Ok, so it’s been a couple of weeks since my last entry on house-hunting. I’d mentioned then we’d be scouring the I-95 corridor…

Well, nix that idea. Every time I think of commuting up that nightmare stretch of road, I get the shakes and want to vomit. Spending nearly a quarter of my day stuck in a metal cocoon (even if it is a SUV) with other hapless souls just sucks a bit more life out of me.

So I put my foot down. We’re gonna pass. Even the allure of half-price housing just doesn’t do it for me. The fuel cost alone would even out the mortgage savings.

That issue settled, we instead spent some time looking along the Fairfax County Parkway corridor (aka “Rt 7100” for you locals who think it’s a speedway).

Yes, yes, we’ll look at DC at some point, it’s on the list (looks at Wayan).

We’ve found nothing but depressing sites (save one corner lot). My question is to these faceless foreclosed souls is a simple one, really. Were you THAT greedy a few years back that you bought well above your means to the point that you had to play landlord for a bit? And did you ever hear about “tenant screening”? Using Craigslist doesn’t count, period. My God, these homes looked so abused and malformed… If they were children, I would’ve sworn we were in a Third World country.

I know that if you are trying to short sale, you think it excuses you from cleaning up the place. It doesn’t. It only makes me want to smack you and dissuades me from even considering your house as a viable purchase to save you from the bank. My sympathy turns from your hard-luck case to the sad state of your former home.

And I don’t have the extra $$$ to spend on cleaning up and re-fixing the house.

Good thing we have time to be picky. I’d hate to be doing this with only a month or two to find something.

What about you? Are you more inclined to consider a place that’s at least clean (or attempted as such)? Or is there something worse that turns you off a potential home sale?

For Sale, courtesy of PhotoDu.de

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Might be a reasonable question to have when you first see this post on Capital Weather, but as it turns out the more appropriate question might be “what does the Smithsonian do with weather?” The answer is, apparently, not much.

The information presented in the exhibit stands in direct contrast not only to current climate science but also to other information that the museum has published.

[snip]

One of the panels of text in the ice ages exhibit is entitled “The Future” and states, “the minor global cooling trend of recent decades, with its attendant shifts in wind and rainfall patterns, is being carefully watched and studied. Already the effects on food production are severe in many parts of the world…”

Global cooling is typically something that climate change contrarians talk about, not the Smithsonian.

As it turns out, the culprit here is not the Smithsonian deliberately engaging in falsehoods, but rather simply failing to notice the old exhibit. Andrew quotes Smithsonian employee Bill Fitzhugh as saying they simply forgot the exhibits were there and contained that information.

It’s an interesting dilemma for the Smithsonian divisions that do more than simply display prior art, and presumably goes beyond just the science-minded stuff. What about text attached to, say, a painter’s biography if new information comes to light about their work or life? I hope this publicity goads the Smithsonian to add some ongoing oversight to their exhibits. Perhaps a project similar to the LoC’s Flickr project could put all the exhibit text in a format that people could view other than when they happen to be in front of it, improving the odds of finding antiquated info.

Photo by Ehpien

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

(photo by bcostin)

So as previously mentioned, my wife and I had determined now was the right time for us to look for a home in Northern Virginia. (Considering my decades-long “dislike” of Maryland, it was automatically disqualified.)

This past weekend was our first outing with our Realtor to see what the area had to offer. We stuck to Springfield this weekend; no need to rush hither and yon right out of the gate.

We saw about 8 houses over the course of the last two days. Four were flat-out clunkers, two were ‘ok’, and two were outstanding! So much so we were hard-pressed during a late dinner at Mike’s American Restaurant to decide between the two – supposing we would place an offer so quickly from the start.

Needless to say, I’m amazed – and appalled – at the selection, even within a small five mile radius. Certain neighborhoods seemed to have ‘foreclosure’ or ‘for sale’ signs up nearly every other house. Others, you’d have a hard time finding even one.

A couple of the homes we visited were what I call “tired.” Scuffed walls, small holes, beaten appliances. Lived hard, then left vacant. Homes like that, I assign about $20K of additional “fix-up” money in my head – I’m no handyman, I’m gonna pay some guy to do it for me.

