I am finally starting to get my reading groove back. I wasn't able to read much from mid-March to mid-May, but one thing I discovered and enjoyed was LA Theatre Works. Their audio productions of plays are a high caliber, and they have a lot of freebies but apparently they also take them down - most of the ones that I listened to have now disappeared but are replaced with a new batch. You could also check your library - I found some on both Overdrive and Hoopla. So far, I have listed to: Lost in Yonkers by Neil Simon The Sisters Rosenweig by Wendy Wasserstein Crimes of the Heart by Beth Henley Park Your Car in Harvard Yard by Israel Horovitz Lips Together, Teeth Apart by Terrance McNally An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. They do stay up longer than a week, though. A couple weeks, I think? @Lori D. I keep trying to catch - but keep missing - the National Theatre weekly releases. And from what I can tell it doesn't look like you can go back later and stream them for a fee, either. -- Congratulations, @Junie I hope you get that graduation party with the third one 🙂 I love throwing parties. Meanwhile, I am super happy to read that your daughter's plans are not completely derailed. Best wishes to your recent grad!

Thank you for your updates - I really appreciated them. I can't find any info on our Sunday morning Farmer's Market. I don't know if there are plans to have it or not. I did manage to find a CSA that will deliver downtown, and I am eager for that to begin. It was supposed to start in May but got delayed to June.

You know that question "Do you prefer the beach or the mountains?" My answer is "I prefer the city!" I live in a city, my most memorable travels have been to cities, and in my daydreams I live in a very big city. If my whole perception changes, that's going to be very unsettling. I have finally started going out for walks, but it is still stressful. I'm sure I'll get used to it. People have a habit of lingering in front our door to the street, and that really stresses me out.

@Farrar I am about an hour north of you. Many of our weekend tourists come in from your city. In turn, many of our residents commute to your city by train. One of my favorite things to do is spend the day in your city. You can probably figure out from that where I am, but if not feel free to PM me. Normal life for me was walking to the library, live theater, free concerts in the park, cafes and restaurants, and my yoga studio. I loved the busy streets and the noise. We don't have a yard, but fortunately our apartment does have a nice terrace. By chance, my 83 year old mom has been self-isolating with us, so we have kept a very tight isolation bubble. We haven't been inside a store of any sort since March 13, and I have not interacted with anyone outside of my household since this began. Masks are required within shops, but most people take them off the second they are back out on the street. Everything I love about living in the city is currently either gone or now it frightens me. I'm having a hard time reckoning with that.

I'd like to hear from fellow city dwellers about how things are going in your area. I live on one of the busiest streets of a small, tourist city. Our state started to reopen last week, and the foot traffic has increased considerably even though sit-down dining is still closed. Retail is open at reduced capacity. Bars are still closed. I've only lived in this city for three years, but I have been living in a downtown setting for about 10 years now. Generally speaking, I love city life. Of course, it has been eerily quiet for two months now and I really missed the energy of the city. But now I am nervous about all the people that are soon going to be swarming the streets. Once everything opens up, it will be hard to even get out the door in a socially distanced manner.

If this was already posted upthread, consider it a reminder! The Chronicle of Higher Education is keeping a running list of fall announcements. Some of the announcements contain concrete info and others are as useful as the McSweeneys piece. https://www.chronicle.com/article/Here-s-a-List-of-Colleges-/248626

Alas, CATS was only on YouTube for the weekend. But hey, we still have Peter Ustinov doing a version of "The Naming of Cats" in Logan's Run (1976). For those not familiar with Logan's Run, it is a Sci-Fi film where everyone over 30 must die. These two, played by Michael York and Jenny Agutter, are on the run from the domed city and encounter Peter Ustinov living in the ruins of DC.

Indeed it does! It is delightfully illustrated by Edward Gorey. ISBN 0-571-20746-4

Do you by chance have the same edition that I have? lol I haven't read it since my son was in middle school, but now I'd like to give it another go. The version that aired on You-tube was filmed in 1998 and is available on DVD if anyone is interested.

@Junie The Agatha Christie cover makes me think of Harold and the Purple Crayon.

Hello, BaW friends. I have not checked in for a long time. Sorry. I hope everyone is doing well. But I also have not had a whole lot of reading to report, thanks to the pandemic. I'll go back through my Goodreads account and see what is worth mentioning. @Robin M I also watched CATS over the weekend. Even though I am a bit of a Broadway nerd, I had never seen CATS and I enjoyed it immensely. It seemed very 80s to me.

