Train for New Orleans marathon

Originally uploaded by niallkennedy.

You might have seen ads like these on the Metro (though this one was photographed on the Muni streetcars in San Francisco), it’s not looking good that the New Orleans marathon will be happening in the Spring. However, the AIDS Marathon folks are not deterred, they have moved all their runners to the Miami Beach Marathon.

Are you training for the Marathon? Let us know, we might be looking for someone to sponsor!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

While I’d liked to have a run run weekend, I’m still in recovery from when my cries of “Your other left, fools!” went unheeded, and can’t race two back to back 5K runs.

I can do a brick (bike + run = brick) with the DC Tri Club and so it was around Haines Pint that I worked out this morning. While riding on an Ohio Drive loop, I saw a runner almost get hit. Oblivious to the world with her iPod craked up, she was running down the middle of the street. Not hearing a car’s horn, she was almost hit by a car coming up behind her. When she jumped out of the car’s way she jumped into our way. Our warning cries unheard, she almost caused us to wreck too.

All because she was auditory wonderland, with her iPod cranked to ear-damaging levels to ignore what she should be listening to, her breath, her heartbeat, and to the world around her. Not to mention the middle of the street foolishness.

Now don

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Yes Latina Breeders, here’s your chance to over-run the National Zoo yet again, this time at the National Zoo’s Fiesta Musical on Sunday.

All day you can celebrate Hispanic Heritage month at the National Zoo with the annual Fiesta! Besides the usual kid-friendly fare like storytelling, clown, and musical groups, there will be traditional Latino music like Marimba, the National Instrument of Guatemala, and Peruvian & Bolivian FolklorDances.

For al you non-breeders, be smart, don’t go. The kid-attack will be overwhelming and might even induce immaculate conception. The Zoo is only safe for us on rainy days in winter.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

So, what do you do if you’re tired of trudging Downtown to get good Indian food for your pregnant, Indian wife who doesn’t like the poseur curry near your home?

You pick up a cookbook and learn to make Indian food yourself.

And what do you do when you get so good at it that all your friends want to start paying you to cook for them too?

You start Curry Club, that’s what.

And if you love Indian food but have been wanting a good butter chicken since that time you had it at Zaika in London, you sign up for their mailing list, wait for it to show up on the weekly Curry Club delivery menu, and order it.

It’s simple: they send you a menu on Tuesday. You have until Thursday at 2 to order, and then some hot, fresh Indian food shows up at your door (in downtown DC, anyway) on Friday afternoon or evening. Magic!

I’m awaiting my first Curry Club experience. I’ll let you know how the butter chicken is.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Sometimes you see the most beautiful moments at the most unexpected times.

I just went on an errand to the Benjamin Franklin Post Office downtown. On the left-hand side entrance there are two murals that aren’t very well-lit, rather dark and dingy, with a WPA feel to them.

Today there are two preservationist artists working on the mural of the woman. They had the area blocked off with a very bright light focused on the work, illuminating its colors clearly to me for the first time. The artists were crouched over it, painstakingly touching up areas that needed attention. Their faces were also lit, and the expressions of concentration and dedication were just as beautiful as any artwork.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Ah, I remember when the Nationals were a solid lock atop the NL East, with a good 5 game lead on Atlanta. Sadly, we’re now eight back of the Braves, but still in the thick of a wild card here. Going into tonight’s late matchup against the Padres, the Nats are just 2.5 games out of the wild card lead.

With Philly and Florida just a half game back of Houston, the schedule comes into play here. We’re headed out to San Diego for a weekend series against the sub .500 (yet division leading, will someone please explain this to me? Does the NL West suck SO MUCH that their division leader can have a losing record? Why should a division with no teams above .500 get a spot in the playoffs anyhow?!) and then we’re back to DC for a three game set with the Hapless Giants (who will have Barry Bonds, please, Livan, throw at his head.) Atlanta’s heading for the Mets, but Philly and Florida go head to head this weekend, and then Florida heads to New York to face the Mets, and Philly heads down to Atlanta. What does this all mean? It means the wild card will likely be decided on the last game of the season and the Nats are still in the thick of it, provided they can pitch and hit like they have over the past few games.

Pretty exciting for a team that finished 28 games under .500 in 2004. Go Nats!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

We’re one step closer to the closure of Walter Reed, as President Bush endorsed the BRAC plan to close 22 military bases. This isn’t quite the end of the story, though, as Congress can still veto the plan in its entirety, but with the Congress firmly in the grasp of the Republicans, it’s unlikely that Walter Reed will be saved.

According to the BRAC Medical Report, the move will cost the government nearly One Billion Dollars, but save $145.3M a year. Under community concerns, the District argued to save the base:

The Washington, DC community argued that moving Walter Reed Army Medical Center to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, MD would disrupt the mission of the premier military medical facility, and have a negative effect on the economy of the District of Columbia and homeland security in the nation’s capital. Concerns were also expressed about whether there would be sufficient housing for family members visiting service members recovering from serious conditions or injuries. They claimed DoD substantially deviated from the BRAC criteria by incorrectly calculating Walter Reed’s military value, underestimating the costs for closure and realignment, and ignoring environmental cleanup costs. They suggested Walter Reed remain open, and the mission of the National Naval Medical Center be aligned with Walter Reed to ensure there are no disruptions during a time of war. They also expressed concerns about the disestablishment of the Armed Force Institute of Pathology (AFIP), which is a part of the larger Walter Reed Recommendation. The community argued that AFIP is an irreplaceable resource for disease research and education, and disestablishing elements like the tissue repository would have far-reaching implications for military and civilian medicine.

However, BRAC has decided to just rename the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Bethesda, MD.

No word what will happen to the old property. Perhaps it might make a good urban Fairlington?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

The Metropolitan Washington Council of the AFL-CIO and the Debs-Jones-Douglass Institute have teamed up with the AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring to put on this year’s DC Labor Film Fest, featuring Il Posto, Domesticas, Living to Work, and tonight’s opener: Mardi Gras: Made in China.

So, if you’re down with the downtrodden, or really just wanna depress the fuck out of yourself, head on up to the AFI Silver Theatre for some movies that even Lisa Simpson couldn’t finish.

Of course, you can always stick around for the 10:10 showing of Office Space tomorrow night…

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

At first I was a little confused. While multiple running races do happen on the same day, most weekends you can race in any ‘DC ‘burb, its rare to have two races in the same town on the same day. Yet this weekend, that’s what’s happening in Alexandria on Saturday.

First up at 8am is the Alexandria Inaugural 5K and 10K starting at Windsor at Arbors, 5200 Duke Street. Explore the Alexandria neighborhood and complete a local 5K or 10K for fun. Cash prizes for top winners as well as the first three winners in each age group.

If you’re quick enough, and for the 5K you really should be, you can enter the second race right afterwards, the Gulf Coast Relief 5k at 9:00am in Oronoco Bay Park. You can join Old Town neighbors in a run along the Potomac to raise money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. 100% of the proceeds from this run will be donated to the American Red Cross disaster relief effort.

Once you’re done with these races, doing either 10k or 15k in what Accuweather says will be a beautiful day with intervals of clouds and sunshine, I say get your ass to the Blue and White for a Chicken Shack lunch. Straight to your heart & kill you super saturated fats cooking that you’ll be more than deserving right about then.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

With apologies to John for the title of this entry, we’re at five candidates for DC Mayor as of yesterday when Michael Brown officially declared himself a candidate for Mayor of the District. Of course, we still have yet to hear from DC Mayor Anthony Williams whether or not he will run. That would make an even half dozen slugging it out for the helm of this wacky city-state.

No word yet if the winner of the race will be pilloried by Mark Plotkin for not fighting hard enough for the District’s right to have representation actually mean something in Congress.

Or if any of the candidates will get Tony Blair’s endorsement like last time. Of course, anything can happen…

Perhaps Linda Cropp might like to reconsider her mayoral run now that Marion Barry might be running for her Council Chair seat?

Oh this one promises to be a wacky, wacky race.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

As we’ve said before, Dr. Dremo’s, the seriously dive bar at Courthouse might be closing in early 2006.

Elm Street Development wants to buy the Dremo (and Taco Bell) property to build a 10 floor high rise. The current zoning only allows buildings of a 2 floor height and the neighbors are not excited about a new high-rise at Courthouse. Us alcoholics need to speak our minds too. We would surely miss Dremo’s. Where else would we have Flip Cup Tournaments?

The county board meeting to consider changing the zoning to allow a 10 floor building will be at 9am, Saturday morning, at the County Board Room, Room 307, 2100 Clarendon Blvd. Its open to for public comment, so sober up and get down there!

Afterwards, you can toast your challenge to the man with Abita Purple Haze. Dr. Dremo’s beer distributor has assured them that the Abita brewery will not experience an interruption in production due to hurricane Katrina.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Did ya see him yesterday? The “ATM Guy” a 7-foot tall walking Chevy Chase Bank ATM mascot in a special Chevy Chase Bank-wrapped Metro train? Yeah, I know, I cried when I found I missed him too. Damn.

He was out and about promoting Chevy Chase Bank’s ATM’s in 34 Metrorail stations. Yep, now you can get cash out just to turn around and put it in

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Seen today on L Street, heading into the back entrance of 1801 K Street:

A man in a blue pinstripe suit, white shirt, red tie- your typical Downtown male uniform- wakling in a group of people, and carrying a large white piggy bank covered in little pink hearts. He was carrying it gingerly, on one hand, held out in front of him, like he was about to present it to someone.

It made me smile.

Any thoughts on what the pig was for?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

It’s just before 10am and I’m sitting in the server room, cataloging the backup drives I’m going to have to dismount in about 5 minutes when we have our evacuation drill. When the London attacks happened in July, it was a notice to management that we’d not had a single evacuation drill, building-wide, in the 18 months we’d been in the suite. Of course, we’re frequently on the receiving end of false alarms that force IT guys like me to go running down the hallway to the server room to check the status of the backup drives and pack up the fire safe for evacuation, so this was old hat to me. But we’d never really practiced it, so we asked building management to come teach us how to evacuate.

Meetings ensued.

Many meetings. Zones were drawn up, coordinators appointed, first-aid kits distributed, shelter-in-place instructions were written down, personnel with training from oakville cpr training with c2c course, all manner of things preparing us to deal with hurricanes and earthquakes and tsunamis and acts-of-terror. But really, I can’t get excited about any of this. All these preparations when we’re four blocks from the White House and twelve from the Capitol. I can’t help but feel that any crisis that will need orderly, city-wide evacuation will level the office building in which I sit anyhow.

Of course, once you’re on the street, where do you go, anyhow? We’re north of the Pennsylvania Avenue Line of Demarcation, forcing me up and into Maryland, some 30-40 miles from my home in Virginia. Will Metro be open? Will it be able to function in the event of a Catastrophe? Who the hell knows?

Living with a bulls-eye painted beneath your feet, a target sign hanging from every important landmark, and the constant “Oh God, Oh God, We’re All Gonna Die” from Department of Homeland Security’s sekrit command facility in the burbs gets pretty old after a while. Thinking “Do I have gas in the car?” when the threat level turns nuclear-glow-orange again gets older and older the more I live here.

As we filed down the stairs, the klaxon’s bleating drowned out all of the chatter on my company-issue walkie-talkie, lawyers and secretaries and educators clumping down the stairs in their corporate footwear, I thought, surely, there must be a more pleasant way to live?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

How is it possible that I’ve worked downtown for eight and a half months now and only JUST found out about the Greek Deli on 19th?

DC, have you been hiding it from me because the line is already out the door every day at lunchtime? Selfish bastards.

I can’t add much to what DCFUD has already said, so I will just add my endorsement of the falafel sandwich. And that Kostas is hilarious as he’s barking orders back to the kitchen.

Damn, now I’m hungry…

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Well, DCist beat us to the punch on this one, I’ll freely admit, but it’s never pretty when two blogs throw down the gloves and get into it back alley style:

From the DC Bachelor:

It is very unfortunate to watch the Senator, a grown adult, completely break down on the internet and start threatening to remove links (in a horrible regurgitation of one of my rather amusing posts). I can only imagine him sitting in front of his computer – in the middle of what I’m sure is another really busy work day – getting red in the face and all teary with emotion as he just can’t understand why everyone isn’t as interesting as him.

And from the Cleveland Park Men’s Club:

Absolutely no one cares about your efforts. Only the most bored of men read the women’s site on this topic, and that is only because they are infatuated. These are the same men that were in the chat rooms of the 1990’s. But, YOU. No. Stop talking about how she was a bad kisser, how she giggled during sex, or the way her friends ditched you and left you standing there in some horribly classless bar.

Boys, boys, boys, why the hate? I realize that you’re both really into Kelly Ann Collins from homeroom, but do you have to take your battle to the playground?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Vincent at Visual Voice blogged about a problem that our Nation’s Front Lawn has: The Trail of Terds by the reflecting pool, the result of all of the avian life that hangs out and just plain shits all over, the pool.

C’mon, Park Service, where’s the cleanup effort? This just ain’t right.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Well, with a Category One Hurricane due to make landfall in North Carolina, and Katrina’s wrath current in our minds, Governor Warner has placed Virginia under a state of emergency, and the outer banks in North Carolina are being evacuated. WTOP also has the weather advisory for Ophelia. Get ready for some rain, and some higher tides than usual.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I won’t say our radio selection here in DC will win us any awards. Our highest rated radio station is WTOP, an all-news format dedicated to covering in grandiose detail the workings of the town, which, while fascinating, lacks a catchy tune. Then again, it does give someone like Mark Plotkin a forum with which to club local politicians into submission to his will. But, there’s another radio solution here in DC.

DC is the home of XM Radio, satellite subscription radio service. They’ve got a hundred or so stations, some of them are commercial free, some of them play live music, and they’ve got a gorgeous live performance facility here in town as well. With a lock on the baseball market, and an exclusive deal with Major League Baseball, XM today signed a second deal, bringing Hockey Games to their service, all based out of their Florida Ave NE facility.

Of course, they don’t have Mark Plotkin, so if that’s your deal, don’t worry about signing up.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Yes, I had far too much fun writing that headline. I don’t want to deprive you, though, of the same sort of fun, so if you have a more amusing headline, please, feel free to add it below in the comments.

George Washington University chose not renew the contract of Adjunct Professor Michael Schaffer after his class discussions in his Human Sexuality class got a bit out of hand:

Two of the spring evaluations, from women who took the course, said that the course was demeaning to women. One of the critiques, which specifically cited a class discussion on shaving pubic hair, threatened a sexual harassment lawsuit. That evaluation also pointed to the “look before you lick” advice that Schaffer includes with his comments on all students’ final papers as “a little humor to teach about safe oral sex,” he said.

Of course, he was only let go after two students threatened to sue the University for sexual harassment, and many of the students who have taken his class found it absolutely beneficial to their education, not predatory and harassing. Given that it’s a non-required course, I think GW may have acted too hastily. Check out the article, chime in below. Any students who have take Professor Schaffer’s course amongst our number?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs