photo courtesy of Gullevek

Being an area that’s been flat-out nuts in the housing market the last five plus years, I’m betting we have a good number of folks here who have purchased houses and had work done on them. So I have a funky question – has anyone reading this ever had an external entrance added to a basement?

My darling girlfriend and I are looking around at housing – both rentals and purchases – and we came across a property that was very nice, except the basement had no outside access. Being as the basement will be where the woodshop will live, this is somewhat of a problem. Could I pass lumber in and out of a window? Yes. Do I hate myself enough to do so? Probably not.

So, have any of you or anyone you knew ever had an additional entrance put into a home? It can be done, of course, but I wonder how weird an occurrence it is. Would Joe Average contractor have done it before? I’ve done a lot of construction in my life but I’ve never retrofit a door into an outside wall, much less one that’s partially below ground level. In my home town we call the area below ground level “underwater.”

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

While most shots of our beloved Metro system are uninteresting and seem to all look the same, this shot by relative Flickr new comer krisetya really captures the essence of DC’s mass transit system. The perfect symmetry of the tracks fading off into the great unknown, along with the giant concrete canopy really give you a sense of scale and show you just how massive the Gallery Place station is. I love how all of the people are lined up like the robots that they are. And thanks to Metro for installing the new red platform lights to add a little extra zip to the photo’s color.

Be sure to check out his other photos. We have a great new photographer on the DC scene.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

C&O Canal

Originally uploaded by alberto238
.

Well, with all the traffic woes of this morning, I decided to hang back a bit and delay my entry. Now with the American Legion Bridge work entering it’s supposed final phase, that backed up traffic quite a bit even in the later morning hours… what is a motorcyclist to do, but hit the Cabin John Parkway and the Clara Barton.

Now, I haven’t been on it in a while, and think the tree lined canal area is quite nice and tranquil. Motorcycling in the morning is nice, and in general, you get fresh air, natural air conditioning, and the smells of the day. Normally, the latter is a good thing, except this morning. About C&O lock 8, my nose said to my brain:

“What in the holy mother of christ is that smell?”

Now, I would think, maybe, just maybe, there is the random effluent from DC making it’s way to the Potomac. But, at each successive C&O Canal Lock, as well as some of the closer bits of the canal to the road, my nose caught that scent. The scent of the worst spoilage imaginable… some worse than dead bodies and spoiled milk. (And yes, I’ve even been around a blooming corpse flower)

What’s the deal? I think it’s the last bits of last weeks heat finally releasing the brew of rotting algae, and other garbage that’s in the canal. I would suggest, to the National Park Service, if possible, to try to flush that canal at their earliest convenience, or I fear, if we get another week of heat, that brew in the C&O could turn deadly, knocking bicyclists off their seats, joggers out of their shoes, and us motorcyclists tearing up in our helmets. (Yes, I know it’s supposed to be “natural” in setting, but that’s an “unnatural” smell)

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Derek Terrell of myLHBS brings us another fine beer to beat the last days of summer and take us into cooler times. If you got started now, the beer would be ready to drink by the time September comes to an end, just in time to usher in cooler autumn evenings and a sense of relief, having survived another sweltering summer.

What? You don’t homebrew? All the cool kids are doing it! Derek can hook you up with all the equipment you need, from fermenters to carboys to bottles.

Go see Derek or one of his courteous, helpful staff. He’s the guy to talk to if you want quality ingredients for good prices and great advice to boot!

Shipwreck IPA (2007)
Shipwreck IPA was written in the mid-90s and became a best-seller for Brew America & now myLHBS. This ’07 version uses hop varieties and specialty malts unavailable back then. For added fun, consider the even more robust “Ship-rocked”!

Ingredients
8 lb. Alexander’s Pale liquid malt extract
1 lb. Briess Golden Light dry malt extract
1 lb. Gambrinus Honey + 8 oz. Briess 20L crystal malt (crushed)
2 oz. Yakima Magnum + 1 oz. Summit pellet hops (bittering)
1 oz. Simcoe pellet hops (1st flavor)
1 oz. Amarillo pellet hops (2nd flavor)
1 oz. Summit* pellet hops (aroma)
1 oz. Summit* whole hops (dry-hop: optional but highly recommended)
1 package Safale US-05 dry yeast
3/4 cup priming sugar * Summit comes in 2 oz. packages

And don’t forget…
Irish Moss (recommended), grain bag(s), hop bag(s), bottle caps and sanitizer as needed.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs Continue reading →

It took four days and two trips to my house by Comcast staff, as well as six phone calls to Comcast across two days, but I now have a TiVo HD working with the Comcast network.

