vastateofmind

Currently 41, and looks like we have a great spring day on tap.

Same! I continually bypass it on the cable box guide, but on the rare occasions that I stop and watch (including the video posted here), i nonetheless find myself on the final turn inevitabbly yelling, "Go, go, go, GO!!!" at some horse I know nothing about. What an incredible pic!!! Go, go, go, GO...Miss J the Younger!

A glorious day, all the way around!

And to you and your family as well! Hope all of the doggos don't keep you on too tight a schedule...

A final helles lager for the road tonight...one we brought home last week from Rocket Frog in Sterling, VA. Excellent...and apparently named after one of Rocket Frog's owner's daughters.

Thought of a number of you IPA/stout-loving denizens here when Mrs. V brought this home from Wegmans a short while ago -- Founders' (from Michigan) KBS Maple Mackinac Fudge imperial stout. VERY flavorful, borderline a dessert beer, and at 11.x ABV, perhaps the last one you should have for the night...but then again, maybe not.

Oh, I have a feeling that tipping a few shots of bourbon...or a few IPAs...or whatever...would be a good deal of fun with you and numerous others here, @CAPE...

Too funny...

Come over here and sit by me for a spell, @George BM, and I'll pour as a shot (perhaps two) of bourbon....and you can discover the wonderful, warming qualities that it has.

Yeah, I feel you, man. I posted a pic of Smartmouth's "Saturday Morning" much-hyped Lucky Charms/marshmallow IPA a few weeks back, finally tracking it down a YEAR after its debut. To your point -- the exact marshmallow taste just wasn't there, but it honestly was just a good, general IPA. At the end of the day, this Dunka looks like a tasty stout....glad you got to try it!

THAT sounds like an outstanding collab stout....I love when the breweries start sharing the talent with each other, great things often happen. Pour pics later!!

Am working my way through Star Trek: Enterprise after being away from it for nearly 20 years now. I vaguely remember Jolene Blalock, who is T'Pol on ST:E, made pretty regular appearances in Maxim back in the day. She IS an underrated actress -- I'd say she and Nimoy have done the best out of dozens of actors/actresses who've played Vulcans in all incarnations of ST over the years. She's that good.

Yeah, unfortunately, I do remember that period last year....lost most of the flowering trees in one night.

You Baltimore crew have access to some of the most interesting beers....dang!

Generally speaking, I never met a Dogfish Head brew that I didn't get along with. Driving back from the Sterling brewery mini-crawl last weekend, we passed the Dogfish Head AleHouse & restaurant in Chantilly on the way home. We briefly considered stopping for dinner, but then we'd have felt the pressure to get some fresh draughts there, and at that point, we did NOT need anymore. I love when they pour their fresh draft mix of "black and tan" at the restaurant. #YUM

Nice find, and sounds really good! Mrs. V and I hit up the Brass Tap in National Harbor yesterday afternoon -- a pub chain, but they typically have a great selection of local beers in whichever branch you visit. Food is darn good, too, as pub grubs go. I started with the Boulevard Bourbon Barrel Quad (OUTSTANDING) and finished off with a Heavy Seas IPA (also good). My wife had the DC Brau On The Wings of Armageddon and a Brew Dog Hazy Jane, also both excellent. She suggested that we take an Uber to NH's Brass Tap next time to "properly sample" several additional beers....I think she's onto something. Here's NH's Brass Tap draught menu for those interested -- Brass Tap National Harbor Beer Menu | DRAUGHT (brasstapbeerbar.com)

DAMN. Must be killer wind chills up there! We're getting some good gusts here, probably up to 30-35 mph, and only up to 41.

Agree 100% -- and it does help ease the blah. I noticed the same thing this morning looking out across the neighborhood. It's amazing how that slight green tinge starts slowly spreading across the tree canopies, growing a bit more visible each day, and then realization whacks you across the head -- "Hey, the leaves are almost here!"

Yeah, I have two nearby neighbors whose mature magnolia trees where in magnificent full bloom prior to sunset last night...and each took a bad hit overnight. Both trees now have a brownish-pink canopy, and the petals are increasingly falling and flying in the wind.

I'm definitely ready for warmer weather...but I'm a little weird, too, in that I enjoy drizzly, onshore flow conditions for a few days at a pop, anytime of year. I was "landlocked" growing up in northern PA, and moving to this area provided new opportunities to learn how the nearby bay and ocean impact our wx....still fascinates me. I realize that most of you that grew up in this area don't find cool days with fog and heavy drizzle fascinating at all.

And you'll be so much closer now!!

Bringing this over to April banter....and this place looks pretty interesting! Have read about this several times over the past few days! Mrs. V and I spent a day crawling the outlets at National Harbor today, and finished the afternoon with happy hour at the Brass Tap in NH. Sampled too many good IPAs and stouts to list here....

Appreciate this, some interesting details there. I've put out a feeder in past years, have tried planting various types of flowers around or near the feeder, but just have not ever been able to consistently attract hummingbirds to our backyard.

Maybe the temporary cold will slow the warp-speed growth of my backyard grass, which will be knee-high in spots by this weekend if I don't get my butt out there today and do the first cut. But I doubt it.

That late cold snap last year really did a job on a lot of the bushes and flowering trees that had new leafing and budding well along or newly emerged at that point. There isn't much uglier and sadder than a plant wilted/killed by cold temps...especially in mid-spring.