vastateofmind

Ugh, sorry to hear. It's amazing how some muscles will roar to life and remind you that they don't want/care to be disturbed. I disassembled my wife's big-ass treadmill into two still-heavy chunks on Wednesday afternoon to move to and reassemble in another room in the house. Felt okay Wed night, but throughout yesterday and this morning, my arm and hamstring muscles have started screaming at me, "Don't even think about doing that again, cowboy."

Seasonal total: 5.4"

Does it help if we look up amounts using that resource you just shared and post here or PM you to include with our location amounts? I was too lazy to officially measure any snowfall this season but just discovered a station on the other side of my neighborhood that would be close enough. EDIT: DERP, never mind -- forgot about the actual snow totals thread, I will throw it over there.

34/26. High cirrus drifting in from the west.

LOL. I know, right? The names and labels are getting out of hand. That was a great beer, though -- I haven't been able to find it, but Smartmouth also makes a Lucky Charms cereal themed beer called Saturday Morning. Was in high demand at its debut last year.

LOL...so, Mrs. VAStateOfMind did NOT buy the 120 last week at Weggy's, @CAPE. She took a chance on this instead....and honestly, it's damn good. I think that you, possibly @Scraff, @nw baltimore wx and @North Balti Zen might be attracted to Smartmouth brews, but....I'll bet it's still not comparable to the 120. I might have to make the trip to buy that 120 myself this weekend, come hell or high water.

58/24, clear blue skies once more this afternoon.

Oh, MAN -- Homicide is one of my all-time favorite TV shows. Super cast, great writing...some of the best writers/directors/producers at work on that show, many of whom carried over from St. Elsewhere (my favorite-ever TV series). So hard to find Homicide streaming, though -- and it's tough to find the seasons on DVD, and when you do, they're prohibitively expensive. Thanks for the rec on The Dectectorists -- will definitely check that out. We've been increasingly drawn to British dramas and miniseries over the past couple of years. PBS's Call The Midwife, which normally isn't my cup of tea, has turned out to be a favorite of ours...it aptly captures the feel and emotions of its setting in time (50s & 60s). We try to check out what's new on Masterpiece once in awhile...Masterpiece's (non-musical) mini-series remake of Les Miserables a year or so ago was particularly outstanding with an awesome cast (thought-provoking ending, too).

It was a hit! Here's the link to the marinade recipe if interested -- author used it initially for pork chops but I used on two pork loins and grilled. I was afraid it might be too sweet with the brown sugar and ketchup (it wasn't, BTW), so threw in several shakes of red pepper flakes to counter. Yummo. The BEST EVER Pork Chop Marinade Recipe | Yummly

But the melt is creeping outward from tree trunks and buildings even up on your ridge. Late Feb sun starting to mean business.

Totally understand, I grew up in one of those households, too -- and also vowed that my wife and I would not live like that, and we never have. Like your daughter, I took a couple HS classes in psych and loved it. Was never smart enough to major in it (and to boot, wasn't sure what I'd do with that major), but took a psych class every semester of my undergrad years and loved them all. (Well, most all -- I nearly failed abormal psych!) I ended up with a psych minor that, honestly, provided a skillset that served me well in the various forms of marketing, PR, communications type stuff I did over the years. I'm sure your daughter would, too. Hope you're enjoying those continued college investigations with her.

With you 100% there -- we didn't sustain any damage in the March 2018 wind event but neighbors all around us did (as evidenced below). We generally follow the same rule...but I've got a 100' plus tall oak in the corner of the backyard that, if it fell, would likely do so into my neighbor's yard, but still. Pics of two different neighbors' situations in the aftermath of the March 2018 event. The right side second floor of the beige house was nearly bisected by the pine tree, which snapped off about six feet up the trunk. The white house avoided major damage to two cars in the driveway when their carport caught the weight/brunt of that fallen pine.

