I found this on a construction site on 23rd Street next to the Department of State…and you wonder why you get incorrect prescriptions?!

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As if this blog is becoming the CNN of Homeowners Associations (aka HOAs), I felt a little more compelled to add my two cents since it arrives from a different perspective, and, unfortunately, a different outcome. This one involved boisterous altercations, parking stickers, and the police, as well as one restraining order to be issued sometime within the next 24-48 hours.

I’m the HOA president of our community in Silver Spring (yes, boo hiss, I’m a suburbanite), and arrived at that designation by attrition, and, somewhat, by lack of interest by other board members. I ran for the board at the edging of my wife, but also a heartfelt desire to help improve the community, and give the perspective of a new resident on the board (at the time, I had been a resident for less than 6 months). I ran, which included a personal statement, as well as going door to door to try and talk to the residents in our mixed housing community of single-family homes and townhomes.

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photo courtesy of the Rocketeer

Before the show on Friday night, my darling girlfriend and I had sat down and were having a little in-the-chair picnic. With about fifteen minutes to go before curtain there were a fair number of people walking around looking for groups of seats big enough for their party. One such pair was a gentleman fellow and his lady, Carol. I know her name was Carol because when she didn’t agree to stop where he wanted her to in order to hold a group of seats he bellowed, angrily and at the top of his voice, “TAKE THE SEATS, CAROL.” I can only imagine what a delight he must be over more weighty disagreements.

While the universe apparently gave Carol the short end of the stick, it does sometimes get delicious payback on other jerks. A woman today at the Occaquan Arts Festival who yelled in the face of her companions “well I’m certainly not going like THIS” probably wasn’t referring to the two feet of napkin she was dragging around on her heel for about twenty feet before she noticed, but it fits. If you’re reading this, ma’am, yes, that guy behind you laughing out loud was laughing at you.

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Photo by DC Metroblogger

Tonight the doorman at Temperance Hall went the extra mile in checking ID’s. He carded my Mom.

This was after he carded me, and I am well past 21, and right before he carded my Mom’s retired boyfriend.

Neither of them are Georgetown freshmen by any stretch of the imagination. Both were as much flattered as flustered with the request.

I can understand popular Adams-Morgan bars having a “card everyone” policy, but in Petworth and the Social Security set?

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You’ve seen the Segway Tours of DC, but now the next time you see a person on a Segway, they might be a DC Police Officer. The city has purchased 25 segways, with an option for 10 more, for various patrols in the DC area. At first, I’ll admit, this brought humorous images to mind, but the more I think of it, I think this could extend the distance that a pair of beat cops could cover in a patrol, not to mention makes them much higher visibility during the patrol.

So, make your jokes, this could make for a better police force.

Of course, the second a criminal ganks a segway…then it’s fair game for all the comedians.

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With credit card debt, student loans, and ever mounting legal fees, Jessica Cutler recently declared bankruptcy, hopefully ending her brief period of notoriety. Of course, in the wake of a $20-million lawsuit, I’d probably be trying to declare bankruptcy, too…

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Photo by DC Metroblogger

Hopping of my United Airlines Swiss express from Zurich, I had hopes for a quick Dulles exit. Looking at this line, I will have no such luck.

Easily 20 people long, I will be in line for 20 minutes easy, which makes me wonder: how much do Washington Flyer taxi drivers make in a day?

How many round trips are possible? What is the car rental cost. And what would the per hour take be?

A short conversation with my driver later and now we know. He averages 4-5 trips per 12-16 hour shift and after his $100 car rental plus gas costs, expects $100 a shift in take home pay.

Or around $7 an hour to fight suburban traffic and Dulles Toll Road boredom.

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DO NOT WANT!

Originally uploaded by tbridge.

I’ve never understood the courthouse need to ban pretty much anything that plugged in to a wall, but it seems Arlington has gone to the level of prohibiting anything electronic inside the courthouse. Of course, what’s really odd is that this sign is facing the offices of the County, and not the actual courthouse which is on the other side of the parking lot, on the other side of Courthouse road.

Bad sign placement? Possibly. Bad policy? Definitely.

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Photo by DC Metroblogger

It is 8am in Zurich and I am about to have beer for breakfast, poured by a fellow Washingtonian.

Ingrid is a wonderful Swiss-American view. Especially when she does not blink at my breakfast choice.

In fact, one of the reasons she left the States was our movement towards the nanny state. She prefers the Swiss neutrality on most things.

As the guy next to me lights up, the joy of Zurich starts to fade. We might not be the land of absolute freedom, but I do miss Smoke Free DC.

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Here’s something you don’t see everyday on Metro: the station cleaning train, passing through Metro Center. It was just about midnight when I saw it zoom by on the opposite side of the station, near the end of an 18 minute wait for the last Red Line train of the evening. It did not stop, however; clearly there was some station up in the direction of Shady Grove in far more desperate need of Station Cleaning services than the one I was at. Anyone else seen this marvel of modern engineering? Maybe you have a clearer photo of it in action.

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I started to comment on Mike’s post about his tennis Nazi and decided it was enough to justify writing my own post on the matter. Unlike the fortunate Mr Maguire, I live out in the suburbs for financial and practical reasons. I could share them, but what the hell do you care? Suffice to say, this way I get to have a basement full of woodshop and a 20 minute pleasant ride to the office in the morning and money left over for food. So, to the story:

I got the joy of sitting through a HOA meeting a few weeks back since my friend and generous landlord wanted to paint some trim and replace a door. This, of course, requires paperwork and approval since it diverges from the status quo in the most minuscule way. After this ninety-minute exercise in misery, I have come to the conclusion that the hell that is an HOA board is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

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Both Tom and I have discussed how much we love Bebo Tratoria, Roberto Donna’s restaurant in Crystal City. For those of us whose love for Galileo always exceeded our wallets, it was a real grodsend. It was also a nice change from the run-down look Galileo was sporting in its last year. The last two times I was in there – visits that were several months apart – there was a door in the bar that had its perimeter sealed with black duct tape. Maybe that’s okay in Subway, but with a per-person tab approaching $100 before wine it is just unacceptable.

So imagine my distress when I visited the Bebo restroom on my most recent visit last month and saw this. Is this the start of the same downward maintenance slide? I have sympathy – I know a little something about working with mirror and have broken enough of them to insure bad luck into the next millennium. That looks like someone tightened down something a little too hard at the faucet and a custom cut that size will run into the hundreds, so I understand not necessarily being thrilled to do the fix.

However I think I can speak for any customer in saying that when I see poor maintenance in the bathroom I wonder where else is sub-standard. Your food is too good to be surrounded with distractions like this, Mr Donna.

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presidents

Originally uploaded by tbridge.

Coming off the Metro tonight at Stadium/Armory, I walked up to the most beautiful rendition of Take Me Out To the Ballgame, played by a man with the most amazing silver dreads and a sax that had seen many many notes played on its tarnished brass keys. Then, once he was done playing I moved along 19th St toward the stadium, and saw the group of scalpers trying to ply their wares.

They have, quite possibly, the hardest job in DC right now, trying to drum up interest in tickets that aren’t worth their face value before the game, let alone after the game’s started. They have a nearly impossible job in trying to get anything like face value back on the tickets, unless of course the Giants and Barry Bonds are in town, or if it’s the Phillies or the Mets, but this week it’s the Dodgers, and no one’s buying.

Good luck, hardworking scalpers. You’ve got your work cut out for you.

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Chris Scholl sent us his Guide to Shooting Washington DC, which in and of itself is interesting, both for what it chooses to recommend, and what it chooses to ignore.

It focuses primarily on the usual places, the Mall, Embassy Row, Dupont Circle, the Museums and the monuments. Where’s the love for places like Lincoln Park in Capitol Hill? Old Town Alexandria? Union Station? Nothing at all in Southeast? Hains Point (at least til the Emerging Man is moved…) and Rock Creek Park (especially that bridge!) are left off the list.

I love this town’s incredible photographic wealth, and to see most of it ignored in a guide is frustrating. But, there are some great tips about how to shoot in this town which can be applied all over the place. Get out, explore, photograph this town. It’s pretty. It deserves it.

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Photo by DC Metroblogger

What do you make of this sign: “Deaf Pedestrian”? What might that mean to you? Would you slow down? Would you be extra cautious? Would you even notice, or care if you did?

This deaf pedestrian sign is in my new Petworth neighbourhood and there is one off Florida Avenue at 15th. Where else might there be one? And is it respected?

Better yet, how do you respect a “deaf pedestrian” sign? Honking or hollering would be out. Might flashing lights or waving your arms be in? I ask this not as an ass, but as a hearing pedestrian and driver wondering what are the rules?

Are there specific Washington DC road rules when you see a deaf pedestrian sign? And why aren’t there deaf pedestrian signs all up and down Florida Avenue outside Gallaudet University? So many answers I desire to hear…

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If you and your notably shorter or taller significant other need somewhere in Alexandria to sit and wait for all your DC Metrobloggers to get back from vacation, consider this odd bench.

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This here is a Chihuly boat installation sitting in the USBG National Garden regional pond. Dale Chihuly, a noted glass sculptor, has been doing glass-filled boats since 1995, inspired by Finnish children who would gather blown glass he had thrown into the Nuutajoki River.

You can view this particular blown glass boat in the National Garden till October 2007, as part of the USBG’s “Celebrating America’s Public Gardens” exhibit (well worth visiting for the variety of setups from public gardens all over the USA), and see more Chihuly boats here.

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Photo by DC Metroblogger

My company moved. We had much stuff, papers and files in metal cabinets. Hanging file folders I thought best for the shredder.

I was not in charge though, so now we have these file cabinets in our new office. “How did they get there?” You might ask. “Spider Crane” I would answer.

The Spider Crane is a funky office move facilitator. It is a pneumatic suction crane that picks up metal cabinets by attaching two suction cups to the offending vertical files and picks it up enough to get a dolly underneath. Not glamours, but effective.

And you can witness more of the Spider Crane in its own Flickr Action Set.

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