vastateofmind

Dear LORD. It was a little breezy around here yesterday afternoon, and nothing like the RFW criteria winds we had on Sunday. Did they really have that much wind about down there yesterday? Are we sure there isn't a T-rex loose on the Eastern Shore??

As always, looks AMAZING. I'm not a tremendous mushroom fan, but I'll bet it tastes good with that mix. The snap peas look soooo mouthwatering. Never heard of the meifun noodles, but they look awesome, especially with the other veggie/protein mix here. Geez, Mrs. J, if you don't already have your own cooking blog, channel, etc. -- you really should.

Whaddya think...first half of May? I feel like it might be that kind of late spring/summer.

Awww, man, this sounds like heaven! Good luck with all of this. And yeah, we enjoy watching the younger families/kids starting to enjoy the nicer weather again. We're on a cul de sac of "original owners" who've been here for 40-50 years. We couldn't figure out why they were all ecstatic when we moved in 20 years ago with a 6 and 4-year old...with our two having flown the nest in the last couple of years, we now "get" it. A younger family with three kids in that same age range bought the house next door this time last year, and we've enjoyed hearing them play outside and enjoy their pool in the summertime. The "portable TV" solution is a great idea -- we were thinking, too, of moving one of our 32" monitors out on the back patio this summer and stabbing a Fire TV Stick or Chromecast in that bad boy, because why not??

Ahhhh, man, lilacs. Always enjoyed having those in the backyard I grew up with. One of the finest smelling flowering trees. I'm guessing you can't take lilac bushes to Alexandria with you...

OMG, like a sudden explosion of budding over the past several days...and the red-flag criteria winds yesterday brought down an accumulation of those little buds all over the patios, yards and roofs. I know this is a necessary step, but ugh...what a mess.

Since I do more marinating and grilling year-round than ever before, I've really wanted to try growing my own fresh herbs. Our neighbors have done so successfully for years...but since I kill most things I try to grow, I've been hesitant to try.

Temp sensor currently says 34, but man...stepped outside for about 10 minutes and it feels like it's in the low 40s. Already getting breezy again.

Pictures from last evening are spooky...looks like something right out of wildfire central in the western states: Massive forest fire rages on mountain near Dillsburg (ydr.com)

I mentioned a trip to Water's End Brewery in Lake Ridge, VA yesterday afternoon....probably a 10-15 minute diversion off of I-95 south, and well worth the trip. Current beers on the board repped in first pic here....I started with the sweet/sour cherry pie, and while I am not a fruity beer fan...it was damn good. Barkeep said they're working a sweet/sour cherry pie to debut in a couple weeks that will be a bit more on sour side...what I had was fairly balanced. Mrs. V started out with Damn Beer, which is their everyday IPA and quite good. I followed my first draft with a Barleybeast -- which was, bar none, THE BEST barleywine draft I've ever had. I regret leaving without a crowler/growler of that...which is why Mrs. V and I are headed back there in a week or two before it's gone. And, on our way back from Water's End, we circled back through Potomac Town Center at Stonebridge to complete our weekly grocery run at the Wegman's there, and I finally found the "Saturday Morning" Lucky-Charms-themed four-pack there from Smartmouth, that I mentioned us hearing about not quite a year ago on its debut. There were national stories written about the "Lucky Charms" beer that was selling out as soon as it was made available. Mrs. V and I split one this afternoon and I was...underwhelmed. Don't get me wrong, it's a tasty IPA...just not a particularly well-flavored/themed one. Smartmouth touts the marshmallow flavor on the label, but try as we might...we didn't get that from the nose/taste of it at all. Again, a great everyday IPA, I just didn't feel that it lived up to the hype.

I envy those who have homes with front porches. We have a two-level back patio behind our current cookie-cutter home, but nothing compares to a front porch. The big Victorian house I grew up in up in northern PA (built ~1900 maybe?) had a wraparound front/side porch...my parents had a hanging swing, a sofa-sized glider and a bunch of Adirondack chairs on it. Spent much of my youth out there playing on that porch...

58, high/thin clouds but the blue skies are mostly there. Just finished a five-mile walk with the doggo and Mrs. V, and now we're headed to Water's End Brewery in Lake Ridge.

Great perks! And yeah, avoiding any commuting days is a huge win in my book...especially when trying to plan for, or prep, weeknight dinners! Absolutely. Can't imagine making a DC-WV commute on a regular basis, but the trade-off is living where you and @Mrs.J live -- both beautiful areas away from all of the urbanization. My wife and I considered a move to Leesburg or just west of there many years ago, but I ultimately didn't want the commute from there and telework wasn't an option back then. I currently live only six miles from my job at Belvoir, however, with a ramp-up of in-fill residential/commercial development and many extra traffic lights added in recent years, what used to be a 15-20 minute commute a decade ago, turned into (typically) a one-way 30-40 minute commute just before the pandemic shutdown. I mean, that's just a ridiculous amount of time to traverse six miles, IMHO.

