Pandemic, Week 98 (Double, Double Toil and Trouble)

This week, Justice Stephen Breyer announced his forthcoming retirement from the Supreme Court, resulting in President Biden reiterating his intention to nominate a black women to the Court while conservatives protested basing the appointment on race. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban announced an online pharmacy for generic drugs that would offer steep discounts. Amy Schneider, the second winningest Jeopardy player and first trans-woman champion, was defeated by a Chicago librarian after 40-day winning streak (and roughly $1.4 million). In protest of Joe Rogan spreading vaccine misinformation on its platform, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell removed their music from Spotify.

The world reached 373.0 million COVID cases  and 5.7 million deaths; the US accounted for 75.5 million cases and 907,000 deaths. 250 million Americans (75 percent) have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 212 million (64 percent) are fully vaccinated. An additional; 87 million (41 percent) have received a booster dose, including Owen. Meanwhile, seven Virginia school districts have sued so stop Governor Youngkin's mask optional order. Former Vice-President candidate Sarah Palin's defamation trial was postponed after she tested positive for COVID, although her status did not stop her from dining out al fresco in New York City. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was criticized for saying at an anti-vaccine rallythe Jews had more freedom during the Holocaust than un-vaccinated Americans, during Holocaust Remembrance Week.

Not much happened this week until Friday, when John asked me to help him make his bed. This prompted my rearranging and removing some furniture from his bedroom, and then texting Katherine to ask her opinion about getting him a new bed. That escalated to contemplating new furniture for the entire space and Katherine joining us for dinner, a purge of roughly half of John's clothes in order to downsize his storage needs, and cocktails. The next morning Katherine and I met at IKEA for a shopping spree followed by removing all of John's furniture, assembling a new bed, ordering a new mattress, assembling a side table (that we subsequently decided to get rid of), rearranging furniture again, and creating a lengthy to-do list for before (and after) the painters arrive to make John's bedroom a more manageable space.

All of which is why he will probably never ask me to help him make his bed again.

Pandemic, Week 97 (Loose Ends)

This week Senate republicans (along with with Senators Manchin and Sinema) defeated efforts to change the filibuster rules, resulting in Democrats not being able to force a vote on the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act. Tensions continue along the Russo-Ukrainian border while "lethal support" from the United States arrived in the Ukraine for defense against a Russian invasion.  Conservative MPs are calling for the resignation of Boris Johnson due to a party held at Downing Street during a strict lockdown. Indonesia moved its capitol from Jakarta (which is sinking) to Nusantara, on the island of Borneo. The M&M candy characters were revamped to make them more inclusive, upsetting one Fox News Hosts who finds the new versions, "less sexy," Actors/comedians Meat Loaf and Louis Anderson died this week as did Former Vice President Mike Pence's pet rabbit (and gay icon due to a segment on Last Week Tonight) Marlon Bundo died. 

The world reached 349.6 million COVID cases and 5.6 million deaths this week, of which the US accounted for 71.7 million cases and 889,000 deaths. 251 million Americans (76 percent) have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 210 million (63 percent) are fully vaccinated. A federal judge in Texas blocked the vaccine mandate for federal workers (the Department of Justice is appealing). Virginia's new Governor, Glenn Youngkin, reversed the state's mask mandates for schools, prompting lawsuits in some school districts. Australia deported unvaccinated tennis player Novak Djokovic just before start of the Australian Open after his second visa was cancelled because he was a threat to public health and order.

We spent the week finishing things. Nora submitted their DCYOP video jury and their National History Day source documentation. Owen had his in-person Duke jury (complete with tuxedo) on Wednesday and spent the rest of the week catching up on assignments before the end of term. Allen and Elaine completed the appropriately maddening Van Gogh Starry Night puzzle, which due to the number of hours and profanities associated with its assemblage, we have decided to have it framed rather than ever take it apart. 

But most importantly we finished the week with a lovely dinner at Steve & Megan's where Steve and Allen discussed optimal meat temperatures and sears, Megan advised Nora and I (particularly on what constitutes a "stiff peak" stage) as we made Nora's first ever chocolate soufflé, and Gabriel and Owen (and ultimately Nora) watched Community episodes while playing video games.

(To see all of this week's pictures, click here.) 

Pandemic, Week 96 (Duckin' Out)

This week, President Biden gave a speech in support of changing the filibuster rules in order to pass voting rights legislation, only to have Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema announce that while she fully supports the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, she just can't support allowing legislation to pass with less than 60 votes. The Supreme Court ruled against the vaccine mandate for employees at large businesses, though the mandate for most health care workers was upheld. The US Mint released new quarters featuring writer and activist Maya Angelou, the first Black woman to be featured on the currency. Actor and comedian Bob Saget died.

The world reached a total of 326.8 million COVID cases and 5.6 million deaths this week, with the U.S. accounting for 66.7 million cases and 873,000 deaths. 249 million Americans (75 percent) have received at least on dose of the vaccine with 209 million (63 percent) being fully vaccinated. COVID hospitalizations have doubled over the past two weeks in DC, Puerto Rico and 15 other states. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and West Virginia Governor Jim Justice both announced they had COVID.

This week, after a spate of negative rapid tests, both children returned to school for a full week of public education (for Owen it seemed like even more, since Omicron has resulted in a shortage of metro workers which in turn meant that metro resorted to its weekend schedule, which in turn meant that Owen spent a lot of extra time either waiting around for buses or just walking from Duke to Dupont Station). To brighten our spirits, Ducky returned for a visit while Katherine acclimates her new foster dog Zena. And to get away from Ducky (and get in some east coast skiing before our big trip to Mt. Hood next month), Allen and Owen headed out to West Virginia on Friday night to join the Sodermans, the Pitter/Changs, and Megan at a lovely mountain lodge before returning on Sunday ahead of Snomicron II (while Nora and I hunkered down with a puzzle, some amateur electrician-ry, and a "10k" – as opposed to a marathon – of The Crown).

