My salivary glands are usually on overload when I wander around a Whole Foods, or what others refer to as “Whole Paycheck”. That’s not to say I’m slobbering on their fresh ears of corn in the summer or drooling on their humanely raised meat display case, but compared to places such as Safeway, it’s like a little grocery oasis in the city.

That is until I stumbled upon this little goody: “Meatless Nuggets”.

I’m all for those who choose to be vegetarian or vegan, whether they do so because they’re against animal cruelty, against polluting our environment, or just because they think it’s a healthier lifestyle. But do you have to name your food items with such strange names like “meatless nuggets”, “Tofurkey”, or “egg replacer”? It’s like us carnivores coming up with food names like “sinewy stew”, “meaty morsels”, or “SPAM”.

Just out of curiosity, can someone tell me what a “meatless nugget” consists of?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Want free coffee or bottled water when work gets hot? Need that quick refreshment when you feel like you’re on fire? Then I suggest you head over the Mobile Canteen Unit.

Seen here at a Petworh house fire, the cafe on wheels was quick to put out firemen’s thirst while keeping them on the job.

I’m not sure that DC needs a whole “Canteen Unit” at every accident scene, but I can see where it would make sense at multi-alarm fires. Better to have the firefighters hydrated and on the scene than gone to make a ice run to 7-11.

Now I just wonder, does it serve donuts too?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

New York Times caught on, so the rest of the world will know: DC is now officially considered “hip.” (Hat tip for the link: skunkgal.) Helene Cooper seems quite enamored mostly with (1) the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian and its Mitsitam Cafe, and (2) the fact that fashionable DC people who rub elbows with those in power talk a lot about politics and world affairs.

Cooper seems to draw a causal relationship between the rising Democratic majority and the emergence of DC fashion, but we’ve known for years that DC is fashionable, predating even recent trends in urban regentrification. Just take a gander at Project Beltway, Panda Head, DC Pleats, DC Style Mag, and of course, that worthy pinnacle of Washington chic, DC Goodwill Fashion Blog. We here know our stuff, and oh, how we strut it:

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

image courtesy of Zesmerelda

Today was my first experiment with taking the metro & shuttle to work, and it was moderately successful. Despite the longer time it takes, I can see it being a more pleasant way to get in, letting someone else handle the getting-there and allowing me to read. My WSJ subscription hasn’t started coming to the new location yet – stupid me should have planned ahead on the switch-over – so I took a copy of Express from the person handing them out at the Pentagon City metro entrance. I almost felt bad for the person from the Examiner who was being roundly rejected by every person she tried to hand her offering to, but I consoled myself with the fact that they’d surely put the leftovers into plastic bags and throw them on the stoops of plenty of similarly disinterested individuals, allowing them to be neglected in entirely a different venue.

Imagine my surprise to find myself quoted in the “Blog log” from yesterday’s comment on the sewage plant stink. Well, me in the sense that they credited “A dc.metblogs.com contributor,” and I happen to know it was me, even if they seem to have missed what I always thought was a pretty obvious byline.

On the other hand, there’s nothing in print tying me to use of the word “skunkyness” so I’m gonna call it a wash.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

image courtesy of SeenyaRita

Well, by late Sunday evening we’d managed to get all of my darling girlfriend’s possessions into our new house, three blocks from her old house. In some ways it was frustrating to move so much stuff – and seriously honey, SO MUCH STUFF – so short a distance, but we both love that neighborhood.

Or rather, we do when we can’t smell the waste processing plant about a mile to the south. I don’t know what’s going on there, if it’s because of the construction there or the dry spell we’re in, but I have never before smelled their skunkyness from that far away before. Talk about an unwelcome welcoming.

The people, however, have all been gems. At least three different neighbors came up and said hello, introduced themselves, offered their assistance, etc. It’s a delightful change, for me, coming in from the extended burbs out by Dulles airport. Not that those folks weren’t nice enough when I ran across them, but I almost never did, despite very similar house spacings.

It’s nice to be home.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Wayan’s DC Photos

Now that the fall is here, and the weather perfect, where do you go for your green fix? Where is your bit-o-nature?

For me it’s Rock Creek Park. Closed to traffic, and open to cyclists and runners, the roads and trails are the perfect mix of urban and wild. Nature and man coexisting in the middle of Washington DC.