I'm think I may have posted this particular choice a few weeks ago, but on this night of Spades elsewhere in the sub -- and when I'm trying to teach my wife Cribbage! -- I thought I would share this one (perhaps) again. Smartmouth is a damn good brewery.....we don't often get access to their stuff since they're down in Norfolk, but sometimes we do here in NoVA, and it's always good.

I am indeed at DAU...for nearly 20 years now.

Alright, @CAPE, @nw baltimore wx, @Baltimorewx, @Scraff, and others I'm probably leaving out -- what beers are on deck for happy hour this evening? Haven't made up my mind yet, or else I'd be posting a pour pic right now...

72/51, nice little rebound in temps over past hour. Clear blue skies now, with the back edge of the cloud deck associated with the front finally moving southeastward. Thinking about dusting off the propane firepit for some wine on the patio tonight....

I hope more TW/WFH opportunities pan out for your future projects...and excellent points from you bolded here. I'm in a DoD training organization, whose training split prior to March 2020 (pulling this out of my azz) was probably 40% in-classroom/60% online. Pandemic lockdowns hit in March 2020, and our ISDs/instructors go into major overdrive migrating and converting classroom courses to virtual/online...they really stepped up, govvies and contractors alike, and probably saved/salvaged 90%-95% of the in-person training. Not only that, THEY are the ones who have proved that our training mission CAN be accomplished remotely, in a full-time WFH/TW situation...and their efforts were the primary drivers behind changing minds/hearts not only at the senior leadership of our organization, but at senior levels in the Pentagon and at other federal gov't agencies. If we can carry at least one positive out of this effing pandemic...I'm hopeful that improved quality-of-life due to increased implementation of proven WFH/TW practices is at the top of the list.

I get the family thing....we still have a few relatives living in northern PA and just north of NYC, and the proximity to this area (for them AND us) is nice. Our two sons (26 and 24) are currently in the PacNW and Arlington, but neither will probably be in either of those locations long-term because of job commitments that will likely keep them moving. I still love huge snowstorms...but man, I despise cleaning up after them now. Worse than that, I can't abide long-term temps below 35-40 degrees. Absolutely HATE being cold now...and that's after enduring God knows how many days of sub-freezing weather for my first 20 or so years growing up in northern PA. Thirty or so years of NoVA winters have made me soft. The lakes region of NH, really much of NH and VT (most of New England!), are simply some of the most gorgeous country I've seen in the nation...but, increasingly, too cold for this old dude! Hence, the consideration of locations in the Carolinas and FL. One added plus of moving to a beach-centric area is that it will entice our grown sons to come visit US, rather than vice versa.

SIDEBAR: I earned my FCC license in the fall of 1984 (start of my freshman year of college) so I could work the graveyard shift at my college radio station, and instantly learned about a new indie group called "R.E.M.", whose debut album entitled "Murmur" that released the previous year, featured a cover picture of a field in Georgia being overrun by...kudzu. I've loved R.E.M. ever since, not necessarily because they featured that noxious weed on the haunting cover of their debut album, but because I just love most of their music.

Thx! Both the Carolinas are on our list, actually....FL, too. Leaning Myrtle Beach area (long time favorite), but our mind's not made up yet.

We are in same boat -- want to move to SC now -- but due to current laws/policies, I have to live within the metro area and be able to commute to my assigned duty station due to locality pay (understandable, under current laws). However, if those laws/policies are (hopefully) amended in the near future, I'd gladly give up my extra locality pay to be able to move south now, and WFH there while staying attached to my current organization for a few more years until retirement. I'm a big believer in this, and I think the federal gov't is coming around, too. Our organization is considering turning back in to the Army some of our current office space from our physical campus at Fort Belvoir, so that we'll have a much smaller footprint with far fewer single offices and more temporary hotbunk/hotelling spaces for those who come to campus only occasionally. Like most of the federal gov't, we've successfully proven that we can continue to carry out the mission remotely for over a year now, at least in our corner of DoD. Some of us will stay in primarily WFH mode when when we go into "new normal" mode -- my bosses offered me that opportunity a few weeks back, so when we're cleared to return to campus, I'll give up my work office, and likely WFH 85-90% of the time. I'm lucky/fortunate.

Same obs here. Have the north and south windows open and have an awesome cross-breeze barreling through the house, great for blowing away the "closed-up" smell of winter.

The upshot is that there'll be plenty of available winged protein for the plucking for salads, casseroles, grilling and garnishes.