I'm not going loopy myself, but I am getting a bit frustrated trying to make something different for dinner every night - my brother Kevin doesn't like having leftovers, unless I make them into something new. He'll eat leftover lasagna and pizza, however. So I'm trying to cook dinner that will not create leftovers, but I personally like leftovers because that way I do not have to make something new all the time.

I seem to have a hard time making only two servings at a time - I generally make three instead, and then I have one left over for me, but then I still have to make something else for Kevin. He's still working and I'm not, and so I have to indulge him

Who? Me? loopy? Even though I live in one of the few states where a shelter order has not been placed?
naaa! That's why I stay up all night and sleep all day.

I find myself talking to myself........

Dave, aer you sure this is something new? ;)

@Lars, does Kevin not like having the same thing again in quick succession? If so, can you freeze the leftovers and serve them next week. Will Kevin eat pizza with a variety of toppings? DD and DSIL used to have pizza once a week. DD made the dough and then topped it with whatever was leftover in the fridge.

Nevertheless, I’m with you. I’m getting tired of making up new things to cook. DH will eat almost anything put in front of him as long as it isn’t eggplant.

(@plllog, lol.)

I was up at 3am reading the NYTimes in bed (on-line)

All about bread baking today. I could not for the life of me pronounce 'gougeres' in my head. So I said it out loud a few times and woke up the room. DH thought I was watching a PeterSellers PinkPanther. Had a good belly laugh like a crazy person. Even needed a cold damp cloth for my eyes.

Still can't pronounce it. Flour came yesterday so I need to make them.

Every other meal needs to be from the freezer. I have a hard time cooking for two. Always some leftover. So pups are eating well. Then freeze the protein for a different quick freezer meal.

Reminds me of a monty python skit ... a French castle watch guard hears a noise out side the castle ... and cries out

wait for it

Halt, who gouger?

Haha, I was just about to look up a pronunciation.

I solved this one a few years ago,

I took a nap in the afternoon yesterday... and the day before. That is not me, I do not take naps, ever. I just couldn't help myself. OTOH, I've always talked to my pets, and to myself. Drives DH crazy! Both cats talk back to me, but I can only understand what the older cat is saying.

Wonderful, all morning I've been repeating gougere - in my head, out loud. Never had a problem with the french R. Only learned to roll my tongue for latino pronunciation this year. Other accents and pronunciations are not difficult for me. But Worcestershire? Can't seem to get it right. I can't repeat it when I hear it, but not an hour later.

Well, my day was brightened knowing I said Worcestershire all along.

I'm conflicted. I love having more time to cook, bake, weave, paint, etc., but I'm lacking some key ingredients and this entire situation is so depressing that I lack artistic inspiration. :p

I just made carrot greens! Until yesterday, I had no idea that carrot stems/leaves are edible. So far I like them, but I only took the tiniest sample. I decided to try them sauteed in OO w/ garlic & a little salt. :)

Wor-chester. Wor-sester-shear. Woos-che-shire. Worst-chest-her. Woo-ses-her-here. Who-says-here-here. Anyway, no, not really feeling loopy.

Wos-ter-shr

Sharpie out the un-needed letters as a reminder, : )

(we need to send that ^ video to the food network. They never get it right)

Thank-you Mom, I learned to pronounce these things from you!

I think loopy levels have to do with how much you like being home (until this house, I used to love going out. Here, I love staying home), and how squashed together you are with those you live with. The rain, the Winter rain that didn't come in the Winter and won't leave now that it's April (it does occasionally rain in a normal April, but not "April showers". This is weird, Winter rain, lots of water (which we need, especially snow on the mountains) and is helping keep people home since we don't go out in the rain here. It's a real mood dampener too. So no loopy here. Just need a nap.

Loopy? no. Bored? Yes. I have all sorts of ideas for things to bake.... like Browned Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies.... but...... I will share a few and eat all the rest.... which is not good for me since I can't afford a whole new, larger wardrobe.

I have talked for hours to old friends and relatives that I haven't had contact with in years. I try to call at least one or two friends everyday, both for my benefit and theirs.

And, I hang about on Forums far too frequently.. ;-))

And, I actually had to google "gougeres" to know what they are. Turns out, I've always pronounce Worchestershire sauce correctly.... can't imagine why. Strangest thing one learns on this Forum.

I walked into the kitchen to do something and forgot what it was I had planned to do....many times. We looked at each other after DH asked if needed anything brought up from downstairs....dumbfounded, I started to jump up and 'charades' trying to find the word. (I need a pup to section off his tail, lol)

That word was oxtail.

As expected, lots of articles about this.

