text banking

I'm doing more text banking to get people to download COVID notification apps, and just had a cheerful back-and-forth that started with someone asking "what's MI?"

I said Michigan, and he told me he's in California, but the county names matched. Then I told him that I don't know if there's a California version of the app, but if so it will be in the app store. He just thanked me for answering his questions, and I feel somewhat better for the conversation. This isn't quite "volunteering is good for your mood," but I like being able to give people information they want.

(I'm also doing more get-out-the-vote stuff, through the same group and interface.)

an unexpected treat

We had duck breast for supper tonight. It's not a special occasion, unless "the supermarket has good duck for sale" counts as an occasion.

cattitude made a sauce from the pan drippings, shallots, and I forget what else other than thyme and some kind of alcohol, and put that over rice. We bought the duck because it was available: when I was looking at Wegman's via Instacart, they not only had duck breasts, they had whole ducklings, and duck legs, and rendered duck fat. We splurged a little, and bought a duck breast, a package of two duck legs, and some duck fat. And potatoes to cook in the duck fat.

What surprised me wasn't just that Wegman's had duck (which they haven't in the months I've been ordering from them), but that in addition to the d'Artagnan ducks and duck parts, there were two or three duck things from a different company. I can't usually buy rendered duck fat where I live; this time, they had duck fat from two different farms.

My best guess is that this nice duck was at the supermarket because restaurants aren't buying it, because most people aren't dining out.

What I hoped for and didn't get was a loaf of challah, because there's a winter storm warning. I have plenty of eggs, and got two quarts of milk, but they had run out of challah. We did get a loaf of seeded rye bread, and I may make French toast even though that's not one of the standard French toast breads.