I never would have imagined back in February that we'd all be facing quarantine birthdays. But, Asa and Calib have had theirs and this week Peyton was up (I'm just a little over a month away from mine- and the way things are going in Florida, things won't look much-if any-better by then) But, I'll get you all caught up on the craziness that is Florida in the next blog.
For now, we'll rewind to last Wednesday. It's still hot here, but not nearly as bad. And I know that it was REALLY hot because when I took Ellie for her morning walk and the 'feels like' temperature was *ONLY* 99, I thought to myself "hey, not so bad!"
Nate and Allison sold their kayaks so they sent us their life jackets. We're hoping to get some use out of them, after all kayaking and canoeing are good socially distant activities. (Although, now I'm like... Asa we have lifejackets we should buy our own kayak, as if saving money on lifejackets is reason enough to buy a kayak.)
It has not rained much at all lately, although yesterday and today we got some-so I think we are settling into more of a "summer pattern". There's even a couple of tropical waves around. But, sometimes when it doesn't rain very much, my pond filter gets a little too clogged, and the water runs out of the stream because it's not going with enough flow. Luckily, my fish are usually totally fine (because it can't completely drain), but it does mean you need to refill the pond. However, an empty pond means you can get a real good look at everything in there- and there is A LOT of tadpoles in there!
You also might have heard we bought our second fridge of quarantine. Feeding all these people with limited store trip requires a lot of space. The garage fridge was just an addition. But, our kitchen fridge has sucked since we moved in. It often leaked water, Hayden had to chisel ice out of it a couple times a month for us, the ice maker and the water in the door were a disaster, and it had slowly start to sputter out where you needed to keep the dairy items on the top shelf to make sure they didn't go bad. So when we FINALLY got our tax return, we knew where it was going. We ordered the fridge from Costco and it wasn't supposed to be here until the 7th- but we got a happy surprise when they said they could deliver it on the 1st.
But, that meant I had to keep the dogs in with me while they delivered it.
Now, I hate that they had to come inside to deliver it. Right now in Florida isn't the ideal time to have strangers in your house. But, they were wearing N95 masks, and weren't inside very long. When they left, even though it was hot out, we opened all the doors and windows and put some fans around the house to disperse air just in case. (I've read enough about how re-circulated air is like the virus's best friend). I don't know that it helped all that much- it sure made the house warm (and quickly)- but it made me feel better.
But then it was time to check out the fridge. We're one of those families who don't have matching appliances now, but I don't even care. We'll slowly make our way to stainless steel (there's talk of ordering a new range too- but not a new dishwasher and microwave until the pandemic is more under control, since those are a more involved- and therefore longer- install. Plus we don't need them nearly as bad).
This thing is fancy. Not only can you keep whipped cream and milk wherever you want. But there's an autofill water pitcher (in addition to getting it from the door), and it monitors all the temperatures for you. It even beeps if the door is left open too long. I think it'll send a notification to your phone too, but we haven't looked into that. Anyway, five stars, would recommend. There's so much room! And no broken shelves or drawers. Everyone loves it.
As a bonus my magnets stick to it! I'd read about the downsides to stainless steel, and one of them was that not all of them hold magnets. But, mine does, YAY!
We're usually home for Peyton's birthday, he doesn't love going out and dealing with crowds especially so close to the 4th of July holiday. So, that's great for coronavirus times. But, CEO is the weekend before his birthday, and going to that was supposed to be his birthday present (right now, they've postponed for December). I felt bad there was no CEO, no usual trip to Top Golf or anything like that, so I told him I'd basically make/order any food Peyton wanted all weekend. Calib said basically, for Coronavirus birthdays you get a whole long weekend of eating whatever you want.
We started off Wednesday night with take out Chinese.
We also had the pool back then, so Hayden and I went over for some swimming.
Calib had school work to do, and Asa, turns out, had/has an ear infection. Luckily, we were able to do telemedicine real quick and get his prescription in the nick of time before Publix closed on Wednesday night. Our new insurance is awesome. $5 for the telemedicine visit, although even 80% off, the ear drops were still $65- the American healthcare system, you know?
Thursday was Peyton's 18th Birthday. Legal adulthood here he comes! Peyton was once my problem child (he will fully admit this), but he's turned into a pretty great adult. You know, everyone complains about those teenage years, but mine have been pretty easy on me.
But obviously, it's a weird kind of birthday. It's a weird kind of everything. Peyton's birthday saw Florida's single highest one day total of cases at 10,000. The record would only stand for two days. That's how bad things are here. Every two days we're setting a new record.
Normally, for someone Peyton's age this would all be wreaking havoc on their future plans. But Peyton was a home school kid, who is now onto online college. In fact he had his WGU entrance interview last week. It'll be good for him. The faster he can finish school, the faster he can get himself overseas.
But for now, when you turn 18 in quarantine, you get all the desserts! I braved Publix to get him a chantilly cake, an apple pie, and a lemon meringue pie (and some sushi).
We also braved Costco to fill the new fridge back up, and grab some steaks for birthday weekend, and stock us up with drinks.
But we also picked up a little something new for the house: a grill! Plus, it was something to do, since we put it together.
It's actually an anniversary gift from my mom. She had planned on doing something for us at Disney, but since that didn't work out, she offered to buy us the grill instead. Asa really enjoyed cooking on the neighbors grill, so he was excited to get our own.
We wheeled it out to the patio and put the cover on it. It looks nice out there.
Now, CEO and his ticket and the hotel and all that is Peyton's present- and we'll see if that actually gets to happen in December. But, we did also get him a few things for his birthday (and some money on Steam about a week early-- for the summer sale! He sure is my kid, he appreciates a good deal!) Besides some Takis, Paper Mario will be here for him when it comes out on the 17th.
Speaking of Nintendo, Peyton requested some 200 CC Mario Kart.
And we ordered on uber eats from Ginza for sushi for his birthday. I passed on the sushi and had leftover Chinese.
We were joined on Zoom by my family to wish Peyton a happy birthday.
And then we all spent some time at the pool.
And later that evening we had the chantilly cake. It really is the best cake.
Now usually around Peyton's birthday we also have the All Nighter. Which, admittedly for Peyton who basically pulls all nighters all the time these days, isn't that exciting. It had more of an appeal when he was like 14. But, either way, we made an attempt at it on his birthday.
Asa and I pulled out a new puzzle to work on.
Peyton chose a movie for all of us to watch (it was actually pretty good too, and I'm not usually into his subtitled Anime movies).
And then of course, there was more desserts.
By 11 pm, I needed more coffee though.
And Ellie was out. (The All Nighter always confuses the dogs. They don't get why the lights are on and everyone is still up)
There was a Civ game and some Disney movies.
But by 2:30 things had gone awry. The drum peddle had broken on rock band, Taco Bell was apparently closed, and Asa's ear was killing him. So, we decided to call it a night and try again maybe this coming weekend. Also, I'm just getting too old for this.
That's it for Peyton's birthday. It wasn't bad one. But, this is the kid who spent his 9th Birthday in Alaska and his 16th Birthday in Hawaii. So, you know. It was a far cry from that.
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