It also helps that I live a short run away and I can have brunch after my bike.

But still, I don’t understand those that travel far to see big trees and little streams. We have a whole wild world right in our midst, no state line crossing needed.

No hour-plis on highways or backroads, this is what you can see in minutes, for hours.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Amazon, in pursuit of taking my money in new and creative ways, has announced that local delivery is now available in DC & Baltimore. I got this email from them today:

As an Amazon Prime member who recently shipped an order to Boston, Washington, D.C., or Baltimore, you might be interested in a new service that we’ve recently expanded to all three cities–same-day delivery through Local Express Delivery. Thousands of items are available. Just order before 9:15 a.m. eastern to ship to a qualifying address, choose Local Express Delivery, and your package will be delivered by 8:00 p.m. that evening.

So, if you get up in time for early coffee, you can have something shiny and new (with some exceptions…) by the time dinner’s done. Of course, you’d better be willing to part with some serious bucks to do it. Check out the list of prices for various departments which range from $6 to $19 for delivery, PLUS a per-pound cost, but if you really miss the days of Kozmo.com, and you’re willing to distort your memory about delivery times, this might be the thing for you.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Brittany Martin is a friend of Metroblogging DC and submitted this review of this past weekend’s Crafty Bastards event in Adams Morgan

“Get awesomized!” was the tantalizing pitch that the Washington City Paper used to lure customers to the 4th annual Crafty Bastards indie craft fair on Sunday. Clearly the advertising worked – the Marie Reed Center was packed with shoppers looking for hand-made goods to break the monotony of the mass-produced. Over 100 vendors plied their wares, including accessories, clothing, concert posters, and plushies in the shape of weeping burnt toast.

As my shopping companion and I moved from booth to booth, we frequently let out squeals of “Oh! I know them from the internet!” and we were not alone. More “big name” craft vendors made a visit to DC for this year’s event than in the past – attracting artisans from Georgia, Chicago, Boston, and elsewhere. Two of my favorite booths were such folks-from-away: the whimsical and super-delightful Gladys Makes Things and Barry’s Farm.

Many local talents were also on display (if perhaps fewer than in past years) including De*Nada Designs. Virginia Arrisueno of De*Nada makes great bags which I am seeing more and more girls carrying these days – a testament to her good design and constant presence at DC design and craft scene events (I regret that yesterday, I passed up the chance to pick up a tote emblazoned with a pattern of skeleton keys, daggers, and guns).

One complaint about the vendors at Crafty Bastards was that there was the usual paucity of goods on sale for those of the male persuasion. Though there was no shortage of cute hipster boys strolling around, most vendors offered them the predictable American-Apparel-tee-with-screenprint and not much else. Remember, crafters: boys carry wallets and bags, wear scarves and hats in the cold, and so on. Similarly, I would love to see more DC boys rocking the handmade goods.

In spite of the heat and sunshine, many of the shopkeepers and shoppers dressed up for the event – in a display of great vintage dresses, stylish coifs, scarves, and flat skimmer shoes in every color of the rainbow. Most of them complimented their hip getups with the muslin totes handed out at the entrances bearing the Crafty Bastards logo, stuffed with purchases and indie cred.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

There’s been a lot of talk of home construction here this week, what with Wayan looking for a new kitchen, and Don talking about green construction, this weekend is the DC Green Festival at the Conference Center downtown.

If you’re interested in Green life in DC, this would be the place to go, with 350 Green Businesses on exhibit, and 125 speakers or so, it looks like it could rock. Tickets are $15, which mean they’re just as accessible as the technologies on display.

Check it out!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

… but it isn’t exactly impossible either. Wayan’s on the prowl for some cabinets and appliance and finds EXPO’s big-ticket mentality unpleasant. If Home Depot’s take on upscale home renovation isn’t to your liking, there’s always the opposite way of going: reused building materials. Like everything else, there’s an association for the concept – The Building Materials Re-use Association – but somewhat amazingly, they’re not one of the bazillion situated in DC.

