I just went out in search of lunch. In case you haven’t noticed, it’s lovely and sunny outside and not at all chilly. Yet another indication of the impending weather apocalypse. In any case, I thought I’d grab a delicious seared tuna salad at the little Artizen Cafe, next to Ollie’s at 11th and E. And since I was being such a good girl and getting salad, I thought I’d also treat myself to the best hot chocolate downtown.

Or should I say, I meant to, because it turns out to be “closed until further notice.” Ugh. I have no idea why – could be any number of reasons. I’ll bemoan the loss of not only their hot chocolate, fresh salads, and decadent panini, but also the cheery modern style and the friendly service, a relief from the usual Potbelly’s Au Bon Pain’s Cosi’s in such abundance on every corner downtown (ok, I know Artizen was a chain as well but at least a different chain). Double Ugh. Where am I to get my serotonin chocolate rush now??

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The Diane Rehm show is talking now about about everyone’s favorite DC Metblogs hot-button issue, smokefree DC. There seems to be some actual discussion going on rather than just talking shouting points, as well as some interesting facts.

I had no idea Dublin had gone smoke-free, much less Spain. I remember coming back from Madrid and not even bringing my suitcase in the house because the smoke-stink was so strong. That was the only time I can remember being glad to have a detached laundry room…

You’ll be able to listen to the archive of the show by 1p this afternoon.

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So I get these emails from Drink Liberally, a remnant of the 2004 election that I went to all of once as the meeting I attended bored me and (sorry Tom) they were at RFD, the most boring pub in town.

Filled with very earnest guys and a few wonky women (none as hot as the ex-Wonkette), talk quickly became way too political and policy for my tastes. As I tried to find a fun group to chat with, I noticed that RFD is essentially a large empty box with walls covered with sports TV. Great if you are a Redskins fan, crap if you hate the mind-suck of TV.

To try and tease more folks down to their Wednesday night drinks, now at Mark & Orlando’s, they linked to their Flickr account in this week’s email to show off how fun DCDL is. Word to the marketing department, if you’re gonna post photos, make them eye-worthy.

The photo I have here – that’s the best one of the bunch. The rest are even too boring for CSPAN.

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That’s right, if you wanna taste fine dining at fix price specials, make your reservations now. Pricy places are offering a three-course lunch for $20.06 and a three-course dinner for $30.06 when you mention “Restaurant Week” when making a reservation.

For the rest of us, who make our meal plans oh 3-5 minutes ahead of time, the pox on you reservists. We can only wait till the week after, when your overscheduled lives dissipate back in the Washington background.

The full WashPost list & details

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I don’t have a lot of occasion to ride the Metro, unfortunately, so perhaps this is an old change I am just now seeing. But whose bright idea was it to make the system maps 1/4 of their former size, a la the over-crowded CNN layout? The map is incomprehensible unless you’re right next to it and good luck seeing it if anyone is in that seat.

Either end of the car still has the full-sized maps but that’s of little help if I’m in the middle. I’m not just looking out for my own dizzy self here – we’ve got a lot of tourist riders who need all the help they can get too.

On counterpoint is my lovely girlfriend, who quipped “Considering some of Metro’s issues in the last year, maybe making the safety in-case-of-emergency info more prominent is more important to riders than knowing where they’re going.”

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It’s going to be bea-u-ti-ful warm winter day outside. Time to go for a run, a picnic, or like Russians, a swim. No matter what you do, don’t be sitting inside reading this!

Save the DC Metblog fun for when snow is in the forecast.

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Last month we covered the strike at the Washington Ballet and the ensuing closure of the company. Looks like things are getting worse: The Ballet has rejected an offer for mediation from the President of the Kennnedy Center. Of course, it probably doesn’t help that the dancers still view their own strike as a lockout. That said, it doesn’t seem to help that the management of the Ballet is unwilling to guarantee a certain number of dancing positions. Kaiser used to be the Executive Director of the American Ballet Theater, which gives him some serious insight into the artists’ community, as well as the management’s views. Here’s hoping they’re able to come to an agreement.

Technorati Tags: DC, ballet, strike

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What’s that you hear? Is that the sound of a jubilant Washington? It is! The Redskins beat the Bucs, 17-10. This means Mayor Williams won six cuban sandwiches from the Tampa Bay mayor as part of the victory. All that money spent on a flashy offense, and it was the defense that won this game. Arrington’s interception set up a short TD for Clinton Portis. That, with Sean Taylor’s fumble return for a TD made up the lion’s share of the scoring for the ‘Skins.

In fact, the ‘Skins lackluster offense was slumping pretty hard: Mark Brunell was a whopping 7/15 with a piddling 41 passing yard, while Clinton Portis only racked up 51 yards. This has got to change next week in Seattle. Hasselbeck and the Seahawks represent a formidable challenge, as they have an offensive that makes the Bucs look like a Division III squad. That’s going to make for a real challenge to the ‘Skins.

Technorati Tags: DC, Sports, Redskins

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Apparently, DC Lawyers are bristling that they might not be able to screw their clients. Not just in the courtroom, or at the bank, but anywhere, for any reason:

The D.C. Court of Appeals is considering revisions to ethics rules based on a model from the American Bar Association. That model considers “transactions” – another word for sex – with clients to be a conflict of interest.

So, sleeping with your client isn’t a conflict of interest? Well, perhaps it is: “Instead, it wants a strong warning that sleeping with clients could create a conflict of interest. Lawyer Anthony Epstein tells the D.C. Examiner the local bar doesn’t approve the practice, it just doesn’t think a categorical ban is appropriate.”

Yeah, I really got nothin’.

Technorati Tags: lawyers, DC

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Do you bike to work? Better yet, are you Car Free DC too? Then mark the date for Washington Area Bicyclist Association‘s Bike to Work Day 2006 – May 19, 2006. Bike to Work Day is always a fun celebration of the DC cyclist culture, with prizes, food, and even a free T-shirt and water bottle to all attendees.

Granted, there have been cold & wet Bike to Work Days in the past, but let’s hope this year is like 2004 – a beautiful spring day, perfect to celebrate cycling. Start praying for sunshine now. Registration starts March 1st 2006.

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I know Clinton Portis is a character. He is. Definitely. But this week’s Press Conference (scroll down to Clinton Portis Press Conference), is a hoot. Excerpts from this week’s conference include:

:18: Wearing a whistle, tight pants, a fake gut and oversized ears as a headset, Portis enters, introduces himself as “Coach Janky Spanky” and says “that Gregg Williams ain’t got nothing on me.”
• :42: Randomly scribbling nonsense, the press corps, usually cracking up during these things, is oddly silent. It almost seems as if Portis is bombing.
• 1:06: The first big laugh: Portis, inexplicably, writes the word “ETTE” on the clipboard and the letters “MS” above it, then draws sharp lines downward. He looks at the reporters: “Look at that. There’s no way you can stop that blitz.”

Wow.

Just watch. And hope that Portis can annihilate the Bucs the same way he does the press corps.

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While Tom is worried about Pentagon advertisements watching him, you should be worried about local Congress members watchin you. As the Associated Press found, the NSA was using cookies to track web visitors, and now CNET has looked at Congress’s cookie use.

What did they find? Congress is watching you too. To quote them:

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for instance, has been a longtime advocate of strict privacy laws to restrict commercial Web sites’ data collection practices. In a statement posted on his own Web site, McCain assures visitors that “I do not use ‘cookies’ or other means on my Web site to track your visit in any way.” But visiting mccain.senate.gov implants a cookie on the visitor’s PC that will not expire until 2035.

CNET looked at every Congress member’s website cookies and found five local politicians raiding the cookie jar, one even with a pledge on their website against collecting cookies!

The local cookie trackers:

So the next time you see Sen. Mikulski, do me a favor, please. Ask her: How do you spell “hypocrisy”?

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Watching you

Originally uploaded by tbridge.

I apologize for the grainy nature of this phonecam snap. It’s the Pentagon Metro station. There are signs that say No Photography, so whipping out the digital camera might get me put on a watchlist or sent to Gitmo or something. Anyhow, there I was, off the train, headed for the bus when I saw this ad.

See, in that soldier’s hands is a Serious Weapon

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The fools over at Project for Public Spaces released their 16 Squares Most Dramatically in Need of Improvement survey, the top 16 urban spaces worldwide that could be transformed from embarrassments to great community places, and guess what they put at number 13? Dupont Circle

Yes, they say that the great Dupont Circle of Life isn’t up to par. In fact, they go so far as to say:

Many think DuPont Circle is the best destination in Washington. We think it is performing at 30% of its potential. The city has undergone a metamorphosis in the past ten years, with many areas gradually becoming more vital. However, there seems to be a limit to this improvement: a rigid adherence to a master plan that keeps many areas from coalescing into real destinations. DuPont Circle needs to be freed from that mold.

-snip-

In fact, DuPont Circle could become a traffic-calmed, pedestrian friendly destination and quite possibly the core of a great urban district. Fulfilling this tremendous opportunity is essential if Washington is to become a world class city.

Now if I’m not mistaken, or hallucinating on any beautiful spring day, isn’t Dupont Circle already a “real destination”, “the core of a great urban district” and part of what makes Washington “a world class city”? I mean, call me crazy but its wall to wall people every time I walk by, a visual feast unparalleled anywhere in the District of Columbia.

The dumb asses can’t even spell it right. It’s “Dupont” not “DuPont”. And we like it that way! To quote City Desk:

If you mess with our circle, we’re gonna sic 24 bike couriers, 14 homeless men, 17 chess players, 22 yuppies sunning themselves, 3 bad guitar players, and a political button salesman on you!

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The madness of the real estate market here never ceases to amaze me, as I’ve touched on before. Possibly the silliest by-product of the development craze has been the invention of new neighborhood names, or the invention of names in order to make existing hoods sound more, um, top-draaawer dahling. For example, saying Dupont East instead of Logan Circle or Shaw. A real estate agent friend of mine just stopped by tonight and alerted me to a new example that really takes the cake.

“There’s a condo being built just down the street from you,” he said, pointing down 11th, “that’s advertised as being located in ‘Logan Heights’…”

Logan Heights? I’m sorry, what? Aren’t we in the U Street Historic District? Or Shaw? Or Old City, as the old maps say? Heights? Where the hell is the hill? Logan Slopes, more like it, or Logan’s Bottom. Heights, my ass. Please, developers, get a bloody grip.

As if calling a condo building off 14th Street “Saxon Court” wasn’t bad enough.

Good grief.

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If you’re headed back down to Virginia after a long hard day in DC, don’t expect getting home via VRE to be possible tonight. Via the Post, VRE service is cancelled for the evening:

Virginia Railway Express is canceling all Fredericksburg Line trains tonight.

All passengers should take Metro’s Blue Line to Franconia-Springfield. If headed to Lorton you should then board Fairfax Connector bus 171. If you are not headed to Lorton, once at Springfield, take the escalator down to the bus bays, where they promise VRE staffers will be waiting to help you find a bus for Woodbridge, Rippon, Quantico, Brooke, Leeland Road and Fredericksburg. Those buses will leave at 4 p.m., 5 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.

Everyone can ride the Metrorail free by showing their railroad tickets to station managers when they enter and leave the subway.

Five people were injured when train 304 jumped the tracks outside of Quantico this morning.

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Martin Luther King Jr. was born on 15 January, 1929. So it makes perfect sense to have the parade in honor of his natal day in…April? Another great idea, care of Councilman and Mayor for Life, Marion Barry. Apparently one of his staff thought the parade should take place on the first of April. Yeah, that’s a bright idea. So Barry, claiming he never agreed to that date, has now floated the 8th of April.

Barry said the initial April 1st date would cause DC to be “laughed out of the world.”

We’d just be joining you, Mr. Mayor, I’m still laughing at you about getting robbed by hoods in your own apartment, in your own district.

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As Sean pointed out in LA, you can do Yoga while naked. Apparently DC has their own Naked Yoga (NSFW) Yahoo group. They have classes in DC three times a week at a location that is secret only to the members of the group. Classes are between $10 (student) and $20. Sorry ladies, this one’s for the dudes. Interested in Naked Yoga, guys?

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Well, it’s official, by a vote of 12 to 1, the DC Council voted to ban smoking in bars in restaurants effective on 1 January 2007. Now what’s left is the endless lawsuits, the building of the economic hardship guidelines and a whole sackload of congressional oversight. So, while we’re just 361 days from a fully smokei-free DC, it’s not going to be an easy task.

Councilwoman Carol Schwartz was the lone opposing vote, citing personal freedom and the acts of consenting adults.

It’s just a shame that I never consented to let others stink up the room.

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Lo and behold, when I check my email there’s something from the Washington Capitals, who have my address from a purchase earlier this year. In it they’re shilling me to refer them some people who might be interested in season tickets. In exchange, if any of those people purchase tickets, I get a 10% credit towards the coming season, based on the price of the tickets, as well as an entry in a drawing for a H3 hummer (known amongst my friends as “a truck with a really ugly body”).

Now, before you say “so what?” and point out that businesses ask for referrals all the time, let me point out a few issues to you.

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