Sorry to go all Cute Overload on you, but this must be seen: DC LJer bumpthekoala brings his bunnies Pants and Boy to see cherry blossoms and the Awakening. Look at the photos. Bunnies! Blossoms! Bunnies! You will melt.

(Via the Washington DC Livejournal community)

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I am of two minds when it comes to baseball. I have a deep affection for the game itself, its history, the ups and the downs, the whole 9 yards. But let’s be frank for a minute here:

The Nationals are six and a half innings into their first game (and likely their first loss of the season) and all I can find on the Nationals Website are press releases that serve one purpose and purpose alone: blowing sunshine up our asses. There’s a paean to Mark Lerner’s first opening day as the owner of a baseball team. There’s a love letter from Dontrelle Willis (wait, doesn’t he play for Florida?) and how much he likes DC (too bad we can’t talk to him about moving up here…) and an article about how glad the team is that they don’t have to move this season.

Wow guys, I’m so glad that you’re skirting the issue that the Nationals are going to be a historically bad baseball team. As in, give a run for the money to 62 Mets for sheer infamy in the annals of the game. As in, Good God, I hope we win 60 games this year. Or, “please God, can there be a rainout tomorrow?” bad. This team’s depths are entirely the doing of hapless GM Jimmy Bowden and his absolutely, positively inept front office. I need only turn you to the page in history, just last year, where we let Alfonso Soriano go to the highest bidder in exchange for…

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RFK

Originally uploaded by tbridge.

There are still a bunch of seats available at RFK, and if you leave right now you can even make it before the first pitch. As I type this, The United States Army Band and the Army Trumpets are taking the field as part of the Opening Day festivities. Ditch that meeting you’re in. Cancel your afternoon appointments. Pledge allegiance to the Nats.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Now that there is aspring nip in the air, and we’re teased with warm work days but overcast weekend, its time for an annual bipedal migration. Its time for Bike to Work Day!

This is your chance to join thousands of cycling commuters for a celebration of bicycling on May 18th. Show your friends and co-workers how fun it is to bike to work with the Washington Area Bicyclist Association’s pit stops all over the region – Freedom Plaza will again be the big kahuna party.

So get off your duff and register now to get your pit stop prizes and free t-shirt!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

“I don’t think so” brought to
you by CUServiceCenters.com

My old Florida credit union sent me a notice in the mail last week saying they’d entered into a partnership with other credit unions to allow me to walk into cooperating CUs and get service, which I thought was pretty cool even if I primarily use USAA these days. So I pulled the PDF from the website and was looking through the VA and DC options and I found this.

Maybe it seems too much like a “Who’s buried in Grant’s tomb?” joke to them, but just because it’s named “Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport” and has a code of DCA doesn’t locate it in Washington DC, guys…

Update: Steve points out in the comments that the Metro Washington Airport Authority has a DC address, and that’s true. Their own FAQ addresses this issue and comments that it relates to the Fed being the operating agency until 1987 and their keeping the mailing address for consistency sake and to make it clear what area it services.

However it also explicitly states “Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport is located in Virginia. Federal law and Virginia Code both state the Airport is “situated within the Commonwealth of Virginia” (see 59 Stat. 552 (1945); 1950 Va. Code Sec 7.1-10 (1983)).”

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Clean Plate

Originally uploaded by tbridge.

I believe in the Church of Baseball.

I believe in the glory of the game, the earnest truth of a base hit up the middle.

I believe in the greats who have come before, and those who grace our fields now.

I believe in the crack of the bat, the snap of the glove, the roar of the crowd and rustle of the grass. I believe in the smell of hotdogs on a summer night, and the sound of an AM radio nestled between the seats.

I believe in the stand up double, the diving triple and the slow jog of a home run.

Today we celebrate our seasonal observance of the return of Baseball to our hallowed city. We celebrate a return to the game that has passed our idle time since before our grandparents were born. We celebrate the game that has remained “while America has rolled by like a procession of steamrollers. It continually reminds us of what once was, like an indian head penny in a hanful of new coins.”

