As the pandemic rages on, new daily cases (on a 7-day rolling average) are setting new highs. Daily cases hit a record today – though increased testing does boost case counts. However, that’s with New York and New Jersey having mostly crushed the curve. Florida, Texas, Arizona, and California are all seeing new highs for daily cases – and more importantly – hospitalizations in large numbers. Florida’s positive test rate hit ~17% yesterday from ~10% a few weeks ago, for what that’s worth.
We’ve still been basically in self isolation. We have weekly dinners with my parents and brother outside and 6 feet apart. We’ve had fires with friends, outside. And swam in a friend’s pool – again outside and generally far apart.
The quarantine has made us think a lot about where we want to live and what we want to do with our time. With the stock market seeing volatility at levels where prices can swing by 2-3% in a minute, I’m still staring at the computer trying to capture some of the volatility and avoid the upcoming crash. So if I’m staring at a computer anyway, why not go back to work? I’ve applied to a few jobs – some remote, some not.
Look, summer in the midwest is great. But it’s short. Winter is coming again and has been on our minds. So we’re entertaining moving somewhere warm (again). If you squint at this picture, the trees almost look like palm trees…
A few of the jobs I applied for are in California. Some in Florida. California has more institutional money management firms than Florida – especially the west coast of Florida. But it’s a very fluid situation. I think we know we’re done in the midwest, but don’t have the heart to make the decision – which is why a job offer might be the way to make it happen.
Moving on…
Emerson FINALLY wanted a hair cut. So I got scissors and tried to keep it long-ish and looking good. Mostly to get it out of his eyes. But he wanted it buzzed. So we chose a #3 clipper and did it. He is loving the hair not being in his eyes or hot on his neck. He looks like a much older boy all of a sudden. And the expressiveness of his forehead really shows (now that we can see his forehead).
Sticking with the hair theme, Adelaide and Karissa have been working on fancy braiding techniques. They bought a kit on Amazon and have been enjoying making complex designs.
We ordered pizza for the first time since going vegan. Most of the national pizza places have vegan crusts and sauces – so removing the cheese makes it vegan. And “real” foods – when loaded with veggies. The chewy bread/crust *almost* makes the lack of cheese unnoticeable. It was awesome!
In the UK, Pizza Hut has vegan cheese. We’ve tried a few vegan cheeses – and they can be pretty good. But it’s a hyper-processed food that we can all agree probably isn’t healthy. It’s probably no worse than the processed foods we ate as regular Americans, but worth avoiding.
Regarding food, this is what we’ve been eating lately. It’s been pretty fantastic, if you ask me! Putting colors and flavors together has always been fun for me. And we’re eating pretty well – not missing any old foods.
I don’t do product reviews often, but this one is amazing. I’ve used an iPad with a keyboard for years. It was great for taking notes on business trips all around the world. But it always lacked the ability to be “productive”. It lacked a pointer and a real web browser. For surfing the internet, reading, watching videos, and playing games – an iPad is great. It is even pretty great for taking notes. Mine is so old now that it can’t even surf the internet very well anymore – so it’s been relegated to videos only.
I’d been using an old computer as my second screen in my work setup, but it was slow, had a horrible screen, and made me angry all day. I researched a lot, as I tend to do, and decided that a Chromebook would fit my needs for the second screen. Karissa has been 95% Chromebook only for a few years and hasn’t complained. But with the pandemic, Chromebooks and affordable laptops are seeing crazy prices. The Chromebook Karissa bought a year ago is selling for 50% more than what we paid!
So I hunted and hunted before finding….the Lenovo Chromebook Duet. It’s a tablet that runs Chrome and comes with a keyboard and kickstand. Being a Chrome tablet, it can do anything you can do on the Chrome browser. It has a trackpad/mouse. And a fantastic screen. Wal-Mart is selling it for $249 – and at that price it’s an absolute bargain! I’ve been using it for about a week now and have zero complaints.
It’s cheaper and more productive than an iPad or Android tablet. It’s got a better screen than similarly-priced Chromebooks. And is just a fun device to use. For $249, it’s an absolute steal!
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Alright, enough about that. Other than all of the stuff above, we’ve been having a good summer so far. We hope you are too!
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Sorry, one final note: If you are still invested in the stock market, be very wary of the bubble the Federal Reserve is propping up.