Folks, this is absolutely positively ridiculous. It should not be this hard to get a cable-ready device working. The reason for the 1996 Telecommunications Act was to make this possible and doable, not to make it obfuscated, arcane and foreign. But, I guess that’s how Comcast is.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Prince of Petworth Photo

No matter your stance on the Iraq War, or the effectiveness of protests, I am sure we all can agree that too many signs about anything ain’t good. These are available in bulk from any inexpensive banner printing shop, and are used in protests and processions, only sometimes in a gratuitous way.

And in my hood we’re all kinds of pissed off with Answer Coalition’s “End the War Now” sign posters as they’ve covered every lamppost in around Grant Circle with their garish yellow fliers.

A few people have suggested that Answer devote as much energy cleaning up their mess on September 16th as they are preparing for the 15th. But I think my neighbour Joe has the best idea:

One concept: We’ll have city-wide clean-ups after the September 15th march, tabulate the time it took to clean up their mess, and send the bill to A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition. Their return check to the District government could be equally divided among wards for neighborhood beautification projects.

I know I’d be happy to bill them for my time scraping off their signs August 15th.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

It might’ve been warm today, but it’s been a pleasant warm, and should make for a delightful evening to take a picnic out to the Mall around 15th and Constitution and catch Screen on the Green: Casablanca tonight. Screening starts around 8 or so, and you can claim your space after 5 tonight.

So grab a sandwich and some chips from the deli downstairs, and a couple sodas with ice, and head for the Mall to see Bogart and Bergman spice up the screen, and to hear my favorite line: “I am shocked, SHOCKED, to hear there is gambling in this establishment.”

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Wayan’s DC Photos

After escaping from Macy’s wedding registry runaround, I noticed the newest expansion at the Pentagon City Mall.

Victoria’s Secret is now going to occupy several storefronts, stretching a mighty long way for a lingerie store in uptight DC.

Could this be a sign of a secret sexiness in the usually straight-laced Capitol? A delayed Jessica Cutler effect? Or is there an increase in lingerie knowledge from NoVA libraries?

Either way, as visual man, I welcome this greater opportunity for women to celebrate the curves god gave them.

May the store be a uplifting success!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

When’s the last time you saw a suicide knob in action? I think the last time I saw one was in my grandfather’s car when I was a kid. He had an excuse, though. He had extra hand controls custom installed due to missing a leg from a run-in with a forklift, so freeing up one hand by use of a spinner was somewhat legitimate.

I saw this at a rest stop here in VA a few weeks ago. I doubt they are street legal but I would love to hear from someone who knows for sure. Probably it’s more like legally selling a kit to turn a rifle into full-auto, but it being illegal to own an automatic rifle. What do you think?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Tom’s got a rather unpleasant Comcast experience he wrote about here and a twittering little birdie leads me to believe that more is on the horizon. The question is, when the company with a monopoly on your service doesn’t seem to give a rat’s ass about serving you what are you supposed to do about it?

You put pen to paper and let the local and national regulatory boards know about the bad service, that’s what. What we’re interested in is over here, their general information sheet.

Here’s what Tom should be concerned with (emphasis mine):

Cable operators may schedule appointments for installations and other service calls either at a specific time or, at a maximum, during a four-hour time block during normal business hours. Cable operators may also schedule service calls outside of normal business hours for the convenience of the customer. No appointment cancellations are permitted after the close of business on the business day prior to the scheduled appointment. If the cable installer or technician is running late and will not meet the specified appointment time, he or she must contact the customer and reschedule the appointment at the convenience of the subscriber. These requirements concerning installations, outages and service calls must ordinarily be met at least 95 percent of the time, measured quarterly, under normal operating conditions.

So, what you or Tom should do when Comcast comes down and screws you this way is make sure the FCC knows about their failures. These folks have been granted use of OUR land to run their monopoly cables and things over so they need to hold up their end of the bargain and provide appropriate service. If you have questions or your needs aren’t being met, you can call the toll-free number, 1-888-225-5322 (1-888-CALLFCC). A letter is worth a thousand nasty phone calls, however, so send your written complaints to:

FCC,
Cable Services Bureau,
445 12th Street, S.W.
Washington, D.C., 20554

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Today was my install date for the CableCards that I ranted about earlier this week. My window for install was 3-6pm today, and as of 6:15 when no one had showed, I called Comcast. I was told, then, that they would have someone there within minutes. At 6:50, when no one had showed, I called again, and told the technician was 40 minutes out. At 8:00, when no one was there, I called again, and was told he was coming at 8:30.

