Are you headed to 8th Street SE today? Want the best happy hour deal around? Then check out Finn macCool’s Irish Publick House.

As the sign says, they have half-price bottles of wine at their Wednesday happy hour. And not just house wine, but any wine on their whole menu. Best off all, there’s no need to rush – the happy hour wine special is from 4-10pm.

The Betrothed Butterbean and I took advantage of this great special last Wednesday with a decent and cheap Pinot Grigio. It was no Chateau Kefraya, but it did go well with the Sheppard’s Pie.

Better hurry to Barracks Row soon, ya’ hear. With the temperature dropping in DC’s mico-fall, winter could be here before you can enjoy the patio drinking.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Look up at that gizmo attached to the lamp post at Arkansas and Upshur. What could that be?

Is it a Shot Spotter installation? Or a secret District emergency radio transmitter?

It seems to be an antenna leading to the traffic camera. Could this be a red light remote control? At least its not MPD CCTV or Tom’s hated speed cameras.

Regardless of what it does, I’m glad the powers that be are installing electronics on light poles and not up a kitty’s bum.

Even the spooks should have morals.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Could someone well-versed in the flora and fauna of Mid-Atlantic waterways please tell me what the heck these weedlike plants are reaching up from the depths of the C&O Canal in Georgetown? They are freaking me out with their resemblance to rotting zombie hands.

(Photo by Russell Heimlich.)

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Do you wonder how potholes are filled in Washington DC?

While a traditional pothole crew can patch about 10 potholes a day and requires a four-person crew to assist with lane closures, the “Pothole Killer,” an all-in-one vehicle that only requires only a driver, can repair up to 100 potholes a day.

The Pothole Killer has a boom and nozzle on the front of the truck that the driver uses to spray out a stream of hot blacktop, then a mixture of gravel and blacktop, finished with more gravel – six minutes to fix a pothole emergency.

No word if that means pothole making crews will now be unemployed, but I love the Pothole Killer and wish it well.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Well, someone does. I saw this carved into a tree at Donaldson Run Park in Arlington.

Many people have loved being in the Army but I had never seen it expressed like this before. Who did this? Was it you? I know Max loved his military service but I didn’t think he loved it this much.

How did you feel about your stint in the military? Did you love it as much as our mystery person did?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I had been getting $10 haircuts since I was a lad until a few years ago, when apparently scissor or Barbicide prices went up and the cheapest I could find was $12. My colleague recently paid $50 to get his hair cut. It looked good but guess what that expensive hairdo will do as fast as any other? It will grow out.

Why pay more than you have to?

I finally resigned myself to the 20% price increase and went to Michael’s Barber Shop on St. Elmo Street in Bethesda, just a block over from my office. I wanted to ask for the $10 children’s haircut advertised on their sign but was afraid I might end up with a bowl cut.

Michael, the fellow who runs the place, was a delight to talk to during the process. I got there before the lunch rush and had a leisurely time chatting with him and his colleague. Hell of a guy, that Michael. Very interesting person.

He did a great job on my ‘do and I now feel well coiffed. What do you think? I went from shaggy and unkempt, like Phil Spector, to clean-cut and handsome, like Cmdr. Rabb. How much better could it get? All this for just $12.

Where do you go for a bargain haircut?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

No matter if the Petworth Eyesore did get its contrsution permits, it’s still a danger to the community.

How? Check out the rusty exposed nails on these boards sitting in its side yard. Perfect to impale passing pedestrians with tetanus-shot requiring punctures until they’re properly disposed of.

That’s just yet another reason why its an eyesore and deserves a stop work order: danger to the public safety on top of its general visual offense.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Despite the tri-state drought, I’m enjoying fresh area farm produce every week. And I’m not talking about the farmer’s markets favorited by Jenn L, either.

I’m all about farm shares, the direct support of an area farm by purchasing a portion of its weekly production in association with other Washington DC produce aficionados.

Together, every week, we meet farmers, like those from Calgett Farms, and share in their bounty, drought or not.

Yes, Safeway might be cheaper, but its not as good, either in taste, association, or freshness as this social as well as gastronomical experience:

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Seen at Wisconsin Avenue and Cheltenham in Bethesda. The tires were right up on the curb, as if Charles Kuralt himself had come back from the grave to pilot this vehicle.

Spread the word far and near – crappy parking all day from 12 until 6 today only in Bethesda. Be sure to leave your wipers up to tell the cops you are celebrating the holiday and should not receive a ticket for your vehicular misdeeds. Celebrate this special day that brings us all together and reminds us that we are all equal. Revel in your right to park badly on this most sacred of days.

I am glad that other cities are getting in on the Crappy Parking kick. Hang on, DC – Bethesda may give you a run for your money!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

There is a lot of talk about Global Warming, or as I like to call it “Earth Cancer” – that we’re heating up the planet to unsustainable amounts.

Most of the evidence seems vague and far off, like a one degree jump in temperatures or far-off polar caps melting faster. None of that feels local or immediate.

Today I felt Global Warming’s quick and personal impact. I felt the heat, up close and instantly. I felt it when I went looking for ice – there wasn’t any!

That’s right, this is the ice chest at the Bling Bling Giant, empty like three other stores I checked. No ice means no cold mojitos, and that’s just intolerable.

So get with Al Gore, and stop your SUV love. The world cannot tolerate a hot, summer day ice-less. No you, not me, and not DC.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Now that the Betrothed Butterbean and I are in the full grips of the Bridal-Industrial Complex, I get to spend my lunch hours registering at area retailers.

Today’s mass marketer was Macy’s at the Pentagon City Mall and I was not impressed.

Unlike Crate and Barrel, where you can register and get a bar code gun in 3 minutes flat, the Macy’s bridal rep informed us it would take 20 minutes to register and we would need to make an appointment first!

We did not need the upsell, or to pick a “wedding theme” or a china & bedding ensemble consultation. We did not need an appointment and twenty minutes to fill out our names and get a price tag wand. What we needed was service, which Macy’s was in short supply of today.

But the wedding register clerk had plenty of time for herself. After we walked off in a huff, I noticed she was chatting with floor staff and messing about, clearly not expecting those that need assistance scanning in Waterford Crystal or Egyptian cotton sheets.

And with that attitude, Macy’s lost our bridal business. Has it lost yours?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Are you enjoying this year’s Screen on the Green movie line up? I’ve heard that “Annie Hall” was gay boys central and a few people walked out on “The Thing”.

My Betrothed Butterbean and I watched our first movie just this past Monday. “Wait Until Dark” was a great thriller if a little 1950’s. Robbers bent on killing wouldn’t even rough-up a blind Audrey Hepburn for a heroin stash, but her husband was a cold-ass, not even giving her a post-trauma hug.

At least we had good views. The chair people seem to have dissipated, or maybe we just got good seats upfront.

Next week is “All the Kings Men” followed by “Casablanca”, both which we’ve already seen. Hopefully next year HBO can come up with better movies, like maybe a fictional DC resident retrospective.

What would you suggest?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Walking my Betrothed Butterbean to work this morning, I found a note on the sidewalk. A note that seems like it might be important to someone.

Do these scribbles look familiar to you? Like maybe from a Women in Government meeting? Were you so engaged in “leadership through education” that you dropped your to-do list?

If so, or you know who did, please drop a note in the comments section. Give me an identifying scribble or action item, and I send a scan of the whole long-ass list to you asap.

I only want to know why you need to get dance lessons to figure out when the next meeting will be (Aug 27 or 28??).

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Sanford and Son, who apparently live across the street from me, have a new development going on. Check out the first post I did about the dumpster and the associated picture. Now look at the picture I took today. Notice something different?

Yep, that old office chair is gone. It sat through at least two rains and likely is full of every type of mildew spore you can think of. Now it’s gone. Who would take such a thing? Is my neighbor or his son Lamont lounging on it even as I type this? I hate to think that, but what else could have happened to it?

Did you take it? Did you? Maybe it was Max who took it, when he dropped off his busted AC unit.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

While at the Kabuki at the Warner Theatre last night (which was excellent, even though I didn’t understand a word of Japanese), I had felt that nature called during intermission, and wandered to the less crowded restroom in the basement. Besides the overpowering odor seemingly seeping from the tiles (I thought this was a “high brow venue” not porta potties at the Virgin Festival), I did my business and moved along to wash up. No sooner than two squirts of whatever they call soap there, I hear over my shoulder…

“How are you enjoying the show Mr. Libby?”

I look to my right, and at about 5’6″, with that annoying grin on his face, stands I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby. I’m a fan of Jim Henson’s Muppets, and he sure as hell doesn’t look like Scooter. I come to the realization, that no matter how powerful, or how far you fall from that power for whatever reason, you still have to have a place to do a #1 or a #2. Funny, that a schlum like me gets to share the same, um, “airspace” with somebody who had it all, and suddenly doesn’t. But that’s D.C., right?

I wonder if he will read our blog, and maybe take advantage of the suggested “escapes” from D.C.? If he sticks around D.C. longer, maybe he can also get together with another convicted D.C. felon on his radio show, maybe call it “Liddy and Libby“?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

No, this isn’t really the next John Carpenter film with Snake Plissken taking aim at the White House and Congress (although, I wished it was). But it’s about mid-season for all the D.C. natives to head out of town just to catch a breather from the madness that is life in the Capitol Region.

While typically, some of these “escapes” are not traditionally vacations in the usual sense (usually only a few days), there are plenty of places both near and far to get away from it all, even if it is only for a short bit. Some folks head internally, staying at home, or spending entire days at the movie theater. Others head out past the potential “blast zone“, to places like Shenandoah, Ocean City, and even Philly (which has King Tut right now, BTW). Others will head further afield…

Tom and Tiff head to Pittsburgh, but have been heard to hit the Eastern Shore. Carl’s on leave of mind to head to the Outer Banks in North Carolina, while Doug slips off to the local mountains of the Shenandoah. Paulo has yet to have a real honeymoon, and feels a strong pull to Harpers Ferry and the John Brown Wax Museum. Jenn loves Cape May in New Jersey, even though another city such as Philly or New York could also top the bill for rapid exit from our fair city. I’m heading to Beantown (to visit the Samuel Adams Brewery as well) and Cape Cod. Even Stacey escapes… at home in Vienna… Virginia, not Austria… just by having moved there. And we all know, DC is good enough for Wayan!

Jenn did bring up a good observation about coming back from these “breathers” from DC; How do you feel about the city when you return? Better or worse than when you ‘escaped’? Have you noticed anything interesting upon your return that you may have not observed or felt being here 24/7?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Can you imagine a block-long passport line? One that required Disney World-level crowd control lines?

A wait so long, it drove people to visit an actual Post Office?

You wouldn’t if you walked by the Passport Agency office on R Street NW today in Washington DC.

Yep, empty. No more passport line photo sets needed with summer now upon us.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

This is a view from my front stoop. My neighbor across the street had the county come and repossess a bunch of crap from his yard about four months ago. They took away something like eight dump trucks full of stuff, or at least that’s how many I counted. There could have been more before I even got home that day.

It turns out that another person in the neighborhood, who is reportedly retired and spends his time calling the county about people with minor complaints, had called the county numerous times to complain about the eyesore across the street from me. My first reaction was to think that person should find something more constructive to do with his time.

A couple days after that incident, my neighbor got the giant yellow dumpster delivered and started filling it up. Great, I thought – he is being responsible and getting rid of the stuff he has collected over the past thirty years he has been there. His kids even came by and the whole yard was abuzz with activity – trips between the house and dumpster and young sweaty people looking like they had done some honest work.

Then the kids made fewer trips and now I haven’t seen them in quite some time. I don’t think a new thing has been added in the last month, except for that red chair, which I threw on top last week. My neighbor next door used the dumpster as a place to put the debris from a porch demolition job he had done. Others in the neighborhood have taken advantage of it in various ways as well. In fact, this is where Max can dispose of his air conditioner, if he so chooses.

It was charming for a little while to see the neighborhood getting cleaned up, but it quickly became a nuisance – just another ugly dumpster in the world. This used to be a great neighborhood, and it still is, I suppose, but with that dumpster out there it is certainly less attractive.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

But it might be your treasure. Two air conditioners, a mismatched set of crutches, piles of ceiling tiles, twin bed headboard and footboard, a console TV, old ugly art pieces, old paint cans maybe with liquid paint still inside, a box of miscellaneous hardware, various lengths of quarter-round lumber, a couple old doors and an upholstered chair with no cushions. In the rain. Contact the best Yard Waste Dumpster Rental to take care of your house waste.

I was hoping to find one of those kid-killer refrigerators so I could snag the door for Don, but no dice on that front.

There were other things too but it all pretty much looked like it should be taken to the dump. Want to find a treasure? Check it out at 1812 N. Harrison Street in Arlington. Who knows? You might find just what you were looking for.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs