hauling

Ericka and DC Mayor Anthony Williams
Originally uploaded by eralon

So former DC mayor Anthony Williams is strolling down K Street yesterday, when he notices a passerby snag a package out of the back of a UPS truck and try to slip away.

So what did he do? He took off after the guy. You’re damn right he did.

When Williams caught up with him, the thief simply said, “You used to be the mayor,” before handing over the stolen package and slipping away into the crowd.

Nice work, Mr. Williams.

P Street, Golden Hour
Originally uploaded by lightboxdc

DC has announced the second sales tax holiday, beginning at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, Nov. 28th (and not a minute sooner!) through exactly 12:00 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 7th.

“The Sales Tax holiday grants an exemption from the 5.75 percent sales tax for clothes, shoes, and accessory items. To qualify, each item must cost $100 or less.”

Here is the very (read: overly) specific list of what qualifies:

Clothes (clothing)
Any article of apparel for humans, including pants, shirts and blouses, dresses, coats, jackets, belts, hats, undergarments, and multiple-piece garments sold as a set, if $100 or less.

Shoes
All footwear, except skis, swim fins, roller blades, and roller-skates.

Accessory Items
Jewelry, non-prescription eyeglasses, watches, watchbands, handbags, handkerchiefs, umbrellas, gloves, scarves, ties, headbands, hats, belts and belt buckles, and other traditional accessory items

So go forth and holiday shop! Wait… whats that you say? You’re broke? Bad economy? Cutting back on holiday spending? Huh? Pshhhh.

Spam wall
Originally uploaded by freezelight

If you’ve noticed that overnight, you’ve gotten fewer V1agr4 emails, you have Brian Krebs of the Washington Post to thank. See, as part of the Security Fix blog, he’s been tracking down a lot of malware networks, a lot of spammers and a lot of kiddie porn traffickers. About 75% of the spam networks can trace their core servers and services back to a single server co-location facility in San Jose, called McColo.

And yesterday, his work took McColo’s internet connections offline. Continue reading →

Originally uploaded by erin m

Perfectmatch.com issued a press release today that although the economy might be taking a swift kick, signing up for online sites like match.com, chemistry.com, and of course, perfectmatch.com is on the rise. The release claimed that when times take a turn for the worse, more people reach out for support, and are looking out for a significant other.

The press release says: “Recently released statistics from Perfectmatch.com show a spike in new members of 47% over the last quarter, accelerating a trend that started at the beginning of 2008. In addition, matches are up 125%, as members are renewing their subscriptions and finding more perfect matches than ever before.”

DC regularly rates among the “best cities for singles” according to various different publications and sources – which is actually a stat often taken by counting how many people from a given region are signing up for these online dating sites. Which, I don’t think makes it a “great city for singles” since clearly people are turning to the internet for love instead of being able to find it in-person. (I have plenty of girlfriends who will tell you that’s the darn truth!) But the best singles city ranking does mean that a lot of people are online in DC looking for love. So… match.com or e-harmony anyone? Craigslist? Where have you had the best luck in online love in DC?

Fishy
Originally uploaded by maxedaperture

I’m not one to eat and tell, but I guess that “celeb-spotting” in DC is not reserved to strictly politico types. I know Paulo caught the enigmatic Lindsay Lohan on a golf cart to Union Station. I on the other hand, a consumer of all news and an anglophile at heart, caught our local BBC World News America anchor, Matt Frei, pondering his overwhelming options of bentō boxes and small sushi trays at Nooshi on 19th street.

It’s odd that while, say an ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN or Fox newsperson (local or national) could cause a minor stir if snagged in public, rather than having an intern doing their bidding. Our friends from “across the pond” can steal away from their anchor desks and fetch their own eats without a mere notice by the regular populace in D.C. (I did congratulate him and his team on the awesome coverage of the campaign this year). Now if I could only catch the cast of Top Gear at the nearby Chipotle, my year would be truly made. Mr. Clarkson and his crew are my unabashed “free speech” heroes at this moment in time, PC or not!

Who’s the oddest or “most famous” celebrity spotted by our readers in D.C. recently?