So, when he got there at 8:40, bearing only apologies for having bad cablecards, I was pretty upset. Why you would go out on a call with Cable Cards that were marked with bright pink stickers with BAD written on them, I’m not exactly sure, but that’s what Comcast did tonight.

Folks, what they’re doing, through their neglect of their responsibilities is practically criminal. Give us the cards, give us support to make them work, but don’t treat us like we’re not customers because we want better than the crappy DVR box you provide. The difference between the two is night and day, and frankly, if I’m gonna pay for the nice gear, you should at least have the common decency to just turn over the cards and make it work.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

This weekend at the downtown offices of Fleishman Hillard, 100 or so geeks gathered for BarCamp to talk about matters technological. I know what you’re thinking already, “Geeks, inside on a weekend? Shocking!” But it’s more than that. So many things are happening on the web these days, the advent of the true mobile web, the adoption of portable identities, people creating content and sharing, and a lot of that is happening here in our backyard as well as out on the west coast.

BarCamp’s about getting geeks and technologists and smart people all in the same room to learn about new things from the perspective of the attendees. No paid speakers. No preplanned agenda. Just people getting together and throwing a conference. Major ups to the BarCamp Planning group, who found good meeting space downtown, good presenters and smart folks to talk about smart things. Here’s hoping we’ll be able to sponsor future BarCamps the way we sponsored this one.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Wayan’s DC Photos

With the cool breezes a refreshing change from last week’s oven, its time for a bicycle ride through the city.

And what better pedal-powered cruiser than this push-seated wonder I saw on Rhode Island Avenue NW? Just look at those high-grip handle bars, the easy carry basket, and of course that sofa-soft seat.

Now I think a bike like this requires a certain look to pull off. Velvet, shades, maybe a beer-in-hand, and most definitely a joe-cool smirk.

Think you could do it? I know I wish I could. All the way to meet ID required Carl during the next afternoon drink.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Arlington County has a great page about how to conserve water during these dog days of summer when the sun seems to bake you further with every breath. This time of year, water is scarcer and we need to take some action to conserve some of it.

My solution? I am considering going back to the one shower per week plan.

For better ideas, be sure to check here and also look at the EPA’s Water Sense Guide. Some examples:

• Capture and reuse rainwater
• Take showers instead of baths
• Mulch your flowers and garden
• Check for water leaks
• Install low-flow showerheads and faucet aerators

Do everyone a favor and conserve water any way you can. You might want to forgo my showering idea but some of us have meek coworkers and employers so it doesn’t matter what we do.

Thanks, Arlington, for some great ideas!

What are you doing to conserve water this summer?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

That’s the call to arms from Free Culture at NYU in response to last week’s arrest and charging of Jhannet Sejas for her 20 second video clip, which I wrote about here.

A number of their commenters seem to be of the same mind as ours, Twitch, and take the “she broke the law” stance. Personally I think that regardless of the law this was an excessive action and they at most should have asked her to knock it off, or perhaps asked her to leave. They certainly were within their rights to use the law at their disposal and call the cops.

As I am within my rights to refuse to patronize their establishments.

The theaters in our area to avoid, if you’re so inclined:

Regal Ballston Common 12, 671 N. Glebe Road, Arlington, VA 22203

Regal Potomac Yard 16, 3575 Jefferson Davis Hwy., Alexandria, VA 22305
(which sucks and has a typically rude clientèle anyway, so even Twitch should avoid this place)

Regal Gallery Place Stadium 14, 701 Seventh Street NW, Washington, DC 20001

Regal Bethesda 10, 7272 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda, MD 20814

Regal Fairfax Town Center, 4110 West Ox Road, Suite 12110, Fairfax, VA 22033

Regal Manassas Stadium 14, 11380 Bulloch Dr, Manassas, VA 20109

The full list of Virginia, Maryland and DC area theaters is on their website.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

A certain individual whose name rhymes with pay-un essentially accused me of blaming the victim in the pedestrian death of Floret Kusi-Davies. Nothing could be further from the truth, as I am well aware of the plight of someone trying to navigate our car-centric area on foot and think it’s a shame. I do think, however, that when the deck is stacked against you that makes it more important, not less, to use all those advantages at your disposal to protect your fragile life.

