There are so many people I want to see and things I want to do, but here is a stupidly specific one:

At least in upstate NY— where some of my family lives—there’s a real anger towards people from NYC calling the local handymen at all hours to open up their summer houses early, trying to get tested at the small hospitals nearby and then descending on the grocery stores to buy out all the necessities. It sounds a…

This is one hell of a highjack, but the mention of the correspondants dinner is taking me back to many years ago when my sister would travel with the catering wing of the NYC restaurant she worked for and help set up the food for the dinner. Even though we lived close (NYC/DC) we hardly ever saw each other unless our…

For a three year old?

Make an enormous lump of play dough (fun in and of itself) hide some little toys (remember which ones) and have her dig around the dough to find them. 

I was going to say just that.

Buttered toast with a few chocolate chips, Sandwich it up, and wait for 30 seconds before enjoying.

I spent my last day at my preschool yesterday, cutting out paper flowers and carrots to add to the packets of take home activities for our students. We made a few videos to post on Zoom —just reading stories, going outside to show that the play ground is empty until we can all be together etc—-all in the hope that we…

That is so amazingly cute! I know it will be rough, but have the family party and make a big deal about the ‘friend party’ that will come soon.

I will accept it gladly and douse it with elote seasoning.

This sounds like bad parenting but, bundle her up to the nth degree and take her out anyways. Have her run around for fifteen minutes or so and bring her back in to warm her up. It will pass the time, exhaust her to the point that she’ll sleep well, and is kind of calming in a ritual way. I had to do this when a…

It’s weird- I always liked hominy but could never find them in my neighborhood little store. Yesterday there was a neat stack of undisturbed cans amidst the chaos. I took two because I don’t want to hoard. (that’s sarcasm, because I fully believe I’m the only one that likes this stuff)

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016062-red-lentil-soup-with-lemon. The great thing about cooking as opposed to baking is that you can substitute as much as you want. The lentils, calabanzo, and the chorizo crumble would work great and you can easily freeze it.

The Takeout is one of my lights right now.

That’s the worst- when you see fever settling in their eyes by three pm. It’s never pretty.

Didn’t mean to write it, but I think it works.

I agree in theory, but there is something about much younger kids (below five) where they can potentially have the same sniffles for up to a month. My school’s directive is that the mucus has to be clear and free of color and no temperature over 99. That gives a lot of leeway.

I live to panic, so I’m at almost normal mode right now. What I am kind of despairing over is the lack of hand sanitizer—I work at a pre-school with wonderful kids barely out of toddler-dom and they are the germiest creatures on the face of the earth. We don’t have time to wash out hands to happy birthday every time…

I just hope she chooses Kaden, the 21 year old waiter with an an old soul.

Dammit. I know that there’s no such thing as sign and that random occurances only take on weight if you have something on your mind, but—-I know my across the street neighbor must be suffering. He had cancer in remission. Every morning I’d see he and his wife (he works for the post office, she’s a teacher, and I’m…