You're a great mom to help her screen that kind of stuff. I'm sure she'd like Evil Genius, with the usual "mature content" caveats -- as with most of these situations, there were wronged lovers, a bit of prostitution, and, ummm...a body stuffed in a freezer. Not to mention the semi-graphic news footage of the poor Pizza Bomber. You just can't make this stuff up. Absolutely -- The Keepers was SO well done, and I loved seeing/learning more about the Baltimore city/county areas, though not necessarily under those circumstances. Thx for the HBO recommendations -- we did watch the Adnan Syed doc (after I listened to the first season of Serial podcast), and both were excellent. You also just reminded me -- we watched an outstanding docu last year about Aaron Hernandez and the legal troubles leading up to his death...I think it was on Netflix? EDIT: Even after all of the media saturation....I'm still not quite convinced that Adnan Syed killed Hae Min Lee.

I like your maps better than DTs....

Made a recommendation last week for "Nomadland" starring Frances McDormand just released on Hulu...stand by that, best flick I've seen in many years. My wife and I then switched back over to Netflix the past several days to start cleaning out our watchlists there and started a several- years-old documentary called "Evil Genius," about the 2003 "Pizza Bomber" bank heist in Erie, PA. Very compelling. Only four episodes long, but don't miss it if you like the true crime genre -- conspirators highlighted in the series definitely fit the title. BTW, best documentary I ever saw on any of the streamers was "The Keepers" on Netflix, about the late 1960s disappearance/murder of Sister Cathy in Catonsville, MD.

That surprises the hell out of me...you of all wx fans on here would've LOVED seeing/hearing it!

This is really interesting...and obviously enough to catch your attention. Did the turf look like it was boiling all of a sudden? Being totally serious, as I've never actually SEEN the cicadas emerge from the ground during the 2-3 times there have been mass brood emergences in my lifetime.

OMG, we took the dog on a 4-mile walk late yesterday afternoon...it was glorious weather. Gonna do a repeat this afternoon though it may be a tad cooler (maybe, maybe not...we busted high here yesterday).

We annually lease our share in the neighborhood pool these days, but I do know they did the Sign-Up Genius approach to offer pool attendance in blocks last summer, with mixed results. Lots of complaints, obviously. I felt the worst for the NVSL summer swim/dive teams -- that was such a great source of fun, camaraderie and excess-energy burning for our two sons for well over 15 years. Never served on our pool board (and to your point -- THANK GOD), but my wife and I each held down at least once all of the major roles/positions for the NVSL summer swim team (except refereeing)...and that was bad enough. My wife served as a team rep for a few seasons, which next to being a pool board member, is probably one of the most thankless and soul-crushing volunteer jobs someone can take on. My favorite was serving as S&T judge...best seat in the house, and that's how I used to recruit others to it.

Got to a low of 41 overnight...currently 44 and clear. The windchimes out back are already starting their dance for the day..

Best time to go to the beach, at least on East Coast. My wife and I went to OBX for years, pre-kids, during the 3rd week of September...when the seasonal rates dropped, businesses/restaurants were still open, and the wx was still perfect down there.

Oh, man, now that does suck. I've heard of this happening with FiOS -- folks just missing the cutoff by a block -- although in our subdivision of 700+ homes, I don't believe the "newer" half (built with underground utilities) got access to FiOS until a year or so after the "older" half where I live...and which has above-ground utility poles/wires. Didn't make sense to me. Congrats to you! Forgot you mentioned a local move last week, I usually see your pics of western MD and think of you there first. And sorry you can't get FiOS in Alexandria...that seems like an odd omission so close to the District, but if I recall, Verizon has cut back on expanding optical fiber infrastructure in recent years. It's a shame they can't figure out a way to take the FiOS show on the road nationally...they're the only internet provider that's provided me the download/upload speeds that I actually pay for.

Sorry, that's a PITA. If you're able to consider other options, do you have access to Verizon FiOS at your address? I know lots of folks hate Verizon, too, but I can tell you in over 15 years of having FiOS, I can count on three fingers the amount of times we ever lost internet, TV or our landline (or any combination of them).

That sounds great -- post a pic later if you can. I'm trying a new marinade for pork loin on the grill tonight -- we were going to have pasta, and then I thought, WTH, I'm not going to waste great late-winter grilling weather this afternoon/evening.