Time for cooking

One upside of the quarantine is that we have plenty of time to make home-cooked meals.   On Saturday, I managed to score the last remaining package of yeast from Safeway.   Today, it went to good use to make a great Italian meal.

We made fresh ravioli, using the recipe we learned at our cooking class in Tuscany in 2017.   We stuffed the ravioli with a mix of ricotta, mozzarella, parmesan and a bit of pesto.

On the side, I prepared a pan of focaccia.  I found the recipe on Food network and it was amazing.   It was also a fun family activity to cook together.  The meal turned out delicious, and certainly is not something I would have had time to do with our usual weekend routine.

So, we are doing our best.

CoVid19

Well, it's time for me to write about the Corona virus epidemic that we have been swept up in.   Last Friday, Ethan and Alaina's school district closed.  At the time, the plan was for two weeks.   Since then, the Bay Area has been put on 'lock down' for 3 weeks.   So we are away from school now for at least a month.   Most likely longer.

In the meanwhile, we have had major changes at work.   Both Jason and my hospitals have stopped elective surgery to "make room" for patients admitted with CoVid19.  The truth is that we do not have that many truly positive patients, yet.   But, almost every patient who presents with any sort of respiratory complaint now becomes a "person of interest" or PUI, and if you can imagine, this causes quite a bit of general anxiety, among patients and hospital workers alike.

My poor Grandma was a PUI in a Milwaukee hospital, after she presented with shortness of breath and a pneumonia from her rehab facility.   As they have basically shut down these facilities and the hospitals to all visitors, she has also had to endure the medical system without a proper advocate--which is daunting for anyone, but certainly more so for a 97 year old.   I feel so bad for her, as she has become a second victim of the circumstances.  And I know that she is not the only one.  In fact, I'll bet that by the time this has settled down, the patients who suffered from lack of proper care due to the virus may be equal to or greater than the patients who actually suffered from the virus.

But, I am no in anyway trying to minimize the situation, which has the potential to become quite dire.   Our hospital do no have enough masks or gowns for us, and no one really knows what the coming days will look like.

Because Jason and I are very high risk for contracting the illness at work, we made the decision last weekend to quarantine Ethan in Sonoma with Jason's parents.  With his immunodeficiency, it just didn't seem responsible to keep him home.   He has been miserably lonely up there, and we miss him very much.   At least FaceTime lets us see him each day to check in.

Back home, we have started to 'home school' Alaina.   When school closed, they sent home a 2-week packet of work for the younger kids to complete (Ethan gets daily assignments on Google Classroom).   We have joined forces with one of Jason's colleagues to get school done by swapping off days at each other's homes so we can all still work as needed.   The kids have been adjusting to doing their work at home, and I think that the peer pressure helps.  I am not sure what we are going to do when the packet runs out.

Meanwhile, we feel lucky to live in a temperate climate, and have been trying to get out each day to hike.  Today, the three of us took a lovely walk on the steep ravine trail to help clear our heads.

So we are surviving.   Certainly not thriving.   I am worried about my Grandma and Ethan, and work and really, the world.   What a mess.   But, anyway,  one day at a time.

Jason and Marla Head South

Last week, I had a work conference in the Bahamas.  My dad agreed to watch the kids so Jason could join me.  Since Jason had to take a full week of work off we decided to travel beforehand.   We didn't want to spend the whole week in the Bahamas.  As it turns out there are not a lot of direct flights to the Bahamas--flights to Miami, NYC, Atlanta, and (randomly) Panama City, Panama.  So, instead of spending the rest of the week in the US we decided to check out Panama City.

We flew overnight to Panama, and had our temperatures checked by masked agents when we got off the plane.

We spent the first day in Panama City, checking out the old city, or Casco Viejo.

 

Although it was Carnival, we were too tired to party, so after a good meal at a restaurant called "Lo que hay", we headed to bed.  Early the next morning, a shuttle driver arrived to pick us up at 5am to drive us to the San Blas Islands, where we planned to spend 3 nights on a catamaran.

The San Blas Islands is an autonomous region of Panama in the state of Guna Yala.   It requires a border crossing, and strangely, the van was required to display the flag, which contained a backwards swastika.   Very strange.

Anyhow, we shuttled with 2 other couples and were dropped off at a random dock filled with many people waiting to be ferried out to their boats.

Somehow, we managed to make it to our home for the next three nights--"The Bay Dreamer".

The boat is owned by a Swedish family with two small kids, and they were very kind hosts.   They have been sailing around the work for the past 7 years.   They also had a first mate, Simon, who cooked us breakfast each morning.

Unfortunately, I got a text from my dad when we got on the boat saying that my Grandma was not doing well--weak and nauseous--and was headed tot he emergency room.   I then promptly lost service.

