The brunch was fab. Lots of good leftovers. I couldn't corral anyone into grilling the turkey sausages so I skipped them. No biggie, we can have them any time later. I'm also glad I did three bean salad instead of the white bean tuna salad. That allowed the smoked salmon to be the star, and good on that because I bought the really expensive stuff since it was the lowest in salt. When I realized no turkey sausages I threw some feta on the three beans salad for a little extra protein. It was very colorful, served in a cut glass dish, with home grown cherry tomatoes and green pepper, plus some celery and scallions and some fresh parsley. I lost my phone and my camera is stashed away so no photos. The roasted sweet potatoes, red onions and squash was a great side for bagels and lox and matzah brei. I got distracted at the end and overcooked the matzahbrei but it was OK, lots of other good things. The melon was particularly delish . . . I forgot to add that I served sparkling cider as a beverage. No one wanted coffee with dessert, so I have it ready to go in the coffee maker for tomorrow morning. I tried some new yogurt for on top of the apple crisp, it was Chobani cinnamon vanilla lower sugar greek yogurt. It was on sale so I got a few other flavors to try. It was very good! Great for mixing with fall fruits!

On Friday, I finally went to the doctor who diagnosed a “peri tonsillar abscess”, which means a swollen sac of infected pus in my throat, resulting in severe throat pain, jaw pain, ear pain, low fever etc. Sent me to the E.D. to get it drained. That resulted in 6 hours waiting in a room, and 1 hour of three doctors pushing an ultrasound probe down my throat, and then poking a fat needle through the back of my throat where the abscess was supposed to be. In the end, the exact right spot was never found, but they decided they’d poked enough holes that the abscess would figure out how to drain, helped along with an antibiotic course. I spent Saturday recuperating at home, then headed to the coast on Sunday to join the others. Dinner that night was linguine with homemade pesto; sort of a convenience meal. Last night I stopped by a marina and picked up a mess of crab and oysters. We also had some asparagus with mushrooms and Chinese sausage. Tonight I need to do something with 8 pounds of clams.

https://www.hhs.gov/coronavirus/testing-plans/index.html In early April, governors in each state designated teams to develop testing plans, working with subject matter experts from HHS and FEMA. On May 30, these teams submitted their May-June plans. On July 10, the teams submitted their July-December plans. Both plans are available to view on this page. The testing SNAFU's that we are encountering is entirely on the state where you reside. This is a state level problem. It is unrealistic to think that the federal government can coordinate testing for every county, town, village, city in the whole of this vast country. This is why we have state & county health departments. Clearly, some states were not/ are not up to the task. When my son tested positive for Covid back in September, it took 5 days for him to get his results back. After his positive test, I called the only place in town (pop. approx. 60,000) that was doing tests, a local hospital, to arrange for my husband & I to be tested. I was told that a nurse had to call back to set up the test. I'm still waiting for that call, still waiting to get that test. Little wonder that Covid started raging out of control here in WI when you have to wait 5 days for results and that is IF you could manage to get tested. And this was a whole 5 months into the pandemic--late September--not March or April when you would expect things to not run smoothly. Five months in, the state should have had its act together but clearly did not.

I'm with Judi! I need a pre-hug because I am SOOO dreading the whole thing. Hubs is going out east to spend the holiday with his kid and grandkids. I am totally FINE with that, there's not really room for me in the house, and I don't want to take the risk of covid exposure for me and my 90 year old Dad. I don't usually enjoy long visits there anyway, it's a chaotic household so really best if we keep visits short and sweet. Hubs wants to spend a lot of time there, so he'll be happy and I'll be happy. I really can't be away from my Dad for a long, long time anyway, particularly far away. So I would really love and enjoy a quiet holiday ALONE. But on the downside, I will have to be around my Dad, who takes every opportunity to be miserable and remind everyone why they should be miserable, and make issues about things that aren't issues. He'll spend the whole time lamenting that we are "alone" on the holiday, because I guess I am just chopped liver. He'll revisit every death and estrangement and person who ever spent the holidays with us and isn't there. He'll claim he has no appetite and doesn't feel like eating whatever I make, complain that I made too much, and the only thing worse would be if I didn't do anything. He's clinically depressed and refuses any treatment for it. Which is fine, but he needs to make everyone around him miserable too. Oh, and he has a lovely invitation to spend Christmas with his godson, but insists that I have to come too. I don't want to go due to covid exposure and besides I don't even want to go, it's a long drive. They are lovely people but I would prefer seeing them at a time that is less pandemic complicated. But if my Dad wanted the whole Hallmark Christmas scene he could have it there. But he insists on me going, even though I really really don't want to. Frankly having him gone would give me some much needed rest, but he refuses to take that easy route. So now he's off in search of some public party and gathering at Christmas, Lord knows why he feels like he has to do that. I guess a little covid or flu risk is the way to go. We live in a very high transmission area. So I'm just dreading the whole affair because no matter what I do, it will be wrong/bad,/problematic. Hubs and I are having vegetarian lasagna for our Christmas dinner before he leaves. Not sure what else I will make. Probably just a salad and maybe some cranberry pistachio biscotti and tea if I can get the darn things made in time . . . Dad and I will be having cornish hens, sweet potatoes and wild rice pilaf, with an apple bundt cake for dessert. If I don't feel like fussing I might just make a small apple coffee cake in a square pan instead. I love my apple bundt cake but it takes five thinly sliced apples in layers so it's a lot of work. Or I might make cranberry cherry cobbler, that's always easy peasy but also impressive.