"Mignon Fogarty was a few weeks into quarantine when she got into the shower with her glasses on. The author and host of the podcast “Grammar Girl” shared the experience on Twitter, where dozens of people replied with their own stress-induced scatterbrained moments: forgetting their own phone numbers, washing faces with hair conditioner, spooning powdered baby formula into the coffee maker instead of coffee.

“I’ve become noticeably forgetful, and I’m not sleeping well,” Fogarty said of life in self-isolation from her home in Reno, Nev. “In last night’s dream, I was responsible for taking care of a child who kept touching dirty things in public and rubbing his hands on my face while I sat there thinking about how our whole family was going to die.”..."

I had a whopper Covid-19 dream-nightmare a few days ago. At my dentist’s office. I’ll have to write it up. Funny in retrospect, but he isn’t a belly laughing type.

yes, forgetting what one was just about to do. Me frequently.

Why am I walking around with this sponge in my hand? I find it most helpful to return to the place I was previously; although that’s a pain if it involves a flight of stairs and rooms away.

Regarding pronounciation:

I used to buy this delicious French cheese,

Chaource

Ever try it?

Finally got up from sitting in front of my computer going through email and reading crap, and washed my face and brushed my teeth for the first time today - it's 3 pm here and I've been up since 8:30 am 😝

I am pretty much an introvert, so the staying at home is not difficult for me. At least I though not. Prior to all this, I generally slept from about 10:00 pm to about 6 or sometimes 7 am. Now, I can't fall asleep til around midnight, wake up about 3, stay awake til about 5 and sleep til 7 am.

In the vein of pronouncing Worcestershire sauce (thanks Mom, for teaching me correct pronunciations), one of my good friends grew up in Worcester MA. When she was a teen, she took the bus or train somewhere - I don't recall where, but outside of Massachusetts somewhere. I don't recall the details, but when she went to buy a ticket to return home, she asked for a tix to Worcester. The clerk looked at his list and said, we don't go to Worcester. She explained that she'd ridden FROM Worcester, so why wouldn't they GO there? He didn't know, except that it's not on his list. She was in tears before it occurred to her that his list probably didn't have Wooster on it, so she asked in they went to Wer kess ter? "Oh, sure, why didn't you say so?"

I think of that story every time the pronunciation of Worcestershire sauce comes up.

haha! I go through Worcester on the way to my sister's house, so I knew. I love the place names in that area -- like Purgatory Chasm and Uxbridge, which are so fun to say! :O)

It's actually closer to "Woo-ster-shr" , where the "oo" is pronounced as in "book".

Well, I'm happy to know that I've pronounced both of those things correctly, LOL.

Definitely not loopy here, or bored. I'd love it if people would leave me alone, but my brother calls and my Mother calls and my daughters call. Then Elery's daughter calls and his sister calls and his brother calls, because no one else has anything to do, they are bored.

Meanwhile I have 32 baby chicks in a brooder tank to take care of with 24 more coming in a month so that last chicken coop needs to be cleaned. There is fence to fix and asparagus to weed and fertilize and manure to spread and cherry trees to plant and fig trees to uncover and fertilize. I've got peppers and tomatoes, eggplants and peppers started, and they all need to be repotted into bigger containers. The calf pen still needs cleaning and fruit trees and grapes need to be pruned and I am waiting for 100 strawberry plants to be delivered. The Princess has been helping with the farm, we fixed the gate hinges yesterday and set up the live traps for the ground hog that has taken up residence under the pig enclosure, waiting for us to plant his garden.

Really, life here isn't much different. I still have people stop constantly with Township business and none of them are worried about social distancing, apparently. I've taken to meeting them outside and not inviting them in, because then I can move away when they get too close. And I have to run an election in May, it's supposed to be "vote by mail" but everyone just wants to drop off their ballots instead of mailing them although they got an addressed and stamped envelope in their packets. (sigh) I've put a basket outside the door with a sign "place AV ballots here", but they won't, they want to "make sure" I get them. And the phone keeps ringing with all those "bored" people, my brother called me a little after midnight to ask about pot roast!

Yes, I could use a little social distance...

Annie

I have taken to baking bread and giving it away. For the past 4 weeks, 5 days a week I have made 5 loaves of bread and called friends and ask if they would like a loaf of hot bread on their doorstep about dinner time....only one said "I just took 4 loaves out of the oven".
I figure i have made and given away 95 loaves.....had to keep some for me ya know.

Not sure if that makes me crazy or keeps me sane. I get out in my car to deliver....but just toss it on the drive and the only contact is a wave.

