Welcome Wyatt Morgan Cooper! @AndersonCooper's son was born on Monday. New life, new love. pic.twitter.com/L3Af2TtYAq
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) May 1, 2020
This just popped up in my feed and made me so happy – I think it was just nice to see something life-affirming. Two of my neighbors have babies born just before the shutdown and I wonder how they are managing as I keep a safe distance as coo at them as I walk the dogs.
Anderson has shared some photos of Wyatt on his Instagram page https://t.co/75rkH0EC2C pic.twitter.com/Vj1cemqmMa
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) May 1, 2020
Also, today my parents celebrated 60 years of marriage. I am hoping at some point I’m going to be able to visit them again. For me, not seeing my family has been the hardest part of this.
And finally, love this little video. When my friend was fostering puppies, we’d always bring Bixby over when they were ready for socializing and the transformation was astonishing. When they could take on the “Big Dog” their confidence would soar. And Bixby would just play along.
How are things going in your world? Everyone hanging in there? What do you do to unplug? Today I actually gardened, it felt almost normal and it was nice to say hi to the neighbors. I gave a box of sidewalk chalk to the 7-year-old next door (who before all this would come over and ask to see the ducks). She rewarded me with drawings all in front of my house.
Respite open thread
Major Major Major Major
I saw that! Adorable.
My world is fine? My mom got a positive antibody test, and given what happened around her I think it’s probably a true positive. So that’s good at least. I’ve had a good week writing-wise, work-wise. Not so much sleep-wise, unfortunately, but that does happen.
To unplug I’ve been watching Bones. Might switch to a different procedural soon enough, I have a list made up.
realbtl
My first grandchild was born 12-29-19. Saw him briefly in Jan but not sure when again. I’m in MT, they are in CA though I heard airlines will require masks. Maybe in the next couple of months. Baby and family doing well even though dad is MD at UCLA Med.
zhena gogolia
Congratulations to your parents! What a great picture.
I’m off to bed, but this looks like a better place for this adorable tweet than the thread below.
Lapassionara
Thanks for a glimpse of Bixby.
I would love to see photos of the chalk drawings.
Yutsano
I had some leftover grilled steak, couldn’t decide what to do with it, then collected the good parts of old peppers and some onion and made fajitas. I am quite happy with my choice. I also semi binge purchased some lemons and limes. Life has been all about the ades.
TaMara (HFG)
@Major Major Major Major: That’s great for your mom. I was told today I have to wait two weeks from this past Sunday, since I still had some symptoms, before I can schedule my antibody test.
I’m waiting for the proof copy of my second novel. While I wait I’ve been writing up a storm on a third. The lockdown, no work has spurred my creativity, I guess.
ETA: Don’t know about your tastes, but if you have Netflix has Lucifer, which is basically a procedural with a sexy Tom Ellis playing it up as the devil escaped from hell.
Tom Streeter
Sixty years. That’s amazing and fantastic.
lamh36
So happy for Anderson congrats to him!
lamh36
I shared it already in one of the previous open thread, but I’ll post it here too since it’s my own personal good news.
For those who saw it in the previous thread, thanks for the congrats.
For those who didn’t, here it is:
I wasn’t planning on attending the actual ceremony, but I was planning on having a dinner party with my family, but COVID messed those plans up. So now I’m just happy to be done and I can party later!
TaMara (HFG)
@lamh36: This is the place for all that great news! Congrats.
Major Major Major Major
@TaMara (HFG): I enjoyed the first season but couldn’t finish the last one.
Glad to hear your writing is going well though!
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
Aww, congratulations to your folks! That picture looks startlingly like my parents’ wedding photo – they’ll hit 60 years next February.
Question for cocktail-making and -drinking jackals: I want to make a tropical-ish drink using silan (date syrup). I like rum, gin, tequila, and various fruit juices. I dislike whiskey in ALL its permutations. What would be good with silan?
Free drinkWell, bonus points if it can be called Midnight at the Oasis.Another Scott
@lamh36: Really excellent news!! Congratulations!
Cheers!
Scott.
hotshoe
I don’t usually get sentimental about other people’s marriages, but the photo of that lovely, proud, hopeful couple makes me get a little teary-eyed. How did they guess it would work out? How do any couple have the hope and faith to pledge their lives to each other?
Well, since it’s lasted sixty years, clearly they turned out to be right about their mutual choice. Congratulations to both on their courage and wisdom!
Steeplejack
@lamh36:
Congratulations! ?????
TaMara (HFG)
@hotshoe: I’ll be straight with you, if you ask us kids, it was rocky. But lately, as they’ve grown old and my mom has health issues, they really have found this sweet spot and I’m happy they have had that chance to grow old together.
