Random Thread ~Usagi-Chan ☮ Tūsurī~

[TotallyUncool]

And that's an age when most people need a lot of social interaction - it's hard enough dealing with the usual social-life issues when you're young, but to suddenly have pretty much the entire face-to-face social world get shut down has got to be really difficult to take.

[Moh]

Re: Stimulus checks - I noticed this lil message on the "Get My Payment" page:
Note: If you receive an SSA or RRB Form 1099 or SSI or VA benefits, your information is not yet available in this application.

My dad and I both got an SSA 1099 earlier this year. This whole thing is a mess.

[Celedam]

It's snowing again today.

And again.

This is the latest snow of the season that I can remember. It's not unusual for winter to continue into April, and we've even had some major storms, but it's almost always done by Easter. This is just… <helpless shrug>

---

The combination of the long winter and the lockdown has got me doing a lot of baking, and I think I've found the perfect cookie recipe…

Peanut Butter Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar [see Note 1]
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt [see Note 2]
1/2 cup rolled oats [see Note 3]
1 cup (6 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, white sugar and brown sugar until smooth. Stir in the peanut butter, vanilla and egg until well blended. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl; stir into the batter just until moistened. Mix in the oats and chocolate chips until evenly distributed.

Chill the dough for at least one hour. When it is time to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Drop batter by scoop or spoonful onto parchment lined or lightly greased cookie sheets.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until the edges start to brown. Cool on cookie sheets for about 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes 30 small cookies or 16 large cookies.

Note 1: If you don't keep brown sugar on hand, increase the white sugar from 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup and then add 1 tablespoon of original, unsulfured molasses.

Note 2: If you use unsalted butter, increase the salt from 1/4 teaspoon to 1/2 teaspoon. You might think it's better to skip this, to make the cookies "low sodium" or something, but in fact they'll just taste bland and doughy.

Note 3: Either "old fashioned" or "quick cooking" is acceptable, although "quick cooking" gives a somewhat better texture.

[esm]

I've had some sort of homemade dessert around at any given point since the quarantine started. It was a few cakes, and now it's apple crumble with homemade vanilla ice-cream. I even ordered cake decorating tools and more cake pans so I can work on making pretty cakes. I'm running out of flour though and it's been hard to find flour. I order all my groceries online, and that's been a tricky game.

It's obviously warmer around here, but I've been turning my heater on or off depending on the day for the past few weeks, so I'm just glad I live in an apartment where I can do that for my own comfort. Whether I can open my window is another thing. Sometimes it gets really windy.

[erilaz]

Here it's getting downright warm, with highs in the mid-70s this week. Since my apartment is on the top floor and has a lot of windows, it gets even warmer: 80℉ right now. Just in time to make staying inside less comfortable as I start my next freelance gig.

[Moh]

Not counting how oppressive the dew point has been at times, we've already hit 95°F this year. It was 84°F today; tomorrow's forecast shows 10 degrees warmer.* Perpetual summer.
We're still in the dry season, though this weekend we'll have a stalled front increase our rain chances. We had storms on Monday and a tornado actually went across I-75! Nobody hurt and no major damage, though.

*It's probably my imagination, but I thought we had a fainting emoji. Sure would be appropriate right now, heh.

[TotallyUncool]

It's supposed to get up to 98°F in a few days. I have family living with me now (it was a planned move, but the lockdown sped things up, so we locked up their old house, got everybody out, loaded a rental van with essential stuff, and left everything else for later), and we need more AC. I have one window air conditioner running and another one on order, but it isn't supposed to arrive until next week, so we'll have to get by with fans until then.
None of us have left the house/yard in a month. I work from home, and when the lockdown hit, I paid for a year each of Instacart, Amazon Prime, and Walmart Home Delivery. At this point, I'm making heavy use of all of them. I've also been able to order some things in bulk (like paper towels) from Staples. I've always had a tendency to stock up on (or just plain hoard) non-perishable food and basic supplies, and at this point, I'd say that if anything, I haven't done enough stocking up/hoarding. Three to six months' worth of food and supplies would be a good start, and if possible, a year.

[rikkikow]

STAY HOME
BE POSITIVE
COOK
PLAY GAMES
KICK SOME CORONAVIRUS COVIT-19 ASS

Spoiler: show

Spoiler: show

the Japanese tale of the Son of a Peach
https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/72/japanese-fairy-tales/4845/momotaro-or-the-story-of-the-son-o%20f-a-peach/

[TotallyUncool]

I guess it hit 99F today, but we managed, mostly with a lot of fans. This weekend, I should dig through the garage and get all of the materials and tools for installing the air conditioner for my mother and sister's room (when it arrives) ready. My nephew wants a portable swamp cooler (which is supposed to arrive today), and my brother says that he doesn't want any air conditioning (they moved down from the high desert, so even the L. A. area inland valley weather is a little more civilized). I'd be happy living in a walk-in refrigerator.

[Amped]

Another hot day. I wish I could go to the beach, but the big crowds doesn't help.

Japan is now calling this year's Golden Week, "Stay-at-home-week"