Something must be wonky. I know many of us were unable to log in yesterday. I'm not sure if everyone was locked out yesterday or not.

The difference between the Swedish approach and the Danish approach is vast. Denmark is reopening K through 5 schools next week with some new protective measures in place, one of which is the instruction to keep the kids outside as much as possible.

Oh and I am going to make a cake, too. It will look similar to this one by Cakes by Melissa .

I ordered a small amount of expensive candy from Williams Sonoma two weeks ago. The candy and its packaging is really pretty and it was overpriced. But I am content with it. The youngest person here is 19.

I have not yet canceled my flight, either. But I am fine with a voucher. My son lives there and we were going to visit him.

I just want to let you know that I was very happy with the WU transfer. I tried bank-account-to-bank-account because there is no fee, but gave up after two failures to process. A debit card went right through and the fee was $2.99. My bank did not take a fee. I sent the money over the weekend and he had it on Tuesday. While I am sure my bank gives a better exchange rate, my bank also charges $45 to wire money. ETA: He has access to cash through an ATM but that would not have solved this. We needed to inject a buffer of funds into his overseas account before an autodraft pulled.

I think so. I have not used it in a long time, so I am not sure. I am good with rubbing alcohol, too. It is hard to know how much to disinfect right now. I don't want to run out and then have nothing later when we might indeed have sickness in the house.

Our planned trip was for Europe in May. That is canceled. I will have a year to use the airline travel voucher. We normally stay with my mom for a summer vacation. She lives at the beach in NC. That might still happen. We had expensive concert tickets to a show in DC late July but the tour has been postponed.

Same. I avoid bleach which is why I was not a smart bleach consumer. I can tolerate the smell of Lysol and if I had a do-over I would have bought more Lysol products.

Does it stink as much as regular bleach?

Any updates? My expat kiddo has left Portugal (for many and various reasons) and returned to the Netherlands. He is currently self-isolating and working on his grad school thesis.

More thoughts that are perhaps wrong: Using the solution law of C1V1 =C2V2: To get from 1 percent to 0.5 percent sodium hypochlorate all I have to do is dilute the sodium hypochlorate by half. Why does the calculator dilute further? Because using a ppm level (which I believe is ppm of free chlorine not sodium hypochlorate) of 600-800 ppm must be below 0.5%. Which again raises the question of the right amount for disinfecting. Maybe 600-800 ppm is too conservative unless you have small children? ETA: Using 1%, I had to require 5000 ppm to get to a 50% dilution rate. Using 5%, I had to desire 25000 ppm. @Pen I think you had a good point that the the thicker viscosity of the Splash-Less might help the disinfectant stay in place longer. A silver lining?

@Dicentra I would love your input 🙂 Links: How to Make Strong (0.5 percent) chlorine solution from liquid bleach. Source: CDC Note that the CDC recommends making the solution daily. Sanitizer Dilution Calculator Source: Indigo Instruments Very helpful! Sample calculation: Starting with 1% and desiring 600 ppm. Desired volume of 500 ml (about 2 cups). The calculator tells me to use 30 ml of the undiluted bleach. Starting with 5% the calculator calls for 6 ml. The remainder of the volume should be water, of course. Note: for disinfection, I find various recommendations for optimal ppm. The Washington State Department of Health recommends 600-800 ppm for a child's environment and cautions against the higher ppm recommendations. Safety Data Sheet Clorox Splash-Less Bleach Note: the safety data sheet indicates a 1 to 5 percent concentration of sodium hypochlorite (page 2 item 3) The exact amount is a trade secret. But this is good news, right? If it was below 0.5 we couldn't get to 0.5 but a 1 percent can be diluted downward. Disintection with Bleach Tech Talk. Source: 3M This is an interesting article about the degradation of bleach over time. More interesting reading. Includes cautions against bleach with additives (and splash-less bleach definitely has additives) with regard to food processing operations. Source: Oklahoma State University Miscellaneous notes: Sanitizing and Disinfecting are not the same things. Sanitation requires less ppm than disinfection.

@regentrude My thoughts exactly. I have spent the last two hours researching bleach. My current conclusion is I consider splashless far from ideal but not worthless for disinfecting surfaces like doorknobs. The tricky part was figuring out how much sodium hypochlorite is actually in splashless. This is a trade secret but I was able to locate the safety data sheet states 1-5 percent. I have also found reliable sources for using 0.5 percent for disinfection. My current conclusion is that I consider it worthless for purifying drinking water or using on food because splashless has additives that could cause harm in those applications. I have a lot of links to share from reliable sources but it will take a bit to get them uploaded.