Yearly Archives: 2010

The Features, Where We Live
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Where We Live: Snowed In Edition

Photo courtesy of
‘Braving the Snowmageddon’
courtesy of ‘theqspeaks’

Here at Where We Live,  our focus is on neighborhoods and communities where people live, work, and play.  But recently, there’s not been a whole lot of leaving the house, so this week’s feature is focusing on the best places to be snowed in.  Sure, this may be the worst winter in history, but if you’re basing your next move on where you’d prefer to be snowed in, here are some ideas.

Best Neighborhood to Drink Away the Storm: Adams Morgan is the place to be if you don’t want to be snowed in your home.  With several bars within walking distance staying open during the storm, you’ll be able to drink away your sorrows.  On Friday night during Snowmageddon, the streets were empty but the bars were open and offering pretty amazing deals!

Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Where DOES the snow go?!

Photo courtesy of
‘Snow Deere’
courtesy of ‘Samer Farha’

My roommate and I were walking around the city yesterday in awe of the ginormous piles of snow across the city. It’s not looking like it’ll warm up any time soon, so what are we going to do with these HUGE masses of snow?

I had a chance to talk with a snow disposal specialist in Arlington who was directing snow removal efforts along Clarendon Boulevard. He had four dump trucks and a front end loader scooping up snow off the streets and loading into the truck. “Where do you take the snow?” I asked. “Well, there are locations across the county,” he told me. “We take the snow there and then there is a huge coil that melts it down into water.” Arlington County lists four snow holding locations: S. Clark St. site (just off Old Jefferson Davis Hwy), Future Long Bridge Park (also off Old Jefferson Davis Hwy), Virginia Highlands parking lot (off S. Hayes St. near 15th) and Barcroft #6 parking lot (off Four Mile Run Dr. near George Mason Drive).

Arlington County Environmental Services says, “The County’s snow melter can melt roughly 60 tons of snow per hour. The melted snow will drain into the County’s stormwater sewer system, much like stormwater runoff from a rainstorm.” Arlington says other factors will help speed up removal. “Mother Nature is also expected to aid in the effort as warmer temperatures and sunshine return.”

The Daily Feed
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From Street to Snow


Mural Jam 17 by maxedaperture

Kelly Towles, one of my favorite local street artists, set out a few days ago to turn our white winter wonderland into a colorful, creepy scene from a Tim Burton movie.  You’ve no doubt seen his unmistakable work around town.  From murals to storefronts to gallery shows, there are some crazy creatures whirling around in that imagination of his.  Click over to Brightest Young Things to see his marvelously creepy snow ghouls, and if you see any of them around town be sure to add them to the WLDC Flickr pool!

The Daily Feed
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Strong Pitching Cultivates Promise From Within The Nationals Clubhouse

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Strong pitching is what will make this year’s Washington Nationals a fierce competitor from within their division. They are backed by newly acquired veteran starter Jason Marquis and fellow veteran Pudge Rodriguez from behind the plate. But what about the rest of the rotation?

The Washington Nationals are coming off of a 2009 season in which they posted the worst ERA in all of the National League (5.00). This year, they’re all about changing that.

Bill Ladson of MLB.com says that if the Nats don’t acquire a veteran starter, fans better be on the look  out for Collin Balester, Matt Chico, Ross Detwiler, J.D. Martin, Garrett Mock, Scott Olsen and Stephen Strasburg to fill the final two rotation spots. Then Marquis will maintain the role as ace, leaving John Lannan and Craig Stammen in the top-half of Riggleman’s 2010 pitcher’s line-up. That combination is enough to motivate a young team ripe and ready for success. Continue reading →

Sports Fix, The Daily Feed
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Kastles: Now With More Williams!


Venus Williams by Max Cook

As if having the world’s #1 women’s tennis player on our team wasn’t enough, the Washington Kastles have added the #5 player as well.  That’s right, both Serena and Venus Williams will be playing for the Kastles this season almost assuring another successful run at the World TeamTennis Championship.  With arguably the best sibling duo in tennis history, the Kastles roster now boasts a combined 61 Grand Slam titles.

