side of the country. As for me, I am on mandatory telework and have retreated to rural-life (vacation home). It is very very quiet. I see only trees. H and I race to the window when a truck drives by “Oh look humans!”. Though at the moment, I am back in Seattle and am a bit shocked by all the background noise (city-life). D16 has graduated from college and returned home. Studying for GREs and taking a long rest from bustling.
I’m wondering if any of you have experience with ordering masks you like online? So far, my kids and I have only been using cloth masks that I made. My H has some N95 masks that he occasionally uses for work. I’m going to be making more before kids go back to school. However, I would also like to order some that may be more comfortable for sitting through classes or longer periods of time. Also, what do you think would be the best masks for flying? D17’s school still hasn’t announced their final plan, but I’m thinking she will be flying to NY at the end of August. It would be a long day of travel including a train from grand central to campus. I would also like to get some disposable masks but the ones I saw at Target did not look very good. Any ideas are appreciated. Thanks!
My daughters both vastly prefer the brooks brothers masks to homemade ones, and to the regular cotton ones I purchased. They’ve had strenuous exercise while masked (full ballet classes and gymnastics classes) and have been able to breathe through the whole time while masked. I plan to buy ten more from them for her to take to school with her.
Just remember re: masks (and you can go to the mask thread for more), non-medical cloth masks protect others from the mask wearer’s droplets, but do not protect the wearer from becoming infected (at least to a great degree, according to what little research there is). My point is if one is at-risk, or lives with someone at-risk, a non-medical cloth mask is likely inadequate protection.
My understanding is that the main reason to wear masks is to prevent you infecting others, rather than protecting you (it helps to a very limited extent). This is how most cloth masks work. My further understanding was that N95 masks do the opposite - protect you, but do nothing to protect others.
“Proudly crafted in the USA, our masks are sewn in our own factories using a state-of-the-art, lightweight non-woven material that filters 95% of particles based on FDA-required filtration-efficiency testing. This innovative single-ply material has been developed with a leading university to provide superior protection and high breathability to minimize interior humidity inside the mask when wearing for long periods of time. These masks have been specifically developed to offer significantly higher filtration capacity than standard cotton fabrications.”
Are they only referring to particles out, or are they outright lying, or?
