Ya know how, when you’re cruising along Rock Creek Parkway, yapping to your daughter as she robs banks in NoVA, your cell phone receptions fades in and out? Doesn’t that really annoy you? How can you keep her under your remote mind control or at least provide her with a great post-arrest defense?

Well I just found a handy map on T-Mobile’s website that tells you exactly how good their service is, down to the street level. If you look at the map to the right, you can see where the coverage fades in Rock Creek, and where it should be five bars strong.

Finally, a degree of honesty in cell phone coverage maps! Check out your own neighborhood and let us know – how accurate is the T-Mobile map?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

When I first moved into my swank rent controlled apartment, I convinced my housemate the high-speed internet was a requirement. By the time he left, he was addicted to wireless high-speed internet. Now it seems like my whole building has caught the always-on bug. Check out the folks I can choose from if I’m just standing in my lobby!

Oh yeah, I’m such a Geek, I check email when I check my mail.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

As you know, today is Veterans’ Day. But did you know that Veterans’ Day is observed on Armistice Day, which marks “the 11th day of the 11th month” as the end of the Great War. It’s probable that no more than 50 veterans of that war are living today.

There’s a little-known memorial on the Mall to the residents of Washington, DC who served in World War I. It happens to be on the endangered list, which is shameful.

To visit this lonely Grecian temple, and meditate on that most senseless conflict which ended today but whose reverberations continue, go to the southern part of West Potomac Park, near the Korean and Vietnam War memorials.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

This week my office is in the midst of PC transitions and upgrades, total chaos. Yesterday afternoon the IT tech booted me out of my chair and sent me off with an optimistic “it’ll take an hour. tops. really.” So, 3pm and time for a walk. But where could I go for a late afternoon hour downtown without the temptation to spend $$$?

Hmm… how about the Smithsonian? Why not? Museums are great for killing time. They’re not just for tourists!

I ambled the five blocks over to the Natural History Museum. It was relatively free of crowds, beyond the isolated packs of roving teens. Plugged into my iPod to avoid the sounds of their screeching, I meandered through the gems and minerals display on the second floor. I was fascinated by this display as a kid, especially the crazy minerals hall. There’s also the obligatory ogling of weighty tiaras and sparkling necklaces once worn by queens and maharanis. And of course waiting your turn to eye the Hope Diamond, somehow not as impressive as when I was a little girl and still believed the diamond propaganda. Then it was off to the bare bones rooms to detox from sparkle overload, looking at bizarre alien-like skeletons such as the manta ray.

It’s a well-known Washingtonian fact that the best presents can be found in the Smithsonian gift shops. Natural History has one of the most eclectic selections, from Eco-spheres to mother-of-pearl handbags. I picked up a b’day present for a friend and made mental notes for that certain upcoming holiday. Great stuff for hard-to-please people…

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Seems the crazy NoVA crowd that thinks handguns = safety haven’t been to a Wachovia in a while. Else they could’ve stopped the best bank robbery gambit yet – the cell phone bank bandit.

Using her Samsung flip phone, a woman has knocked off four Wachovia’s in NoVA in recent weeks. Now I only wish I was a Letterman joke writer for this has comedy screaming to get out. What did she do, demand money or else talk louder and longer? She grab the teller’s phone and demand cash else she call Togo for two hours?

Nope, she apparently passed a note while still yapping, getting cash without even breaking up the conversation. The best comment from the Wash Post article:

He theorized that “maybe because she’s a woman, she feels less secure physically, and by talking to somebody, it makes her feel secure.” Or, Desroches added, “maybe she’s talking to her mother.”

Talking to her mother, eh? I wonder what she was saying?

Robber Mom, hi, I’m at the bank how much you want?
Mom Oh honey, you know me, as many 20’s as you can stuff in your bra
Robber Okay, you sure? I can get $50’s or $100’s – whatever you want
Mom No, that’s okay, it hard for me to tell dad those $100’s are from Bingo Night, and he likes the $20’s for his poker games
Robber Okay, I’m gonna get three handfuls today – last week those two handfuls didn’t go that far. I think they shorted me by adding $1’s and $5’s.
Mom Yeah, times are tough, these banks are getting cheap on you. Make sure you get good bills too – and no dye packets!
Robber Oh I hate those dye packets, they really stain my whites!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

My housemate and I are contemplating new furniture for the place now that we’ve ditched the Crossbow, and an IKEA run has come up as one option. Not wanting to burn a weekend, like Tom did, we were thinking alternate plans. Or well I was, Lyle just plain went insane with this missive:

let’s do it. let’s go to ikea after work and get some stuff to re-do the kitchen. i know what we need – i’ll be quick and easy. be back in time for going out or whatever else. here’s what i’m thinkin: we leave at 6, back by 8. not a lot of traffic up 16th street at that hour, 495 for 8 miles or so, in and out of ikea. back before you know it. we do it now and it’s done.

What! Hit 495 at 6pm for 8 miles? That’s two hours in its self. The fool is too green to DC to know any better, but I’m not about to endure the pain of rush hour while he learns the lesson – never drive rush hour! My better plan – Saturday morning, right when IKEA opens, before the madness starts, or late at night, right before it closes, long after the rush hour is gone.

