It’s a sad state of affairs when @Jomboy almost upended the start of my weekend.
@Jomboy is the irreverent sports media blogger who came to fame during the Astros sign-stealing scandal. During coronavirus, like a lot of sports bloggers, @Jomboy’s been looking for things to do. So, in @Jomboy style, he posted a video to Twitter on how to make your own chocolate peanut butter cups.
A few weeks ago, I tried to follow the @Jomboy “recipe” which calls for paper cupcake holders that hold the chocolate peanut butter concoctions in place while the different layers of chocolate and peanut butter are frozen together. I looked around the pantry. We had plenty of peanut butter and more than a few bags of chocolate morsels, but I could not find cupcake holders so used paper coffee filters instead. The result was chocolate peanut butter mega-cups--more like saucers--6 inches across. 1 or 2 bites was enough for a sugar coma--and my treat lasted a week in the refrigerator.
Homemade chocolate peanut butter cups made in coffee filters (instead of cupcake holders)
On Wednesday of this week, April 1st, John and Will made our first trip to the grocery store since Friday, March 13th. A lot of planning and discussion went into the whole thing with Sara and Will reviewing internet articles on how to shop safety in these coronavirus times--and an internal debate over whether Sara and I would go shop. John and Will would simply not allow that--a true changing of the guard moment.
They went first thing in the morning, armed with latex gloves and Clorox wipes. Sara had made up 2 lists, one for each of them. Will got the staples and John focused on meats, vegetables and fruits. The vegetables had to be things that Sara could cook, the fruit had to have a skin that could be cleaned before it was brought into the house. My contribution to the list: prunes and paper cupcake holders.
When John and Will came home, we loaded the groceries from the driveway onto the back deck before wiping them down while Will sprayed Lysol in the back of the van. The boys bought fresh flowers for Sara and it was a relief to get some fresh food.
Still, with all the prep, things did not go perfectly. A sleeve of seltzer cans had tipped over on the driveway and cans fell out of the box. When I took the wiped-down, reloaded box of seltzer cans into the basement, I realized the box was wet. I suspected that one of the cans had gotten a hole in it when it had rolled on the driveway. I took the cans out of the box but still could not tell which one was the leaker. I moved them 6 inches apart on the basement floor and then I could see which one had sprung a leak. I took a picture of the cans on the floor and told everyone that I’d practiced “seltzer distancing.”
We’d also wiped down the gallon jugs of milk the boys had purchased, but when one of them was moved from the porch to the refrigerator, it fell to the floor, precious milk spraying all over the kitchen floor. We had gated the dogs, Happy and Stella, in the living room while we unloaded the groceries, so when the milk spilled, the first thing I did was open the gate and let the dogs into the kitchen. They love milk and started licking it up with reckless abandon before Sara and I grabbed dish towels to finish the job. Life lesson: don't cry over spilled milk.
I was so happy to have the box of paper cupcake holders that I took it into the dining room to take a picture.
This Friday morning (my Saturday morning on my Sunday to Thursday shift) after our morning coffee, I told Sara that I would make the JomBoy concoction while she took a shower. I looked and looked, but could not find the cupcake holders. I texted Sara as she was upstairs getting dressed, thinking she’d put them away somewhere without telling me.
She came down to start her work day in the kitchen only to find a bag of chocolate morsels, a jar of peanut butter, 2 pyrex dishes and 2 large cupcake pans in her work area on the kitchen table. Tense moments followed. Why had I chosen this moment--the start of my weekend and yet the start of her workday--to make chocolate peanut butter cups that came from @Jomboy?
I pulled back, apologized and went out to walk the dogs. When I returned, Sara told me that she’d been thinking about the missing cupcake holders. She told me she had not seen or touched them since the trip to the grocery store. She has a near photographic memory for missing things and I knew she was telling the truth. She told me she remembered that I’d been fascinated with the cupcake holders when the boys had come home from the store. (Guilty as charged.) I’m tall and I am always stashing my things--wallet, keys, iPhone, camera, gadgets and mail--on the top of any high furniture all over the house. Basically, she told me to look up--and when I did, I spotted the box of cupcake holders, on top of the kitchen cabinet where I’d put them Wednesday after taking a picture of them--and then forgetting about them.
Unplugging and relaxing can be hard--especially when you’ve spent your whole workweek plugged in and wired. Focusing on coronavirus is beyond grim--and I know you don’t need me to tell you that. Indeed, when I texted a colleague that one particular piece of information she’d passed along was grim, her one word response was, “Indeed.” To me, “indeed” is a word that always conjures up Easter. The priest or pastor says, “He has risen!” and your response is supposed to be “He has risen, indeed!” I always feel like saying, “Don’t you think we know that already? We get it--and that’s why we’re in church. Do you really need to tell us--only to have us agree?”
So, yes, coronavirus is grim. Indeed. My hope here is to provide a welcome distraction. Stocked with milk, this morning I had Lucky Charms for breakfast instead of the usual bland oatmeal. Look up.
What did NOT happen?
A. The night before John and Will went grocery shopping, Will stayed up until 1AM to sign us up for grocery deliveries from a local supermarket. He booked the next available date which was April 14th--in 2 weeks;
B. John bought a lot of turkey products;
C. Will purchased yeast to make more bread;
D. One other essential item on the grocery list was dog treats. The boys bought 4 boxes of milk bones;
E. The next night, Thursday, Sara watched a report on the NBC Nightly News which had different advice on unloading your groceries in this time of the coronavirus than what we had followed. She was not pleased.
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Here’s the first quiz in the series: Quiz #1. Stella and Social Distancing, March 13, 2020
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