MillvilleWx

I actually came well within the budget I set. The dinner at Perry's was the most expensive, by far, but her best friend actually picked up the brunch the next day, so not too bad. All in all, it was a success and absolutely outstanding.

Are you saying it's gonna snow on December 5th?

Going to be a bit of a long post, but plenty of great food and beverage pics. Wife and I went to Austin last weekend with her friend of 26 years surprising her (All set up) to join us for the food and wine festivities. We’ll start with our first spot at SLAB BBQ & Beer in north Austin. The food was spectacular, especially the brisket nachos which we devoured. I had their award winning rib sandwich and the wife had the OG Texas Brisket sandwich. Both very good. Next on the trip for great food ended up being Waffle House, followed by a 3 winery tour where the girls put down basically 16 shots or double shots of wine lol. They were feeling great! Vineyards were beautiful. This one was my favorite in Fredericksburg called Grape Creek Vineyards. In all, we came home with 6 bottles of the good stuff. Picture of their separate Sparkling Wine Tasting area on the premises. Was a great experience. Next up, the dinner at Perry’s Steakhouse in Center City Austin. 5 star all around. This was out of this world. View of the dining room we were seated. Now for the food and drink! First up, appetizers!! The bottom was the Perry’s Famous pork chop bites. A delicate, semi-sweet BBQ sauce with homemade applesauce on the base. The chops were outstanding. I need to get the full pork chop dinner, which they are famous for next time. The top is a Fried Asparagus with a hollandaise sauce type, topped with chunks of lump blue crab. Need I say more? Incredible start. My drink for the night was a tasty Pineapple and mango cocktail that included two top shelf combos of rum and vodka. The orange in the middle provided a nice citrus sweet to balance it all out. Was refreshing. This was a heavy pour of Dom 2018 which of course was outstanding. I love a good champagne. This was a pallet cleanser. We all got the filet with Perry’s own finishing butter. It was outstanding. Wife here in the photo got hers with a lobster tail and drawn butter. It was grilled and had that perfect texture off the grill. Coupled with the butter, she said it was fantastic. Her friend and I also split these beauties. Giant King crab legs with a drawn garlic and herb butter for dipping. The presentation was awesome, but the taste was even better. Actually the best king crab I’ve ever eaten. I could’ve eaten several pounds of that by itself lol Now for the appetizers. A quadruple fix for a king and queen. A roasted cream corn on the bottom left, truffle Parm steak fries on the bottom right, a steamed broccoli in a butter sauce at the top center, and a King crab Mac at the top left. All of them otherworldly. I would do unspeakable things for that mac n cheese again. Of course, there’s dessert!! This was mine. A Bananas Foster made in front of me, including the beautiful flambé and all. This might have been one of the best bites of the whole weekend. Loved it. I didn’t get a picture of the other desserts. Wife had a Bday trio of a small Creme brûlée, chocolate gnache, and orange marmalade cheesecake. Her friend had a huge Creme brûlée. Nothing was left, of course. Now for Sunday’s brunch! Went to a place called Carve American Grille. Unbeknownst to me, it is also owned by Perry’s, so this was going to be awesome, which it delivered. Fresh fruit, a carafe of a peach mimosa in this picture. Below is a duo of Filet Benedict’s that I actually need get myself next time we go. It looked spectacular and was confirmed by both my wife and her friend. Also, we have the Truffle Parm steak fries again, cuz why not!! I had a French Dip style steak sandwich topped with a fried egg, served with a side of au jus and crispy onion strings. That au jus was ridiculously good. For dessert, because of course there was…. A trio of deconstructed banana cream pie, chocolate mousse, and butterscotch bonino. We got a little more banana cream pie ones too cuz it that freakin good. Superb Oh, we also kept drinking at Deep Eddy’s distillery after we were done. Man, it was a great way to cap off a phenomenal weekend of eating and drinking. We finished with authentic Mexican enchiladas that day, but I never took a picture. Whoopsie! We had a blast and I highly recommend visiting Austin if you’re a food lover. It is the cream of the crop for Texas. We will 100% be back to try more places. Until then, we will reminisce on this adventure until next time!

I would pay good money to have this at a restaurant. Wow!

I stole all your cold last year. This was probably the worst winter here in recorded history for impact and number of events. Our infrastructure is not built for it though, so I would like for it to not occur again. Me and the wife are likely gonna take a weekend up in Cloudcroft or Taos area in NM during the winter. Get our winter fill and enjoy the landscape. Drink some spiked ciders and hot cocoa. It'll be fun. Hopefully I can land back in the MA soon enough so I can enjoy some brutal winter misses and wins with y'all again

Why has teleportation not been invented yet?! Enjoy! Portland is absolutely beautiful

I need to visit Alaska at some point. I know a few people who work in the NWS offices up there, as well as the State Climatologist. There's just sooooooo much good hiking up there. I still want to go to Fairbanks in the winter, but the wife said, "Absolutely not!" Idk why she would think that

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One of the key notes for this is the marine forecasts involved and the winter products disseminated during the season. In this case, say we have a WWA out for much of the area, but it's borderline. The storm then becomes more aligned with a WSW. Well, that's a brand new VTEC code that goes out, replacing the old WWA. In a sense, you get double. Also, Sterling is more aggressive with severe warnings due to the plethora of tree damage likely with higher winds in the region. The criteria for a severe is similar everywhere, however the tree damage still verifies a warning, regardless if the winds did breach the 58mph threshold. There's a lot of variability between offices, but each office has their own feelings on issuing warnings. I think Sterling does a superb job considering the circumstance of the region they cover and always being under the microscope of DC. The most impressive out of all the offices to me is Norman with 14k+. That's a large majority of severe and flooding that make up those VTEC code usages. Last fun fact: Brandon Black is my good friend at KMOB in Alabama. He's a great met and awesome person. Met him at New Hire in KC a few years back. We chat a lot.

Man. Is there anything more annoying than taking care of a barrage of emails and logistical stuff when you get back from a vacation? Even one that was 4 days long, came back to an avalanche of focal duty stuff and an assortment of "News". Can't wait to do it again in September after my 2 week getaway

My first caffeine beverage is almost consumed. I'll probably have a few today to get through. Just rough waking up at 215 this morning. Oyy

Covering the backend of a mid shift for a sick coworker (3-7am), then I go into my scheduled 7am-3pm shift. Please send all the caffeine and vibes my way

The angle of the cold may not be good enough though

I'll do a quick drive-by forecast here. Took a look at the parameters for tomorrow. Basically, the area I have outlined has the best shot for severe winds and MAYBE hail to quarter size, although that would be for the more robust storms with a sustained updraft. Shear is lacking overall with effective shear only between 20-30kts max. Best shear is located up over New England where the jet streak will still be close by to give a shear ~30-35kts, which is better for sustained updrafts. MLCAPE around 2000 j/kg with mid-level lapse rates around 6-7C will prompt a chance at severe downdrafts in a couple storms. Not a big day, but non-zero!

2 more mid shifts and 45 minutes stand between me and a 4 day birthday weekend. I am so excited.....and tired

I completely stopped watching any national news agencies in April of last year. Boy, it's refreshing. I make my decisions based on data at hand. It's one of the points of being a meteorologist too. You make a forecast based on a multitude of factors and guidance and not just zeroed into one specific derived outcome. There are several variables that come into play when it comes to making decisions in life. Media is certainly not what it used to be. Propaganda at every turn feasting on human emotion. It's a barbaric practice, but money money money I guess. Oy

Hadley cell expansion has been ongoing for the past 50+ years as confirmed by temp and precip data across the sub-tropical regions globally. An expansion would cause a slight poleward shift in the arid environments typically located around 30 deg N and S by a few degrees. This puts an expansion in the desert climates, and larger scale meridional patterns we see in the Mid-Latitudes to be further enhanced due to increased movement of tropical air poleward. This would likely allow for greater precip fields further north, but also a slightly warmer advection of air due to the increasing meridional component of the trough/ridge patterns present between 30-60N or S. Basically, an expansion will lead to more volatility in the undulating upper air patterns, warmer temps to move poleward, and increased baroclinicity due to the basic longwave feedback mechanisms that take shape in our neck of the woods. The earth is just trying to do what it needs to do to remain in balance!

That's a top tier sunrise shot there, Mike. Enjoy!

This is very true and supported by my friend who is an EM with Jefferson Co in Alabama. That's the Birmingham area, and she said they had to put out a grassroots effort to help persuade a lot of the older AA generations due to their fear of any vaccines after the whole debacle with eugenics back in the 70s and 80s. A lot of them refuse any and all vaccines, which is a dang shame. Those people in the black belt really got F'd over historically, and they still can't recover because of the generational dogma they get put through in the south. Jefferson Co has done a fantastic job on a local basis in getting vaccination support, but outside the urban corridor, it's been very tough. The dynamic of the south is very different from the rest of the country, and living here for 3 years now has shed some light on that, even locally. I've heard derogatory use of the N word more times in 3 years here than I ever have in my 28 years living back in MD. There's a fair amount of openly racist people in this area, including Hispanic males who have some very nasty opinions of AA males for some reason. Any who, that's my anecdotal addition to this convo. I wish everyone would get vaxxed who can, but it's their choice. My wife was super high risk for Covid thanks to her myriad of heart issues, so I'm thankful we both were able to get it early on. Was scared Sh**less last year cuz she doesn't even do well with a common cold. I don't want to try Covid. She can't take any meds that can prolong a QT for her heart. That pretty much absolves 90% of the market. We made it though, thankfully. It got wicked scary out here twice.

Oh man. Just now seeing this. Happy Birthday Don!! Hope it was awesome my man

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Happy 4th my friends! Enjoy the day with family, friends, food, and fun!

Made this tasty meal the other night. Cajun shrimp scampi. Absolutely fantastic and packed with flavor. .

Remember to, "Need to run to the store...", a few times this weekend It's a good way to break from the noise