mattie g

I’m not really sure what you mean when you mention what the vaccine does to your body chemistry. What a vaccine does is preps your body to fight a disease by prompting it to produce antibodies to that disease. I get that some folks have reservations, but the alternative of potentially contracting COVID seems a much less desired outcome than any side effects of getting the vaccine.

Was about to say that I hear some high-pitched, constant screeching out there tonight.

Just got a Public Safety Alert on my phone that Virginia is opening up vaccinations for everyone 16+. That was a little unexpected, if I'm honest. And not only that, but it freaked me out a little when it came through!

It was good to go back, if nothing else! As an admitted beer geek, Aslin has been the "local" go-to for me and my buddies over the last five years or so, and we're currently members of the Mug Club. Their quality has definitely gone down in the last couple years, though it's still good to very good - just not what it once was. It's definitely worth a trip, but they have a much larger variety outdoors, where they pour from cans only. You can get beers inside, but the tap list is pretty limited.

Not bad. Didn’t get as much done as I’d hoped, but did get the Big Green Egg table stained (finally) and most of the areas of the deck that needed it sanded. Hope to finish up tomorrow!

It was fantastic. Really thick, not overly sweet nor oaky, and incredibly well balanced. Honestly one of the best Aslin stouts I’ve ever had, which is saying a lot given the quality of their stout/barrel program. They say it’s 10%, but I think that’s the ABV of their base stout; though as stouts age in barrels, like spirits, their ABV tends to increase.

Meeting my best friend at Aslin Alexandria this afternoon to try the (accidental) 4-year-aged bourbon barrel stout they have on tap. We’ve had a few beers together over the last year (probably hung out 4-5 times outside), but definitely haven’t been to a bar-restaurant. Both of us are fully vaxxed at this point. Hanging out outside without much worry on a cool spring Friday should be pretty awesome!

Thanks! For NY-style pies, I run it at 500 or so - Neapolitan pies are 750 or thereabouts. i love having the steel. It makes a big difference when you’re cooking multiple pizzas because they hold heat so well. On the Egg, I stay the cook with the screen on the steel, then slide it into the steel about 5 minutes in. This keeps the bottom from getting too burned while also helping to crisp it up. In the oven, I start with the screen on the top rack, then slide onto the steel on the bottom rack at about 5 minutes. Yup...72-hour ferment is ideal. Flavor is spot on and it allows for much better/more even browning. A pizza oven sounds awesome! Would love to see some results!

I think a lot of people are concerned about flying because they’re packed into a tube with a couple hundred of their closest friends who may or may not have COVID. The others aren’t traveling because they don’t think they need to given the public health emergency.

Yup. The first shot was *so* painless that I honestly doubted they actually poked me! I felt the second shot more, but I've been much more uncomfortable while receiving plenty of other shots in the past.

Agreed with those who say just the spot where the needle went in. The second shot was more of a general shoulder muscle ache, but nothing different than pretty much any other shot I've ever had.

It’s worth the search. The 50-lb bags from RD are like $20, so if you have access or know someone with access to RD, give it a shot! It also makes good bread. Another suggestion is to use a pizza screen. Not absolutely necessary, but I’ve found it makes a real difference in the evenness of my cook.

Here's a picture of a couple pizzas I made on my Big Green Egg last summer. I like to use the Egg on hot days so we don't heat up the whole house by running the oven at 500+ for an hour or more! Shooting to make pizza this weekend, so I'll try to remember to take some before and after pictures...

Some great looking pizzas in this thread! I've become a bit of a pizza-making aficionado in the last couple years. I used to use the fresh dough from Whole Foods (which is quite good), but a neighbor of mine got me into making my own doughs, as he's also from the Northeast and grew up on real NY-style pizzas. After doing some research, we've found that the most-used flour by NY-style pizzerias is General Mills All Trumps High Gluten Flour, so we tracked it down at Restaurant Depot and have multiple 50-lb bags each. That flour absolutely makes a difference, as does doing a 72-hour cold prove. I have a go-to recipe for both NY-style and Neapolitan pizzas (the latter with 00 flour) that I developed by using the Lehmann pizza dough calculator. That was a flash page, so it's no longer available, but if anyone is interested in another really good calculator, try this one: https://pizza-dough-calculator.herokuapp.com/calculator. You'll need to do a little additional research on dough thickness, hydration, yeast amount, etc. but it's all worth it in the end!

Can I just get a run of dry weekdays so we can get the stoop/walkway demo completed and the build actually started? It’s been a week-and-half of this already!

Yup. It’s just interesting that they don’t really move at all from where they dropped 17 years prior. You’d think they’d at least move a little bit laterally over that amount of time!

I know that they live their lives much like a "regular" insect during that time, but I've never thought much about how and where they might move. What's interesting is that my wife has dug up dozens of them in the last few days as she's been replanting some plants in our back yard under the canopy of our neighbors' huge beech tree, but didn't dig up any as she was replanting closer to the house and not under a tree's canopy.

I actually think about this kind of stuff a lot...and it makes me sad. Just thinking about how many cicadas might try to emerge from beneath the weed mat I laid down last year around the kids' play house fills me with a little pang of guilt. I just hope they can dig sideways to get out from under there.

Sure they aren't peepers? They're definitely still doing their peeping thing in my neck of the woods right now.

And she’s got crampons for fingernails. Perfect!

Decided to take a day off this coming Friday to get the deck sanded and stained. For now, the weather looks great for it and for next weekend, so hopefully the forecast sticks.

Been a pretty glorious last number of days - warmth and enough sun, with the occasional shower (and incredibly close lightning strikes!).

Wife got her second Pfizer at the George Mason Patriot Center today. Apparently they're only doing second shots there, and she said the place was absolutely rocking! Apparently the workers were singing and dancing to Toto and Def Leppard (among other stuff) blasting over the sound system.

Until the day I die, I'll never forget the jingle of the Mister Softee truck that would roll through our neighborhood every day, all summer long, when I was a kid. The kids would flock to that truck like flies on sh*t...