Quarantine Diary, Day 62

Shannon's quarantine haircut, courtesy de moi 

We were watching a town hall yesterday, and the presenter said "We're now 60 days into this thing..." and we both did a double take. Like, whoa. 60 days? Really? It feels more like 160 days in some ways, and like just 30 days in other ways.

But it got us to thinking. What we have done with our quarantine?

Turns out, quite a bit. From projects around the house, to cooking new recipes, to exploring the 'hood (when we thought we knew every square inch), we've really made the best of it. And it ain't over yet, friends!

I have been working remotely, which gratefully has been pretty seamless for my team in terms of the actual getting stuff done part, and engaging with stakeholders. It's an adjustment for sure, and we miss seeing each other in the flesh, but we use tech to keep in touch and are using it as an opportunity to innovate.

Shannon took a short-term leave of absence, along with about 50% of the Delta workforce, and it has been so nice having him home. It's incredible to see the pride and loyalty of the Delta family. It's a great organization, and we are excited to see them come out the other side of this stronger than ever.

But, back to the lesson at hand. Here's what we've been up to in our down-time!

Projects

• We revamped the little 8x8 room off the master that Riley had claimed and turned into my work from home office, and I LOVE it. It has a feature wall, and a window seat (well, it always had that), and the dogs may love it more than I do. Shannon loves that I chose an angled wall for the wallpaper. So fun. 
• Shannon FINALLY finished the stairs. Guise. If you know, you know. He installed the railing up top and fixed the built in nook at the bottom. Just needs paint. So, technically, #notfinished.
• Basement organization and purge - Shannon has been hard at work building out shelving and storage for the basement, including organizing and - my favorite - purging unused / unwanted items. He also built my much-needed wine storage! Huzzah! 

Food 

I mean, honestly it's been everything from hot dogs over the fire pit to steaks on the grill, but here are some of our favorite quarantine meals so far:

• Tuscan white bean soup with herb oil *and Shannon made beer bread - so yum! 
• Asparagus and chive galette (loosely followed this recipe:
  https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/asparagus-and-chive-galette-recipe)
• Marinated pork chops with grilled veggies 
• Patatas bravas with romesco (that we kind of made up but was delish) 
• Blackened grouper tacos 
• Shrimp linguine 

Of course, we've also just been enjoying being together, taking long walks with the pups, getting way too into puzzles, enjoying the awesome spring weather on our deck, doing yard work and house work, etc. etc. Speaking of the pups... I mean, as if they weren't spoiled enough. These two are LOVING having us both home, getting extra love and walks and treats. And so many outfit changes. Their instagram is updated more than mine. Follow @darcydoesitall and @lumalovesit for all the #dogcontent your heart desires.

We've also been LOVING keeping in touch with friends and family via facetime, zoom, etc. and having virtual happy hours, game nights, birthday partys, you name it. So much fun. And one of our quarantine highlights has GOT to be seeing the Blue Angels do a flyover, which was INSANELY cool. Hope you got to see it wherever you are - they did a lot of cities, which was really neat to see. What a great salute to our healthcare heroes!

Best Neighborhood Re-Discovery

South Fork Conservancy cleared out this area along the creek, and widened the walking paths and made this great park back behind one of the streets in our neighborhood. We'd poked around back there years ago, but this is a game-changer. You can learn more at http://southforkconservancy.org/.

Best Overall Discovery

The library! Shoutout to the Meatleys for this one. How have we been sleeping on this? Y'all. FREE e-books and audio books. They also have music and movies, but we haven't delved in to that just yet. I mean... come on. Check it out if you're slow like me and just didn't do it. Do it now.