These are the people who sit at home and seethe as the folks on Trading Spaces or other renovation shows take sledgehammers to perfectly good cabinets and fixtures that just aren’t the color they want. Thankfully not everyone is as needlessly dramatic, and places like Harrisonburg’s Friendship Homestore or our area’s Community Forklift, or Baltimore’s Loading Dock will take those more carefully removed products and re-sell them.

If none of them are to your liking, check the general Builders’ Guide to Reuse & Recycling which has directory listings by category. Community Forklift and Loading Dock are run by non-profits and Friendship Home Story has a social imperative, but they are by no means the only place to get used materials at a discount. There’s more than one place to buy a cat-skinner.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Wayan’s DC Photos

I want to add a kitchen to my finished basement. A place for guests or renters to cook and entertain a guest.

On the advice of others I went to the Home Depot Expo Design Center Saturday morning. Oh what an error that was!

First off, all the massive bathrooms when you first walk in made me realize just how small my house is. But the real affront happened at the kitchen design center.

There a very arrogant salesman demanded I start my kitchen design with cabinet selections, ignoring my desire to start at what appliances would fit in my small space.

When I balked at his minimum kitchen design price, $45,000!, as ridiculous crazy talk, he became downright nasty. Apparently, unless you are trust fund wealthy, you are not welcome at Expo Design Center, Montgomery Mall.

Which leaves me with a problem: where do I go to design a little basement kitchen on a small budget?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

image courtesy of Nufkin

As I alluded to recently, I’ve changed jobs in the last thirty days. In doing so, I’ve become one of a very large group in our area – someone whose salary information is available to anyone with a FOIA request and an inkling of where to send it.

It hadn’t occurred to me when I took this job that this was the case, though if I’d had any reason to ponder it I’d have realized it. The point was driven home when I was googling around for some information on my new boss and hit upon a site where someone had published some FOIAed info, including her name and compensation. It got me to thinking today that we’re almost certainly the area with the highest density of people whose lives are laid bare in this way.

Every region has public employees, but in addition the usual local government, various state organizations, and some local transit labor we’ve got the Fed and local charities. Googling ‘senate staff salaries’ turns up the Legistorm page and you can tell that Vince Morris probably got paid about $80k a year (I’m extrapolating based on one quarter’s salary, though Legistorm warns me that may be inaccurate) in exchange for being asked several hundred times to comment on the significance of the phrase “don’t tase me, bro!”

Charities are less complete, but Guidestar can show you the IRS form 990s for an organization. Directors and trustees are at the back but there’s also the section that lists the “compensation of the five highest paid employees other than officers, directors, and trustees.” Bryan Detchon of the Better World Fund – you are SO picking up the drink tab if we go out for a beer.

If you’re directly in the public employ it’s a good bet someone could find what you make if they wanted to. It’s an odd feeling for someone who was raised to believe it’s gauche to talk about salaries.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

More news on this morning’s fire from WTOP, NBC4, WJLA, WUSA9, WaPo and Express, and we have photos from on the scene by area Flickr user lukekb.

The fire is now out, but the four-story building is completely destroyed, displacing residents from 30 units. Notoriously low water pressure complicated firefighting efforts, forcing firemen to run extra hose to reach a stronger water main. A press conference with Mayor Fenty is scheduled for the site of the fire at noon today, and DCFD.com is sure to have photos soon.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

While Connecticut Avenue NW is now open, it spent much of the morning blocked to all traffic, along with 18th Street, and Columbia Ave, as firefighters fought a four-alarm blaze in Adams Morgan. What made the situation much worse is that the water pressure in the hydrant at the 2600 block of Adams Mill Road was entirely unable to pump out the water necessary to fight the fire. Instead, hoses had to be run across the Duke Ellington Bridge to Connecticut Avenue, where a 20″ water main fed the hoses.

Check out the map here. That’s how far they had to run the hoses. That’s half a freaking mile to the nearest source with decent water pressure. According to the Post, the WASA rep involved said “That area is just an area that doesn’t have as high pressure as some of the surrounding areas, that’s just the way it is.”

A whole area of town that just gets to burn to the ground and that’s “just the way it is”?

Well, Good thing for Ward 1 that Jim Graham, scourge of the nightclub is around. Jim Graham prosecutes issues in his ward like freaking Sam Waterston on Law & Order. The guy is just plain fierce.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs