Summer foods, pasta art, and partying with cicadas (7 Quick Takes)

~1~

It’s June, and every day I answer the question, “How many school days are left?” Our last day is supposed to be June 22, and I’m not sure how we will make it to the end.

I could blame staying virtual all year, but we always feel this way. We always putter along to the finish line.

Meanwhile, we are trying to hurry summer along a bit with our summer cooking and enjoying fresh caprese. It was just about a year ago that we bought a grill for the first time, and I’m so glad we did. I love the nights when John grills for us.

~2~

Just when you think you’ve got this whole working from home thing down, you go to grab something quickly from a cupboard and spill a whole box of spaghetti onto the floor.

I picked up the spilled spaghetti, threw the noodles into a box, left it in the kitchen, and went back to writing.

Hours later, when John saw the box of noodles, he thought one of the children had been working on an art project.

~3~

One of my colleagues is leaving for a new position at another university. We’ve worked together the whole time I’ve had my job at Loyola, and I’m so sad to see him go. I’m also a little tired of the Zoom farewell party, where you don’t get to talk to anyone personally. So, I asked him if we could celebrate him in person in my backyard.

Now that people are vaccinated, getting together in person is so appealing. My friend and colleague was as excited about the idea of an in-person party as I was. Others on the team helped, and we pulled it together very quickly.

My amazing neighbor Kathy offered to let me borrow tables and tents and a cooler and baskets and…well, basically I’ve lived next door to a party supply rental business for years and never knew. We set the whole yard up the night before the event, and it looked amazing.

~4~

During normal times, when we are working in the office, whenever one of my colleagues is expecting an addition to their family, the parent-to-be brings a box of Munchkins to work to announce the news. If you see a box of Munchkins sitting on the team meeting table, you know someone has baby news, and you wait until the team meeting to find out who it is.

We have two babies on the way in the team right now, but there were no Munchkins to announce them. So, when we got together to celebrate our colleague who is leaving—and who will also become a dad this summer—I put a box of Munchkins on the food table. It felt like we were reclaiming a little bit of our normal pre-pandemic fun.

~5~

Munchkins aside, we were trying to be very Covid-safe, so I served individual serving bags of chips and pre-packaged slices of cake. When I called the bakery to order individually packaged cupcakes, they informed me that there is a national shortage on individual cupcake containers.

That’s so much better than a run on toilet paper. This is a much happier time in the pandemic.

~6~

What we did not have a shortage of at the backyard party was cicadas. I think they might be at their peak, and they were quite content to participate in every aspect of the party.

They liked the balloons and kept climbing the ribbons holding them to a chair. One of the cicadas even popped a balloon. I’m not sure that cicada survived, but I don’t know that it didn’t.

The cicadas helped sign the card, too. But they didn’t seem to pay any attention to the food—though, now that I think of it, it was all sealed inside packages except the Munchkins.

~7~

I’m starting to think about what our children might do to stay busy this summer. We will probably pay them by the minute to read again, and we will make sure they get some outdoor time, especially once the cicadas are gone.

We are also counting down to a beach vacation. It has been so long since we took an actual vacation—or even a stay-at-home vacation. This will be our first time away from our pet finches, and I may have to write a Care and Feeding of the Buettner Finches Guide for our finch sitters to follow while we’re away.

Find more quick takes on Kelly’s blog, This Ain’t the Lyceum, and have a wonderful weekend.

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