Monthly Archives: December 2008

Petworth, The Daily Feed
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Church Bell Permitting Process

This weekend in Petworth, the neighborhood was serenaded by the church bells from St. Gabriel’s Roman Catholic Church.  While I do enjoy the music I am surprised at the sound.  The church has just started ringing its bells with regularity and I wonder:

Is there a church bell permitting process?

Like can a church just start ringing its bells whenever it wants to?  Does it need to talk with local ANC’s first?  Or is there some church/state separation that allows churches to go bell-crazy at their own whim?

And why is it that I noticed the resurgence of St Gabe’s church bells before PoP?

Adventures, Downtown, Entertainment, Essential DC, Fun & Games, Life in the Capital, Special Events
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DC Loves the Holidays

Photo courtesy of FredoAlvarez
Union Station Wreaths, courtesy of FredoAlvarez

Ok, I confess.

My initial intent with doing a “Holiday Happenings” article was to hit the majority of the cool stuff happening in the area. But as I did more and more research, the more amazed (and flummoxed) I became with the sheer volume of cool holiday stuff to do around here.

This’ll be my third Christmas in the area and my first real foray into finding out what all is going on to sate my holiday appetite. Normally we just hit the area neighborhood to ‘oooh’ and ‘aaah’ over light displays but this year? We wanted to really take advantage of the season.

Hence wanting to take this project on. Boy, am I ashamed to say I was utterly ignorant on the goings-on around here during December.

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The Daily Feed
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It’s Cyber Monday, Ya’ll


DSC_1816
Originally uploaded by Ghost_Bear

So today is, apparently, (according to all my shopping sources) the biggest day of online sales. Ever.

I did a little investigative work, and this proves to be true. There are about a billion coupon codes out there, waiting to give you free shipping, 10, 20 or 30% off, etc. etc. You know the drill.

DC Scout also informs me that there are plenty of local sales, Bluemercury, Carine’s Bridal, and my favorite local traveling boutique, Forever Heather is having a Winter Trunk Show soon.

So get your holiday shopping done online, and take advantage of the pre-holiday sale-ageddon.

Foggy Bottom, The Daily Feed, WMATA, WTF?!
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The Eternally Receding Horizon of Metro Escalator Repair Deadlines

Still Broken

I don’t even remember what date WMATA originally put on the repair notice when they closed the middle escalator of Foggy Bottom back in summer. I just knew that there was a 100% chance of them changing that date as soon as it came close. Sure enough, they changed it to Nov 29th. And when Nov 29th rolled by, naturally the repair deadline became Dec 19th. Will they make that deadline?

Of course not. Watch for when they bump that date to late December or early January, as the on-again-off-again nightmare of Foggy Bottom traffic bottleneck management continues.

The Daily Feed
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Maryland Switches Unemployment Payments to Debit Card


DSC_0220
Originally uploaded by Ghost_Bear

I’m not sure I like the idea, but Maryland is switching the payment method on unemployment benefits from checks to a prepaid debit card. They’re saying it’ll save them $400,000 in printing & postage, but I fear that fraud would go up, as I suspect they’re more theft-prone in this current state.

Plus, do we really need to stigmatize these folks when they use the cards in public? Or will a Maryland Unemployment Benefits Visa be the new caché method for paying in this new economy?

Food and Drink, Fun & Games, The Daily Feed
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One Last Chance: Free Lunch!

As we wrote two weeks ago, there’s free lunch at the Hard Rock downtown today, so if you’re reading this to find out where to go for lunch: Get Gone. It’s a product of the Shop.org people, who are, incidentally, responsible for the godawful name that reminds of a friend of a “seedy national holiday for indulging in illicit and adult-rated conversation?”

But hey, Free lunch is hard to ignore. Get outta here!

Essential DC, Weekend Flashback
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Holiday Photo Contest!

Photo courtesy of Intiaz Rahim
Jefferson Memorial HDR, courtesy of Intiaz Rahim

Hope everyone had a great holiday / extended weekend. While everyone was digesting food and recovering from family visits, November snuck out the door. Welcome to December!

First off, we’ve got some exciting news for you! Today we’re kicking off our first-ever photo contest, and you’re all invited! Of course, I should explain the rules before just cutting you all loose…

The theme is “Holidays in DC” which means that yes, every photo submitted must reflect the holiday / winter season in our area.

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The Daily Feed
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Soup is delicious


Recursive soup
Originally uploaded by gadl

If you get Daily Candy DC, you’ve seen this already, but it thrilled me so much I have to share here. Soupergirl will deliver vegetarian soup with locally-sourced ingredients to your home or office, or to a designated pickup location, every week. For a very reasonable price. And the soup sounds delicious. Also, she has very entertaining web copy.

I love making soup, but my repertoire is limited. Where has this been all my life?

Business and Money, Entertainment
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Buy Local, Online: The Best of Both Worlds

Holly Chopsticks, photo courtesy A. Drauglis Furnituremaker
Holly Chopsticks, photo courtesy A. Drauglis Furnituremaker

I am on record preferring to do all my shopping online. I hate malls, even when they’re NOT packed with crazed bargain-seekers, stressed about the state of the economy.  But I’ve also spent all year trying to source my food locally and enjoying the intangible benefits of spending my dollars within my own community. Fortunately, Etsy.com, which is a marketplace for individuals to sell their crafts and handmade items, provides a handy Shop Local feature so you can specifically search for sellers in your area.

I have to admit that Etsy’s search isn’t nearly as well developed as I’d like- for example you can search item descriptions for the type of item you’re looking for, OR you can search for sellers in a local area, but you can’t search for a particular kind of item made by a local seller.  Which is kind of lame, and it means that you have to be pretty committed to buying gifts from local artists to make this work.  Or, you can work from our gift guide! Read on for my suggestions:
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