Does This Count As Pictures & Distractions Who's In Charge Here?

I was going to do Pictures & Distractions but then I got distracted (ha!) and started word vomiting. I guess the below does include some pictures and links, so maybe this counts? I don't know.

I was going to start this off by bragging to you about how I spent my weekend painting my garage door and patio in the backyard and I went to pull up a picture and somehow clicked on something on Instagram, which turned out to be a "live video."

As you know, I'm what the kids call "not tech savvy." I've seen people do these live videos before but I guess I just always assumed this was not a resource available to me for some reason. WELL. As it turns out, IT IS available to me, and if there's one thing I like more than watching TV it's BEING tv (hashtag attention seeker).

Being the international superstar that I am, upwards of SEVENTEEN PEOPLE tuned into this thing. Now I can't walk around my house without sunglasses on and TMZ hired a new person to just cover my life. That person followed me around for a week and then got fired when there was nothing sensational to report besides my skin-care regimen WHICH IS OUTRAGEOUS.

It was all very fun and very exciting and I think we should do a Quarantine Stranger Show where everyone gets their favorite not-that-I-know-what-that-is-Cathie beverage and joins us on Instagram one night for a story or something. Or is that lame? Is this a bad idea? I've been locked in my house so many days in a row now that I can't tell whether this is a bad idea. Someone reassure me here.


Anyway, I did in fact paint my garage door and patio over the weekend. This was desperately needed. I've been putting it off for like 2 years. And then Saturday morning I woke up and I says to myself I says "Eli, you have a crazy amount of time on your hands right now and you are not allowed to go anywhere or do anything. If you haven't painted your garage and learned Korean by the end of this, you better have at least have finished reading Crime & Punishment (started that in 2005, only 286 pages to go).

There's a paint store at the end of my street and they are still operating on some level. You can call them and purchase supplies over the phone and then go stand in the parking lot and Vladimir Putin in a hazmat suit walks out and sets a bag of what you purchased on a sidewalk for you to go gather up. It's all very dystopian and fun.

So I bought a small can of primer and a small can of white paint and eleventy thousand hours later I had completed most of the project. Here's a picture of the garage door to prove it:

I know. I'm amazing an photographer and an even better painter. What house projects are you going to get done during this time?

Finally, I wrote an article about earthquake drills from my childhood. Please go check it out?

Finally finally, Rebbie wrote a really lovely article about The Great British Baking Show.

Finally finally finally, we published the video (and text) of Shelby Hintze's Strangerville Live story "Nice Disabled Girl." It's one of my favorite stories we've ever had on Strangerville. You should give it a watch. Bonus, you can see Shelby (accurately) telling me right before taking the mic that I look very sweaty.

Finally finally finsnuggie finally, here's Duncan, Ollie, and our friend Jace:

~It Just Gets Stranger