In other exciting news for Kastles fans, coach Murphy Jensen will be back again to see if lighting can strike twice.  “It takes world-class talent to win championships and there are no more accomplished athletes than Serena and Venus,” said Murphy, “Last summer was truly a dream season for us, and come July 5, the dream continues in DC.”

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We Love Weekends
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We Love Weekends, February 13-14, Shoveling Out Edition

Photo courtesy of
‘Creepy or cute?’
courtesy of ‘klea.scharberg’

What are we doing this weekend? SHOVELING, that’s what.

Max: Assuming the airline gods don’t cancel my flight tomorrow morning, I’ll be flying back to Cluster-Flake 2010,throwing snowballs at myself, building a snowman, making snow angels, and reveling in all of the snow activities that I’ve missed.  If you want me to throw your kid into a snowbank, I’ll do that too.  Once I’ve gotten that out of my system, I’ll be heading down to the Capitol Skyline Hotel Friday night for the Hearts & Skulls Valentine’s Party to watch horror movies, eat pizza, and listen to tunes pumped out by seven Fatback DJs.  On Saturday night I can’t wait to go to the opening of Empty Time, a painting and photography show at The Fridge curated by Trevor Young. All of the snow should be melted by Sunday, right?

Carl: Mostly I am going to sit down and cry because I thought I was through with this kind of weather when I moved away from Massachusetts four years ago. In between sobs, I hope to maybe get a good eggplant Parmesan sub from McLean Pizza and see if some elderly friends out in that area can use a bit of shoveling. Until then, I will be waiting for the plow, which might come or might not. At least I don’t have the burden of knowing whether Arlington County will come out here with a plow. That’s got to be a real hardship. Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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Get Me Out of Here: Sun and Sand for Cheap

Photo courtesy of
‘umbrella’
courtesy of ‘needlessspaces’

The dreamy 85 degree sun beats down on you as you lay, without a care in the world, sprawled out on a hotel towel covering the warm white sand, listening to the soothing crashing of the waves in a consistently rhythmic fashion. The sound of an exotic bird squawking as it flies overhead causes you to briefly raise your head and look out over the crystal clear, bright blue waters that surround you. Do you put the trashy, mindless romance novel down and take a dip in the warm waters, snorkel with the fishies of a thousand different colors, take a barefoot stroll along the beach to feel the fine sand between your toes…or do you put your head back where it was and catch some more sleep (as soon as you finish that Piña Colada of course)?

These are tough decisions. Really tough. But they are the kind of decisions you could be forced to make if you could JUST GET OUT OF HERE. Trade the white snow for the white sand, the cold for the hot, the blizzard induced winds for the light breeze off the sea. Trade snow shoveling for beach drinking and layer after layer of clothes for…just about nothing. Seriously, it’s time to get away from this frozen tundra of a city and get to where the sun and the sand are seemingly endless. I’m here to show you a few example trips on the cheap. And if nothing else, at least stare at these HOT PICTURES.

Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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You Know There’s Too Much Snow When…

Photo courtesy of
‘2009 01 24 – 0892 – Mercersburg – Whitetail Mtn’
courtesy of ‘thisisbossi’

The headline of this post sounds like the set up to a joke, and here’s the punch line: You know there’s too much snow when the ski resorts are closed.

Except, in this case, it’s not a joke. Whitetail Ski Resort announced that, due to road conditions, they are closed today:

Roads in our region are snowed in. Therefore to allow road crews to dig out, we will be closed today. However, have no fear, tomorrow is going to be an awesome day on the mountain. During the past 6 days we have received over 4 feet of natural snow.

Maybe you’ll have dug out by tomorrow and be on your way to a ski-filled long weekend. Save us some spiked hot chocolate!

The Features
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Fitness District: Ready?