P1010175_1
Originally uploaded by inked78

Do you live in Wards 3-8? Do you have once-weekly trash pickup? Your Trash Day May Be Changing, according to DPW. If your day is changing, you’ll get a door hanger from DPW with the new schedule explained in English & Spanish. The new schedule takes effect on December 1st. Unfortunately, DPWhasn’t changed their site yet with the new dates, or to announce they’re coming.

Veterans Eve
Originally uploaded by erin m

It’s Veterans Day, so while you’re enjoying either the day off from work or the light traffic into the city, please take a moment to remember the generations of men and women who served their country in times of both war and peace.

Today, I honor my paternal grandfather, who served in Germany in the late early 60s, and my maternal grandfather, who was stationed in London in the RAF during World War II, as well as several of my uncles who served in various branches of the Armed Forces as young men.

Feel free to leave your own tributes in the comments.

Upwards to the Capitol
Originally uploaded by tbridge

This shot was taken from the entranceway to the new Capitol Visitors Center this morning. While the CVC doesn’t open to the public until December 2nd, we got the private tour today, along with a lot of the rest of the media. The short version? It’s amazing. The slightly longer version? It’s amazing, but it cost over $600 Million and will have taken almost 7 years to complete. Emancipation Hall is the centerpiece of the CVC, at the heart of which is the original 5-piece plaster statue of Armed Freedom, the bronze version of which sits atop the Capitol Dome.

Thanks much to the CVC Media Staff and the Senate Press Gallery for their help today!

You’re never too old for a good game of follow the leader
courtesy of Jean-François Chénier

Well, if you’ve ever sat around and pressed refresh 500 times waiting for someone to respond to your comment on one of our posts… KNOCK IT OFF! Bandwidth ain’t free, you know!

Oh, alright, we’ll help you out – we’ve added a new feature here at We Love DC. When you post a comment on one of our posts you can elect to be notified when someone else comments. Or if you just want to watch a particularly entertaining back and forth between Crank A and Crank B you can choose to be notified without leaving a comment of your own.

Don’t worry, you can stop the notifications when you lose interest in following the discussion. Every email you get will have a link you can follow to manage your subscriptions.

Photo by Wayan

When will Dulles Airport be done with its seemingly endless upgrades?

There seems to be decades of modernization scheduled to bring the 60’s icon into the 21st century.

Do not get me wrong, I cannot wait to loose the people movers and the United gates are dank caves, but I would like to fly with ease today, not it 2025.

Palisades Parade – Mayor Fenty Tosses His Beads
Originally uploaded by wharman

Washingtonian has two pieces of note today about our mayor: a profile of the Mayor, mid-term, and a mid-term report card, which grades Fenty pretty well for most things, excepting social services (D) and schools (Incomplete). Both are some good reading for a Friday afternoon if you’re so inclined. With 2010 not far off (and indeed, Mayor Fenty’s re-election paperwork already filed), it won’t be long until he’s back in campaign mode, and this is a pretty good time to see how he’s done.

What do you think of the report card? Accurate or perhaps too lenient?

Mannequin peanut gallery
Originally uploaded by philliefan99

So in case you haven’t noticed, its gloom and doom out there for the economy. People (like yours truly) are being laid off, car sales have plummeted and our stock market looks like the scariest six-flags roller coaster.

But there is a bright side. OH yes, a shiny, new, glossy bright side. The sales.

My favorite store to lust-over is JCrew, who has been filling my email box with fall sale alerts and 30% off coupons. Banana Republic also has all their winter clothing on sale. Macy’s cannot stop airing sale ads on television. I recently hit up the $99 suit sale (hello, job interviews!) only to have Matt’s mom hand me a 15% off-the-sale coupon.

Our friends NBC Washingtonreports Wal-Mart, the king of cheap, is even cutting prices. “The retail giant will rollback prices on thousands of items and on Saturday, shoppers can save on electronics during a special one day sale.”

We may just be gearing up for a cheap(er) holiday shopping season than usual. But should we all adopt the Bush mantra of “spend, spend, spend” – wouldn’t it do us good to pay off all our credit card debt? Yes. Take care of the debt, but at least the sales can definitely help us save on holiday gifts. Good, ‘cause it’s not like we can afford anything full price anymore, right?