SectionH
@lamh36: YES! Congrats! May your postponed party be even better for the wait.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Went to the office, prepared engagement docs and did some prelim background investigation on a case for a guy who can’t afford to hire me, hand delivered some necessary docs to an elderly divorce client whose sister died this past weekend for a necessary set of signatures (full mask). Came home, lunched, napped through a CLE webinar and then prepared a cheese tray and drinks for dinner. Finished strong by streaming Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares (UK version) before taking Terbinafine (clears gross toenails) and a a Xanax (3 am anxiety-don’t judge me). Wife passed out on couch, dog followed me bedward.
I’ll fall asleep in a bit.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
I’d consider Arak, an anise-based liquor distilled in Beirut. It is hotter than Pernod (Arak runs at 100 proof), and would make a damn fine cocktail in the style of a Manhattan using your date liqueur.
Emma from FL
Babies, weddings, and happy puppies. The world, she is good.
John Revolta
Oh God that galumphin’ pup! All feet and ears!
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Hmmm, interesting idea – thanks! I don’t care much for anise flavor, but might work out here.
This makes me sound picky, but I’m the opposite – there really are only a tiny handful of comestibles and flavors I don’t like, and things-like-whiskey and things-like-licorice are about half of them.
NotMax
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
Let’s see – no whiskies…
As date syrup is a sweetener, try using rum. Say, 2 parts rum, 1 part each date syrup and orange juice, spritz of lemon juice. Shake very well with ice and strain into a glass. (Variation: a splash of Midori melon liqueur into bottom of glass before pouring in the cold mixed ingredients.)
For the “midnight” part I suppose you could use grape juice instead of orange juice, although as that juice is sweet to begin with you might want to cut back on the amount of syrup. (Skip the Midori for this one in any case.)
KSinMA
@zhena gogolia:
Too cute!
Just One More Canuck
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: you can send your camel to bed
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice:
Think about ranges of potential outcomes for each. The date liqueur and some Peychaud orange bitters would be really complimentary to a hot anise spirit. I’d shake it with ice and strain it into a cocktail glass, maybe garnish with toasted orange peel or a piece of Star fruit.
KSinMA
@lamh36:
Fantastic! Good on you!
Benw
We have a huge black lab/Dane mix. He’s always been super sweet with tiny dogs
SectionH
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: M. Dantes got there first, so I’ll second the Arak rec. Mostly for the M-a-t-O riff – I am So not a cocktail maven, but wth. I guess you could go with a complimentary liquor like rum (maybe light? or Myers’s because it’s strong and not that sweet), and then add some other not sweet thing. And then some pineapple juice – it really makes all those sweet tropical cocktails work. Or the other approach would be just add vodka and some other fresh fruit juice, not too sweet. I’d try lemon or orange (squoze).
Just saw that you’re not a big fan of anise either. And I really really don’t like whisky or anything like it, whiskey, rye, bourbon – just no.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Yeah, cute-ish idea; show went to hell with alacrity, like they worked hard as each season was made to wring out all the charm.
Did you see the mention of Mackerelmedia the other day?
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@Just One More Canuck: We have a cat who often assumes a vaguely camel-like pose when he sleeps. Does that count?
Ruckus
@realbtl:
A lot of docs from UCLA work some areas of medicine at the west LA VA hospital, which is rather close to UCLA. So I wonder if we may have crossed paths. Don’t know how to figure out if that’s true, especially on line, but alway interesting to see that the world may not be as big as it appears.
Mary G
@zhena gogolia: That is adorable!
@lamh36: I’m in awe of you, working full time, travelling the world in the good old pre-Covid19 days while also getting a master’s degree. Congrats! ???????
ETA: Happy Anniversary to your parents also, too TaMara.
CaseyL
People who foster rescues are saints, plain and simple. I worked with a few when I was a volunteer at PAWS. They throw themselves into each new fostering so deeply… and then bring the critters back to be adopted, and I couldn’t understand how that was possible. Finally asked one of them, and answer was simple: “We really like puppies more than adult dogs.” (Yes, there are “foster fails” – where the foster parent winds up keeping the critter – but not as many as you’d think.)
@lamh36: Congrats! That is such great news! And I remember your talking about the marketing project, so Yay on the A and thank Dog it’s done. Here’s to great things done and yet to come.
NotMax
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
Mulled a little more about what might constitute a Midnight at the Oasis.
1 part gin or vodka
1 part blackberry brandy
½ part date syrup
big spritz of lime juice
.
Shake well with ice and strain into glass.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Unplugging?
I have several projects, indoor and outdoor, that are so huge I think of them in terms of erosion (as in how a tiny trickle of water digs out a canyon over millions of years) rather than in actually getting them done.
Although cut off from physical contact, we’re actually seeing a lot of the grandkids. My daughter and son-in-law were going crazy being locked in with the kids and so they were more than happy to give us several hours a week of story and activity time via Zoom. I’d actually have a hard time thinking of how to fill all that time but my wife is in seventh heaven. My “Winnie-the-Pooh” order just arrived from Abebooks, and I’m looking forward to introducing a new generation to Pooh-Bear (the original, not the Disney).
Our 40th is coming up at the end of May. We won’t be taking the trip we’d planned and we won’t be having the party we’d hoped to have. But that’s OK. We’re doing fine, no complaints.
rikyrah
@Lapassionara:
Me too.
Chalk drawings?
PS-ducks too?
rikyrah
Happy Anniversary to your parents?????
Benw
@CaseyL: are you in Chicago? We fostered for PAWS for years before we moved. They are a fantastic rescue org and all the volunteers were awesome!
CaseyL
@Benw: No – I was at PAWS in Washington State, a few miles north of Seattle. There are a lot of animal welfare groups called PAWS, and SFAIK they’re not affiliated with one another. It’s just a cool name :)
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: You sound like you’re feeling a little better than you were last week. Maybe because you’ve been able to do some work?
Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA)
@lamh36: Congratulations! And like everyone else, I hope the party is that much better when you’re finally able to have it. You worked damned hard for it.
I got Chauncey the Easily Frightened and 90% Housetrained to touch potty bells with his nose today, after weeks of being terrified of them. Baby steps.
Otherwise, being furloughed from my job gives me more time to practice the flute I started studying earlier this year. My new classical guitar should be here tomorrow, so assuming it’s not damaged in shipping I’ll be looking for an online teacher for that as well (because damned if I’m going out and being one of Kemp’s guinea pigs).
And TaMara, a very happy anniversary to your mom and dad!
HumboldtBlue
@lamh36:
I’ve been celebrating your awesomeness for a bit now.
Cheers!
debbie
@zhena gogolia:
Makes me want to watch some Wallace and Grommit!
SectionH
Tamara @FP – gotta add my thanks re the sidewalk chalk mention. I think my g’daughter needs some more of that- it’s been a few years since she did some sidewalk drawings. She was maybe 5 then – she’ll be 9 in June.
Thanks also @Lapassionara: because my feeble brain needs a lot of reminding to focus.
What me, stressed?
debbie
@lamh36:
Woo hoo! Congratulations!
debbie
@Lapassionara:
Chalk drawings have been a highlight of my neighborhood walks. Not very artistically challenging, but there was a hopscotch court with 100 squares. I’d never make it through the whole thing!
MoxieM
So much lovely. In my family we are expecting the arrival of the first of the new generation on May 18th. Cross your paws & fingers that all goes well. (This is a human addition). Not a grandbaby for me, but still, such a lovely joy. I hope I have a chance to inhale some of that wonderful baby smell. It’s been almost 30 years– And big dogs and little pups, well, of course, nothing better. Except possibly more big pups!
Benw
@CaseyL: yeah I wasn’t sure if you were from the Chicago PAWS. Good on you for volunteering!
laura
@lamh36: congratulations on your continued accomplishments! You’ve completed what you set out to do and your grades are a reflection of your determination. Take a victory lap – even if it’s just around the house for now. ?????
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@NotMax: @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: @SectionH:
Wow, awesome ideas. I actually have a number of these ingredients but it wouldn’t have occurred to me to combine them. I’d never make it as a mixologist – I simply don’t have the imagination or the head for liquor required to try lots of different things. I’m heading to the grocery store tomorrow morning, so I will get some juice and limes and try at least a couple of these in the next few days. Thanks!
Ruckus
@MoxieM:
Office lady at work became a grandmother for the 3rd time yesterday. Her daughter and grandchild came home today. She’s been a bit stressed about it for a bit now.
@lamh36:
Congrats!. Always great to have a milestone that you worked hard for.
So everyone, if you have to stay home, remember that boredom is just a state of mind over reality……. And if you have to work, my condolences. I’ve had to go in for the last 3 weeks because we have actually been rather busy – I’ve been working on medical company tooling, some hairy stuff from a standpoint of tiny size, precision but I may be taking off again, have to check in Monday to see how things are shaking out. I’m beginning to rather enjoy retirement practice.
SectionH
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Don’t forget the pineapple juice! ;-> Enjoy whatever you end up with!
SWMBO
@lamh36:
Congratulations! You made it! When the time comes, party like never before.