One home in particular you could tell was “rooms rented” – every door had a separate key, the carpet was beat to hell, and it LOOKED like a flophouse on the inside. You’d never know on the outside, though. We ‘passed’ on that one.

There was one place we went to that was still occupied, sorta. The house was a disaster; the two lower rooms were being ‘rented’, and it was just a sad testimony to the overeagerness of some people who bought over their heads and couldn’t keep above water.

Though I will pass on advice to this homeowner(s) – if you’re going to try selling your house, it would *probably* help if you, you know, CLEANED IT UP first. I know you’re supposed to look at the house and not the stuff, but geez! Nothing says “no way in hell” like old food along the baseboards, dirty clothes everywhere, and piles of junk “hidden” in the garage.

Bottom line? This first outing I’d give a B+. Two great possibilities, 4 disappointments. Prospects are looking good, though. I am really encouraged regarding the homes available for our projected price range.

Next week: the I-95 corridor (unless plans change).

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Jonny Goldstein‘s
heart-shaped pancake

Yep, this is it, folks. If you haven’t bought a gift by now, probably you are scrambling and sweating or else are simply single and glad to not have to scramble and sweat. Don’t forget the meaning of this day, though. The whole idea is to show your love, not to empty your wallet.

Forget the cards, chocolates, flowers, sassy cats, stuffed animals and gift cards to your favorite after-church sex goods store. All that stuff is old hat. If you want to look sincere, you are going to have to be sincere and really put forth effort. Here is my list of Valentine’s Day gifts to capture the heart of that special person in your life.

Top Five Alternative Valentine’s Day Gifts

• Homemade Meal – be a regular Jonny Goldstein and cook your sweetie a nice meal. It comes from the heart, is romantic and is a great way to share something special and homemade in private, rather than going out to show off to other couples.
• Gift Certificate to a Book Store – What better way is there to show your affection than by offering to stimulate your lover’s mind? Better yet, go with him/her to pick out a special book.
• At-Home Poetry Reading – Share the beauty of poetry with your loved one. Just because Rod Stewart couldn’t “quote you no Dickens, Shelley or Keats” doesn’t mean you shouldn’t seek it out and delight in the perfect proportions of poetry.
• Take a Drive – On your way somewhere for the evening? Enjoy the lights of downtown. Heck, even cross the river and see the lights of Georgetown and Foggy Bottom on the river. One of the most majestic river sights, in my opinion, is on the Key Bridge, where you can look over and see the Kennedy Center glimmering on the water and the Washington Monument in the background.
• Just be Together – What better way is there to create romance than simply being together, minds in the present moment? Enjoy each other. Talk and listen. Spend less time doing and more time just being.

What are your plans? How will you show your love today? Or do you observe this holiday at all?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Remember all the hoopla about West Nile Virus and how I scared the bejeezus out of you with all the dangers associated with it and then gave you hope because of all the ways you learn about and prevent it (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)?

I, too, thought WNV was a thing of the past, or at least at bay over the winter, but I just learned I was wrong. The Falls Church web site talks about what we can do now to prevent WNV in the spring and summer. Quite honestly, this is the first reasonable or sensible argument I have heard for raking leaves.

Their suggestions:

Clean Rain Gutters – Clean out leaves and debris from your gutters frequently. Wet leaves provide nutrients and protection for mosquito larvae.
Recycle Old Tires – Recycle tires or store them where they won’t collect rainwater. For playground use, drill water drainage holes.
Rake Leaves – Leaves left in your yard will decompose and become food for mosquito larvae in the spring.
Fill Holes and Yard Depressions – Those puddles of water in your yard make great mosquito breeding sites!

It’s entirely possible that simply burning the old tires will create enough smoke to get rid of the mosquitoes, but don’t trust me on that. Is anyone reading a good source of information on tire fires and their effects on pesky insects?

And while we are on the subject of annoying critters, I will be happy with my mosquitoes any day, as long as I don’t have to deal with scorpions. Let’s get real for a second – in comparison, mosquitoes don’t seem so bad, do they?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

There was word that the Ron Paul Blimp was going to do a DC flyover this week, possibly for their Thursday 9AM rally at the Federal Reserve, but we can now confirm that this is definitely not happening. This RonPaulForums thread cites “weather and FAA restrictions” for the change-of-plan; apparently the argument that “the First Amendment applies to airships” lost out to the prospect of being shot down or fined for violating the Flight Restriction Zone around the DC area without prior authorization.

