What I Did During the Pandemic

 Technically, the pandemic isn't over, but I'm considering my personal pandemic over - I am fully vaccinated! I can travel and see friends and family, now!

I thought I would list what I remember accomplishing during my person pandemic, between March 12, 2020, the last day I went to the office to work, and yesterday, April 29, 2021 the first day I could be considered fully vaccinated.

Ran a 5k in a new personal time after extensive training throughout March 2020 and September 2020 when the North Hills 5K took place

Visited the Eno River Confluence Area for a 2 mile hike

After 16 year hiatus, relearned how to ride a bike, and rode just over 100 miles throughout the summer of 2020. I also walked 182 miles and ran 120 miles.

Completed projects like Exercise Every Day in August 2020, Photo a Day Challenge from April to June of 2020, and was able to continue daily posting from August 2019 to August 2020. 

Compiled and edited a Gluten free cookbook after months of reading other cookbooks and trying many recipes. It also required skills like understanding the recipe and what to adjust, photographing the finished dishes, understanding lighting, learning photo editing, consider page layout and editing the recipes, and learning how to use software to put the book together! It was a huge process, but highly enjoyable. I likely put 100 hours or more over several months.

I had a container garden in 2020, where I planted cherry tomatoes, green onions, parsley, jalapeno peppers, chamomile, mint, and serrano peppers.

This year I cut back, and only planted parsley, jalapeno peppers and cowhorn peppers.

Read these books, and am only counting ones I finished:

  1. Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
  2. Make the Bread, Buy the Butter by Jennifer Reese
  3. The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander
  4. The Black Cauldron by Lloyd Alexander
  5. The Castle of Llyr by Lloyd Alexander
  6. Taran Wanderer by Lloyd Alexander
  7. The High King by Lloyd Alexander
  8. The Foundling by Lloyd Alexander
  9. Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings
  10. Queen of Sorcery by David Eddings
  11. Magician's Gambit by David Eddings
  12. Castle of Wizardry by David Eddings
  13. Enchanters' End Game by David Eddings
  14. Cooked by Michael Pollan
  15. Smart Couples Finish Rich by David Bach
  16. The Automatic Millionaire by David Bach
  17. The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins
  18. The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley
  19. The Next Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley and Sarah Stanley Farrow
  20. I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi
  21. What Wall Street Doesn't Want You To Know by Larry Swedroe
  22. A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Malkiel
  23. Rainbow's End by Vernor Vinge
  24. Fountains of Paradise by Arthur C Clarke
  25. Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams
  26. Minecraft: The Island by Max Brooks
  27. Success is 90% Spite by Jane Zei
  28. Bad Arguments by Ali Almossawi and Alejandro Giraldo
  29. SSIS 24 Hour Trainer by Brian Knight
  30. I Won't Be Coming Into Work Because You're All Dickheads by David Thorne
  31. A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor by Hank Green
  32. An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green
  33. Catalyst by Amanda Quintenz-Fiedler (and then wrote a review for it)
  34. The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John C Bogle
  35. Indistractable by Nir Eyal
  36. The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, MD
  37. Shortest Way Home by Pete Buttigieg

Built a web responsive website over at lauraqjohnson.com

Cooked ambitious recipes like Gourgeres, Salmon with Golden Rice, Balsamic Mushroom and Bacon Pasta, bread without yeast, Chicken Paprikash, Chocolate Truffles, Hokkaido Milk Bread, General Tso's Chicken, Spicy Honey Chicken, Jalapeno Popper Chicken, Tamagoyaki eggs, Korean Beef Rice Bowl, Shio Ramen, Roasted Whole Turkey, make Turkey Pie with leftovers, Cranberry sauce from fresh cranberries, Spice Cake - which were all done before the Gluten Free cookbook project.

Played Minecraft to the end, where you kill the dragon!

I reviewed Aldi's 2020 Beer Advent Calendar

Learned about SIBO and switched diet to FODMAP for a while

Played these games (not to completion for some):

  1. Othello
  2. Splendor
  3. Talos
  4. Fate
  5. Don't Starve
  6. PayDay
  7. Castle Panic
  8. Cat Crimes
  9. Ticket to Ride
  10. One Deck Dungeon
  11. Guinness World Records
  12. T.I.M.E. Stories
  13. Pandemic
  14. Bard's Tale
  15. Dungeons and Dragons basics
  16. Master Mind
  17. Upwords
  18. Andor (5 scenarios)
  19. Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion (18 scenarios)
  20. Connect Four
  21. Polybridge
  22. Super Mario Brothers 64
  23. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
  24. Elder Scrolls Oblivion


I'm certain that I'm missing some activities, but I'm pleased with what I remembered/took notes on so I wouldn't forget!

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