It did bring to mind this excellent WaPo article from a few years ago from Mary Battiata, who set out to walk – in four to six mile excursions – from the Mall to Gilbert’s Corner. I want to draw your attention to it not just because it’s well-written and discusses the unfortunate realities of being a pedestrian in our area, but because it spends a good amount of time talking about the pedestrian (and, really, non-pedestrian) nightmare that is Seven Corners.

So what? So this: after twenty years of planning, the pedestrian bridge over Seven Corners is finally going to break ground. It’s tragically comic: the brief writeup ends with “Supervisor Penelope Gross and others say they aren’t willing to wait any longer to save lives” in response to calls to do some road alteration rather than build the bridge. Well, that would hardly be possible, would it now?

Interestingly the project has gone from 4 million bucks according to this article from the Falls Church News-Press from October of last year and seven million according to the WUSA9 article. Procrastination is expensive, it seems.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Paranoia is Patriotic
by Dana Ellyn

Go check out Dana Ellyn‘s open studio this weekend. She will have numerous paintings on display, many of them for sale, and will be chatting with folks as well. I have not met Dana in person yet but have had numerous email exchanges with her and look forward to finally making the personal connection.

Her art is fantastic, ranging from social and political commentary to… well, almost all of what’s on her site has some sort of social and political commentary. What separates her art from some other politically motivated pieces is that her work is not completely straightforward. There is a lot to take in and it keeps my attention longer than I think it will.

In addition, Dana is a true master of capturing really interesting facial expressions. The pieces show a range of emotions, usually overdone to prove a point, but not in a way that makes the characters look at all garish or unbelievable. She is very careful, using both realism and irony to comment on current events.

From an email she sent to her loyal following of fans (including me!):

OPEN STUDIO
THIS Saturday August 11th
Noon – 6pm
Drop in, say hello, enjoy some snacks, and see lots of paintings!

I’ve just successfully completed my 5th consecutive year of “31 Days in July” paintings…..every July I paint one new painting each day in response to the daily news. After 5 years, I’ve created 155 paintings in the series. You can see the entire series on my site here:
http://www.danaellyn.com/31days.html

And, even better, you can stop by this Saturday to see the yet-to-be-sold pieces in person! In addition to the ’31 Days’ series, I have at least 100 other paintings on the walls and stacked around my studio to keep your eyes busy.

Mather Studios
916 G Street, NW
#304
Washington, DC
202.737.6161

Go check it out. It’s bound to be a good time!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

photo courtesy of Charl22

Second in my series of posts discouraging people from winning a Darwin Award, I bring you this link to Chris’ story of being out at Great Falls and watching the loons across the Potomac. Not the birds, but the judgment-impaired who were leaping into water they couldn’t know the depth of.

Apparently it was deep enough not to drive their hips up into their skulls, but it wasn’t free of other dangers.

Then two boys jumped and only one resurfaced (below, left). He started screaming for help and swam over to where his friend hit the water. Eventually, he found him, brought him to the surface and dragged him to the shore line (below, right).

In Florida the reasonable expectation would have been that someone got their feet tangled up in some seaweed, but I don’t know what might have caused this fellow not to surface. Could have been something as simple as hitting at a bad angle and being dazed.

As you may be able to tell from the quoted text above, Chris has some neat pictures of the jumping, including this one of one of the moment of impact in the water.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

My preferred marriage officiant

Looking to get married in DC, today’s lunch hour was spent researching the DC marriage requirements, and the Betrothed Butterbean and I have a problem: identifying our “wedding officiant”.

Now if either of us were remotely religious, or felt comfortable with paying a random stranger, finding a registered DC officiant wouldn’t be that hard. But we’re picky.

We’re wanting to be married by a friend or family member but the DC Superior Court says:

Religious celebrants and judges other than those of the D.C. Courts must be authorized by the Court and registered by the Marriage Bureau in order to perform legal marriages in the District of Columbia. The full name of the intended celebrant must be given at the time of the application for verification and placement on the license.

So that means we not only have to get someone we know registered with the marriage bureau, we have to do it before we can even get a marriage license, and who knows how long that process takes!

Do you?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs