Whether you’re a regular DCFBHH attendee in need of a reminder or you’re interested in putting a face to a name for some of your favorite local food bloggers, come have a beer! Tonight is officially the fourth Food Blogger Happy Hour to grace our fine city. Following on the heels of happy hours at Poste, CommonWealth and the Black Squirrel, this month local food bloggers are descending on ChurchKey, the latest 14th street hot spot.

The happy hour is hosted by Modern Domestic, Capital Spice, Dining in DC, Gradually Greener, Capital Cooking, Young and Hungry, and WeLoveDC. Even if you can’t make it tonight for a beer, pop by these sites to see what the locals are saying about DC food.

If you’re interested in attending, RSVP on Young and Hungry’s site, who’s accepting RSVPs for this month’s happy hour. If you can’t make it, check back for next month’s location (always the first Wednesday).

‘Spices in the Spice/Egyptian Bazaar’
courtesy of ‘acaaron816’

If so, here’s your opportunity. Local social entrepreneur John Sorial is looking for about 50 people to help refine some menus for a specialty food line of Middle Eastern entrees. You show up and eat a free meal in exchange for providing some honest feedback.

I asked John what restaurants he’d say served similar cuisine, hoping to provide you some guidance about whether it’s something  you’d like. “I don’t know of any high profile restaurants that feature authentic Egyptian cuisine. ” He says that in a pinch you could think of it as somewhat of a mash-up of Lebanese Taverna, Zaytina and Cava Mezza.

All you really need is an interest in the cuisine of that region. Familiarity is almost a downside for their purposes. “Many Egyptians have biases for how it should taste according to what they grew up eating… we are looking for “virgin palettes” if you will,” Sorial says.

If you’re game for a little taste-testing and socializing send an email to John at johnsorial at yahoo dot com. The event will be Thursday at 7:30pm on the 17th of December and will kick off with an explanation of the venture, followed quickly by the tasting and talking. It’s out in Fairfax at St Mark’s Coptic Orthodox Church, so it’ll be a bit of a drive from the city, but did I mention free?

‘Gingerbread House’
courtesy of ‘Kevin H.’

Tonight is the Gingertown buildout at David M. Schwarz Architects. What’s Gingertown? Imagine a city of gingerbread houses, only instead of being designed and clumsily assembled by your 3 year old niece and your dad from a kit, the houses are designed by architects and built under their supervision. The city remains on display for a few days, and then the individual structures are passed out to local charities, hospitals, and civic organizations for display at their offices.

The buildout event is tonight from 6:30 to 9:30 at the David M. Schwarz office, and you can sign up to participate at gingertown@dmsas.com.

‘Capital Pride Parade’
courtesy of ‘spiggycat’

The D.C. Council, in a vote of 11-2, has passed a bill recognizing gay marriage in the District. The two no votes were Yvette Alexander and Marion Barry. We didn’t catch all of the pre-vote debate but both Barry and Harry Thomas gave pretty energetic support for their opposing positions, both invoking the Founding Fathers. If you missed it and want to watch yourself the video will eventually be posted here in the archive for week 5.

This is the first reading for this bill, meaning that we’re not even at the point yet where the mayor’s signature is sought. The bill will be placed on the agenda for another council meeting for its second reading. By law that’s no sooner than 14 days out, but the actual next scheduled [edited] legislative meeting is January 5th of next year. At that point, if it passes again, it goes on to the mayor.

The mayor’s signature is expected, at which point… it’s still not law. It’ll get an act number and get sent on to Congress, who will have 30 days to issue a joint resolution condemning it. If President Obama approves that resolution then we’re tanked and the law doesn’t go into effect. Expectations are that this isn’t going to happen, though there’s always a possibility when you’re only barely allowed to govern yourself.

At this pace, and allowing for some time for the city offices to get their process in order, the soonest we likely will see gay marriages in the District is in March of next year.

Edit: Whoops. The next scheduled legislative meeting is on Jan 5, however the committee of the whole will meet on Dec 15th and may consider the matter then, though no published agenda is yet available.

Second edit: My initial reading of the DC process was in fact correct; Phil Mendelson’s legislative assistant Michael Battle confirmed for me that the second reading for the bill must happen at a legislative meeting, not the committee of the whole. One last meeting may happen before year’s end, however currently none is scheduled till January.

‘The End.’
courtesy of ‘rubberglovelover’

The NTSB will be investigating Sunday’s Metro crash which totalled three Metro cars, and damaged nine more, as well as causing minor injuries to three WMATA employees. Metro has yet to release some important data in the crash, and we’re hoping that the NTSB will force some cooperation and information sharing, as the crash was hard enough to derail 2 cars from the track, which suggests that it was more than the safely allowed speed of 3mph, and probably significantly so.

Metro’s safety track record can best be summed up as Atrocious. Many deaths, several suicides, and far too many accidents on both the Metrorail and Metrobus systems. We’re still waiting for the formal report from the NTSB on June’s crash which claimed 9 lives, and I suspect this one will be no less damning for the system as a whole. What will happen from here? Can GM Catoe withstand another accident like this? There’s at least one call for him to step down, and I’d personally tend to agree that his lack of leadership and safety-orientation seems to be at odds with the needs of the current system.

‘#32’
courtesy of ‘dbking’

The Obamas are hosting a large red ribbon on their doorstep, symbolizing solidarity with people infected with the virus. George Mason University is displaying a 1,200-square-foot section of the AIDS Memorial Quilt as a part of the school’s HIV Awareness week (where they’re also capitalizing on an opportunity to offer free HIV testing!). And the Whitman-Walker Clinic will hold a candlelight vigil at 5:30 p.m. in Dupont Circle. The World Bank is even getting in on the action with a speaker panel.

Already this morning, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) joined DC HIV/AIDS organizations and DC residents to kick off the “Save D.C. Syringe Exchange Program Day.” The groups gathered to oppose a a virtual ban on D.C. using its local funds for syringe exchange programs.

And, it was just announced that DC will host the 2012 World AIDS Meeting at the DC Convention Center. The International AIDS Conference is the premier biennial global gathering for those working in the field of HIV research, policymakers and activists. The conference will take place July 22-27, 2012.

With almost 3 percent of the DC population suffering from HIV/AIDS, how are you honoring World AIDS Day?

‘Curbside Cupcakes’
courtesy of ‘Amberture’

Congratulations to Sam, the fantastic baker behind Curbside Cupcake, who got engaged yesterday! They’re running a special: if you ask Sam why he’s such a lucky guy, you get two cupcakes for $5. Today they’re serving Classic Vanilla, Classic Chocolate, Red Velvet, Chocolate w/Cream Cheese top, & Vanilla w/chocolate top, and they’ll be starting at GWU today. Follow their Tweets for up-to-date location info