The blimp, though now nearing completion, has been delayed incessantly due to weather and logistics issues, originally slated for launch between Wednesday and Friday last week, then delayed to Monday this week, then delayed again to Friday. It normally takes months to prepare an airship for an ad campaign, but the volunteers behind the initiative have impressively thrown it together in just a couple of weeks, all the while managing to circumvent campaign finance law by incorporating as a political advertising firm — albeit one whose sole service is to advertise Ron Paul‘s name on an Airship Management Services blimp — from whom supporters can “purchase” advertising time beyond the regular individual or PAC donation limits. Whether this loophole is really valid remains up in the air. Like a blimp. Oh, the humanity.

Update: The Federal Reserve rally was “postponed indefinitely,” and the blimp is no longer going to Boston.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

image courtesy of the
Shakespeare Theater Company

As Jenn mentioned, she and I got to go see the Shakespeare Theater’s production of Edward II on Friday evening. If you’re looking for a review in short: MAN do you have the wrong writer!

Uh.. I mean, if you’re looking for a review in short, I recommend it. The show is free of the scenery-chewing that afflicts some other viewing options, the characters are realized well enough for you to care about them, and the chemistry and interaction between the people on stage is believable and enjoyable. Somewhat unfortunately, while this is a far superior show to Tamburlaine, it doesn’t allow you to really enjoy the space of the new Harman theater as much. There’s nothing wrong with the layout or set but it doesn’t have the “oh wow” factor that the much more open set does in Tamburlaine.

If you’re looking for a longer review… well, try below the fold here.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs Continue reading →

Was anyone else caught in the large CF on the Chain Bridge this morning? It was backed up like a cheap commode because people coming from Virginia into DC were following the usual workday morning traffic patterns, using two lanes on the bridge, but were forced to merge at the stoplight in DC at Canal Road. Canal Road coming west to the bridge is working on a holiday schedule, not jibing a darned bit with how it normally is at that time.

This type of thing has concerned me in the past because the likelihood of everything getting crapped up is really quite high when you think about the amount of information on the signs and the speed you are going when you are supposed to read and integrate all the information. It lists which lanes are drivable depending on the time of day, day of week and whether or not it is a holiday. Lots of decision points there, especially the last part. Is today a holiday? For the postal workers, yes. For the garbage collectors and me, no.

If you usually take this bridge, I highly recommend going a different route on the way home because you will surely experience a similar problem. Also that will make it easier for me because I am likely to forget to go a different way when I try to leave my place of employment this afternoon.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

The last time I was at Proof, the “wine-centric restaurant” opposite the American Art Museum, a friend and I nibbled on an enormous charcuterie platter with meats and cheeses and honey and nuts and – an hour passed before we realized we were far too stuffed to try any of the entrees or smaller plates. Not to mention our indulging in the champagne cart made ordering more from the extensive wine list redundant. No matter, I thought, I’ll be back.

Friday night found me revisiting Proof with the always entertaining Don Whiteside (I have to reveal he drank only beer, dear reader, shocking!). I managed to explore one dish more, the smoked salmon flatbread, but just couldn’t pass up the prosciutto and cheese again. Nor could I really get past the bubbly. Completely failed at trying anything else, despite a very tempting variety. Oh well, this whole “wine-centric restaurant” deal confuses me anyway. No doubt it’s an economic decision to branch out beyond wine bar nibbles, and obviously it doesn’t bother me at all, I just wonder if I will ever get to try anything else on the menu. Willpower, whatever, this whole branching outside of your comfort zone is vastly overrated anyway.

A note on atmosphere – the first time I went was quite close to its opening, and it was jam-packed with your usual Washingtonian power suspects. Luckily that appears to have mellowed by now. With a sleek yet romantic design, ably managed by a cheerful and helpful staff, this is not an intimidating place to try wine. While we were there a girl asked the bartender for “just a glass of white wine” – and without raising an eyebrow he gently steered her to something she might like after a few questions. Education without condescension. Nicely done.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

A very interesting delay notice on the Metro PIDS signs this morning:

MINOR DELAYS
RED LINE
Minor delays on the Red Line due to a deer wayside on the tracks between Forest Glen and Wheaton stations.

