Quiz #59. Foot Notes
Making Indoor S'Mores and DIY Pedicures: Making the Most Out of this Pandemic in Steve's Stay-at-Home Coronavirus Quiz for May 26, 2020
Tuesday, May 26, 2020. “Back to work” after an unusual Memorial Day. Raging debates over safety and risk during this pandemic at beaches and crowded, boozy pool parties in the Ozarks. No pool parties for Sara and me--we’ll stick to watching “Ozark” on TV--and likely no trips to the Jersey Shore. In this do-it-yourself time of risk assessment, we’re still on the cautious side. Being 63 will do that to you.
For Sara and me, it was an unusual Memorial Day. No parade--a staple in our town. We live one block away from the staging area where the parade typically kicks off--and really missed being able to walk down to see it. Instead, we gardened in the morning, spreading 16 bags of mulch. After showering, we sat on the back deck and had side-by-side, do-it-yourself pedicures. My feet have always been an ugly, crusty mess (no images--you’re welcome) and Sara has always joked that I could actually use a pedicure--though she knows I’d never go to a nail salon to get one. She ordered a DIY kit for each of us--and it required that we sit for two hours. The first hour to soak our feet in water; the second to then sit with our feet inside special foot-sized plastic bags, lined with a slightly acidic goo, taped shut and topped off with socks over the plastic. A perfect “activity” for a holiday afternoon alone on the back deck.
DIY pedicures on the back deck with our feet soaking in goo-filled plastic bags covered by socks.
Will made home-made pizza and served us a late lunch, also kindly agreeing to fill up the bowl of Cheez-Its we’d gone through during the first hour of soaking.
My feet are now cleaner and softer--and when I touch them, the skin on my feet feels almost alive. I can feel my feet--and my feet can feel my fingers (if that makes sense). According to Sara, in a few days, the acid will cause the dead skin on my feet to peel off. It’s good to have something to look forward to. No images--I promise.
For dinner, we had burgers and then indoor S’mores that Sara made from a Florence Fabricant (@FloFab) recipe in the New York Times. They were damn good. Sara melted the chocolate, spread it on the graham crackers like jelly and then broiled the marshmallows, one side at a time. Once put together, they were perfect--and a wonderful mess to eat. Quarantine life, 2020.
Indoor S’mores. (Thank you Sara and @FloFab.)
Since the start of the pandemic, we’ve had a hard time getting vanilla. It seems like everyone’s baking. I ordered some on Amazon and it arrived this weekend. When we opened the box, I said to Sara, “I can’t tell you how happy I am that we now have vanilla.” She told me that was something she’d never thought she’d hear me say. I texted a picture of the vanilla to my brother Richard who’s sent me a recipe for what he says are killer chocolate chip cookies. I’d been unable to make them without the vanilla. A key ingredient is sea salt--which we have. I will let you know how they come out.
“I can’t tell you how happy I am that we now have vanilla.”
In a Saturday night Zoom with friends Tim and Laurie, we discussed weekend cocktails. As anyone who knows me will attest, I am a lightweight when it comes to drinking--and I rarely drink. During the pandemic, I have tried to make some kind of whiskey sour to enjoy on weekend evenings. As recounted in Quiz #49. Cookies and Milk, when we ran out of our lemonade and lemons, one night I turned to applesauce for an apple-based whiskey drink. I served it to John and he told me he enjoyed it. It was only several days later that Sara revealed he was only being polite--and had dumped the drink after I’d served him. On the Zoom with Tim and Laurie, we told them this story and I said that “John and I had become pandemic drinking buddies.” Again, Sara told me that was something she never thought she’d hear me say.
These are strange and unusual times--and we are trying to savor the good despite the bad:
Whiskey sours (from lemonade and whole lemons--and applesauce in a pinch).
Indoor S’mores.
Clean feet.
Footnote #1
In Quiz #58. (except Ed), Answer E. referenced a story that Richard had told during the surprise Zoom birthday party we held Sunday for my sister Susan. I wrote the following:
E. Richard revealed that after leaving the 1986 World Series game, he and another man were hit by a limo in the parking lot. Inside the limo was Dustin Hoffman.
When Sara had read this draft, she’d said that Richard had said that Hoffman was driving a car. I insisted he was in the limo.
In the comments, my sister Ginny said that Richard had said that he and Hoffman had been the ones who were hit by the limo. I’d recorded the Zoom party--and she said I could check the recording.
Answer about Richard getting hit by the limo. Dustin Hoffman wasn't in the limo. He was walking near Rich and also got hit by the limo. Check the birthday zoom video around 1:21.