(To see all of this week's pictures, click here.)

Pandemic, Week 95 (Snowvid)

This week the DC area had its first substantial snowfall in years – up to 12 inches in parts – delaying the reopening of schools and stranding hundreds of cars along I-95 for over 24 hours, including Virginia Senator Tim Kaine. President Joe Biden addressed the country on the one-year anniversary of the January 6th insurrection where he condemned the violence, called out the "web of lies" and implored the nation to make sure it never happens again. Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry survived an assassination attempt. Elizabeth Holmes, the former CEO of blood testing start-up Theranos was found guilty on four counts of defrauding investors. Actor and activist Sidney Poitier and director Peter Bogdanovich died this week.

The worlds reached 305.8 million cases and 5.5 million deaths this week, of which the US accounted for 60.8 million cases and 859,000 deaths. 246 million Americans (74 percent) have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 208 million (63 percent) are fully vaccinated. The FDA and CDC authorized boosters for children 12 to 15 years old, which means that once both kids have fully recovered from COVID and Nora has reached 5 months from their initial dose, we can finally get the kids boosted. Tennis player Novak Djokovic, who received a medical exemption from COVID vaccination in order to play in the Australian Open, is being refused entry by the Australian government for his failure to demonstrate he couldn't be vaccinated due to medical reasons. The Supreme Court heard arguments challenging the Biden Administration's vaccine mandates for hospital and nursing home workers as well as private-sector employers with 100 or more employees.

We spent the week detoxing and recovering from our long weekend at Katherine's, the kids COVID diagnoses, and what locals are calling "snowvid" or "snowmicron." DCPS pushed back the school start date to January 6th and required that all students upload a negative rapid test result before returning. So we dutifully braved the icy streets to pick up homes tests for the kids (and some mail-in ones for us adults) and commenced with testing Wednesday morning, only to find that while Nora was negative and cleared to return, Owen was still positive and couldn't go back to school until Monday the 9th (which would be 10 days after his positive PCR test). On Thursday, Nora braved a frigid walk to a surprisingly well run re-entry process at school while Owen slept in and did some remote learning, only to have classes cancelled the next day after another 3 inches of snow blanket the area. We spent the unanticipated free-time working on thank-you notes, desiccating marshmallows, taking down the X-Mass decorations, and catching up on The Crown and Dr. Who.

So now we are waiting for the adult test results, hoping Owen's retest is negative, and aspiring to a less COVID-y week.

(To see all of this week's pictures, click here.)

Pandemic, Week 94 (Here's To Another G*d D**n New Year)

This week an unprecedented wildfire burned through Boulder, Colorado destroying hundreds of homes. President Biden had an hour long call with Vladimir Putin, warning that the US would respond decisively to an invasion of Ukraine, while Putin warned the imposition of sanctions could result in a complete breakdown of US-Russia relations. Ghislaine Maxwell, longtime girlfriend of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein (who died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial), was found guilty of trafficking girls as young as 14. Comedienne and television icon Betty White died three weeks short of her 100th birthday.

The world reached 289.7 million COVID cases and 5.5 million deaths this week, of which the US accounted for 55.9 million cases and 847,000 deaths. 244 million Americans (73 percent) have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 206 million (62 percent) are fully vaccinated. The CDC announced that people with COVID who are asymptomatic can reduce their quarantine period to just 5 days (down from 10). The CDC also announced that no one, even the vaccinated, should take a cruise.

We started the week in Iowa in the aftermath of our Christmas celebration. While Steve & Becky left Sunday morning, Dave stuck around another night, allowing us to see Spider-Man: No Way Home with him (our second Spider-Man movie with uncle Dave). While we originally planned on driving back Tuesday, the weather looked a little ominous, and so we decided to leave Iowa on Monday ahead of some freezing rain (after a brief stop to pick up John and say "hi" to the Fawcetts) and take two days to drive home. Once we got home, we quickly unloaded the car and unwrapped presents before crashing, and then awoke the next morning to our scheduled PCR tests, just to make sure we hadn't picked up COVID since our rapid tests before we left for Iowa. The expected wait time was 24-36 hours so we thought we would have results before seeing Chris, Elise and their kids the next day (nope), or before fake Christmas with Mom Mom and Grandpa Don (no again). It gave us a little pause, but everyone felt fine and we'd been so careful! So we forged ahead, certain that we would have the results before we celebrated New Year with Nancy & Danny and all of our glorious fancy pant-ary (alas, no). Still, we really thought it would be fine and so went ahead and rang in New Years with a marathon of games (though not the full repertoire Katherine had planned) with Nora emerging victorious. After some of us didn't wake up until after noon on New Years Day followed by spending hours selecting (and then re-selecting) our beach house for Christmas 2022, some puzzling and the realization by Katherine that we didn't have school or work the next day, we decide to spend one more night at Katherine and Lee's. And that's when we learned in the early hours of January 2nd (a full 96 hours after we tested and exposed ourselves to all sorts of people), that in fact, Owen and Nora tested positive for COVID.

So we are (finally) quarantining. On Monday, we have to pick up rapid tests from Nora's school since the kids can't return to school Wednesday without a negative test, after which Allen and I will probably re-test (our December 29th tests came back negative) and also have John verified. Our apologies to everyone we recklessly exposed ourselves to, and hopefully this isn't a sign of things to come in 2022.

(To see all of this week's pictures, click here.)