That’s right, can you commit to a manicure and pedicure? Can you allow a woman to cut, shape, and massage your nails and hands the way they should be? If so, you should go to Today’s Look at the corner of 17th and L Streets NW.

Not only do they have good nail care, it is also where I met Mary Byrd back in the day. MB (of the Virginia Byrd’s) reminded me when I met her right there on 17th out in front of Today’s Look after her weekly mani-pedi, that a man should not leave a woman wanting.

Needless to say I didn’t, and that’s maybe why Miss Saigon is no longer, but more to the point – go to Today’s Look for Downtown Nails in Beirut, Lebanon is not the place you should go if you miss your bi-monthly mani-pedi in DC. No, Downtown Nails in Beirut is not a “nail bar” as they call them here, or even a nail salon as they call them in DC, but a nail butchery that left me with only a semblance of the good keratin I came here with.

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Office Holiday Parties. ‘Tis the season. You know, where you get dressed up and socialize with your co-workers at an official gathering. Perhaps you’re an old hand at the office mingling, perhaps you already bond with your cubemates after work. But perhaps you don’t, or you hate mixing work with pleasure. For my part, I just wonder what exactly is the point with these parties. Most people that I’ve asked hate them and would rather have an extra vacation day!

My office holiday party this year was an exact replica of the one we had last year. Down to the location (why is our holiday party in Virginia when our office is downtown? with a start time barely a half-hour after office closing?), exact same menu, placement of tables, and agenda. It was complete deja vu the whole night. Apparently the social committee had wanted something to try something different. So they were kindly informed that the committee was disbanded. Nice. Tellingly, no one really gussied up this year and there was more talk about where to go afterwards than the party itself.

I’ve seen the gamut of office holiday parties, from being taken out to a drunken lunch on the Hill to swank soirees with a sushi bar. And no one ever seems to care. So please, share your office holiday party stories. I’m curious if the malaise is the same everywhere!

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DC Foodies has the scoop on the return of half price dinner at Galileo, but in order to take advantage of the event, you have to be on the Galileo email list, so take a moment to email them and ask to be put on the email list. Better yet, tell them DC Metblogs sent you. Not only do you get half off of dinner at Galileo, you get to know when Galileo Grill is up and running, giving you first shot at awesome cannoli and the amazing pork shoulder sandwich.

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At noon today, on Freedom Plaza, there will be a pair of rallies. One to support the building of the stadium, led by Nats fans and the Mayor and half the DC council, one to protest the building of the stadium, led by fans of the current businesses in Southeast, and environmental groups. As Freedom Plaza’s about a block from my office, I’m going to head over to catch some of the fireworks. This should make for an interesting lunch break.

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Saturday we stormed Tysons Mall!

The last shopping weekend before Christmas, and though my family presents are finished (hurrah for online shopping!), my husband’s are not. “Bah humbug, I hate Christmas!” he moaned, but alas, it must be done. So off to Tysons we went, definitely naive and unprepared for the MOB SCENE that greeted us.

The parking lot was a disaster – thirty minutes minimum to park – but the real horror awaited us inside. People people people streaming everywhere, most meandering with no sense of purpose, their multiple bags blocking the way. Folks, you need a game plan to survive! We headed up to the food court for some necessary fortification, spread the map out, and proceeded to circle stores and plan our attack. I think we would’ve gone postal otherwise…

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Tree and Monument 2

Originally uploaded by tjbax.

You know what the best part of Christmas is?

Being done with all your shopping, wrapping, and shipping a week early.

We’re celebrating with egg nog. Have fun at the mall, suckers.

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Pageant of Peace.jpg

Originally uploaded by tbridge.

Tiffany and I went down to the Ellipse tonight to see the National Christmas Tree and the rest of the Pageant of Peace. I brought along my camera and a tripod and I got some awesome shots of the pageant despite the darkness. If you have a chance, go down to the Ellipse and see the tree. It’s truly breathtaking to see the Ellipse all lit up with the Christmas trees of the states and territories (the District’s ornaments are shaped like the memorials) and the trains beneath the tree are wonderful.

They have groups performing in the choir shell every hour, and tonight we were treated to the jingoistic stylings of Upbeat Unlimited and their horrific cover of Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA”.

Try to schedule your visit for the First Baptist Church of Gaithersburg Sanctuary Bells tomorrow night at 8, or I Cantori Wednesday at 7. The full schedule for the week is available online.

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If you were looking for Froomkin’s White House Briefing, or the Going Out Gurus Blog today, or any of the Post’s other blogs, you likely found yourself looking at something from last week. The Post hosts their weblogs with Six Apart as part of the TypePad service, and sadly their servers lobotomized themselves early this morning. They’re slowly coming back online now, and content will be restored to the Post’s blogs so you can get caught up on the latest scoop from the Capitol’s best newspaper.

That said, if any of the WaPo bloggers need a place to write about their withdrawal today, or a place to vent about dealing with a broken blog, they should feel free to email me at dcmetblogs splat mac.com and we’ll be glad to give you an outlet. What’s a newsman to say when his blog’s not responding? Was it a good afternoon to just pour another drink at the Post Pub and relax?

Or, take a gander at our interview with Hal Straus, the Post’s chief blogmaster.

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Well, forward thinking in a bad way. Most fences sell stolen merchandise that has already been stolen. Sultan Ferozi was allegedly selling merchandise that hadn’t been stolen yet. Allegedly he’d run ebay auctions and then go steal the things he needed to fill the orders. I’m somewhat impressed, though surprised. Most people in our area who want to take money for things that aren’t theirs go into politics.

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Wayan wrote yesterday about the experience of finding a suit in a day and I uniformly loathe him for it. Or rather, for being able to do it. Okay, I loathe him a little for shopping for ‘slim fit’ too, but my appearance of being in my 5th month of pregnancy is something I could do something about if I liked. My legs are pretty much stuck at this length. For me, suit shopping is a matter of looking about, finding something I like…. and then waiting a week for them to fix the inseam length.

So if I’m going to have to wait for them to fix it anyway, why not get it tailored to… suit? Raja Fashions is a Hong Kong tailor that regularly travels the world to take measurements and orders. From February 1st to 3rd they’ll be in a suite at the Pennsylvania Avenue Marriot taking measurements and you can make your reservation on their website. Starting at $300, they’re a bit more than off the rack – but not so much more as to be out of reach – and at $50 and up the custom tailored shirts aren’t much more than you’re paying at Hects. If you’re a business owner, these work uniforms at Total Image Group are a great way to strengthen your company’s values and it can also promote unity within the organization.

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As I left work last night, and stood on the corner of 13th and F, I heard the sound of a brass quintet, playing in the rain. I turned down toward the Warner, and listened as they finished the end of Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming. As I listened to the final notes ring out over the white noise of the cabs and cars driving down F St in the rain, and the angry crowd at the doors of the Warner Theater became more clear, I was handed a pink sheet of paper. Reading it, the dancers at the Washington Ballet were claiming all manner of unfair treatment at the hands of the Management. Lacking, however, were specifics about their claims: they complained about the working environment, but made no reference to the problem. They made claims about injuries, but not about what caused them. Essentially, I was given the Union’s propaganda boiler plate without any specifics.

The performance was cancelled for last night, as well as for tonight’s performance. The dancers have chosen to hit the company where it hurts, as the Nutcracker is the best selling show for the company all season. Apparently the dancers want to call it a Lockout, instead of a Strike, so they can collect unemployment while striking. Between that, and the lack of depth in their claims, perhaps it’s the dancers that are to blame if you’re unable to see the show you paid for. Especially in light of this paragraph in today’s Post:

In a letter to AGMA that the ballet provided last night to The Washington Post, Palmquist stated that in the proposed interim agreement he gave to the dancers this week he had included guarantees about continued employment for the company’s dancers “that are unheard of in the ballet world.”

But, strike they will.

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We apologize for any difficulties that you’re having with DC Metblogs this morning. We are aware of the problem and crack sysadmin staff is working on the problem. We hope to be back to normal in just a little while. In the meanwhile, however, if you really need a fix of local color, I recommend the following blogs:

Hello MoCo
Random Duck
Urban Bohemian
Happy Funtime Friend Service
Unrequited Narcissism

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Frank Robinson’s back for one more season with the Nats. Sure, he’s cantankerous, doesn’t like the playing of cards or loud music in the clubhouse, and he sits the young guys in favor of decrepit veterans, but at least he puts on a good show when he gets fired up. Good Luck Frank, you’re our favorite crazy old man.

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By the way, the chocolate shortbread cookies at Teaism have brought my life new meaning. And the Salty Oat cookies are pretty good too.

Just sayin’.

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So while y’all watch the snow switch to rain and the red lights multiply on the roads as rush hour kicks in, I’ll not be feeling your pain on this side of the world. I’m kicking it back in the rooftop pool at my hotel, Almaza beer in hand, skyline of Beirut below. Nice eh?

Ya know what’s even better? Calling the office from my hotel room, and thanks to Skype, paying $.02 a minute to yell at my staff instead of $6/minute the hotel charges. Double nice.

Last but not least, this weekend, its beach time in Beirut. You have your ski bunnies and snowmen, I’ll take bikinis and beer + lime + ice in Lebanon anytime! Triple nice!

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If you had your car impounded in Montgomery County yesterday, it’s entirely possible it’s a charred hunk of metal at this point. Apparently it destroyed roughly $400,000 in property, including 39 cars within the walls of the facility itself. Yeesh. Talk about insult to injury, having your car towed, THEN destroyed by the county. Ouch.

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Well, where would you? Say you’re told that you’ll be heading to Lebanon in three days and you know your 5+ year old suits from Sweden, back when you were a smidgen heavier and way less fashionable, are not going to cut it in the Paris of the Middle East. Where do you go or affordable yet fashionable threads?

If you’re me, you head to H&M downtown. It

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Tom and I had kicked around the idea for a long time of putting together a sort of podcasted walking-tour of DC and just haven’t gotten around to planning a good one, figuring out logistics, etc.

But the folks at Slate, which is based in DC, have put together an mp3 guide to the National Mall, and if you download the iTunes-specific version, it’s enhanced by a slide show suitable for viewing on your color-screen iPod.

I have an older model that can’t do the slideshow, but I am so checking this out tonight.

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I sure do, and DCist Tom Lee (we like to think of him in the first person, even if his corporate borg overlords don’t…) took one apart in an effort to get the SmarTrip chip to work in other settings and he’s got it so that instead of a card in your wallet or pocket, you can put it on a keychain. I’m excited by the prospect of hacking your smart trip into a key-tag or a pair of gloves (especially useful in winter), or perhaps one with a powered antenna so you could leave it in your bag as you pass through the turnstiles. That would really rock my socks.

Thanks much to Tom Lee for his awesome hackery here.

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Radar seems to think so:

According to a source who has seen the footage—which features a self-described downtown coke dealer relating his late-night run-in with the First Daughter, and brandishing her college ID as a souvenir—the man insinuates that the two shared more than just drinks.

A well-informed source, who has a DVD copy of the interview shot by tbirdshow.com’s Travis Poston, says that at one point the dealer claims that the young, blonde Jenna Bush with the Texas accent he hung out with that night (and who happened to leave behind Jenna Bush’s belongings) had been “helping [him] clean up” the bar after a long night of partying.
…
Needless to say, “if a coke dealer has your ID it doesn’t look so good,” quipped the source.

C’mon Jenna, we know you’re wild, but can’t you limit your partying to the DC Poseur Scene?

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