It was an uneventful day for us (and I’ve been trying not to keep a close eye on the news). We did our week’s shopping, made favorite recipes that we’ve discovered since the lockdown, watched A Late Show with Stephen Colbert now that he’s back from hiatus, and had our weekly Zoom gathering with our trivia group.

After the group chats for a while, we do some trivia practice with slightly-used questions from our host at Khartoum. One question tonight asked us to name the element with a one-letter symbol that would earn the most points in Scrabble. I thought it was Tungsten (W), but that only earns four points; the correct answer is Potassium (K), which earns five. Diane was right, and I was wrong, and the team told me I should admit it publicly, which I am doing now.

Happy Bastille Day! (I’m not sure that’s precisely appropriate, but it’ll do until someone corrects me.)

It was back to the JCC for outdoor personal training this morning. The JCC was planning to reopen the gym for indoor, socially-distanced training on Wednesday, and our trainer asked us if we’d like to move inside next week. Both of us said “No” with our first available breath, and our trainer said that had been everyone’s reaction so far.

But it became a moot question anyway this afternoon, since the Governor ordered Santa Clara County (and 29 others) to keep gyms (among many other facilities) closed because of the recent upsurge in COVID-19 numbers.

Dinner tonight was another new recipe, Priya Krishna’s Garlic-Ginger Chicken Breasts With Cilantro and Mint from the New York Times. All of the preparation happened last night and the chicken marinated overnight; the actual cooking was pretty straightforward, or it would have been if I hadn’t dropped the chicken the last inch or two into the hot oil, making a splash. And even though I gave the chicken the maximum time called for in the recipe, it was still a little undercooked when I lifted the lid, so I had to finish it in the microwave. I’m willing to try this recipe again, but not for a while.

And I finally finished editing (or at least culling) the photos from my trip to Beijing in April, 2005!