A little more info on that from the DC WMATA Livejournal community.

This isn’t the first time a deer has infiltrated Metro; many of you might remember “Rudolph the Blue Line Reindeer,” who in Dec 2003 jumped the turnstiles at Addison Road-Seat Pleasant station, wandered around the mezzanine, rode down an escalator, galloped down the platform as a train arrived, then jumped onto the tracks (avoiding the third rail) and away to freedom, probably to nibble on some suburban lawn’s hedges.

Anyone see the deer on the Red Line this morning? Pictures! We want pictures!

(I must point out belatedly that this is also not the first time someone has used “Oh Deer” as a witty post title.)

Update from WTOP News. THEY KILLED IT! THEY KILLED THE DEER! HOW COULD YOU, METRO? HOW COULD YOU KILL A DEER AND NOT HAVE VENISON HORS D’OEUVRE PLATTERS AT EVERY STATION ON MONDAY MORNING??!!?!11

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Another parking meter letter, this time on Woodmont Street in Bethesda:

Dear Kind Parking Enforcement Officer:

Came for lunch with my attorney, who assured me this ‘IOU’ was sufficient because I do not carry coins. I just can’t be bothered with them; they rattle too much in my pockets and throw off my game. How’s a guy supposed to get some action when he’s got coins rattling so close to his junk? Anyway, IOU $2 for overpriced parking for my overpriced lunch.

Yours Truly,
Don Whiteside^*

Have you seen any love notes, IOU letters or broken meter complaints? Are you opportunistic enough to watch for them and take that spot, then claim you were the note writer?

^*Not really Don Whiteside, who is an honest, law-abiding fellow, not a scofflaw like the Johnny Nogood who left the note.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I love Sam Smith’s “DC CITY DESK.” It’s a great shot of progressive thought into my email every week. Commentary on DC that usually finds me nodding my head in agreement. Well, except when it comes to the DC taxi system.

Sam seems to forget, in his pro-cabbie missives, that taxicabs are not a welfare to work social program, but a bona fide service to DC residents. Sam says:

In a decision that effectively dismantles the best urban cab system in the country, Mayor Fenty has ordered local cabs to install meters. No other city has so many cabs per resident and at a reasonable cost. In no other city is the cab business such an important factor in upward economic mobility.

Now I question exactly how those two statements can equal each other. If a cab system is affordable, just how can it also be a path to upward mobility?

Sam seems to say that it’s possible because DC cabs are not cab company owned. That the myriad independent drivers gain from direct, often unrecorded payments without cab leases from cab companies. But exactly how does that translate into decent service?

I know that when I am in a London taxi, the driver has “The Knowledge”. I know that when in NYC, I can I can track my ride by GPS. In DC, I only have a semi-literate driver, following a crap map, who often doesn’t know Petworth from Pentagon City. And I’m expected to pay at least $6.50 for the privilege for a ride to nowhere.

If we want the DC cab system to be a step up, then let us have the government, not riders, pay for that service. If we want to have a decent taxi system, then let’s have free markets, and meters, prevail. But no matter Sam’s hope, we cannot have both.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I remember the first time I saw a sweet DC kiss. Last summer, a moving truck took a too-tight turn and ruined an Ohioan’s vacation. Then Brownpau saw a serious DC parking lot kiss, offender unknown. And who could forget the Metrobus DC kiss that sent passengers to the emergency room?

Each time, I felt sorry for the recipient and wondered if the kisser got away with their transgression. Saturday morning, I found the answer the hard way.

In mid-post about Dousing IMF Protestations, I get a call from my neighbour: “Did you hear that crunch? Sounds like someone just hit your Mom’s truck.”

That’s not the phrase you want to hear when your Mom is in Hawaii, entrusting you with her pickup after saying “Now don’t you wreck it. I think of your father every time I drive it.”

Sprinting outside, I found that my new neighbour, in her haste to move in, gave me a taste of DC parking problems, a DC kiss of my very own.

The neighbour, apologetic to a fault, was nice enough, and the fender, while bent past salvage, doesn’t hinder driving and can be replaced easy like, did put a bummer on my weekend.

While it might sound fun, a DC kiss ain’t – for either party.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

As part of the Washington Post trying to get more involved in the local blogging community, Marc Fisher (“Raw Fischer”) has named his first Blogger of the Month: Wayan’s Betrothed Prince of Petworth.

Congrats to the Prince for being singled out for his “passion to make the place where he lives better”. Being featured by the Washington Post is a pretty cool honor and who knows, maybe Wayan will be next?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I was recently at Wayan‘s house partying like it was 1999 with him and his Butterbean when he took what should have been a piece of refuse from the dining table and proceeded to strip the remaining meat from the carcass. He found such tiny bits of goodness left among the bones that I had neither the eyes to see nor the palate to appreciate.

Yes, I am vegetarian but I just have to respect a guy who isn’t too bashful to start sucking on a chicken corpse to extract every last tasty morsel and bit of nutrient left. It’s refreshing to see the youth of today so excited about not wasting even a scrap of useful food.

What do you do to reduce food waste? What is the chicken corpse in your diet?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

It is 8pm on a beautiful Friday evening. Your week is done and the night is young. There is only one option: Wonderland Ballroom Beergarden.

But do not go alone. Your friends want to celebrate the first week in October outside too, and not empty handed.

I am out with Dan the Water Man, my good friend from GSBI, and of course the Betrothed Butterbean. We are joined by an amazing cross section of DC, all of whom are excited about tomorrow: Columbia Heights Day.

See you here or there.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

How insignificant does this diplomat feel right about now?

He may have a Secret Service detail in imposing black SUV’s giving him status, but yet his convoy stops at all the red lights on Pennsylvania Avenue.

What’s next? Will he be denied a night at the Blair House, or worse, Premium Passenger status at Dulles Airport? Or next time told to just take a taxi?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

We all know that Don has a hot fetish for Virginia license plates. He writes about them so often, I wonder how he drives on I-495, what with all the camera phone picture taking he does out the window.

But he should stop going for quantity and realize that for quality, no-one can beat the District of Columbia. How? Let me give you this classic cruiser as Example 1A.

It’s a cool car, right? One you’d be proud to roam around in on a beautiful fall day. And now guess what the owner of said vehicle has as his vanity license plate.

Do you guess this perfect phrase?

I thought not, but it’s so appropriate, eh? I know I did a double-take when I saw that shout-out to the muscle cars of past and this blue beauty of present.

Good luck with them commuters, Don. You ain’t got nutting on the District.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

For all the lead-foot morning commuters on New Hampshire Avenue NW, this is your final warning. The speed limit is 25 miles per hour, and no matter if you think that’s too slow or not, these two DC MPD will issue you a speeding ticket.

They were at Sherman Avenue this morning, promising also to be on New Hampshire above Grant Circle, and will be ready to ruin Speed Racer mornings all week long. The cops are more than happy to give speeding drivers a sloooow ticket writing experience, hefty fines, and points on a license.

I’m am happy for the police presence in Petworth, and I’m also happy they’re cracking down on the New Hampshire Avenue raceway, but I wasn’t happy with the response to photographing their speeding ticket sidewalk scene.

See the grinning on the officer in the florescent vest? The one on the right in the photo above? When I said I was going to photograph him pulling over a speeder, a celebration of good police work in my neighbourhood, he wasn’t happy any more. He said that the act of pulling a driver over was a “police action” and photography wasn’t allowed.

Whoa! Apparently Officer No-Photo didn’t know who he was talking to, and didn’t realize that photography in public, and especially photography of law enforcement officers in action, in public, is a well documented First Amendment right.

So while I love the police presence, and enjoy watching this police action every morning, Officer No-Photo needs to brush up on his 1st Amendment rights. Photography is free on our streets, nationwide.

If he’s there tomorrow, and I’m not in my own rush to work, I’ll stop and give him a photographer’s rights refresher.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

In case you, like me, were of a mind that trees are planted in museum atriums from seeds or tiny saplings and then allowed to grow and flourish over the course of decades, the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s official blog Eye Level would like to disabuse us of that notion with this entry, “Picture This: Trees!!” showing a whole black olive tree being lifted by crane and lowered into the new courtyard.

The Reynolds Center courtyard (officially the “Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard” for its philanthropist funders) is shaping up to be an interesting architectural highlight, what with the wavy glass roof they’ve put up over it. I’m sure Whitman would approve.

More photos here.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs