more hellers treats

Originally uploaded by DCMetbloger.

How tasty does this look? A whole gingerbread house just waiting for you to destroy one bite at a time.

And how cool was the way I made this post – direct from cell phone to DC Metblog, without a laptop involved. How sweet is that? As sweet as the icing on the gingerbread house, which can be yours for just $50.

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Out and about in Clarendon this morning, looking for a spot of lunch before engaging in rampant consumerism, I walked past the hollowed out corpse of Virginia Hardware, which sat between Fillmore and Highland on Wilson Blvd in the heart of Clarendon. There was a new liquor license application, and a hiring sign…hmm, what’s this? Ri Ra? In Clarendon?

Holy crap, that brings the Irish Bar total up to four along a short span of Wilson Blvd. There’s the venerable Four Courts, the new Kitty O’Shea’s (formerly Joseph’s), and Molly Malone’s (formerly Taste of Casablanca) and now that adds Ri Ra (formerly Virginia Hardware) to the mix.

That’s a lot of craic, kids.

No, Mr. Barry, it’s craic, not crack. As in, “good times”, not “drug you smoked a lot of.”

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Originally uploaded by DCMetbloger.

Hellers Bakery – the new and improved one that is – is cranking out Valentines Day cookies and cakes already. Check out this tasty treat staring Disney’s mice and get your own soon.

It’s just too bad I’ll be outta town on Feb 14.

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Many Thanks to DCist for pointing out that the Mayor’s got his blog on again, and that he’s desperate for comments. I’ve read some of the Mayor’s entries, and I came to one that has me awfully befuddled:

I’ve never made New Year’s resolutions before but here goes. Two thousand six will see me: recognize that I’m married and have a beautiful wife; two, stay healthy — mentally and physically — by good eating and exercise; three, maintain this blog on a regular basis; and four, put accountability and children first on the city’s agenda.

Sadly, the Mayor’s blog lacks permalinks, but doesn’t that excerpt from his 24 January entry read like Mayor Williams is having to make some major concessions here? Did he NOT recognize that he was married before? Did he in fact recognize that he was married, but not to a beautiful woman? Either of those may get you some time sleeping on the Couch, Mr. Mayor…

But if you really want comments on your blog, I recommend the following:

1. Get Permanent Links to each entry.
2. Get an RSS feed
3. Post unmoderated comments, then police for spam, etc.

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Hello, MoCo is all over the bail hearing for John L. Hall, whose 8 year old son shot a 7 year old girl at daycare earlier this week. Apparently the 8 year old has a bit of a mouth on him:

Assistant State’s Attorney Karyn McAuliffe alleges that the eight-year-old boy said:
“Give me your money,” to the seven-year-old girl.

“[Expletive] the police. What the [expletive] can they do to a kid, anyway? I’ll shoot ’em.”

“Phase 1: Get weapons. Phase 2: Kill the hillbilly.” It’s unclear who the hillbilly is.

Yikes. Dude. Seriously. That’s fucked up. An Eight Year Old?! Of course, it seems that we’re going to have some quality time with Jack Thompson, as the child apparently used to play violent videogames with his father as well. This whole thing gets sadder by the day.

Technorati Tags: gun control, Maryland

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I paid up my season seats today with the Nats this morning, shelling out an extra $20 for my 21 game plan to keep my yellow seat over in Section 511. What’s that going to buy me this season? 21 games of watching Jimmy Bo and his crazy Nats try to finish out of the cellar in the NL East. We managed a so-so first season in DC, but this offseason has been crazier than a bunch of drunken santas, leaving the Nats in poor position to compete on the free agent market. Of course, it doesn’t help that we’re not exactly an appealing place to play right now:

Bowden and the Nationals are NOT considered attractive by any MLB’er. The male equivalent of the Nats still lives with his parents, sweats profusely when the thermometer rises above 50 degrees and dresses himself entirely in credit-card promotion giveaways.

Yeesh, that’s a bit harsh, don’t you think?

Technorati Tags: baseball, DC, Nationals

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Everyone knows about the geyser in Yosemite Park. But did you know that DC has it’s very own Old Faithful? It’s right downtown, and I discovered it last night in an explosive geological event that’s sure to get my name into the National Geographic Society.

The adventure began innocently enough, while enjoying a few pints with my fellow worker bees at a certain pseudo-Brit gastropub downtown…

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Ah the humor in it all… After having their previous Texas Hold’em Tournament robbed at gun point, this past week, the same and ever popular NoVA Texas Hold’em Tournament was robbed again.

How could the same game get robbed again, you ask? Oh maybe because of its advertising. Seems they invited the wrong people, or at least too many. To quote the WashPost:

Before the [first] Fairfax robbery, those on the e-mail list, from across Northern Virginia, numbered about 500, the host said. After the robbery, he and others slimmed down the list to the 170 people they most trusted [for this game].

Slimmed down to 170 people. Do you know 170 you would trust to come to your home? Do you even know 170 people?! And if you were robbed the last time you had a poker party, wouldn’t you think twice about having one again?

Or having one at all, as gambling is illegal in NoVA, right? You wouldn’t know it by this great quote:

“We used to have a place where we could play comfortably seven days a week, and that’s been narrowed to two to three times,” said the host

Playing Texas Hold’em seven nights a week? What are you – The Great Zucchini of poker parties?

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A number of people may not be aware of this, but just as a right on red is legal in the District of Columbia, so is a left, provided that you are on a one-way street and turning onto another one-way street. It’s hard to verify, since for no reason I can discern you can’t get the DC driver’s handbook online – there’s only the practice test

What is easy to verify, however, is that if you want me to turn on red there is no way other than patience for you to make it happen. What you can make happen is me waiting through the entire red light, which is accomplished by leaning on your horn. See, here’s the thing, Sparky. I can turn on red, but I don’t have to turn on red. So when someone is rude to me and I have nowhere to be, I’m gonna take my sweet time. So you got to wait out the light. Oops. I know you didn’t appreciate it based on your subsequent behavior, but here’s hoping you took a lesson from the experience.

Not all States allow right or left on red, by the way, so if you will be traveling anytime soon you can consult this excellent list of links to driving manuals in all the States.

Image from the VA complete driver’s manual.

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Seems kids in Northeast, forgetting that guns are banned in DC, played a modified game of Russian Roulette to the death last week. Instead of putting a revolver with a single round to their own own head, they pointed the gun at each other during turns. Inventive, yes, smart, no, as now another kid is dead with a hole in his head, allowing a DC politico to pipe up with a great comment after the fact.

In the WashPost, D.C. Council member Vincent C. Gray (D-Ward 7) “said the slaying and game of roulette also highlighted problems with the ‘adult supervision in the lives of these kids’ and others who are the victims of gun violence.”

Adult supervision eh? Say the kind of adult supervision found in Maryland? There 7 year-olds bring Dad’s gun to school and tag little girls.

Or maybe he meant the kind of adult supervision of firearms in Virginia, where even legislators let shots fly. Apparently, Henrico County Legislator Jack Reid (R)is so Dirty Harry, he’s willing to pop a cap into pretty much anything, including his own bullet proof vest when it got uppity yesterday.

Ah, but its not the handgun’s, fault, right? To quote the brilliant Virginia House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith, R-Salem :

In the DailyPress: “The truth is you’re more likely to get hurt in a car accident than by a gun, so why restrict people’s freedoms,” Griffith said. “What if we restricted cars because people die in wrecks?”

And the Roanoke Times“We’ve got six elevators” in the General Assembly Building, Griffith said. “If one of them crashes, that’s a problem. It doesn’t mean we ban elevators.”

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Remember those early mornings in High School when Honors Physics only ever met at 7:45am? Or swim practice at 6am? They could soon be a thing of the past in DC if a local group gets their way. Of course, those of us who lived to tell about the 7:45am classes get to be a little bitter if some whiny crybaby students somehow manage to convince a school board to make their classes later so they could party more…

Wait, that’s college, isn’t it?

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Some of the most amazing visuals to come out of local agency NASA in the last decade have been from the Mars rover project. Now there’s a movie coming up, in IMAX no less, all about the project. Directed by George Butler who brought us “Pumping Iron,” of all things, the film looks to be fantastic. Those rover pictures were amazing on the small screen; I can only imagine what IMAX will do for them.

It’ll opens at the Air & Space museum at 6th and Constitution on Friday the 27th. Unlike the museum itself, admission to the IMAX shows isn’t free – expect to pay $8.50.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

So DC has a parking problem. That isn’t news to anyone who lives here. And now Mayor Williams says he’s gonna help alleviate the parking woes by capping the number of cars allotted per household at three and raising residential parking permit fees for one permit from $15 to $25. A permit for a second car would cost $50 and the third would be $100.

Now we’re hearing all the usual bitching, most saying that the parking problem isn’t local DC residents, but out-of-area cars on the streets at night – permanent residents not registering in DC, temporary District visitors just in for the weekend, and evening commuters (bar/restaruant staff) . While that is somewhat true, you have to change local DC resident’s actions as much as those driving in.

How to do that? By getting real. Charging $25 for a parking permit is stupid cheap. If you want to effect change, you have to make it hurt to continue the current activity and feel good by changing the activity. I say charge $100 per year for an on-street permit or get a $100 tax credit if you do not have an on-street parking permit but have a DC driver’s license and $50 if you have both a license and a car, but no on-street registration. Then graduate the second and third permit prices higher – say $250 and $500. Last but not least, make most residential streets permit zoned 100% of the time.

This would have two effects:
1) People going car free DC would be rewarded the most. People with cars, but with off-street parking would be rewarded slightly. Those with on-street parking, using the most limited/expensive to the city resource would pay the most. People would change their habits accordingly.

2) People driving in on nights and weekends, if they live here or not, would be punished if they didn’t use a parking garage and tried use the limited street parking. As one who had a Florida-registered car in DC for three years before giving it to Mom the day I lost my off-street parking, I can attest to how fast unregistered cars belonging to residents would be registered or disappear. For those that come in from other areas (in the District or outside) who don’t like to pay for parking, two words: Metro, Taxi

Now if we only had a Mayor and Council members with the balls to try that…

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I experienced lunch from the best burrito cart in the city the other day. My coworker insisted that we walk to the burrito guy at 15th and K instead of the one at 17th and K, closer to our office. This wasn’t a problem for me, since I had never been all that impressed by the burritos at 17th and K anyway.

Mmm, best street-burrito I’ve ever had. 15th & K Burrito Man has a broad range of tortilla options, two kinds of beans, three sizes of burrito, choice of regular or lite cheese, and an impressive hot sauce collection, complete with available tortilla chips for taste-testing.

Payment is done by honor system, with each burrito-fan making his or her own change. There’s a burrito loyalty-card program, and the burrito guy will make sure you remember to take your free peppermint patty on your way back to the office with your tasty lunch.

The story goes that a guy who had his burrito street-cart license from the city for 20 years wanted to retire and find someone to pass on his permit to. Very Willy Wonka, no? So he held a burrito cookoff, and awarded the permit to the maker of the best burrito. The winner, so the legend goes, is the guy who owns Pedro and Vinny’s now.

Of course, I didn’t get a chance to ask him about this, since I heard the story after we walked away with our burritos. (With guacamole. Mmm.)

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Puerto Rico, Guam, The US Virgin Islands, they all get their own Olympic Delegation for Torino. They all have just one non voting representative in the House, just like us, here in DC. So, why not a DC Olympic Team? Sounds good by me. They’ve assembled a Curling Team to represent the District at Torino, assuming they can convince the IOC to let them in. From the FAQ comes this gem:

If someone wins a medal, what song will be played at the podium?

Good question. Since we are Americans, it would still be the “Star Spangled Banner” just like the U.S. Olympic teams do. Hoewever, we’d love to get a a go-go version of the song made by Chuck Brown.

We fully back the DCOC for IOC recognition in Torino.

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The Virginia Senate today passed a bill to place on a general statewide ballot in November a ban on same sex marriage, just days after the House of Delegates did the same. The ban would come in the form of an addition to the Virginia Bill of Rights, authored by George Mason in 1776, which has not been altered in a decade. Naturally, expect a major battle in the coming months between gay rights advocates (most of whom will not be able to vote in the election, as they would be coming from out of state), and conservatives in Virginia. I fully expect there to be fireworks. This one should be interesting, indeed.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I just got my first Valentines Day party announcement in my inbox – this one from Café Luna & skewers, which means it’s high time I get my butt in gear to leave the country.

See, I’ve found the most sure-fire way to be free of the Hallmark Holiday that Valentines has become is to flee the USA. Only overseas, without your nagging beautiful lover along, can you truly escape the stupidity of the manufactured “holiday”. My underlying bone: I’m a great guy 364 days out of the week to all my supermodels. Why should I have to prove it on the 365th?

So in the spirit of getting out of town to places exotic and Hallmark-free, I present to you the ultimate in escape airfare idea websites for Washington DC airports:

For your basic “I need to get outta town NOW!” cheap-o flight, try Yahoo! Best Fares Website, where you’ll have a no-frill list of flights, cheapest to most expensive.

Then, for the visual folks, we have the very cool Kayak.com, a site that shows you every destination and related price, airline, and dates on a Google map.

Now get your travel grove on while the getting is still good. Me, I’m headed to Puerto Rico!

Travel Tip: WAS is the airport code to search flights from all area airports: National (DCA), Dulles (IAD) and B’More (BWI).

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Well, okay, it’s not an official holiday, though it may seem like one here at DC Metblogs. Tom mentioned the exhibit at the Spy Museum and a little earlier mentioned the permit kerfuffle over at Walter Reed. Today we have students at Georgetown speaking out during a Alberto Gonzales appearance and expressing their concern over recent NSA spying news.

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It’s not that I don’t appreciate your upgrading my coffee options, darlings, but we geeks need our toys first and coffee second. After all, there’s lots of other caffeine delivery systems out there to pick from. Our very own Fairfax-based nerd-toy seller Think Geek has a suite of stuff ranging from caffeinated mints and gums to sodas and effervescent tablets, a la Alka-Seltzer, so I can manage that part myself.

No, what I need more than that is bandwidth and you’ve scorned me for other cities. C’mon, Long Beach and JFK get it but we don’t? JFK I get, given the number of flights you run out of there. But Long Beach? We’ve got almost as many flights! Pony up the bits, Blue!

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Slashfood has an article today on what it’s like to set the menu at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and it’s got some amazing limitations for chefs:

Flambés are banned, after a woman leaning over her dessert caused her fox-fur scarf to catch fire in 2001. Foods that smell very strongly and might be offensive to some guests, like pungent fish or garlic-heavy dishes, are kept at a distance. Gravies and sauces are kept to a minimum as well to decrease the likelihood of drips ruining formal attire.

While formal attire may limit the menu a bit, Executive Chef Cristeta Comerford has been cooking up some amazing events, including the state dinner with Charles and Camilla last November. Look at those hors d’oeuvre!

Technorati Tags: DC, food, White House

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs