LOL It's real "Vintage" isn't it? LOL

She loves to pretend cook w her play food. Today she made me a ginormous, use everything in her stash, salad for lunch. Kiwis, cucumbers, lettuce and spinach, oranges, bananas, tomatoes, croutons, shrimp, cheese slices, buns and a hamburger patty or two went in. She poured on the dressing ("ssssssss!") and fed it to me on a spoon through the screen. It was pretty cute.

Sorry, I'm babbling. I have been doing all I can to keep on truckin' today... it's been a hard few days here... helps to think of the good things that went on.

I absolutely adore Gammy's work, and Gammy's apron. In fact, that apron made me tear up. Things like that are so special. That's one of your gifts, rred. You have a knack for making things special--be it a gift or a comment. Take heart. Better days are ahead.

Thanks, Duckie. I hate to be sad...

Gammy’s apron made me tear up also! That is something my mom would have made for her grands.

LOL I put cosmos and zinnia seed packets in all of these... I told you about how N the younger sabotaged N the Elder's cosmos last fall when I went to help out? He totally cut her plant's buds off so HIS WOULD BLOOM FIRST WHILE I WAS THERE (I had helped them plant them in June when I was there and they were ready to finally bloom when I went in Oct.) That little Sh !t!!

Gonna try that experiment again, in their new planters in the yard...

Goats, babies and piñatas....what could be better? Being sad is part of the process, Rred....it would be really sad if no one was sad.....Beloved is so bored he bought skins for his skis so he could go uphill on them. Now he is sad because things are now hurting that have never hurt before. I am so bored, but then I read the news and hunker down thankfully. I made pie dough yesterday, but the strawberries went fuzzy. That means braving the supermarket tomorrow. Could be a multi supermarket trip depending upon what has or has not been delivered.
Coconut milk and root ginger have been in short supply.

I bet you guys are bored! Has the whole town kind of shut down? How many do you suppose are living there as of now?

We are bored and we have a lot going on, really... at least with this friend's thing, we have been on the phone non-stop pretty much since Wed night. I still have his phone here, and it rang today, and I talked to a gal in Oregon, who he knew from HS it turned out, who was in firm disbelief still. It was eerie being his posthumous secretary (that is how I answered it "N's Secretary, how many I direct your call?" which, in reality would have been a "normal" thing-- to have a strange woman answer his phone...) Guess you had to be there, but it made her laugh right away, which was good.

I've been here since March 5, with the exception of 1 eye surgery and 2 eye doctor visits. The thought of weeks more of this doesn't hold much appeal. If we act like we are going to go out I am pretty sure the kids will come over and nail our doors shut.

Can you at least go out for a drive, Duckie? That really helps. We did that and will do so again... just to feel connected to somewhere bigger, or check on the new houses they're building or see if the pelicans are back on the lake here. The dogs love car rides too, even if we don't get out of the car. Just something about going somewhere else, helps.

I do have something to look forward to on Thursday. DS, DIL, Duckling and Bouncer are going to come over for an outside visit. We're going to get out Duckling's special "boo car" so Daddy can take her around our neighborhood for a ride. We'll put our stroller out for Bouncer. This gives them a different family walk besides their neighborhood. We are going to clean out the little treehouse in our back yard so Duckling can play there, as all the playgrounds and parks are closed. We can at least watch her play from the sliding door, which will be fun. Her Mickey Mouse Roadster Racer potty is going on the patio, shielded by golf umbrellas for her "private time" just in case. I'm going to clean off a few of their favorite toys from here to send home with them. Since I have their Easter baskets all ready, those are going home as well, along with all the plastic eggs with stuff in them that I got for the Easter egg hunt we were going to have.

Small pleasures are large pleasures just now.

Some day I will figure out how to post links...but Rred, if you could find and post a link to BBC sports reporter Andrew Cotter narrating his dogs’ dinner, you will giggle, I promise.

What a perfect plan, Duckie! It's nice to have those new ways to connect still available to us...

It could be a lot worse. We could be in a real war or a famine or an epic earthquake or something...

Fiss, just copy/paste in your browser (on an ipad/iphone, just touch and hold the URL until it will light up green which puts in on a clipboard) then come here, and hold a finger into the comment box a little longer than usual, and it will ask if you want to paste what is on the clipboard. LOL

But yeah, the British soccer and rugby commentators are also having a great time giving play-by-plays of everyday life (crossing the street, playing kickball at the park, walking w babies in the prams, and two dogs chasing each other off leash somewhere.) I can find that link...hang on...

Nick Heath. He has compiled his quarantine oeuvre of daily life play by play here... Hilarious!

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfpvU0QtyhV-DT_uRxg4mWzNuT6Dxx-Pj

Oh too cute NWDuck! :)

Just caught up...C’s piñata is soooo pretty & colorful! She will love it! And Gammy’s apron brought tears to my eyes. So precious! :) The goats! So fun & cute! We are not on lockdown here but we all stay in a lot. :/ And now the pool and other condo amenities are closed. This evening we grilled and then watched the funny movie, Game Night. Sunday night we will watch Elton John Special on Fox. We have an 80 inch tv in our meeting room.

I need to dig out the apron my grandma made me. It’s deep in my hope chest. I will pull it out and take a pic tomorrow.

Rred, that apron is precious! I can last a few more days, but I will need to go the grocery store by Thursday. My post trip quarantine will be done by then. I think I’ll try the senior hours, and get there at 7:00. Duckie, that sounds like a good visit, will duckling understand why you can’t come out and play? Or will you have a boogie nose, you don’t want her to get? Fiss, we watched Blow the Man Down on Am prime last night. If you’re homesick for Maine, and want to see a Hollywood take on a small fishing town, and Maine accents, it’s entertaining. The accents actually sounded more like real Mass accents.

https://www.facebook.com/395105314166057/posts/1126319161044665/. I don’t know if this works, but here are baby goats from the farm down the street.

I hope Mama finds her apron from her grandma! I dunno how mine has survived all these years to be passed on.... but my mom was a saver of things, and I suppose she gave it to me when my own DD was a toddler chef. Grandma made one for Cyster too (who was just an infant at the time) and I remember hers didn't have the crayon pockets, and it was a toile-type print, white with gray and blushy pink woodland animals or something all over it. Hyster (the surprise kid) wasn't born until much later, and by then Grandma was suffering with Alzheimer's, and no longer able to sew.

Today's effort will include finding the right boxes to put the Easter egg/things into, for shipping out. May need to go to a store for that. We have some boxes here to look through first. I try to keep a stash of shipping boxes around but we just recycled a pile last week, and a few more went to our friend's apt... SMH

Red, You might be able to make a box from other boxes. Also some strong packing tape. Lol! Love the piñata/egg🎈

I think you are going to want a small, relatively tight fitting box inside a bigger box...if you have some rigid foam to reinforce the bigger box, that would be optimal. Crushing is your biggest concern, I think.

Found the apron! It was not in the hope chest, as I thought. I was wracking my brain and about in tears. Then I remembered where it I tucked it for safe keeping!!! Plus I had to iron it before I could show you.

Ta-Da!

And the heart pocket! Notice she trimmed the apron with embroidery.

All those x's were grandma kisses!

Mama, what a find! That generation did some amazing hand work.

Mama Awwwww! Now, that was worth all the angst in finding it! So cute! Love the Kisses on it too!

Am LOL-ing at the rick-rack edges too. Cyster and I had a few things with that stuff sewn on it, and I remember how itchy it was (to me). LOL

Sweet enjoy that a PRON

I did find a bunch of stuff in the hope chest, that I totally forgot about! LOL So that was fun, but now I have to put it all back....arghhh!

Lad, I forgot to tell you-- we are gonna watch Blow the Man Down soon, as our DS recommended it yesterday.

I have found some boxes for the Easter egg thingies. I am getting ready to pop/fill the NandN ones... but first I need to clean up my big ole mess so I can film the sound it makes as it deflates. It's so cool!

I don't have rigid foam, but I'm gonna have to figure out a best-I-can-do crush-proofing way to box these things up...

Would putting popcorn around the piñatas protect them?

We have lots of bubble pouches, packing materials and other stiff cardboard pieces that we can reinforce and protect with. Will pack them up pretty soon for shipping tomorrow. Not too worried about it. I think they'll be fine, and if not, they were meant to be smashed, eventually, anyhow. It's not like they are fancy or fine china. They are newspaper blobs with candy and stickers inside. LOL

Cutest newspaper blobs ever!!

Those aprons are sweet! Love the grandma kisses.

I enjoyed seeing the sportscaster commentaries. Made me laugh!

Thanks for finding the goat video, lad. No goat pics from me today, 'cause one of them ate my iPad. They'll eat anything! When I was out there a couple days ago, one of the adults untied my boots and started eating the laces. At a little zoo here, a few years ago, a goat in the petting area ate my map. I couldn't get it of its mouth. One of the workers there got mad at me for feeding the goat my map. Well, it's not what I wanted to have happen!

Just kidding about the iPad, though. They weren't out today. Too hot. Yesterday it was 89! Today was "only" 82, still a solid 20 above average.

Stryker, it was serendipity. The farm posted that video this morning, just after I read you wished you had a video!

I have been instructed by OH "Go on that Houzz thing and tell rred she was right."

We got in the car, put on the classical station and drove west to the farm and nursery land. Blooming trees everywhere. Bright green grasses. And daffodils--great swaths of them along every property and lots naturalized in little wooded areas.

We both feel much better. Me especially.

Yep, duckie. rred is right. It's helps to get out there, and seeing the beautiful springtime is always soul soothing and hope inspiring.

Well, I will be the “downer” here and remind everyone to avoid doing things where you can get hurt/injured. Also, car drives are nice if not too far from home....we don’t want a fender bender or worse. Sorry, I’m just feeling very cautious for the next several weeks.

The only thing I would be concerned about is the balloon not pulling away from the tissue paper and white glue with water mix. It might be a trick to that. Baby oil? Dunno. I’m sure the kids will love it no matter what. I haven’t figured out what I’m going to do for the three footer for Easter. What a sin that they live 45 minutes away and I can’t see them. 😞 and my older sons birthday is coming up in early April and it’s the first year he’s been home for it in many years and I won’t be seeing him for that either. There’s currently hefty fines here if you go out on the beaches are in the public parks. A woman was fine today for being in one of the city parks… $650. I’m entertaining myself by watching the Miss Fisher mystery series. Costumes you would not believe… I’m really enjoying it.

Knice, when I say we went to farm country, we went 10-15 minutes away from our house. Our state has what they call "urban growth boundaries" for all cities. We are just at the edge of it. It takes us the same amount of time to get to the grocery store, just not the same direction.

You're right though. When we started out all I could think about was a car accident. Having been here for 24 days now, I kind of needed to see something, anything different. That half an hour out cheered me up considerably.

I know how you are thinking about accidents. Part of my nutty the other day was when the ladder came out! One of the local urgent care centers is open for everything BUT respiratory ailments. Lia, I read that story of the Halifax woman. The beaches and ponds here are all closed, too. Our conservation trails are open for now. Mr and I were walking yesterday along the road, my pace was a little faster, and had pulled ahead. A neighbor was walking In the opposite direction, and commented on our 6’ distancing.

Mam, I love that apron! My oldest niece made me apron as her first sewing project when she was 12 or 13. (34 yrs ago) I did bring it with us when we moved down here but it is at the lake house.

My niece, the lawyer, as been trying to pull away from divorce law. She and her partner do small business law, her experience in family law has been invaluable..because, well, because things happen. But given the statistics coming out of China...a definite uptick in couples calling it quits after enforced time together, they are thinking they should advertise...on a kind of positive note, the courts are still functioning for things like protection orders...she just got one for someone.

I just wrote a very long letter to our friend's daughter. That took a lot out of me, but she will appreciate what I had to say, I hope.

Going for a drive is what everyone here is doing, it seems. There is less business traffic (parking lots look eerie with just 1-2 cars when it's noon on a Sunday!) but still quite a few people were out in their cars. We ran to Walgreen's bc he had a brilliant idea to purchase their last oximeter and some Gatorade in case we do get sick. Lovely thought. I sat in the car and waited.

Still, even just running a quick errand like that is good for the psyche.

We are good for another week or so of home isolation now unless he thinks up something else we need to have around.

And I made Strawberry Rhubarb Galettes with Hazelnut Frangipone and delivered some straight out of the oven to the neighbors, no virus could live on that surface.

Lad, that little black headed goat made me LOL. He already has billy goat attitude!

OMG Yum, Fiss! That looks amazing!

I was trying to upload the video of the balloon inside the piñata deflating. It makes the coolest sounds as it hisses and pulls away from the sides! It almost sounds like a sparkler. But I accidentally deleted the video with my fat thumb. :( I am that tired, I guess.

LOL. LOL. When I opened this thread on my desktop just now, the last entry came up first. It was Rred saying, "the balloon inside the piñata,,,and pulls away from the sides". I didn't read all of it because I wanted to go back to the last previous entry I had read earlier and catch up. As I was passing, I spotted a photo, and my first thought was "oh, oh, the piñata deflated" - but it was actually Fiss' photo of her galettes! What a crazy direction my mind took - but laughing is good!