If you had to go to IKEA – and we all hope we never do – when would you go? And which one is better; Potomac Mills or College Park?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Barmy

Originally uploaded by tbridge.

barm•y (bär’mee)
adj., -i•er, -i•est.

Eccentric; daft.

Oh, I wish you could make stuff like this up.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Well, Frank may have received the Medal of Freedom at the White House yesterday, but it seems that his employers are still trying to screw him. Bud Selig announced the other day that despite all of their feet-dragging, there’s still no new ownership for the Nationals. Of course, when their owners are their competitors, it should come as no surprise that Bud is dragging his feet in announcing the new ownership. Let the other squads sign their free agents, their new GMs, their coaches, and let us swing. That’s exactly what those assholes are going to do. It’s absolutely infuriating that Bud will pay lip service to caring about baseball in DC, but won’t do a damn thing to help it flourish.

I love this game, I find it to be our nation’s poetic sport. Football may be our epic sport, and Basketball our flashy sport, and Hockey our toothless sport, but Baseball has always been something more, and to see DC’s team treated so shabbily at the hands of the other teams’ owners, it’s really quite infuriating.

Give us Malek and Zients, Bud. Give us the freedom to spend money on our players, to trade without worry about whether or not we “can afford” it. Because, quite frankly, our manager has the Medal of Freedom, the only baseball manager to receive such an honor. Have you seen Frank when he’s angry? I’ve seen him angry. That umpire wasn’t ever the same. I’m not even sure if he’s stopped rocking himself to sleep at night. Don’t make us sic Frank on your ass, it just won’t be pretty. You may find that pretty star-shaped medal with sharp and pointy edges in places that sharp and pointy ain’t a good idea.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I’ve been on a real comfort food kick lately. Maybe it’s because we’re dealing with all sorts of pesky “life” questions, like what the hell are we doing with it. Yikes. So I’ve been taking more than the usual glee in savoring food, which I had better get out of my system soon before I retreat into a butter-cream-starch-chocolate land of no return. But after a scary meeting in which the enormity of the various decisions facing us suddenly loomed ahead, comfort food and a pint were really all that would suffice. So off to Bar Pilar. Papa Hemingway would be proud. Or at least kick us in the pants.

Bar Pilar’s menu is all about the comfort food – mac-n-cheese, tater tots (tater tots!!??), tacos – sure there are salads but honestly, are you really going to eat a salad at a bar? One food coma and two pints of oatmeal stout later, and we were markedly more relaxed than before. This little annex of Saint-Ex, named after Hemingway’s boat, is cosy and unpretentious. On prime weeknights/weekend nights it can be uncomfortably packed and difficult to make it to the bar, but on a Wednesday night it was perfect. The fact that places like this are so popular should really convince more folks to open up more bars/restaurants on 14th Street – come on, there’s space!

(And while on the subject of 14th Street, what is up with Source Theater?! I’m sick of seeing it dark and empty and covered in graffiti… )

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

My condolences to San Francisco who yesterday passed a firearms ban, similar to the illegal one that DC passed a while back. Jason over in San Francisco has some thoughts that apply as much to us here as it does there:

So I hope you recover from your bout of insanity and I hope you don’t get shot in your home by an armed assailant. Seriously, that would suck. What would be worse though is while sitting in your living room, your neighbor is being robbed and they’re forced to defend themself with the 12 gauge shotgun they had to buy instead of a handgun and the spray from the buckshot that misses the burglar goes through the wall and hits you in the face. That would suck a lot too I believe.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

We know it’s tough to ride the Metro when there are no seats available, so today, we salute you, Mr. Lean Up Against the Metro Pole Man! After a long day on the job, the last thing you want to do is ride the Metro, but there you stand, your tall form pressed against that pole as you hold on to the upper bar. Though others seek to brace themselves with their hands, you pay them no heed as your buttocks clench tighter around that pole (do they ever Lysol those?). As we pull into the station and still more patrons board the train, your gluteal grasp on that pole grows no looser. And for that, we salute you, Mr. Lean Up Against the Metro Pole Man. Well Done.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I hate doing things that are completely self-referential, but this one is for a good cause. See, we love to write here, but we need to know better what our audience is. It’ll help us do more cool stuff in the future. Don’t worry, we’re not tracking IPs here, we’re not keeping the data forever, we’re not going to identify you individually and track you down. So please, Take Our Survey!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Well, while it seems clear we won’t get new ownership next week like Baseball had initially promised (promises mean little or nothing to people with that much money, apparently), the rumor is afoot that The Chosen One, Theo Epstein, He Who Could Bring The Championship To The Accursed, may well be ending up as the GM of our Nationals. Now, granted, it’s all still rumot, but the idea of Epstein at the head of the Nationals is enough to draw me into a near religious frenzy.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Metro Center Chic Shops (say that one five times fast!) Celadon Spa, inSight Opticians and Coup de Foudre Lingerie are hosting a special benefit/sale tomorrow night from 6 to 9 to benefit the Hoop Dreams Scholarship Fund. 10% of the proceeds from the evening will go directly to the scholarship fund. In addition, Celadon and inSight are offering 10% discounts, and Coupe de Foudre is giving out free gifts with each purchase. There’s also prizes to be won, including frames at inSight, a set of Lingerie from Coup de Foudre and a gift basket from Celadon. In addition La Tosca will be providing some light snacks.

So, details are: Tomorrow Night. 6p to 9p. Celadon, inSight and Coup de Foudre, all right around Metro Center. Do this, catch a flick at E st. Cinema or have a pint over at Elephant and Castle, and make a night of it!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I got up early this morning, eschewing the usual two or sometimes three snoozes on the alarm, put on some jeans and a ratty t-shirt and drove over to my polling place to vote this morning. I realized as I got out of the car that my bedhead was quite spectacular, and that I hoped the little old ladies that run my precinct in Fairlington would still let me vote despite looking not a whit like my drivers’ license. But away I went, past the campaign signs in the school parking lot (how’s that work, exactly? Hi, I’m a candidate, can I put my propaganda up in your school? Yes? Sweet!) and past the cold looking Republican with a brush cut handing out sample ballots, and past his similarly cold Democrat doing the same.

I went in, identified myself, and cast my ballot on a little touchscreen computer. That concerns me, as it always does, because there’s no paper proof that the computer will see my vote the way I did, which is cause for concern in black-box voting systems. Oh, how I long for the scantron sheets I used in Alexandria in 2000. At least there was a paper trail…

Have you voted today? Tell us your voting story.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

There’s been a Crossbow hanging out in my living room for a year now. My housemate’s, it was never used and now he’s gone, leaving the Crossbow behind. It was destined for the Dumpster until the new housemate convinced me to try and sell it. Three weeks on Craigslist and my website, five emails of interest, and only one viewing later, I’ve given up trying to sell it. Now it has one week on Freecycle DC before Dumpster-time.

Freecycle DC, which serves the environmentally aware and responsive community, is pretty cool. With simple basics, Keep it free, legal, and appropriate for all ages, and a mission to help reduce consumption and waste by connecting people who are throwing away items with others who are seeking the same, they keep computers, furniture, clothing, magazines, sporting equipment, and the stuff in your closet, out of the landfill by passing it along to a new home.

The only rules: OFFERs must include a District of Columbia pickup location. Limit of 1 WANTED post per week per member.

So come, Freecycle DC with me.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

We at DC Metblogs seem to have caught the foodie bug lately! Continuing on this theme, twice in the past few days I’ve passed the gallery space of Hemphill Arts at 1515 14th Street, right next to Studio Theater’s new entrance, and noticed a new restaurant is going to open on the ground floor. I peeked in to see what looks like a very open, elegant space, with large black-n-white photgraphs on the (seemingly) white walls and a cool bar area. It just says, “Viridian – Opening Soon!” – no date, though the tables are set. The only gossip I can find are a couple of older blurbs about it being a restaurant with a seasonal menu and the involvement of the former pastry chef from the late lamented Ruppert’s.

Definitely looks intriguing, and certainly will pull in those theater and gallery crowds starved for some haute cuisine. Foodification continues! Anyone have any other scoop on this place?

Update 11/8: The always clued-in Amanda from Metrocurean is reporting that it may open this weekend – very cool. Except that I’ll be in NYC. Oh well, if anyone checks it out let me know!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

As in San Francisco, it’s election day in Virginia tomorrow. At stake is pretty much every major office in the land, from School Board to House of Delegates to Governor. While other DC blogs may choose to call the Virginia elections “minor”, I think it would be folly not to encourage everyone on that side of the Potomac to get out and vote tomorrow. Few things are more precious than your vote, and every vote counts.

If you’re in Arlington County, you’ll be voting for School Board, County Board, House of Delegates (there are four districts in Arlington), and the major statewide offices of Attorney General, Lieutenant Governor and Governor. Polling place info for Arlington is available online.

Fairfax County will be voting on school bonds and any of 17 different House of Delegates districts, plus the statewide offices. Polling place info for Fairfax is available online.

Alexandria City will be voting on Commonwealth’s Attorney, Sheriff, 3 different House of Delegates districts, plus the statewide offices. Polling place info for Alexandria is available online.

I’m sure the robocalls will be coming fast and furious tonight if last night was any indication.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Now that Halloween has passed, what’s the next major holiday you’re thinking about? Maybe Thanksgiving if you’re thinking ahead, or even Christmas if you plan long range, but New Years? I mean really, do you know what you doing this New Year’s already? Can you make plans 60 days in advance like that?

Well things to do sure hopes you can. They’re already hyping their NYE Global Gala 2006 when its still shorts & t-shirt weather and my Halloween pumpkin is still fresh. Granted, I’ve yet to carve my pumpkin, so I might procrastinate a tad, but who out there is already slapping down $145 for 9 internationally themed party rooms, even if they are at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel? And if you are, what does that say about your OCD?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs