‘snow house’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’
Do you have an awesome home, apartment, snow castle, dog house, etc. and live in the DC area? If so, you could share your favorite place with all of the We Love DC readers (i.e. the entire world, obviously) and become uber-famous. If this catches your eye then please email Samantha (at) WeLoveDC.com with your information, some pictures, and a little ditty about why your favorite place should be featured in an upcoming We Love DC series.
‘Is Love in the Cards? (218/365) (064/365) [Explored]’
courtesy of ‘kimberlyfaye’
If you’re looking for an alternative to the standard Valentine’s Day celebration of candle lit dinners, card and candy exchanges, and the occasional (yet awkward) first date, look no further than Jammin’ Java‘s “All You Need is Love Songwriter’s Circle Tribute to the Beatles and Love Songs“.
Singer-songwriters Shane Hines (of Shane Hines and the Trance), Anthony Fiacco (of The Blackjacks), Todd Wright, and Luke Brindley all give credit where credit is due on this day devoted to acknowledging love — a heartfelt tribute to The Beatles and the other music makers who gave us ways to sing about our love instead of just talking about it.
This intimate night makes room for the performers to share their tales of love and music in a “VH1 Storytellers” setting. So if anything, audience members are guaranteed a night of honesty in song and honesty in word from some local favorites taking the stage.
By Carl Weaver
Notice how all that snow is piled on top of this person’s car? Don’t be like that. When you can get out and drive, be sure to clean the snow off your entire car. Two things can result from this type of halfway done snow removal. First, big chunks of ice and snow can fall from your car and into traffic. Annoying, to be sure, and likely to make someone swerve. Maybe not the best reaction, but certainly an understandable one.
Second, if the snow is loose and powdery, it can blow off in traffic and blind other drivers. That’s generally bad too.
On top of this, you will just look like an idiot driving around like that. You are right, it’s not as bad as the even bigger idiots who neglect to clean the snow from all their windows (yes, the back one is important too, people), but still – are people really that lazy? A coworker made the excuse to me that she could not reach the top of her car. I told her she had a size of car to size of body ratio imbalance. If you can’t clean the car off, you shouldn’t be allowed to drive it.
Maybe it’s just the cabin fever, but I laughed disproportionately hard at this video about the very serious condition “Snow Madness,” starring Hampton and narrated by Aparna Nancherla.
By Don
Chief of the Fire and Emergency Medical Services Dennis Rubin has been asking the public to help out and clear snow from around fire hydrants, but it’s not uncommon for some to be covered. Where to dig?
Well, we’ve whipped up a tool to help you find ones close to you, buried or not. Put in a few extra minutes after shoveling your walk and un-burying your car – the house you save might be your own.
The map is powered by Google Maps and uses up-to-date GIS data from the District Water and Sewer website. Just scroll it around to find the 40 nearest hydrants or key in an address or zip code to re-center the map. Only District hydrants are mapped.
Click the image below to go to the finder.
By Kirk
‘The White House’
courtesy of ‘william couch’
OPM has announced that the Fed is closed for a nearly unprecedented fourth day in a row. The last time the government shut down for more than 2 days was for the blizzard of 1996, when employees were instructed not to report for an entire week (also the record for longest closure). We’ll see if the fed decides to open for business on Friday. I’d like to think that they’ll be able to, but God only knows, at this point.
By Max
Shakespeare in Snow by [F]oxymoron
It’s funny ’cause it’s true.
By Katie
‘We are open’
courtesy of ‘fromcaliw/love’
So we’ve been getting tons of requests from readers to do a post on what is open and what is not. The problem though, is that it keeps changing. Every time I hear a place is open, 20 minutes later they decide to close. This isn’t quite the same snow storm as it was over the weekend, the wind is insane, snow is deeper, and Metro is effed. So restaurants that were hoping to be open tonight have been forced to close, or close early, so the status of places just keeps changing. And I love you, but I’m not sitting here all night updating this post. There is television to be watched, and nails to be painted and naps to be had. So you know the saying, if you teach a man to fish, that one? Well I’m gonna teach you to fish, little reader. Here is how you can figure out if your favorite restaurant is open.
1) Check out Twitter. I don’t care if you think Twitter is nerdy and you don’t want to know what someone’s dog did or what whatshisface ate for lunch, Twitter is where it is at during this snow storm for restaurants to update patrons with their status. Use WeLoveDC’s food list to browse for all your favorites and check out their statuses. If you’re not sure the restaurant has a Twitter account, all you need to do is Google the name and Twitter (ie: “CommonWealth Gastropub Twitter”) and it should pop right up for you.
2) Pick up the phone. I realize this is OH GOD SO OLD SCHOOL and wouldn’t it be nice if someone just wrote it out for you without you having to speak to a human, but have you looked outside? It is Grade A cray cray and conditions keep changing, so for information from their mouth to your ears, you just need a cell phone. Call ’em up.
3) Follow the hashtag #opendc on Twitter. Lots of people are using this to update each other with open restaurants, museums and more.
4) Check the comments of THIS post. Lots of restaurants have been diligent about posting on our last post, and so let’s try TAKE TWO and have them update for tonight in the comments of this one. Restaurants? People in-the-know? Take it away in the comments.
Hope that helps, my snow bunnies. Stay safe out there! And drink one for me.
By Tom Bridge
The nice folks at Daily Beast have compiled a historical collection of blizzard photography, covering the storms that have hit the US and paralyzed various cities in the US, from Boston to Seattle. I still think ours is one of the more impressive. Somehow they also left out the Knickerbocker Storm that set DC’s record back in 1922 with 28″ of snow, though, so I’m not sure how totally comprehensive the piece is. Still, worth a look, for the photos of DC in the Blizzards of ’78 & ’96.
By Donna C.
Courtesy of Farm to Family
Here’s a heartwarming video for a snowy day.
Yesterday, the BBC ran a piece on The Farm to Family Bus, a farmers market on wheels that serves neighborhoods in Richmond, often in low-income areas, that don’t have easy access to grocery stores and quality, organic food.
The piece also highlights Josh Viertel, president of Slow Food USA (and there’s a DC chapter), speaking to a group of slow food advocates in DC.
A great idea, that — to bring healthy food to those who may need it most.
By Katie
’15/365: The Line’
courtesy of ‘Amberture’
Each month for Eat Like Me I tend to write about a theme I’ve been pondering for the month. I spend a lot of time in restaurants, and tend to focus on specific aspects of the business over time. Sometimes I just wonder in awe of the whole concept of a restaurant, sometimes I spend time thinking about the concept of resting at a restaurant and what you get when you pay for a meal. Other times I worry about myself, in specific, my snob factor. This month, I’ve been pondering dish composition.
It may sound trite, but I’ve been paying special attention to plates I love, and plates I find to be too complex. First and foremost for me, a restaurant can only be as good as it’s ingredients. They are a baseline to start from, we hear this straight from the Chefs time and time again in our Capital Chefs series. But once you’ve got quality ingredients to work with, the whole plight of a chef is putting them together in a way that brings out the best in each of them. This month I’ve been subjected to a few over-kill dishes. Dishes that have too much on a plate, where a subtraction of one thing could have made a balanced composition. It’s a delicate balance for a chef to walk, you don’t want the diner to be bored, but overfussing a plate can kill an order for me as much as a bland dish with too little going on. So this month’s Eat Like Me is all about dishes that pair the elements on the plate in harmony, balancing perfectly, simply, and letting well-chosen ingredients speak for themselves.
Oh, before I launch into this – I couldn’t fit Masa 14’s brunch into the list but it is fantastic. My new favorite brunch in the city. Consider yourself informed. Continue reading
By shannon
‘More than ankle deep’
courtesy of ‘moonrat42’
No matter what, my feet are always cold or wet walking around in this snow. Sure, Uggs are nice and toasty, but they’re not waterproof and the slushy snow soaks right through. Rain boots, or wellies, are great because they are a little taller (helping in those 3-foot-deep snow drifts) and waterproof, but they’re not insulated so your feet can get cold.
Has anyone out there found the perfect boots that will keep your feet dry and warm in the snow drifts? Clearly this snow isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, so I think it might be time to invest in a new pair.
By Samer Farha
‘Snow Dude Shovels It’
courtesy of ‘Anthroscribe’
When this storm is finished and it’s time to dig out, you find that your car is stuck in a plow-created three foot snow dam. You’ve got no shovel, and don’t have the slightest idea where to start. What if you could use technology to ask for help? Or, even better, to offer your own help?
Ryan Ozimek and a friend pulled together to create snowmageddoncleanup.com, a site to help connect people with snow problems to people who have snow solutions. This is a good way to get the word out about what you can do to help your fellow neighbors.
Wired has the write up about why they did it, and how they did it in a hurry. After reading that, go and volunteer some solutions.
By Don
Take a break from all the snow talk and enjoy this video, recorded live at the Black Cat last night.
That’s Daimion Suomi performing “Burn the Pain.” There’s another video from last night on the linked Suomi tumblr,, but it includes some footage of what Suomi had to go through to get to last night’s performance. And we’re not talking about that for a few minutes, are we now?
By John Athayde
‘The garden, fully planted’
courtesy of ‘Boboroshi’
Outside is a view of the grip of winter, fitting more for Boston, Montreal, or Calgary than a typical Washington winter. The snow flies sideways and the cold is enough to make anyone think twice about joining a snowball fight. In light of this, you might think me crazy to state, emphatically, that winter is for gardening.
The trickle began a few weeks ago with a catalog from gardeners.com, followed by Lee Valley and Baker Creek. Suddenly it’s an explosion of the promise of summer: “ORDER YOUR SEEDS NOW!” “GET YOUR GARDEN READY!” they shout. The snow is up to my waist in parts of the yard. The garlic planted in the fall hibernating under straw and three feet of snow and ice. The roof was also full of stuff that shouldn’t be there I have to remove them before this the conditions worsen. Luckily, the telescopic ladder I got online from a review on Best of Tools came last week. Just in time for the next few days where I do not have much to do. Winter is a difficult time to do a lot of chores.
But this is exactly the time for gardening. If you want to start your own seeds and get your beds ready, this is the optimum time to be working your garden. Some of the things that I am going to talk about may be a bit late, but for future planning purposes, I will include them in this brain dump. Continue reading
By Donna C.
‘SnOMG #2’
courtesy of ‘[F]oxymoron’
Today, Time took on a question that might be on many people’s minds. Where is global warming, anyway?
The issue is still out there, but “global warming” doesn’t tell the whole picture. While worldwide temperature averages are rising, “global climate change” and “weather weirding” more accurately describe what will happen.
The global part is spot on. Temperature rises affect air and sea currents throughout the world. They also affect the amount of moisture the air can hold; warmer air locks in more, bringing heavier precipitation.
And if the temperature hovers around freezing, as the Time article explains, here in DC we could get more snow.
Sound complex? It is. That’s why scientists the world over are studying changes in the climate, which is a long-term thing, and another point that confuses folks about the term “global warming.”
As the article so aptly states, “Weather is what will happen next weekend; climate is what will happen over the next decades and centuries.” Kudos to Time for shedding some light.
By Rebecca
‘Lotus #49’
courtesy of ‘Chris Rief aka Spodie Odie’
The shops lining M Street and Wisconsin Avenue have had a turbulent year. We’ve lost American Eagle, Commander Salamander, Up Against The Wall, FYE, Smith and Hawken, Nathan’s, etc. However, we have gained North Face, True Religion Jeans, Arisu, etc. A full survey from late January of the closings and openings can be found at Georgetownmetropolitan.com.
Now comes word from Georgetown blogger Carol Joynt that more stores are closed or in peril. According the Joynt, Benneton has already shuttered, Sisley is soon to follow and the Aldo’s “remodeling” is suspect.
Want to commemorate surviving SNOW-MG 2010 or brag to your friends back at home about how you watched DC become something reminiscent of a ghost down during a zombie apocalypse during “snowmaggedon”? Thrillist DC is giving you that chance.
You can rep the District all year long with their new “I Survived…Snowmageedon” T-Shirt.
Sick of snow all together? You can also show your DC pride by sporting these trendy new sealed and water resistant dog tags are made from real maps of DC. You might get lost if you ever want to use them to find your way around, but it’s a nice alternative from being constantly reminded about all this snow that just doesn’t seem to want to go away.
By Tom Bridge
‘Cyclists and DC Fire in the Snowmageddon’
courtesy of ‘theqspeaks’
You might remember the name Alex Capece from our He Loves DC series; he’s a DC EMS rookie working with DCFD in the midst of all this crazy snow. He’s updated his fire blog to include thoughts from working inside a blizzard, and it’s sure not glamorous:
I lost count of how many times we had to dig the ambulance out. The engine became stuck a few times, too—and without fail, as soon as we dig ourselves out, here comes a shout from down the street: “Hey, can you guys come give us a hand?”
Read the rest, it’s worth it, and buy any firefighter, policeman, or EM tech some beer if you get the chance. They’ve earned it.
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