Photo courtesy of
’24’
courtesy of ‘sazztastical’

Worn out by the constant snow? Yeah, me too. And I’m a blizzard-baby, February’s child, I’ve got ice running through my veins. So they say, anyway. But winter’s got me beat. During the past several days stuck at home I’ve been browsing spring fashion and fantasizing about the day when summer kisses my cheek.

But then it hit me – all this hibernating comes with a price tag, and it isn’t the one they keep touting the Fed’s closing. Oh no, it’s the extra poundage we pack on during winter to keep us from freezing (or at least, that’s my justification). So guess what? It’s time to start getting motivated and work it off. I mean, we here at WLDC yo-yo for you! You think all those cocktails don’t add up? That’s a lot of sugar, baby!

But, I admit, regular conventional gyms bore the hell out of me. Judging from the masses who influx in the late winter only to disappear after a month, I’m not the only one. People sweating away on an elliptical for hours with no life-changing results… sigh. So I and my fellow WLDC authors are on a mission to find some of the best outside-the-box fitness solutions and preview them for you as we hone in on the perfect spring and summer body. Go ahead and read full article about the best testosterone supplements for your diet.

Yes, it can be done! And we’re willing to completely humiliate ourselves for you in the process! Well, maybe. Read on for a sample of what we’re going to be testing out, and please leave more suggestions in the comments. And oh yes, this experiment will include some swinging around a pole… Continue reading →

The Daily Feed
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So what happens when the snow melts?

Screen shot 2010-02-11 at 12.32.28 PM

I haven’t seen anything from our local media yet but WSLS 10 in Roanoke has a nice 2 minute clip talking about the snow, melt, flooding risk, and what the water to snow ratio was for them in this storm.

The upshot is this: for the moment we’re not facing the kind of unpleasant flooding we saw after December’s massive snowfall, primarily because we’re in a colder pattern at the moment and we’re not following it up with rain that will accelerate the melt. While we’d all love to see this melt off we’d probably not enjoy seeing it happen too quickly.

That doesn’t mean we don’t need clear drains however – the curb outside my home is seeing a pretty steady flow of water as the sun-warmed blacktop and above-freezing temperature turns snow into slush and water. Take a moment to look around your home and make sure the downspouts are clear and any grates are free of leaf debris and other crap. We want this stuff to run off into the drain as expediently as possible so it doesn’t end up flooding our basements or frozen into black ice on the streets.

The Daily Feed
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Your Favorite Place – Invite We Love DC In!

Photo courtesy of
‘snow house’
courtesy of ‘philliefan99’

Do you have an awesome home, apartment, snow castle, dog house, etc. and live in the DC area?  If so, you could share your favorite place with all of the We Love DC readers (i.e. the entire world, obviously) and become uber-famous.  If this catches your eye then please email Samantha (at) WeLoveDC.com with your information, some pictures, and a little ditty about why your favorite place should be featured in an upcoming We Love DC series.

The Daily Feed
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Jammin’ Java Sings About Love On Valentine’s Day

Photo courtesy of
‘Is Love in the Cards? (218/365) (064/365) [Explored]’
courtesy of ‘kimberlyfaye’

If you’re looking for an alternative to the standard Valentine’s Day celebration of candle lit dinners, card and candy exchanges, and the occasional (yet awkward) first date, look no further than Jammin’ Java‘s “All You Need is Love Songwriter’s Circle Tribute to the Beatles and Love Songs“.

Singer-songwriters Shane Hines (of Shane Hines and the Trance), Anthony Fiacco (of The Blackjacks), Todd Wright, and Luke Brindley all give credit where credit is due on this day devoted to acknowledging love — a heartfelt tribute to The Beatles and the other music makers who gave us ways to sing about our love instead of just talking about it.

This intimate night makes room for the performers to share their tales of love and music in a “VH1 Storytellers” setting. So if anything, audience members are guaranteed a night of honesty in song and honesty in word from some local favorites taking the stage.

The Daily Feed
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Drive like an ass, just like this guy

Don't be this guy

Notice how all that snow is piled on top of this person’s car? Don’t be like that. When you can get out and drive, be sure to clean the snow off your entire car. Two things can result from this type of halfway done snow removal. First, big chunks of ice and snow can fall from your car and into traffic. Annoying, to be sure, and likely to make someone swerve. Maybe not the best reaction, but certainly an understandable one.

Second, if the snow is loose and powdery, it can blow off in traffic and blind other drivers. That’s generally bad too.

On top of this, you will just look like an idiot driving around like that. You are right, it’s not as bad as the even bigger idiots who neglect to clean the snow from all their windows (yes, the back one is important too, people), but still – are people really that lazy? A coworker made the excuse to me that she could not reach the top of her car. I told her she had a size of car to size of body ratio imbalance. If you can’t clean the car off, you shouldn’t be allowed to drive it.

The District
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We tell you where the hydrant is, you dig it out

Chief of the Fire and Emergency Medical Services Dennis Rubin has been asking the public to help out and clear snow from around fire hydrants, but it’s not uncommon for some to be covered. Where to dig?

Well, we’ve whipped up a tool to help you find ones close to you, buried or not. Put in a few extra minutes after shoveling your walk and un-burying your car – the house you save might be your own.

The map is powered by Google Maps and uses up-to-date GIS data from the District Water and Sewer website. Just scroll it around to find the 40 nearest hydrants or key in an address or zip code to re-center the map. Only District hydrants are mapped.

Click the image below to go to the finder.

Screen shot 2010-02-10 at 11.55.19 PM

All Politics is Local, Business and Money, Downtown, Essential DC, News, The Daily Feed, WTF?!
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Fed Closed AGAIN!

Photo courtesy of
‘The White House’
courtesy of ‘william couch’

OPM has announced that the Fed is closed for a nearly unprecedented fourth day in a row.  The last time the government shut down for more than 2 days was for the blizzard of 1996, when employees were instructed not to report for an entire week (also the record for longest closure).  We’ll see if the fed decides to open for business on Friday.  I’d like to think that they’ll be able to, but God only knows, at this point.

The Features
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Are They? How To Figure Out If Your Favorite Restaurant Is Open Tonight

Photo courtesy of
‘We are open’
courtesy of ‘fromcaliw/love’

So we’ve been getting tons of requests from readers to do a post on what is open and what is not. The problem though, is that it keeps changing. Every time I hear a place is open, 20 minutes later they decide to close. This isn’t quite the same snow storm as it was over the weekend, the wind is insane, snow is deeper, and Metro is effed. So restaurants that were hoping to be open tonight have been forced to close, or close early, so the status of places just keeps changing. And I love you, but I’m not sitting here all night updating this post. There is television to be watched, and nails to be painted and naps to be had. So you know the saying, if you teach a man to fish, that one? Well I’m gonna teach you to fish, little reader. Here is how you can figure out if your favorite restaurant is open.

1) Check out Twitter. I don’t care if you think Twitter is nerdy and you don’t want to know what someone’s dog did or what whatshisface ate for lunch, Twitter is where it is at during this snow storm for restaurants to update patrons with their status. Use WeLoveDC’s food list to browse for all your favorites and check out their statuses. If you’re not sure the restaurant has a Twitter account, all you need to do is Google the name and Twitter (ie: “CommonWealth Gastropub Twitter”) and it should pop right up for you.

2) Pick up the phone. I realize this is OH GOD SO OLD SCHOOL and wouldn’t it be nice if someone just wrote it out for you without you having to speak to a human, but have you looked outside? It is Grade A cray cray and conditions keep changing, so for information from their mouth to your ears, you just need a cell phone. Call ’em up.

3) Follow the hashtag #opendc on Twitter. Lots of people are using this to update each other with open restaurants, museums and more.

4) Check the comments of THIS post. Lots of restaurants have been diligent about posting on our last post, and so let’s try TAKE TWO and have them update for tonight in the comments of this one. Restaurants? People in-the-know? Take it away in the comments.

Hope that helps, my snow bunnies. Stay safe out there! And drink one for me.