This morning, I wished my sister Susan a happy birthday on a family text chain. (Today is her actual birthday. We did the Zoom party on Sunday so everyone could be there.) I also asked Richard to clarify the Hoffman story. Was Hoffman hit, driving or in the limo? Richard reported that Hoffman was the second person who was hit. Ginny was right--and I was wrong. Still, Ginny reported that Larry had also thought that Hoffman was in the limo.
Happy birthday to my sister Sue!
Footnote #2
Quiz #58. (except Ed) took its title from an email that I received from Greg, son of my long-time friend Ed.
Regular readers may recognize this as a phrase I used in Quiz #57. 1 in 12,766. In that quiz, I told three baseball stories--and one of them was about an outing to CItizens Bank Park in 2019 with 3 friends, Ed, Dave and Tim. I told the story about how I caught (grabbed) a foul ball and somewhat reluctantly gave it to a 10-year-old boy sitting nearby. I wrote, “We all agreed (except Ed)” that giving the ball to the kid was the right thing to do. Ed’s son, Greg, emailed to let me know that “We all agreed (except Ed)” could be the title of Ed’s memoir. A contrarian from way back, in a recent reunion Zoom, Ed wanted it known and on the record that he had been wiping down his work space and any shared phones with Clorox wipes for decades. “We all agreed (except Ed)” gives you a verbal picture of Ed.
Ed, Dave, Tim and me
Tim, me, the ball and my wounded knee.
After posting Quiz #58. (except Ed), I got this email from Ed, sent to me and Greg.
I feel compelled to clarify and correct a couple of items.
Regarding the now-infamous foul ball, after you dove headlong for it and skinned your knee in the process, I was the first in our group to point out that you had (albeit inadvertently) bodychecked the kid in the row in front who was also reaching for the ball. You shouldered him out of the way in a manner that would’ve made an NHL defenseman proud. It was only after you confirmed my astute observation with Tim that you even considered giving the ball to the kid. So in the end, even though I may have advised against it, it was really only because of me that you did it. Parenthetically, I also was the one who most-strongly urged you to take the ball back after the kid had left it in the cupholder later during the game.
Regarding the daily cleansing of my office phone, I refer you to the November 2, 2013 edition of the Schimmel Sun Times*, and the front-page article … which correctly states that the daily cleansing was carried out not with Clorox wipes, but in fact with Lysol spray.
(*The “Schimmel Sun Times” is a reference to a “newspaper” which Greg and his family had printed up for Ed when he retired in 2013. Family members and several friends contributed articles, including Dave and me. As I recall, a central theme of the articles was that Ed was an extremely diligent copy editor, always on the lookout for misspellings and inaccuracies. The retirement newspaper itself contained some typos and inaccuracies--and Ed asked that they be fixed and his family get the retirement “newspaper” reprinted.)
Ed and Greg during the 2008 playoffs that led to the Phillies winning the World Series.
After Ed’s email with the clarification and correction about what I had written in the quiz, Greg responded to the email chain with one simple sentence.
I stand by the title of the memoir.
As for me, there was no “shouldering” of the little boy. I beat him to the ball fair and square--sort of. A 62-year-old man diving onto the concrete across empty seats with the full length of his 6-foot-5-inch frame versus a 10-year-old boy turning around in his seat.
As for my mistake in indicating in Quiz #58. (except Ed) that Ed had long been known for cleaning his workspace with Clorox wipes, I stand corrected. Ed wants you to know that he used Lysol spray. I was wrong. I regret the error (and so much more). Good luck getting either in this pandemic.
What did NOT happen?
A. Susan’s friend from high school, Dana, organized a birthday video for Sue which Sue saw for the first time this morning. People in the family had done videos for the project which we’d sent to Dana. When Sue texted this morning that she’d seen the video, Ginny and I called her to discuss the video and wish her a happy birthday;
B. Susan revealed that when she was growing up, she used to think that Memorial Day parades and BBQs were for her birthday;
C. In his birthday video for Sue, Richard hosted a fire truck parade for Sue;
D. I’d gotten the Philadelphia Phanatic to do a video for Sue--and Sue said she laughed out loud when she saw his surgical mask;
E. Susan revealed that when she lived in California, she took an exercise class that was actually led by Jane Fonda before Jane Fonda’s exercise videos took off.
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Here’s the previous quiz in the series: Quiz #58. (except Ed).
Here’s the first quiz in the series: Quiz #1. Stella and Social Distancing, March 13, 2020
Here is an archive of all the quizzes.
The quiz is explained here: Steve’s Stay-at-Home Coronavirus Quiz.
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