second post Saturday

[lunabee34]

1. Check out my Shitpollst re: Great Gatsby! Robust conversation happening in the comments.

2. I have a Zoom meeting on Tuesday. I know a lot of you have been using this recently. Anything I should know about it? I am assuming it operates like Blackboard collaborate where you click on the link sent by the meeting host and then are taken into a virtual room where you use your webcam and mic to interact and there's some kind of chat function on the side. Does that sound about right?

3.

Thursday

Bunnicula chapter 8; Draw a picture of the dining room fiasco (this was Fiona's favorite picture to draw; she got really detailed, and we laughed and laughed over Chester in the salad bowl); What is Harold's plan to feed Bunnicula?

School packet and google classroom for the rest of the day

For outside time, we stomped in puddles again, picked up sticks in the yard, watched dad poison the ant beds, and listened to the geese honking the dickens. Also, lots of cow mooing this week; I guess maybe it's baby-having time?

Friday

Bunnicula chapter 9; Fiona chose to draw a picture of Harold's doggie-pop and Bunnicula's glass of carrot juice; Who is smarter--Harold or Chester? Why? (this led to Fiona giving a really good character analysis of them both in which she mentioned that Harold is much kinder, and she cited the language that Chester uses that is dismissive of others); Is Bunnicula harmless or a real threat to the family?

Bunnicula is finished, and Monday we start Howliday Inn!

workbooks I bought, school packet (including some coloring sheets for art), google classroom

For outside time, we picked up sticks, took walk, drew with chalk, watched dad hang the mosquito repellent (which is awesome; it's not poison; it's something that sterilizes the skeeters; we used it last year, and it worked well; lasts for three months)

Fiona was ready for the weekend. After the hiccup earlier this week, Emma finished all her work for high school. She continues to be super chill.

4. I decided to transition to using cloth napkins out of concern for the supply of paper goods, but I think I'm going to keep using them even when things get back to normal. I have a ton of cloth napkins, and it's so much less wasteful.

Comments

[nyctanthes]

I am now going to re-read Gatsby for the first time since high school. :P

[lunabee34]

Heeee.

It's a quick read; the pacing is excellent.

[elfin]

Yep, that's how Zoom works. If your work has its own licenses for it, you'll probably log in with your regular username/password. There'll be audio and video controls at the bottom of the screen to mute or whatever.

[lunabee34]

Okay, sweet.Thank you!

[chelseagirl]

Haven't done a Blackboard meeting but Zoom is eady
Only get there a little early in case you need to download anything for it -- I feel like I might have done this long ago.

[lunabee34]

Thanks for the heads up. I've never used it before, so I will have to dl something I bet.

[zulu]

That was a great conversation on your Gatsby post! I have nothing to add but I enjoyed it. :)

[lunabee34]

It was fun! I love how many smart people I am surrounded by.

[timespirt]

mosquito repellent? What is it called and where do you get it?

Cloth napkins are better for the environment anyway hon. I bet a lot more people will have to improvise because stuff just isn't around to buy. It's hard to find stuff in my state too.

"HUGS"

[lunabee34]

https://smile.amazon.com/SPARTAN-MOSQUITO-ERADICATOR-Effective-ShortTerm/dp/B07NLJ3G99/ref=sr_1_4?crid=3TWJ2A1FOOXNU&dchild=1&keywords=spartan+mosquito+eradicator&qid=1585482216&s=lawn-garden&sprefix=spart%2Clawngarden%2C147&sr=1-4

Spartan Mosquito Eradicator

I think you can also buy it at Ace Hardware stores (or could anyway).

Yeah, I want to keep mitigating my environmental impact when this is over.

[timespirt]

Thank you hon. "HUGS"

[spikedluv]

I don't have cloth napkins, but I stopped using paper towels to dry my counter after I wipe it down as I used to. I figured the same, I could use a hand towel and just do a load of towels more often than usual.

I'm glad homeschooling is going well for both of your girls.

I've never used Zoom, but I've been hearing it mentioned a lot the past week or so.

[lunabee34]

*nods*

I've been using microfiber cloths to clean instead of paper towels and just being cognizant of using fewer of them than I normally would. Like, usually if I eat an orange, I peel it into a paper towel, but instead I peeled it into the trash and ate it on a plate. This is really showing me how wasteful I am and how easy it will be going forward to mitigate some of this waste.

[cathexys]

I had to learn Zoom and it's exactly as self evident as you think it is.

Not sure if you're using it to teach, but I really liked the ability to put people in groups, i.e., you can create rooms and then assign folks into them. You can then check into any of the rooms and pull them all back out in the end.

re cloth napkins. I started that a while back, and I really like my cloth napkins. I've also finally convinced my husband that I change kitchen towels 1-2 times a day and he can use them and not waste paper towels! The one thing I always want to go back to but haven't it handkerchiefs. My dad still uses one, and there's something charming to it. Though maybe not in an epidemic ....

[lunabee34]

Awesome. Thank you.

I'm not using it to teach; we're doing it all in our LMS. A colleague wants to have a meeting using it.

I agree re: the paper towels. I've been trying to be much more conscientious about those, too, and use kitchen towels and microfiber cloths.

Josh's dad still uses a handkerchief, too. He's got a whole drawer of his bureau filled with them.

[corvidology]

Sounds like things are going well on the home schooling front.

I've found Zoom very intuitive although my institution is now adding passwords as people have started hacking into sessions by guessing the meeting ID.

[lunabee34]

They are! I have given up on being super productive in my own work and am concentrating on just keeping my head above water. It's going to get more challenging as the month progresses; April is the super heavy grading month of spring semester as you know, so the last week of April/first week of May is going to be brutal. I don't think my husband and I will be able to trade off. I envision lots of movies happening. LOL

OMG, why would someone *want* to hack into the session? What can be happening at the meeting that is that interesting? LOL

[duskpeterson]

"I decided to transition to using cloth napkins out of concern for the supply of paper goods"

I'm having the opposite problem. Normally I use washcloths and cloth towels as much as possible, but now I and my apprentice have no way to get more laundry quarters, so we're having to use paper towels for everything. (It's no use washing and drying the cloths by hand. We live near a humid river; laundry molds here rather than drying by air.)

[lunabee34]

Oh, no. *hugs* That's so aggravating.

I hope you can keep a supply of paper towels.

[duskpeterson]

I'm sure I'll find a solution if I run low, if only because I have the smart folks at Dreamwidth to advise me. :)

[lunabee34]

The hivemind is a godsend.