Day 9 of our captivity: Tulips!

Chad and I admired these lovely tulips out in front of a deserted school on our morning walk.  Normally I wouldn’t notice these, as the street they are on is usually traffic-infested, leaving no attention free to notice flowers.  Not so today.

Day 8 of our captivity: Working from home

This morning at our house sees us settling into our new "normal".  After we went out for a walk, Chad settled in to his work set-up in the living room with headphones on, to try to get some actual work done.  Kean is on what is probably the best computer in the house in the kid room, with headphones on.  Perhaps the kiddo is logged into the school system working on homework; perhaps art is being done instead.  Either way, the rule is "no youtube or video games until school hours are over".  I am in the office, again with headphones on, getting ready to work on our taxes, after having made a quick run to Target to pick up the order of essentials I put in last night.   They cleverly have set up their system such that one doesn't have to touch anything other than one's own bag of stuff.

Incidentally, those of you who enjoy good choral music might enjoy what I am currently listening to -- a "virtual concert" put together by a Stanford alum who I know from Early Music Singers.  Eric Tuan conducts several small groups around the Bay Area; this one is the Piedmont East Bay Children's Choir.  He cobbled together video of final rehearsals for a concert they had to cancel; I'm just running the audio in the background while working on other things.  It's worth a listen.

Day 7 of our captivity: Laguna, two weeks ago

Two weeks ago, the kid and I had breakfast on the beach in Laguna.  We were down there for quick weekend trip to visit a couple of colleges before Kean makes a final decision about the fall.  At the time, I wondered if the trip was wise or not, given our then-handful of local coronavirus cases, and even joked about having to buy bicycles to get back home.  I didn’t really expect that a mere week later we would *actually* be locked down... Kiddo was lucky to have gotten the in-person college information-gathering done; peers who had planned to do this over spring break are just out of luck.

For your vicarious enjoyment, here are our few vacation pictures for the year:

We started with a completely spurious trip to the La Brea Tar Pits because the kid was intrigued.  It is distinctly odd to see asphalt randomly seeping up from the ground in the park.  Despite the fact that the kid is pictured next to the cone, it was me who got sticky stuff on my hands.  I just couldn’t resist poking it with a stick...

Not pictured:  colleges, the ostensible point of the trip.

We stayed in scenic Laguna Beach.  There were just enough clouds to improve the view, without said clouds actually raining on us.

Dolphins!  Really, they were there.

Kiddo squiddy dance.

And, of course, nice sunsets, right across the street from where we stayed.

Day 6 of our captivity: Rails and cozy blankets

I foresee many board games in our future.  Also many days wrapped in cozy blankets instead of real clothing.

Day 5 of our captivity: Chocolate Espresso Cheesecake

I've been meaning to make this for a while and finally got around to it.  Yum.  Even if it did keep us awake a little later than optimal last night.  I have deemed it an afternoon snack going forward.
Recipe is here, though I replaced the crust with a simple chocolate graham cracker + butter crumb crust.

Speaking of last night, apparently the kid was talking loudly enough on a call on the computer that Chad couldn't sleep.  Clever guy that he is, he used his phone from bed to make the kid's computer say out loud that the voice of God was telling all teens to go to bed.  This morning we found out that kiddo and friend were apparently reading the Book of Revelations aloud to each other over the computer to settle some minor biblical dispute.  At 2 am.  Apparently the friend's illustrated kid's bible had missing "major plot points" that were present in the "primary source".  Sheesh, teens...

On a final note, the cat is really really really liking having us all home all the time.

Day 4 of our Captivity: Focaccia

We’re all stuck at home.  Maybe that means there will be more blog posts.  For now:  admire the sourdough focaccia!

Kiddo:  yakking with friends on a Discord server, procrastinating reading the distance learning syllabi that were just posted for the high school.  They have tongue-in-cheek named their server the “Senior Ditch Month Server”.

Chad:  working from home in the living room.

Me: avoiding doing the taxes by texting with the women-from-the-climbing-gym group about hangboard, slack line, and pull-up bar set-ups for the house.  My hangboard is outside and therefore has the best view :)

Holiday Art

Holiday cards this year created courtesy of the wee printing press that Chad made me a while back (see post from September).  Toe shark surfaced out of the back of my brain after yet another bizarre conversation with the teen.

Merry Christmas all!

Indoor, Outdoor Winter Fun

Indoor Ma: singing in one of two recent concerts.

Outdoor Ma: celebrating the first ski day since the knee injury back in January.  It definitely feels like winter now!

Zucchellin

One of Chad's coworkers kept bringing in zucchini from his garden -- but only the ones that hid in the grass until they become 4-pound behemoths.  After a few of these, I banned them from our house.  Thus, Chad created the zucchelin!