Schools here didn't close, although for the last two or three weeks of term parents were encouraged to keep students at home if at all possible and curriculum was delivered online. A handful of students came whose parents were working in essential jobs and who couldn't be left at home alone. Staff worked separately to create online curriculum and I caught up on some jobs which had been on the back burner due to time constraints.

Most of the time I was pottering alone in my chemistry lab so it was all good :-)

Now it's two weeks off for Easter and term break, then we go back with minimum students. I still have some "round tuit" jobs which will go especially well with no students. One such job is to paint a large display cupboard in the foyer which I think was last painted in 1970 going by the colour - turquoise and white- and condition. I'm planning to paint the frame black and the various doors and drawers randomly in white, red, blue and yellow like a Mondrian painting. I think it will look really interesting and it will also go well with the charcoal grey carpet :-)

In the meantime, I'm knitting, sewing, cooking and baking.

Not any loopier than usual. I can't count how many times a week I walk out of my office and then forget why. I wish I could be bored. My phone and email are blowing up as we're getting ready to close bidding on a building addition. I've been writing grants for that. We're doing Zoom staff meetings and board meetings. My crew is scared to death they're going to get laid off. Judging by the number of cars in my parking lot using wifi and how many people ask us to leave books out the back door when we're there, I will argue about libraries being nonessential.

I spent the first week and a half in zombieland. The weather was nasty and it's the first time I've been able to hibernate in years. But the sun's out now, so seeds got planted, lawn got raked, trash got hauled. I broke down and cleaned my bathroom. DH is making cages for 15 assorted red maples that we'll plant this week and my orchard needs major attention, rest of the garden still has snow. I can't imagine being bored. Lazy, yes.

Sleevendog, I save myself aggravation by pronouncing it "Lee and Perrins".

Maybe a direct link will work, link, HERE

It worked!!!!! Thanks!

I just deleted my comment with the You Tube video about pronouncing gougeres. My troubles started when I posted it. Maybe it will help for it to be GONE!

I'm just aggravated with the weather. For weeks, the long-range forecasts showed overnight lows not too bad. So we got things ready to plant but because it takes me forever to do any little thing it took me almost a week to get 3 tomato plants in. I have a bunch more to go, but fortunately not as complicated to plant as those 3 were (seed tomatoes that had to be covered completely by bug barrier fabric.) But now they've changed the forecast. First off they say we could have some really bad nasty weather this afternoon/evening. And the overnight lows the next 3 nights are down in the frost/freeze temps. And some of these tomato plants aren't going to survive much longer if they don't get to stretch their feet out soon :-(

Good topic.

Isolation kind of agrees with me. I miss going to the pub, but I’m not yet missing socializing in person. Work is very busy, and my neighborhood stuff is taking up quite a bit of time as well. However, I like others am feeling like a lot is always on my mind, it is hard to switch off, I sometimes have trouble sleeping. I’m drinking more, although this translates to two beers or drinks a day instead of a drink every two days. I’m eating more and gaining weight, though I started riding my bike to work which may help a little. DD was home from college this weekend so we had the whole family which was very nice. We cooked, ate, watched movies, the kids read books, SWMBO is spring cleaning, I fixed our drip irrigation system and started pressure washing the back yard and pruning plants. That was relaxing.

I wonder if crime is up or down. I’d guess down but we had an interesting incident on Friday.

DD was in her apartment in Eugene, on the phone with me in my office in Portland. I heard six gunshots over the phone, DD said “that sounded like gunshots”, I said “yup”, and she hung up. I called 911, was patched to Eugene 911, the dispatcher asked if I was calling about the shooting on 15th and if so police were on their way. DD lives on the alley between 14th and 15th. About 15 minutes later DD called me back and said she had been on her balcony during our call, heard shots, saw a car driving away on 15th - which she can see from her second floor balcony, it is about 100 ft away, then heard someone yelling they’d been shot and saw people running toward the yelling, although the yelling person was obstructed from her view by the house that is right behind her apartment. Police had blocked off the area, were searching with cars, dogs and drones, and the shooting victim had been taken away.

That was very weird for that area, it is only a few blocks from the UO campus, inhabited mostly by students, and generally a low crime area. News reports now, three days later, indicate the victim is expected to live and that a man has been arrested and charged.

So this has me watching for signs of increased crime. I can’t stay that I’m seeing any, but I do wonder.

What I seem to be seeing regarding crime is more desperation. Petty criminals being frustrated by everyone being home; no houses to burglarize, no money for drugs from stealing easy to fence items. I don't know if it's a difference in reporting or what, but most crime reports seem to be high speed chases and crashes or shootings at some of the few businesses still open. I know the news outlets seldom report it, but I'd guess the domestic violence is WAY up.

I think domestic violence is indeed way up.