Both of our kitchen thermometers bit the dust during the early days of the lockdown. I replaced the instant-read thermometer right away with a Thermoworks ThermoPop, but I didn’t have an urgent need to replace the leave-in thermometer, so I didn’t bother.

The last few days, my Facebook feed has been filled with ads from Thermoworks offering an 18% site-wide discount. I was torn between the ChefAlarm (which is much like the one that died), the Dot (a simpler unit without a timer), or something crazy like the Smoke (so I could monitor my Traeger remotely). I’d finally decided on the Dot, but when I went to place my order this morning, the discount had ended.

I was disappointed, but wondered if there might be another discount for Black Friday. As I was researching the links for this very post, I noticed that they’d cut the price of the Dot by 20% for Black Friday – I’ve ordered it.

Sometimes delay pays off.

This year, the Silicon Valley Turkey Trot went virtual. That meant that we could walk it any time this week, starting from anywhere we wanted. So we downloaded the RaceJoy app and walked the event this morning – our times weren’t as good as they were last year, but we didn’t have to stop for traffic lights last year, either. Doing the event from home was a lot more convenient than going to downtown San Jose, but it was much less of an event this way.

Tonight’s adventure in e-commerce was a forced march; just after I finished making dinner (Sesame Crusted Seared Ahi Tuna), one of the lamp covers on our range hood came crashing down on the cooktop. Fortunately, it’s plastic and only weighs an ounce or two, so no damage was done to the cooktop, but it certainly startled me. After dinner, I tried to fix it and quickly discovered that a piece had broken off; I was surprised to be able to find that the manufacturer (Broan-Nutone) had the part in stock, even though the hood is 22 years old. I ordered two so I could replace both sides at once.

Tonight was also the Los Gatos Interfaith Thanksgiving Service. We’ve gone a few times in the past and enjoyed it; like so much else, it had a different vibe online than in person, but I’m glad we went.

Black Friday continues apace – today, I picked up the Mac version of Paprika, my menu-planning app, since it was 50% off. I’m not sure that I’ll use that version in preference to the iPad version, but having it on the Mac gives me direct access to the app’s database – I’ve already started writing code to build a weekly shopping list based on the week’s recipes (without cluttering it up with pantry items; I really don’t need to be reminded to buy salt every week!).

We were in Trader Joe’s a few weeks ago and picked up some beer – a six-pack of Fat Tire, and an experimental bottle of Coffee Peanut Butter Porter. The six-pack is well on its way to needing replacement, but we hadn’t found a suitable occasion for the Porter until this evening on a Zoom Happy Hour at Shir Hadash. There will be other Zoom Happy Hours, but this will be the Porter’s one and only visit to our house. I guess I should have read the smaller print on the label that said “peanut butter powder and lactose“!

When Apple announced the new M1-based Macs a couple of weeks ago, I was intrigued, but unsure about what to get when the time came. In particular, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to replace the MacBook Pro in my office with another one or a Mac Mini. I don’t need the portability (that machine hasn’t left the office in well over a year), but having a second screen has been very useful. And I wanted to wait until I could see some reviews and get a discount from a friend at Apple.

My friend at Apple pinged me yesterday and said that the new M1-based machines were available at friends-and-family discount, so it was time to make some decisions. I was still torn about what to get – so we’re getting an Air and a Mini. The Air will replace Diane’s 6-year-old MacBook Pro (it is very unlikely that she’ll ever run a workload that would cause the Air to throttle down, so there was no need to buy a Pro), and the Mini will go into my office. And if I find I really want a second screen in the office, I’ve got two weeks to swap the Mini for an Air (or use Sidecar to drive an iPad, or buy another monitor).

The TV I’ve been ogling came down another $100 in today’s paper, but I think I may have spent enough on electronics for this week already!

Diane read Torah and I led Shir Shabbat services this morning – it was a nice way to spend the morning, but next time, I may take advantage of the offer to have someone else run the Zoom meeting and the screen sharing.

The weather was nice this afternoon so we took a walk a little earlier than we usually would – as we were crossing the footbridge over Ross Creek, I heard a voice calling “David!”. It was Jeff Ringgold, who had been my improv teacher a few years ago; he was walking his dog. He’d moved into the neighborhood a couple of months ago, but this was the first time we’d crossed paths.

He told me that his theatre, American Improv Theatre was taking a different approach to performing during Covid. Instead of doing the typical Zoom show, they were going audio-only, calling it the “Golden Radio Hour”, and that they had a show this evening on Facebook.

We tuned in and enjoyed it – doing improv via audio-only offers some opportunities that a Zoom show (or an actual in-person show) wouldn’t. It also puts a bit more of the burden on the audience, because there aren’t any visual cues to help keep the characters and locations fresh in our minds.

The show (and their previous shows) are on their Facebook page; tune in!