House of Plague

Well it is Day 3 of our quarantine in the House of Plague. Ok, not really The Plague, or even one of those flus that are going around. Just good old fashioned coughing, sneezing, snotty not feeling good. I've been trying to get some extra sleep to counteract all the sneezing. Peter's nose has been dripping like a faucet. Erika has stopped running (!!!).

And well, ok, I guess "quarantine" is a bit dramatic as well. Day One (Monday) we all stayed home, all day long. Except Martin who has managed to avoid this particular illness. He went to work. I think he even rode his bike, the show-off. Tuesday, Erika dragged herself (and Peter) to the grocery store because we were out of bananas, Peter's favorite food. And milk. And a few other critical items. Today they managed to get to the botanical garden for an hour, to alleviate Erika's other sickness: stir craziness. They even skipped the hippie movement class!

They sure were having fun though, before the plague struck them down. Graced by a rare and special visit from Uncle Dave and Beth on Thursday, Erika was inspired to make bourbon banana pudding. She was channeling their adopted town of Williamsburg, Virginia. Friday the Kosinas left for Nevada City, abandoning me for the entire weekend. Apparently they found a house with a sun room that takes over one whole side of the house, so I may forgive them if they ever make up their minds and decide to buy it. Erika ran a hilly 10K race through Nevada City and was extremely pleased with the results (under an hour, yay!). Now if only she could kick this cold and finish training for the REAL race, which is only two and a half weeks away...

So instead of running, she is cooking. Using up random aging vegetables and grains and whatever she finds in the back of the cupboard, in the hopes that these cupboards will need to be cleaned out soon in preparation for a move. Tonight's dinner is butternut squash soup with a number of other random ingredients (barley!), accompanied by the last loaf of bread that she baked and froze months ago, and some persimmon cookies made from LAST year's (frozen) persimmon crop. Mmmmmm, leftovers!

One thing I predict we will have a ton of left over is Halloween candy. Erika had big plans for Halloween this year, but sadly it looks like they are not coming to fruition. We hosted a pumpkin carving party two weekends ago, which turned out to be too early. I watched those jack o lanterns slowly melt into oblivion while the rest of the family was in Nevada City. Biggest mess Erika has cleaned up in months (picture two completely liquified pumpkins seeping into the top drawers of a glass-top desk and soaking all the contents of the drawers). So, there will be no jack o lanterns welcoming trick or treaters on Halloween this year. And I refuse to let Erika paint glowing stuff on my teeth for a Cheshire cat outfit, so this year might be the same as every other Halloween, where Erika and Martin turn out the lights, pretend not to be home, and watch a scary movie. After the toddler party, of course! Peter still gets to dress up and parade around with his buddies. Don't worry, Erika will take pictures.