We've had firepits every night this weekend with tiny subsets of our covid friends and it's been pretty awesome.

We bought a firepit last week, which is supposed to be delivered this week, so we can take advantage of the backyard before it gets really cold. We also got a bluetooth speaker to take out there that has really great sound for a $25 speaker, so enjoying that small win there.

Jim and I drove 10 miles up the road to Poulsbo to drop off the ballots - we were looking for an excuse to get out of the house. Passing the drop box at the school administration building, there was a line of cars back to the street, with other folks walking up.

We dropped ours at the fire station, did a couple of other errands, and came back to see the van from the county waiting for a break in the line of vehicles to collect the day's ballots. A couple of the on-duty fire fighters were watching from the main entrance. I'll check to see that my ballot had been accepted later today.

ltc is currently throwing the most epic of tantrums. I'm trying to both ignore her and not have an anxiety attack.

Exciting for your niece to come see you, Zen! And a plane ride too.

Even though things have loosened up in SF as we've gotten our numbers down into the Moderate (second lowest) tier, I'm still feeling kind of antsy and cabin-feverish. JZ's working from home, and Matilda is schooling at home, and we're all just bouncing off each other all the time in our little apartment.

Matilda's only been able to see two or three friends since March.

But I did meet up with my artist friend, Jes, recently. We got to-go cocktails at Alembic and went to sit in the park and talk for a couple hours.

That's about the only extra curricular socializing I've done.

It has been nice having a car again though, so I've been skiiving off to Japantown on weekdays. It's mostly empty over there and lots of things are closed, but not everything and I can pick up Matilda's favorite Japanese curry to go.

JZ and Matilda are driving up to Reno next weekend to deliver a cat to my MiL. I think they are excited for the change of scenery, and I am thrilled to have the house to myself.

I have been obsessing about whether or not to propose to my parents that I quarantine for two weeks and then come for Thanksgiving, but every time I thought about it, I wondered if even the slightest change was too great a chance.

My mother tells me they're going to North Carolina. I'm not really concerned, and they're being very careful, but...parents.

Timelies all!

Mr. S's school is going to three days in-person and two days virtual starting this week. In a couple weeks it will be four days in-person and one day virtual. Hopefully he will continue to have good days at school.

Niece's flight was delayed and now she's afraid she's miss her connection. I'm staying optimistic but this is not the way I wanted her to first experience flying. Oh well.

My family has already decided to cancel our traditional Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations. It's sad and we're all upset about it, but also... honestly... Kim will be in Sweden with her new boyfriend and won't have to worry about missing celebrations, Sarah's contract ended and she's broke and doesn't want to travel anyway, Lil is scared to be F2F with anyone, and I'm exhausted and glad to be relieved of the holidays for once. I probably won't even decorate. Not that I do a lot of decorating anyway. It'll be nice to have days off with no travel required.

Zen, I hope the rest of the flight is trouble free and you and your neice have a good visit.

My dentist's office is a new double-wide across from a horse farm on a semi-rural road. He's only minutes out of town, so he has a very healthy book of clients. Plus he's young and a pop culture geek. He gets the references, and volleys back. He's also a good dentist.

Somehow I timed it just right, and there was no line when I went to vote (despite there being an around-the-corner line earlier) and a line was 3 deep when I came out of voting.

They did not have stickers. I am trying hard to be adult about this.

Zen, I hope the rest of the flight is trouble free and you and your neice have a good visit.

Ditto

We are not going up tot he big Thanksgiving "Do" in PA, but we are probably going to go up for Christmas; it will be just my sister, her wife, their daughter and her boyfriend. It kind of depends on when my niece and her boyfriend go up for Christmas. They're in Atlanta right now - both very conscientious, and they isolate, but I'd be happiest if they were back for a couple of weeks before Christmas and all healthy and stuff. I dunno. We'll see.