I can’t tell you how many nights I’ve spent standing at Pentagon’s Bus Metrobus Depot waiting for the 7E, only to get on a crowded bus with seat pitches so shallow you’d think they were meant for midgets. The routes for the District apparently still follow the same routes that the old DC Streetcar lines ran in the 1950s. But we all realize that the schedules are a written comedy, and we’ve all been stranded somewhere when a bus drove its last. There’s a good piece in the Post today that highlights the problems of the bus system here in DC. Perhaps that new Riders’ Advisory Council can do something about busses that cut people off, or Wayan’s dislike of the Circulator, or Jenn’s Rules for the 66.

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Tannenbaum

Originally uploaded by tjbax.

Merry Christmas, Christmas-celebrating DC-ites! And Happy Hannukhah, Hannukhah-celebrating DC-ites!

We’ll see you when we wake up from our holiday food comas, and when I tear myself away from Tom’s gift to me- A PS2 and Katamari Damacy. I am mesmerized.

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Well, that’s right, it’s coming up on 1pm on Christmas Eve and you still need to get working on your gifts. We’re here to help. The following suggestions are just a few places you might be able to score a sweet, unique, cool and local gift before the morning.

Cathedral Gift Shop
One of the best ideas for out-of-town relatives is to get some cool only-in-DC kind of gift. No, not one of those ridiculous “FBI” baseball caps or a “You Don’t Know Me: Federal Witness Protection Program” t-shirts that you can get at CVS and which screams, “I’m a lameass tourist! Pick on me!” I mean a unique and thoughtful gift from one of DC’s many historic attractions.

This year, people on my Christmas list are going to be receiving gifts from the National Cathedral Museum Gift Shop. Scarves and umbrellas are boring gifts… except when the scarf is velvet and is embossed with a pattern based on the Cathedral’s Gothic windows, and when the Rose Window shines through the translucent umbrella fabric. The usual supply of Cathedral Christmas ornaments and postcards are there too, of course, but
give those a pass in favor of the unique gargoyles and and stained glass items. For the loved one who is tired of the noisy, shiny crap of an
over-commercialized religious holiday, there are creches from around the world, most of which are fair trade.

Tickets Now
so you’ve waited til last minute? can’t think of that cool gift that your recipient won’t forget? well, if you’re willing to blow your budget, and want to return to the land of oz, grab some wicked tickets (and i do mean wicked) at the kennedy center.

showing from wed, dec. 21st to jan 15th, tickets are sold-out through the center’s site, but are available through ticketsnow or stubhub. you will pay quite a price, my pretty as tickets run upwards of $250-350 a piece; however, you’ll have “peace” of mind that that you’ve got a chance to see a most amazing musical and find out how the wicked witch of the west and glinda the good witch came to be.

14th and S St., NW

The eclectic shops at the intersection of 14th and S Streets NW have saved me from more than one last minute shopping disaster. With Go Mama Go! stocking stylish Asian drinking/eating sets and other items that seem right out of an Eastern bazaar, modish cook/bar/bathware at Home Rule, and the amazing collection of woodcut printed stationary, divinely scented candles/incense, Thomas Jefferson action figures or Queen/Bitch bath products at Pulp – you will never have a present emergency again! You could even branch out and get a plant at Garden District or
treats for that special feline at Pet Essentials.

Then end it all at Sparky’s with a chocolate chai and relax, confident that you’ve not only finished your holiday shopping in style and ease, but also helped support local DC merchants in the process. All in a half-city block. Brilliant.

Target and Flickr

If you’re looking to add a touch of homemade magic to your gifts, go out and get some digital photos today, and then take advantage of Flickr’s partnership with Target to print out any of your Flickr photos at a Target. Nothing says love quite like framed photographs of you, this is a gift even Wayan could love! Cheap, too, at less than 30¢ a print, it’s a real deal.

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Dad being a hobbyist pilot, it’s rare I visit home in Miami and don’t get an on-high view of the city and this trip is no different. Rather than the red-barrel Atlas ceramics tiles that are so common in South Florida, however, I saw many swaths of blue – a fairly uncommon roof color under normal circumstances. Recent hurricanes have left a lot of people with damage they’re having trouble hiring people to fix, so many houses sport huge FEMA-branded blue tarps tacked down with long strips.

In talking about it my father was fairly philisophical – every area has occassional catastrophies, he said. “Florida has hurricanes, the midwest has tornadoes, California has earthquakes. What’s the big trouble that sweeps through your adopted home and mucks things up?” he asked me. I thought about it for a few seconds.

“Congress,” I said.

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Llori Stein of Falls Church is featured in the Post today for having, um, garish Christmas lights up on her balcony. The photo is pretty impressive, but I’m sure some of you can do better.

Who’s got the ugly* Christmas lights in your neighborhood?

*“Ugly” should not be construed to mean that I’m against massive displays of Christmas lights. I love it when people try to signal alien civilizations with their holiday decorations. Seriously. Nothin’ but love for this holiday tradition.

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That’s right, the Winter Restaurant Week is coming, starting January 9th and running through the 15th. Dinner will run $30.06 for a prix fixe 3 courses, and Lunch will will be $20.06 for a prix fixe 3 courses. The List of Restaurants is now available and is fairly comprehensive. Many of the restaurants will accept reservations via Open Table for the week as well, so there’s really no excuse not to go out at least once.

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…for no matter how bad the pre-Xmas trafic is, its way better than in Beirut.

As a legacy of their civil war, where kidnappings from your were common, and car bombs now claim ministers, Beiruties don’t stop for nuttin. Not stop signs, not traffic lights, not even for one-way streets. You read that right, they don’t stop for stop lights. As in when I stopped for a red light the cars behind me honked and those beside me didn

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I dare you to top this trans-Atlantic trip home for the holidays:

While Jenn got lucky and just cruised through DCA yesterday, I’m about to attempt the mad Xmas Airport Scrum in not just one, but two DC airports.

With a last minute trip to Lebanon just now ending, I’m currently in Charles du Gaulle airport awaiting my flight back to DC. Arriving at Dulles around 1pm, I’m gonna do my best OJ Simpson high hurtles impression for after I exit the Immigrations/Customs madness, it’s off to National for me.

National on the Friday before Christmas. National on the Friday before Christmas with pounding jet lag. National on the Friday before Christmas with pounding jet lag after eleven hours on two flights, and facing four hours on two more flights.

Yeah, I’m really looking forward to this one. Oh, did I mention I have all of three hours to make this cross-town sprint + gate rush?

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If you’re as tired as I am of this whole stadium drama, today’s news was just insult to injury. Apparently, Mayor-for-Life Barry decided he hadn’t messed with the system enough, and so he decided to collude with an owner-candidate for the Nationals:

Barry said yesterday that he had intended for D.C. entrepreneur Jonathan Ledecky, who is one of eight bidders trying to buy the Washington Nationals, to present a plan Ledecky had agreed to with Barry. If baseball sold Ledecky the Nationals, Barry said, Ledecky had agreed to cover cost overruns on the stadium and give African Americans a 40 percent equity stake in the team.

So, more backroom deals for the Mayor? Now, who’s surprised?

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Once I noticed this dead police callbox over on 11th and H, NW, I started keeping my eyes out for others. So far the only other one I have seen is on 8th and I, SE, but I am sure there’s more. The light no longer lights to draw attention to itself, there’s no phone to use to call for help inside its door. There’s not even a back to the thing anymore – you can see right through it. It’s an artifact from the days before coin-operated payphones were ubiquitous.

Well, maybe we should start bringing them back. I was prattling annoyingly waxing poetic about the callboxes of yore, my girlfriend interjected with her recent experience at Lucky Strike. Her cellphone battery was dead, so she asked the bartender where the payphone was. “Somewhere out there,” she was told. No payphone on the premises.

I’m going to start looking for disabled payphones now, I think. And keeping my cell charged.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I’ve made it to sunny (somewhat) Florida to spend the week with my parents, and I thought I’d let you know that at 5:30am on a Tuesday morning, DCA was relatively crowded…

I flew AirTran, which goes out of the “old” terminal, and they’ve taken the huge clunky luggage security machine out of the ticketing area to make more room – luggage screening has returned to the back rooms. This will really make a difference as this week progresses and the insanity begins, as space is at a premium in that area in the old terminal. Security moved quickly – there are three screening areas so that should help as well, and the agents seemed very on top of getting everyone through efficiently.

All in all I, though I vastly prefer leaving from the “new” terminal, if you have to leave from the old it seems they are really making an effort to minimize the glut. We’ll see. Good luck traveling everyone!!

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To send me off to Florida and the land of the all-you-can-eat 4pm dinner buffet, my husband and I went to the District Chophouse for dinner Monday night. We hadn’t been there in a while – we’d gone a few times when it was a pioneer on the Seventh Street revitalization project, and had liked it. Unfortunately it seems to be resting on past laurels a bit.

I still love the interior – tall ceilings, shiny brewery equipment, dark wood, and swing music. It’s a great atmosphere,
but atmosphere doesn’t count for everything.

Our waitress started off by commiting my current least favorite faux pas – we noticeably had just sat down, coats coming off, hadn’t yet opened the wine list, and she asks me what I want to drink. Right off the bat. This has been happening more and more when we go out and I wonder if it’s a symptom of the fast-and-furious dining style of power Washingtonians – those lobbyists probably know what they want immediately. I would rather actually rather look at the list for a few minutes and decide based on what I want to eat. Ah well. But that’s a relatively minor point – it was the food quality that really felt a bit of a let-down.

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Monday night I was rushing up Seventh Street, having left my DC Metblogs compatriots at a (very enjoyable!) Elephant & Castle happy hour and on my way to the District Chophouse. As I neared the corner of 7th and E Streets, I noticed an amusing instance of corporate fiefdoms. On one side of the corner is a new Starbucks. On the other is an almost completed Juan Valdez Cafe. I’ve never seen a Juan Valdez Cafe before, but it looks like the inside will be vibrant and colorful. In any case, these two coffee warriors are preparing to face each other down on one of the most popular streets in DC. Should be very interesting! If anyone has ever been to a Juan Valdez Cafe, share your experience – I’m fascinated by the prospect of a coffee war…

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I know I have been lax in my posting of new cities, so I wanted to take a moment to welcome Paris and Singapore to the Metroblogging Family! If you’re interested in what life in Paris or Singaore is like, click on over. We’re up to 39 cities, networkwide now, and it’s entirely possible we’ll hit the big four-oh before New Years!

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Well, the Nats have got a quandary: what to do at second base? Sure, we’ve got 9 men on the roster who can play the position, and that’s looking like 6 too many. The latest rumor? Vidro and Church to the Cubs for Kerry Wood. Sure, we’d be losing a gold glove 2B, and a second year outfielder with enormous potential, but we’d be getting one of 1998’s best pitchers.

With Soriano refusing to play Outfield, this may be one of the only ways to benefit from that trade, by trading our perfectly good 2B for an injury prone fireballer.

Interesting.

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Now, while I may be against gun-bans in general, I have to admire the ingenuity of mankind for making other arrangements.

Enter “En Garde“, the end table that turns into a shillelagh and buckler. No word as to whether or not the top has a bulletproof kevlar coated core yet…

Still, perhaps for nervous folks this might be better than a pistol.

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Our hearts go out to all the folks marooned by the Transit Strike in New York. It’s 23F in New York this morning and people were shown walking across the Brooklyn Bridge on the way to work this morning. The strike is costing the city of New York $400M per day. Ouch. Take a moment, think about DC with no buses, no metro trains, nothing by seas of cars, angry pedestrians and clogged transit arteries.

*Shudder*

Now thank the nearest Bus driver or Train driver today.

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After a rally on Freedom Plaza today to round up support for the new stadium and a vote from the council tomorrow, apparently Mayor Williams pushed off the vote until the new year in order to get some technicalities taken care of before the vote.

Uhm, Mister Mayor, we may be rookies at this whole politics game that you guys play so well, but isn’t the point of today’s rally to get the votes you need? Once you have them, isn’t it a bit odd to still be tying up loose ends? This seems kinda odd to me, at least, Mister Mayor. Perhaps you don’t have the support you said you did after all?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

As laborers and fans and opponents streamed up Pennsylvania Avenue and 12th St. and 14th St. to a blustery and windswept Freedom Plaza, the brassy soundtrack played out over rented speakers. They can in day-glo vests and workers’ boots, in fur coats and snazzy hats, and many in Nats regalia, all out on their lunch hours to hear the speeches of labor leaders and councilmembers and community leaders and the Mayor.

The noontime rally was largely designed to be an effort to strong-arm local Democratic councilmembers into voting for the lease tomorrow night. Frequent reminders of the Redskins’ triumph over the Cowboys at RFK came from the community leaders and from the labor leaders, as well as promises of good paying jobs in Southeast not only building but staffing the stadium in Southeast.

Council members Evans and Ambrose got up on the stage together to pledge their support for the Nats’ new stadium in Southeast, and they were followed by mayoral-hopeful Councilman Orange to talk about the economic impact of a new ballpark. Orange was sharply critical of the opponents of a stadium in southeast, saying that the stadium had the chance to bring in over $100M each year, and that there has been no vision on the part of the people who oppose the stadium to bring in any kind of additional funds into the general fund of the city itself.

The rally concluded with Mayor Tony Williams’ speech to about 500 people on Freedom Plaza, both for and against the stadium. Mayor Williams expects that the council will live up to its promise to bring a good home to the Nationals here in DC and that he was hoping for a good outcome at tomorrow’s council meeting. There was cheering and sign-waving and largely no interference except for the presence and occasional yelling from the distinctly out-numbered counter-protestors.

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As the Xbox 360 shortage continues and Christmas gets closer and closer, desperation abounds for the purchase of an Xbox 360, leading to a near riot at the White Marsh Best Buy this weekend, according to a comment on Gizmodo’s latest Xbox story:

At the White Marsh, Maryland Best Buy people began gathering for the 12/18 release at 11:00 pm, as the store closed. The Baltimore County Police Department was called by the Best Buy manager and we were all told we had to leave the premises or we would be arrested for trespassing.

We were assured by the manager and the police that we could return at 4:00 am ONLY and that ANYONE who arrived at the store before 4 am would be escorted off of the parking lot. This was confirmed by several signs on the front doors of this Best Buy.

The people at this time took a list of those waiting for X Boxes to prove we were the first people in line.

Predictably the manager and the police lied as we returned to the store at 3:50 AM to find 200 people lined against the Best Buy wall. When the manager and other employees returned to begin letting customers in panic ensued.

PS – Special kudos should also be given to the Baltimore County Police Departnemnt who not only straight-out lied to the original people in line, but then followed up by having no ability to reason with the crowd without using words like “don’t make me smack you,” “pepper spray,” “beat down” and in the true spirit of Christmas, “release the dogs.”

Of course, there’s always Craig’s List…

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs