Cocktail squid

Originally uploaded by tbridge.

There I was, standing in my friend John’s kitchen as he mixed up $100 Mai Tais, with 15 year old aged rum, limes and mint, the whole nine yards. That’s when his friend Agnes showed up with the Cocktail Squids.

Wait.

Cocktail Squids? Seriously? This may not be a crazy Georgetown party, or a fancy Mass Ave Embassy Wine Tasting, but at least we’ve got the coolest damn drink markers in all of DC tonight.

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work that kazoo!

So I am out at Iota and first up is Ian Thomas as the warm up act. Always the hardest, I give mad props to the warm up band. They do all the real work setting up the crowd for the headliners.

Ian Thomas is holding his own tonight, warm up or not. Breaking out old school blues, he is rocking the house headliner style. Hell, he is even working in a kazoo!

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now that is funny little walk sign

If you’re walking north along 16th street and about to cross Park Road be carefull: the walk sign timer is all messed up.

First up, the timer only works every other light, staying dormant and making you guess. Then when it does work, the timer is all screwy.

It comes on mid-way through the green and starts at 56 seconds. Don’t think you have all that time to mosey across though. At 30 seconds, just as the traffic light goes to yellow, the counter goes to zero and you get the “don’t walk’ hand.

Me, i just live on the edge and jaywalk.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I used to say that I have a love-hate relationship with Georgetown- it sucks to try to get there, but it’s cool once you’re walking around.

So I headed down there today for my quarterly trip to Lush for restocking, slid into my super-sekrit rockstar parking space, and as I walked the several blocks down M Street to my destination, I realized something.

Forget love-hate. I hate Georgetown. It’s sacrilege to say so, I realize, but hear me out.

First there’s the aforementioned hassles of getting there. Traffic to turn on to M St. is routinely backed up into Rosslyn across the Key Bridge. There are buses, which always seem to break down on Water St. anyway, but no Metro. Parking is a complete bitch. The streets are narrow, the corners are blind, and dudes, there’s a reason humanity gave up cobblestones as a means of paving its infrastructure. They suck.

Once you’re out of your transportation of choice and walking around, the situation is little better. The sidewalks are narrow, and full of fashion victims in their Ugg boots who think nothing of stopping abruptly to talk to some other couple, causing you to trip over them as they take up the ENTIRE SIDEWALK as you try to sneak through their little knot of pedestrian-congestion.

And when you’re done fighting the crowds and have arrived at your destination, what is it? An overhyped eatery pushing the food fad of the day to the 47 people in line ahead of you? A store whose sales depend on your paranoia that their mannequins are SO much more super-fabulous than you? God forbid, the City Tavern Club? (How many times do I have to tell you guys to stop sending me emails? I’m not going to pay $800 a year to be your friend!)

I’m sure Georgetown has its charms, but I’m just not seeing them. Except for Lush. That’s different.

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As Michael wrote during the pre-sale, Death Cab for Cutie and Franz Ferdinand are playing at DAR Constitution Hall on April 11th. Now, I’m no giant devotee of either, but I would love to see them live and that space is supposed to be fantastic. But damn if I didn’t get completely fucked on the tickets.

I wasn’t able to be there for the pre-sale, which, judging by our comment section on Michael’s entry lasted all of about 20 seconds, and at 12:01 today, Tiffany tried to get 2 seats anywhere in the hall for the show and was thwarted. Now, does Ticketbastard er, Ticketmaster say helpful things like “Sold Out” or “Sale Closed” on their website? Of course not. The douchebags leave your hopes high only to be dashed when you click through their annoying captcha.

What’s a guy got to do to get tickets to a decent show around here?

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Elevation Burger

Originally uploaded by tbridge.

One of the things I miss most about living on the West Coast is a good Western burger joint, like In-n-Out or Fatburger. Five Guys is good, don’t get me wrong, but it’s a boardwalk-style burger place, and I’m looking for a real burger joint here, people.

Enter Elevation Burger, and with it, my first decent hamburger in quite awhile. Elevation uses Virginia grassfed Kobe beef raised in Warrenton and all manner of high quality products as part of their burgers. The fries, which were delectable, are cooked in olive oil. The milkshakes, which were incredible, are made with fresh ice cream and a number of optional additives.

The place was packed when we got there just before eight on a Friday night, but the crew behind the counter was tireless and our wait for the heavenly burgers was only about 20 minutes. No, it’s not In-n-Out Burger, but damn if it’s not the next best thing.

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I like Chevy Chase Bank. Today I went to the branch next to my office and used their free coin counting service. Unlike other banks that require you to roll your coins and be a customer, or some grocery store machines that charge you 2-5%, Chevy Chase Banks have a coin counter that will automatically count your loose coins and give you a bank slip to take to the teller for cash. I just turned my office coin jar into $11 in bills – perfect for my Powerball lottery play.

In addition to the free coin counting at Chevy Chase Banks, today they’re giving out free cookies to promote some new product they have. Free coins and cookies. Now that’s a great bank!

Still, funny enough, I am not a customer. In fact, I don’t even use banks, and if you have more than a few thousand in total assets (cash + IRAs), I don’t understand anyone who does. Why deal with their restrictive fees and rules when you can do all the usually banking actives and manage your investments via a brokerage account?

I still like the coin counting + cookies though.

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I really want to like Dino. Owner Dean Gold seems like such an interesting man, a true epicure, and his articles on Slow Travel show an appreciation for my favorite Italian city, Venice, which was further evinced by his using as the mascot for his restaurant its famous Lion of San Marco.

Unfortunately for me, what with the desire of the Cleveland Park neighborhood for a convivial enoteca and the Bush twins buying lion t-shirts, now everyone really likes Dino. Just like the tourist hordes that crowd Piazza San Marco! On a Saturday night it was jam-packed, including a large party in the private room, which made service painfully slow (a forty-five minute wait between appetizer and entree) and more than a little clumsy. This also made for an extremely noisy experience upstairs as people raised their voices high to be heard above the din.

My group of friends and I agreed that if we had only stayed at the little bar downstairs, our experience would have been perfect. We started out there with a great bartender who made perfect bellini for us and set out a plate of assorted crostini, taking us back to our Venetian holiday. I’d highly recommend the bar area, or aim to have your meal on off-peak hours.

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Back in December, the Washington Ballet Dancers walked out of a dress rehearsal for the Nutcracker. They said it was a lockout. Management said it was a strike. The union went buck nutty and passed out flyers on the street corners. Performances were cancelled. Negotiations were stalled. Now we have dancers leaving comments like these:

Look at everyone writing in on this Blog as if you all know something about what is going on. We the dancers know what we have done and have no problem with it because we are RIGHT!!!!!!
Either we get what we want or you won’t have the Washington Ballet anymore!!!!
We ARE the Washington Ballet, don’t ever forget it!!!!!

Posted by: LuisT at February 17, 2006 02:07 PM

Thanks Luis Torres for weighing in.

And, for the record? You’re not the Washington Ballet until you’re doing pirouettes in a theatre, not the alley outside of the Barnes and Noble/McDonald’s where you’re moonlighting.

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Bye Bye Porn Police

Say you’re a horny, yet pornography-deprived citizen in the DC Metro area, one who doesn’t have access to an Internet-connected computer at your place of residence or employment, and not lucky enough to work for the FBI Porn Squad.

While you could watch porn on the telly or hunt for your naked picture needs in the two racks of racks downtown, why actually pay for porn? You can porn-surf all you want at local area libraries.

Yes, my fellow sex-starved men, we are free to browse babes for boobs all day long in the District as well as Montgomery and Fairfax counties. DC has recessed computer screens that ensure donkey porn privacy and in Montgomery County, they’ll even give you a “privacy screen” if your boob-watching is too much for other patrons.

Best yet, while Fairfax County forbids the viewing of child pornography and obscene materials, “Libraries are not legally empowered to determine obscenity,” according to Fairfax library spokesperson Lois Kirkpatrick.

Oh, and no worries if two uniformed (yet unarmed) men with baseball caps emblazoned with “Homeland Security” start telling you that the viewing of Internet pornography is forbidden. Those two fools, part of Montgomery County’s Homeland Security Department, cannot enforce obscenity laws. When they tried to last week, they were rebuffed by librarians and real police, leading to this classic passage from the WashPost about the incident:

Later that afternoon, Montgomery County’s chief administrative officer, Bruce Romer, issued a statement calling the incident “unfortunate” and “regrettable” — two words that bureaucrats often deploy when things have gone awry. He said the officers had been reassigned to other duties.

“Reassigned to other duties”, eh? How about something actually to do with “Homeland Security”, like reading our mail.
.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Pitchers and Catchers for the Nationals reported to Space Coast Stadium down in sunny Viera, Florida yesterday, and at least one journalist came with them as Dave Sheinin has an article today about Jose Guillen, but my question is: Will there be a Spring Training Blog again this year? I loved reading Barry Svrluga’s tales of Florida, and I’m hoping they come back…

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WJLA is reporting that during a public meeting, Maryland Comptroller made some seriously stupid remarks to a female employee. See, being 84, I’m going to assume he is senile and thought he was at a Hooters when he got caught staring at the ass of a young female aid, summoned her over just to dismiss her again and get caught staring at her ass again.

Kids, this is what we call a no-class incident. The proper method for this sort of reconnaissance…

wait.

There’s nothing I can say here that won’t get me in trouble. There is no proper method for being a dirty, dirty old man at work.

At Hooters on the other hand…

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In reading the Powerball lottery website, I noticed that they are now capping the amount a jackpot can grow if no one wins. Making it step up by only $25 million seemed very odd to me, as you would think they would want to let it run, since larger jackpots attract more crackpots players.

Talking this over with a friend, I see their wisdom. The excess cash is spread out to the players who match 5 white balls when there is a jackpot winner for that draw (they call it the Match 5 Bonus Prize) which means more people sharing the wealth once the wealth becomes incomprehensible.

And really, $177.3 million is incompressible. Apparently, even for the Powerball folks, as the banner above, which I made last night, shows them saying the cash payout would be $188.2 million. Now they’re saying $177.3 million.

No matter, you wanna know how to win Powerball, guaranteed. For that secret, follow me to the extended post…

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Where: The no-bling Giant Supermarket

Me: Ruggedly handsome Non-repulsive 29 35-year old man causes women to swoon only sometimes makes babies cry with his face, smiling stupidly wide, riding shopping cart like it’s a big mutant skateboard, driving away in convertible with the top down and waving hands in the air (cuz there’s no roof, see?) and laughing like a moron.

You: You? Who gives a crap about you? It’s 58 degrees in mid-February. I left my coat in the trunk, put the top down on the convertible and didn’t even need to wear a hat. It’s so nice outside I don’t even mind that in 72 hours it’s probably going to be one of the coldest days of the entire winter, and the following day we might have snow.

In fact I think that maybe even makes me like it better.

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As you can tell by the weather (never mind the snow), spring will soon be upon us. Spring means time to start training, start straining, start sweating for the summer swimwear season. And what’s the best way to be trim? For me, its triathlons! They’re the best way I’ve found to let me be me – drinking like a fish, eating anything, and still keeping fit.

Here’s a way you can enjoy the good part, dinking, without all the pain I’ll endure – come out to the DC Tri Club Happy Hour! At 18th Amendment, 613 Pennsylvania Ave, SE, just a block from the Eastern Market, this is your chance to snag a love who might be soft now, but by summer with be smoking hot.

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This just in: there were no winners in last night’s Powerball. That means the jackpot is now estimated to be $365 Million dollars, or the largest jackpot ever!

Expect lottery fever to be sweeping your office today and tomorrow and by Saturday there will be lines out the door of your favorite convenience store. Still, before you get too excited, lets do some lottery math. $365 jackpot really means a $188 million cash option. After Uncle Sam and the District are through, its gonna be something like $110 million. Yeah, I’ll be pinching pennies at that rate too.

Right now, I need to go pinch a few tickets…

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Happy in Oregon

Well do ya, punk? If you are, or even if you’re not, you might wanna part with $1 or even $5 today. Why? The Powerball lottery drawing tonight will be for $300 million dollars. That’s something like a $150 million one time payment. More than enough to tell the boss where to stick it & almost enough to eclipse the happy folks in the photo.

In November, that lucky group won a $340 million Powerball jackpot, the largest Powerball jackpot ever won, and the second largest Lottery jackpot ever won worldwide. Tonight you could be all smiles like that too, if you buy a ticket. Me, I’m gonna get an office pool going so we can maximize our chances.

Still, just be sure to check your tickets with the official results, not what’s in the WashPost, or you might embarrass yourself tomorrow at work.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Well, last night at trivia, Wayan asked how many Metroblogging cities there were, and the answer then was 40. As of this afternoon, though, the answer is different: we’re at 41 with the launch of Denver! Welcome to the family, our Rocky Mountain brethren!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

So there I am, at Metro Center this morning, trying to put a little money on my SmarTrip card so I can get to work. Due to delays on the Red Line last night, I abandoned my car after the Trivia Fight and caught a ride into town this morning with Tom. I have:

– 1 SmarTrip card, balance -$.40
– 1 farecard, balance $.60
– $43.00, in two twenties and three singles

I just wanted to put the small bills on the card, because I have plans for those twenties today and didn’t really want a big ol’ pile of Sacajawea coins for breaking a twenty in a Metro machine. So I touch the SmarTrip to the panel, load in the farecard, and try to feed $3 into the machine. The third dollar bill is repeatedly rejected, so I give up and “Retouch SmarTrip to complete transaction.” The machine promptly spits out my farecard and my other $2, saying “Transaction canceled, cash and farecard returned.”

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