We celebrate our traditions, past and present.

We celebrate the power of a game to unite a people, to create passion, to create diverse ties that cross all lines of race, religion and socio-economic status.

I will be leaving work at 11:00am today to celebrate all that is right and good with the world, along with 46,000 of my closest friends.

Play ball.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Google WiFi Loving

Have you always hated the Comcast/RCN/Verizon triopoly of broadband Internet service providers in Washington DC?

Have you wanted to flush the poor service and hig fees? Well now you can, with the new Google TiSP!

As a partnership with the DC , Google will be brining high-speed Internet to DC starting today, according to the press release:

Google Inc. today announced the launch of Google TiSP (BETA)â„¢, a free in-home wireless broadband service that delivers online connectivity via users’ plumbing systems. The Toilet Internet Service Provider (TiSP) project is a self-installed, ad-supported online service that will be offered entirely free to any consumer with a WiFi-capable PC and a toilet connected to a local municipal sewage system.

“We’ve got that whole organizing-the-world’s-information thing more or less under control,” said Google Co-founder and President Larry Page, a longtime supporter of so-called “dark porcelain” research and development. “What’s interesting, though, is how many different modalities there are for actually getting that information to you – not to mention from you.”

Now the connection method might be a little unorthodox, but the blazing fast connection at the rock bottom price of $0 cannot be beat. All you need is sewer access, working toilet or not, and a little faith. Or as Google TiSP says: Want WiFi Around? Just Flush It Down!

Thanks Google, I’m gonna do that myself, right about now!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

What bird would you be most shocked to see on a cold winter day in Washington DC? In your wildest, most hallucinogenic, toad-licking dreams would you ever think to see flamingos?

I sure never did till I turned a new-to-me corner of the National Zoo and had this bright pink flock in my eye:

Check it out, we have flamingos in the nation’s capitol! Who would’ve thunk it?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Went down to see the cherry blossoms and kites today. No doubt we will have more than enough photos of the flowers in the days to come, so I’d like to draw your attention to the Kite Festival instead. After the jump.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs Continue reading →

Photo by DC Metroblogger

It is my first time at Domku and I am ecstatic. My new local has Baltika beer, my drunken joy from Russia.

The interior matches the beer selection. Odd tables and mis-matched chairs give a funky, fun vibe. The crowd is a little too Tryst for me but a Baltika 9 can change the view quickly.

I can see many stumblings home from this Petworth gem in my future.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I realized last night I’d completely dropped the ball on this – The Studio Theater is doing a companion reading to their play The Pillowman, called Nightmares and Pillow Tales. I’ll endeavor to write up my experience at the Pillowman this weekend, but you’ve got several more weeks to catch it, wheras these readings are a four-time-only deal, the last two performances of which are today and tomorrow at 5pm. Stop reading and GO – this article will still be here when you get back.

In a nutshell, this is a little over an hour of dramatic reading of stories in the scary childhood tale genre. If you’re skeptical about what a troupe of talented actors can bring to some material when limited to standing in front of some music stands and without costumes beyond a black and gray outfits with a splash of red…. then you haven’t been to this reading.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs Continue reading →

I realize that this is practically no notice, but there is a public call out for pirates and ninjas to show up at Whitlow’s on Wilson tonight between 5:30pm and 9pm. Consider this your warning that Clarendon could be the flashpoint for the greatest conflict of all time.

The Call Reads:

Sadly, my pirate suit’s at the cleaners.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Sorry tunnel-lovers, it’s gonna be above ground. Virginia has signed up Bechtel for between $2.4 and $2.7 Billion to do the Metro work out to Dulles, and all the plans currently are for above ground rail, which would allow them to keep the $900M in federal funding promised to the group for the extension. It’s a big blow to everyone who wanted an underground Metro in Tysons as part of a more “pedestrian friendly” Tysons.

Time to embrace Tysons for what it is: strip malls and office buildings and roads galore, and get real with all of it.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

The risk of going about your day in your PJs is that some obnoxious blogger will make fun of you for it. However this is not one of those situations – personally I’d be happy to go about in a torn t-shirt and my gym shorts all the time, much to the horror of my darling girlfriend. Rock on with your sloth self, girl. Soon enough you’ll be in polo & khaki hell like the rest of us wage slaves, and that’s only if you’re lucky enough to work in a “business casual” office.

No I’m writing because I saw this girl in Panera the other day and thought “I’m willing to bet that she wasn’t even born yet when I went to my last Pink Floyd concert.” Good to see the flame kept going, though you really oughta pick up “Wish you were here,” kiddo – it’s a better album and a dude on fire is a way cooler image than a prism.

Though I do like Richard Cheese’s take on it.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Does this Matches ad make you jealous? Don’t you wish it was you who “let the Wookie win”? Especially if you were a young’in being hunted by an older woman in black. Grrrr!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Don’t worry transit-riding folks, your fares aren’t going up. Well, at least not until Summer, anyway, when they may go up by an amount tied to cost of living factors like the CPI. Instead of infrequent large hikes, we’re going to get used to bi-annual or quarterly hikes in the fares. Instead of the immediate fare hike, Metro’s getting smaller, cutting “inefficiencies” out of the system.

Get ready for a leaner, meaner Metro?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Ollie’s… Olley?

Originally uploaded by tiffany bridge.

I just realized this morning that my new job is just across the intersection from Ollie’s Trolley. (No, not this location, the other one. But that one doesn’t photograph as well.)

This is going to be very bad for my cholesterol. But so, so good. Mmm, Olliefries.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by DC Metroblogger

Check out who is selling off everything this weekend: the Jefferson Hotel.

Like the St Regis sale, expect long lines and frantic people. Liquidations bring out the crazy in otherwise normal shoppers.

Now that I have an empty house to fill on the cheap, I might just get a little crazy myself.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Ticket are here!

Originally uploaded by tbridge.

Well, I picked up my Nationals season tickets tonight from our friends in Reston who are the drop box for the Nats mail. Adam and Lynne gleefully handed over our two seats as well as our opening day seats. Driving back, and stuck in traffic after the toll plaza, I opened the booklets.

Good God, Nationals, these are what we were waiting weeks and weeks on? I mean, couldn’t we have at least gotten some foil on the tickets? Maybe some embossing? I mean, we are shelling out $20 per seat per game for RFK, for crying out loud. To watch a team that by all accounts is going to finish Dead Last in the NL East? At least let us have some pride in our tickets.

But, cheapness on the part of the Lerner Family isn’t exactly surprising, I guess. I mean, just look at the roster this year…it’s a miracle that they filled out all 25 Opening Day Roster Slots.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

photo courtesy of gmeyervanvoorthuijse

It seems that it is once again time for me to remind some of you about certain driving facts, as they relate to the laws in MD, DC, VA, and as to my personal behavior.

Before your driving test, you should study the rules of the road and go to the driving school dublin, and practice driving as much as possible on all types of roads and in all types of traffic situations. This will improve your driving techniques and build your confidence.At

One, it is permissible to turn right on a red light under certain circumstances in our locale. It is not, however, required. Thusly, you have no reason to honk at me because you feel I am taking too long to do so. I am within my rights to take as long as I wish to ascertain that it is indeed safe for me to make the turn, or even not to turn. I am most certainly required to come to a complete stop before I turn on red, even if you never do so yourself.

Two, relating to my personality rather than traffic laws, the instant you honk at me in the above described situation, you guarantee that we’re going to be sitting through the entire light until it turns green. That thing might be on a 9 hour timer, but I am gonna keep you waiting there behind me even if I have to call in sick for my job and pee into an old coke bottle so I can wait it out. You got me, sparky? You, your type-A ‘personality’ (and I use the term loosely) and whatever unfortunate individuals are passengers in your feckless deathmobile will all be cooling your heels behind me till I am sure it’s well and truly green.

That is all.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs