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Before we get into our monthly survey of how we're all holding up, a brief note: The first installment of the Sox Machine Book Club featuring "The Inside Game" will start on Monday, covering through Chapter 3 (Winning Despite Your Best Efforts). I figure we'll wait until Friday for the second discussion, giving latecomers a chance to catch up. 

The questions for this week's survey:

1. How's the household?
2. What are you watching/listening to/reading/doing?
3. What's one weird thing you find yourself missing?
4. What's one thing you've gotten around to doing because of shutdown, or something you wouldn't have tried if these conditions didn't exist?

Read our answers, and then share your own. Or don't read our answers and still share your own. Unless you preface a sentence with "nobody has mentioned this yet" when one of us clearly did, we'd really have no way of knowing.

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BILLY

How’s the household: Holding on. I spent a month not seeing my wife and stepkids because the other half of that parenting arrangement initially decided the stay-in-place orders don't apply to them. We don't want to get sick at the same time (because someone needs to care for the other as well as the kids), nor can I unwittingly bring this back to my mom when I stop over there, so even if the odds of any of these ruinous things happening remained mild, we played it safe. I spent a day being mad about it and another being sad about it, and then I made peace with it and resolved to do the best I can with what we've got. I've supervised/entertained the kids over FaceTime for longer sessions, we got acquainted with the Netflix Party web app, and it was bearable. Happily, we got this past half-week and weekend together, and ideally, we'll be able to do that going forward every couple of weeks while still playing it safe.

What I’m watching/reading/playing: I always forget how much I love "Better Call Saul" until I'm watching it again. It has this amazingly easygoing tempo that so pleasantly belies how completely insane it actually is on paper. Like seemingly everyone else who has seen David Simon's "The Wire" (and the many who haven't but pretend they have), I'll happily sing its praises as one of the best shows I've ever seen. But it's Simon's follow-up, "Treme," that I actually love the most, because it struck this remarkable balance between activity and congeniality that just seems impossible to convey on a script. For the same reason — unless something goes horribly wrong during this next season and a half, knock on wood and wash your knuckles — I expect "Saul" to occupy a similar soft spot in my head over "Breaking Bad."

My wife and I virtually watched season 4 of "Nailed It!" together. It's very funny, beyond belief really. We've watched all the previous seasons, the Mexico/France/Spain/Germany versions, the holiday specials. I should be tired of this by now, but for a baking show that's centered around setting people up to fail, it's one of the most infectiously nice shows I've ever seen. Failing can be fun, sometimes the most fun.

I'm still stabbing away at "Assassin’s Creed Odyssey," and I'm earnestly wondering if every single line of its voice acting was recorded in exactly one take. Voice acting in big-budget video games has come an incredibly long way in the last 7-10 years, effectively on par with Hollywood. That level of quality abounds in "Odyssey." Then, on a dime, sometimes via the same characters in the same scene, it sounds like two lunatics hamming it up with placeholder audio because the actual voice actors called out sick. I'm not too invested in the game's story, but I am mesmerized by its delivery.

One weird thing I find myself missing: Walking and even just being outside in Chicago. I live in the South Loop, boxed up in a condo, and it is an absolutely miserable experience stepping outside right now. There are still people all about, but everyone is hidden behind masks and playing games of chicken to avoid each other. On any given hour of any given day, this city was a people-watching paradise. Now I just feel like I'm ruining someone's life if I'm walking in their direction. I'm grateful to be able to get out to the suburbs and to Indianapolis, where I can be among a little nature and the dogs and birds and squirrels and bunnies don't care any more about my presence than they used to. My wife and I went for a nice long walk in a state park today, and I needed it. I only lament that I couldn't walk up and pet any of the dogs we saw in the distance.

One thing I've gotten around to doing/wouldn't have done otherwise: Besides wear a mask, I'm not sure. I feel like I've been practicing for this pandemic for years -- my marriage is long-distance for now, my work is mostly remote already and I have two dozen hobbies and generally add on another one every couple of months anyway. I'm venturing down a few new illustration projects (follow @CanIDrawYourDog on Instagram, for instance) and learning to make a game, but these were already plans in the pipeline.

So I'll instead gush about my wife*, who went all-out on Friday night with an in-house dinner-and-a-movie date night. She made amazing lasagna and garlic knots and miniature pies for dinner and dessert, and she complemented our movie choice ("Knives Out"**) with movie theater signage and a table full of our favorite concession candy and snacks (popcorn, Junior Mints, gummi bears, Swedish fish, licorice, milk duds, even these parmesan cheese crisps I love to get at this one theater we sometimes go to). All I had to do was pack and set up my projector and flip a couch around so it faced the wall. (And I nearly screwed that one job up by somehow forgetting to pack the projector power cable. Fortunately, her TV used the exact same cable.)

With that said, while this was certainly inspired by the pandemic, I can't really say we wouldn't have eventually done this sort of thing in time anyway. We both delight in turning small things into special things, and she always goes above and beyond. I'm very lucky.

* “Gush about wife” is not a thing I'm doing that I might've never tried, just to clarify.

** Very much recommend “Knives Out,” by the way. I'm not typically a fan of whodunnits or stories about rich families, much less both at once. But this even more fun than it appeared on the surface, and every time I thought I'd figured it out, it outsmarted me. And as someone who assumed Daniel Craig’s interests ranged only from stoicism to making poker faces, seeing him go full ham was a real treat.

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PNOLES

How’s the household: It's a mess, though anyone else with two young kids is going through the same thing. The hardest part is knowing that ultimately the kids are getting neglected during this experience. I want them to participate in fulfilling activities during the day, but that inevitably involves my participation, which means getting distracted from work. Ultimately they wind up watching a lot more TV and movies than we would ever want them to, and probably the most difficult thing is feeling that I'm failing no matter which direction I turn my attention.

What I’m watching/doing: I just started Season Two of Fargo, and Season One was excellent. I'm still re-watching The Wire, and Top Chef has come back, which is giving my wife and I another good mutual show. Jeopardy is a usual staple as well, and at least gives me an outlet to compete against myself. While it doesn't fall into this category, the absolute best thing I'm doing with my spare time is having online poker games with friends while doing a Zoom. It's just about the only thing I look forward to these days.

One weird thing I miss: Driving to work. It's just about the most relaxing time of the day prior to when the kids go to bed, and it's the time I've used to keep up with new music and listen to podcasts (which I've completely stopped doing).

One thing I've gotten around to doing/wouldn't have done otherwise: I'm hysterically bad at building / fixing things, but when the wind knocked our backyard fence down, I got out there, pulled out the old nails, and nailed the thing back together. I didn't do a perfect job, but I 100% made it better rather than worse, and that's an accomplishment for me. I also received a basketball hoop as a housewarming gift 6 years ago and it has sat in the garage because I have no idea how to hang it on the garage. With a LOT of help from my family, it finally went up. Now I have a way to practice during the lockdown.

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GREG

How's the household: Healthy, most importantly. We're definitely stir crazy, but we remain cognizant that we're luckier than many people. My girlfriend survived a round of furloughs at work which is a relief to us, but it was still disheartening for her to lose colleagues. I haven't been as successful staying productive as I was over the first few weeks of quarantine, but I still managed to finish the second draft of a play. Hopefully it will someday play a theatre near you, once theatres resume existing.

What I’m reading/watching/listening to:

I'm in the middle of reading Michael Lewis's The Fifth Risk for my book club. It's a tough read at the moment, since it's mostly about how the bungled Trump presidential transition hollowed out the executive branch and left the country open to catastrophe... Turns out it's hard to build a functioning government when you have no interest in any of its functions! On a lighter note, I highly recommend the Middleditch & Schwartz improv specials on Netflix. They capture the feel and fun of live improv comedy like I haven't seen on film.

Meanwhile, the journey of the Greg Sox continues in OOTP. In my last update, things had started very well for the 2020 team... but they quickly nose-dived to finish below .500. I added Mookie Betts that offseason, and the 2021 team won the pennant but lost to the Dodgers in the World Series. The game is addictive, but occasionally frustrating -- especially when it comes to injuries. Several times I've found myself without my entire starting rotation, which leads to fun screens like these.

Finally, allow me to shamelessly plug the new show I'm doing with my Ducksnort co-host Wayland McQueen and comedian Rhea Butcher of the Three Swings podcast. We're going to stream and discuss some interesting games from baseball history live on Twitch. Our first try was stopped short by YouTube's copyright police, but we think we've got it figured out and starting again today (Sunday) at 7:30 Eastern with Game 5 of the 1995 ALDS. Come watch with us!

One weird thing I miss: Regular commercials. I've had it up to here with Facebook and Arby's and Matthew McConaughey telling me that we're all in this together.

One thing I've gotten around to doing/wouldn't have done otherwise: We bought an inflatable hot tub for my girlfriend's birthday. Never thought I'd be a hot tub guy. It's great.

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TED

How’s the household: We're still doing well, thankfully. In a surprise twist, the hospital where my wife works shifted most of their patient visits to video or telephone, so she's been sharing the kitchen table workplace with me for the majority of the past three weeks. I already knew it, but working alongside her has really hammered home that I married up. 

What I’m watching: I just started a rewatch of all of the Star Wars movies. I've not seen Episodes I-III since they were in theaters, and, well, they're still not good. 

What I’m reading: I just started The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl, by Theodora Goss, the final book in a trilogy written from the perspective of Mary Jekyll, Dr. Jekyll's daughter. I'm also reading Mint Condition, by Dave Jamieson, which is a fun dive into the history of baseball cards.

What I’m listening to: The podcasts I listed previously: Sox Machine, Effectively Wild, Conan Needs a Friend. Those have taken a bit of a hit, though. As the semester begins to wind down, one of the things I'm helping do in my professional life is to transcribe oral histories for the University archives, so working on those have eaten into my usual workplace listens. It's a fair tradeoff, because they're fascinating to listen to.

One weird thing I miss: I miss running errands. Before everything was locked down, I would usually spend Saturday morning out and about: grocery shopping, getting homebrew supplies, etc. I visit enough places that that time adds up, and before I know it, half the day is gone. I'd be pretty happy to get back to giving up half of one of my weekend days if it meant a safe return to normalcy.

One thing I've gotten around to doing/wouldn't have done otherwise: We have a relatively big fenced-in backyard, and over the course of a few years we've installed a variety of garden beds. Unfortunately, the fence has just enough of a gap underneath it that rabbits can come and go at will, and they had a habit of mowing through any seedling that was planted. The solution, up until this year, was temporary fencing around the beds. It didn't look great and it was difficult to mow and trim around, but what can you do? The answer, evidently, is "be stuck at home during a pandemic with more time on your hands than you've ever had before". Landscape timbers had enough height to close that gap, so I ordered enough for each fence panel, cut them to length, drilled in stakes to fix them to the ground, and voila: no way for the rabbits to get in. It took a fair bit of time, but time is all I've had, and I've not seen a rabbit since.

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JOSH

How's the household: Kim and I haven't managed to kill each other so I chalk that up to things going well! 

What I’m watching: I just wrapped up the latest seasons of Brooklyn 99 and Better Call Saul. Are we ready yet to have the conversation that Better Call Saul is better than Breaking Bad? The previous season I began to lean that way and this last season is beginning to solidify that stance for me. Perhaps it's because I find Jimmy McGill/Saul Goodman more interesting than Walter White. If you haven't watched Better Call Saul, and you enjoyed Breaking Bad, you need to find some time on your calendar to begin binging that show. 

 Just like almost everyone in Chicagoland, I've been enjoying The Last Dance. Dennis Rodman's Las Vegas vacation would play out VERY DIFFERENTLY in the present day. I'm also really looking forward to the last episode of The Clone Wars which will come out on Star Wars Day (May 4th). After watching Rebels and Clone Wars, Ahsoka Tano is firmly in my top five favorite Star Wars characters. My list would look like: Obi-wan Kenobi, Ahsoka Tano, Han Solo, Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker, and Kanan Jarrus. 

One weird thing I miss: Other than getting my haircut whenever I wanted, it would be the ability to walk down to the local McDonald's and order breakfast. I'm a big Sausage Egg n'Cheese McGriddle guy, and on weekend mornings I would walk the quarter of a mile from our house to pick up breakfast. I haven't done that in months. Sure, I could get in the car and drive but it's not the same as walking down Western watching the cars zoom by as the neighborhood itself begins to wake up. I'm fairly certain that once we are allowed to physically go to restaurants that McDonald's will be my first stop. 

One thing I've gotten around to doing/wouldn't have tried otherwise: Meditation. There are classes on Peloton (yes, the bike company) that you can begin learning the basic steps of meditating. It has been a good way of learning how to stay calm during this time, and for those having trouble sleeping, there are some meditation classes that help. 

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JIM

How’s the household: Same as before, which is getting old, but I'm getting a lot of mileage out of "it could be worse." I've been trying to get to new neighborhoods and destinations that will eventually be worth hanging out in, if only to figure out the lay of the land. It helps and it doesn't. We ventured around downtown Nashville on a cool, rainy Sunday and had no problem parking at any place we wanted to walk around. Only a handful of people were on the streets, and the only live music was a Louis Armstrong impersonator singing "What A Wonderful World" over and over again, which wasn't creepy at all.

What I’m watching: I'm among the horde watching "The Last Dance" every Sunday night. We’re watching a few episodes of “Schitt’s Creek” a week, so we’re into Season 3 at this point, and just finished Season 1 of "Parks and Rec" to mix it up.

I watched “Goldfinger” after stumbling across it on cable, which was the first pre-Brosnan James Bond movie I’d seen. Now I get ALL the tropes, and might make a point to see more so I can properly enjoy the James Bonding podcast.

What I’m reading: I’m taking a baseball break by giving Jon Meacham’s Andrew Jackson biography a second chance. I abandoned it about 50 pages in on my first attempt because I couldn’t get invested in his family background. But it won a Pulitzer Prize for biography, so maybe I’m the problem. Now that I live close to Jackson’s estate and 40 percent of things are named “Old Hickory,” maybe I’ll be in a better place for it, mentally and geographically.

What I’m listening to: I’d buy the new Jason Isbell album if I got a chance to learn the record stores here, and I’m trying to figure out if I like the new Car Seat Headrest album. Also, Bonanas for Bonanza is here.

One weird thing I miss: People I know on the acquaintance level. One thing I realized a few days ago is that I’ve been living here for seven weeks, and I still don’t know another person except my wife. Maybe my landlord, who I met for about 30 minutes three months ago? This is one of a few reasons I don’t suggest up and moving to a brand new place during this time.

One thing I've gotten around to doing/wouldn't have done otherwise: Watching TV on purpose. That sounds like a bad job interview answer akin to "I'm too dedicated to the job," but between work, White Sox games and writing, I never felt good about sitting in front of screens even more than I already did. There's no such guilt now!

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