The boat took us out to beautiful islands, inhabited by the local Kuna people.

Jason tried his hand at spear fishing--and snagged a puffer fish.   This was more drama than he bargained for, as these fish are filled with poison.   It was quite an experience for our captain to release the fish from the spear without getting poisoned.   yikes.

The next morning we head closer to shore so I could get internet service again.   I found out the my Grandma had undergone emergency surgery for a gall bladder infection overnight.   Yikes again.  I called my Dad to encourage him to head home to see her, but he decided to hold off, as she was doing better.

We spent the remaining two days sailing among beautiful islands.   It was a really cool way to see a part of the world that is pretty inaccessible.   The drawback was that it was very hot and I got eaten alive by sandflies.    Jason did not get a single bite, so I must have had bad luck with that.

After leaving the ship, we had one more night in Panama City.   We had better cell service again, and found out that my Grandma continued to recover.   We headed to the canal, where we got to see several ships passthrough the locks and learn about the history of the canal.

 

I found it to be fascinating.  We had one last dinner in Panama City at a  great restaurant called Brutto.

Early the next morning, we headed to the airport and we promptly told we could not go to the Bahamas without proof of a Yellow Fever vaccination.   We obviously had no idea this was necessary, though the gate agent told us it was "in the fine print" before she ripped up our luggage tags.   Nothing like service with a smile.  Eventually we called my dad at 3am California time, as we have had yellow fever vaccinations, so he could take photos and email them to us.   The airlines decided to "make a special exception" and let us get on the plane.  Whew.   Lots of close calls on this trip.

Unfortunately, when we arrived in the Bahamas, I had to transition to work mode, which was not too fun.   I had three days of meetings and two presentations.   Jason was able to enjoy the pools and waterslide (the conference was at the Atlantis Resort).   The resort itself I found to be overpriced with mediocre food.   It is also aways from downtown Nassau, so we were a captive audience.

 Due to the conference we had to fly out of Nassau on Sunday evening, and we didn't get back to our house until almost 2am.   This made for a rough week.   But I am glad we had the opportunity to go.   The first part was definitely an adventure, and we came back with some great stories to tell!

A Beautiful Day for a Hike

Although Jason was on call on Saturday and Sunday, he was off today.  Originally we planned to go skiing, but he was at work quite late and didn't feel up to a 7 hour car drive.  

So instead we decided to drive out to the coast and go for a hike.

We hiked to the top of Alamere Falls, which is a waterfall that goes directly onto a beach in West Marin.  The weather was perfect--clear and in the 60s.   The hike was crowded, due to the holiday and the weather, but still lovely.


The kids did great--it was over 8 miles, and we had only minimal whining from Alaina.  Next time, we will extend a it a bit and go to the bottom of the falls--but this time we thought it might be too much.  You can actually scramble to the bottom of the falls from the top of the falls--but it is extremely sketchy, with crumbling cliffs--no thanks!

Anyhow, here are a couple of pics:

We are lucky to live where we live!

Leticia's Birthday

In between Ethan's birthday and Alaina's Birthday, also celebrated Leticia's Birthday!   She turned 27 this year.

We had a nice family dinner and chocolate cake.

Phew, now its the end of the birthday season......Over 3 months 4 birthdays in our household.

Bring on Valentine's day!

Happy 11th Birthday Ethan!

Yesterday, Ethan turned 11.   We marked the day with a sleepover party.   This one was not quite as calm as last year--he had five guests, so it definitely took a bit longer for them to settle down and go to sleep.

The kids enjoyed pizza and create-your own ice cream sundaes.  I bought a home"escape room" game--though they cheated their way through it, I think the still had fun.   They then had some hot tub time and then watched 'Pirates of the Caribbean'.

They were all awake at 6 am after settling down to sleep around 11:30.   So after a pancake and bacon breakfast, I was not sad to shoo them all out of the house.

That's approximately when Jason told me that he didn't feel well and was going to bed.   A few hours later, he emerged, saying he had a fever and so we cancelled our planned Super Bowl gathering.  

We did still manage to have a family birthday celebration tonight.   We gave Ethan a chromebook--now he has a lot of online homework, and I am a bit tired of him using my computer all the time.

His birthday dinner was crab and ice cream cake--which is what Jason usually has but couldn't this year since the crab season kicked off late.

Anyhow, I think he enjoyed himself and his party!  And it was nice to have Grandpa here to celebrate with us!

Fortune Teller

A few weeks ago, Alaina started making paper fortune tellers.   I remember making these a kid, and it is nice to see that it is still a 'cool' thing to do in this digital age.   She doesn't quite understand the fortune concept yet, as some of here fortunes were "have fun" and "thank you".   But it is cute nonetheless.