Category Archives: Arlington

All Politics is Local, Arlington, Technology, The Daily Feed
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Robo-Poll


Clockwork Robot…
Originally uploaded by law_keven

I have a landline, but I rarely use it. Usually it’s for stuff like calling the Chinese delivery place a couple blocks over, and so I have something that really works well in my Condo. It’s not that I get calls on it. Except this morning when it rang about 10:15am. It was a robo-call, I could tell immediately, but I gave it a second to rattle off its spiel before deciding it wasn’t going to waste my time or try to sell me more credit than I need.

It asked five simple questions and the whole thing took 30 seconds:

– Who would you vote for if the election was today?
– Which party do you trust with the economy right now?
– What’s your gender?
– What’s your race?
– What’s your age group?

And away it went. But it was all automated. It wasn’t a real person making minimum wage in a call center, it was a robot doing the polling. I got a little sad. Are you telling me there’s no Josh Lyman standing over a group of midwestern transplants and telling them to spit out their gum?! Sigh. The price of progress.

Arlington, The Daily Feed, WTF?!
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Virginia Trafficking in Absurdity

Bear with me for a little exercise.

  • – Expired registration. Hell, *no* registration.
  • – Impeding the flow of traffic.
  • – Fail to obey traffic lights. Fail to obey a stop sign.
  • – Evasion of a “traffic control” device (road cones, barriers, etc).
  • – Fail to give full time & attention (texting, anyone?)
  • – FAIL TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF VEHICLE.
  • – Fail to drive on right side of highway. (?!)
  • – Speeding 20 MPH above the limit…in a school zone.

If you answered, “easy! They’re moving violations” you would be correct, but uninteresting.

If you answered, “well, thanks to the nanny state anti-sprawl dirty hippie activists in the Commonwealth of Virginia, those are all moving violations with smaller (in some cases considerably so) fines than the first violation of the HOV rules because traffic is clearly an end-times apocalyptic crisis and the social engineering of how many passengers you have in your car is sacrosanct”, you would be absolutely on the mark.

 @#*&${#@(*$

  

Alexandria, Arlington, Food and Drink
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We Love Food: Summer’s Last Stand

Ice Cream Desert, taken by Lotus Head (Creative Commons)

Ice Cream, taken by Lotus Head (Creative Commons)

I love this time of year.  The chilly evenings go really well with the beautiful warm days.  The leaves are about to turn colors.  And, just about any week now we are going to get another famous DC Indian Summer.

When Indian Summer hits all I can think about are all the summer things I want to do one last time.  And that means only one thing:  I’m going to be jonesing for some Ice Cream.

So, to help out everyone in DC, I’ve compiled a short list of three great places where you can get your fix.

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Arlington, The Daily Feed
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Goodbye Parking Meters

Disabled parking meters

If you’re used to parking your car in the lot outside of Murky Coffee all day, it’s time to find a new parking spot.

Arlington has been replacing parking meters with “Pay and Display” meters.  These new boxes take the old coins (which was my last refuge for all my spare change) and also accept dollar bills and credit cards.  So running out of change is no longer a good excuse.

After a successful test run in other locations (outside the shops at Clarendon was one) they are expanding the program to other areas.  Yesterday, they modified the large parking lot that runs from St. Charles Church to Murky Coffee.

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Arlington, Talkin' Transit, The Daily Feed
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New Parking Stand


New parking stand
Originally uploaded by tbridge

You might’ve seen the new parking stands at the Courthouse parking lot, featuring space numbers, credit card machines, and time tags that you leave on your dashboard, but these machines are spreading rapidly. They showed up on Fairfax Drive near the new power substation recently, and are all marked with the “Coming Soon” text. The new boxes will transition all the meters on the street to 4 hour max meters. Many meters on the street are currently 12 hour meters, which means that they’re friendly to people who work in the surrounding area. Oh well, guess it’s just four hours for you, now!

Arlington, Talkin' Transit
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Talkin’ Transit: Busted

Photo courtesy of tbridge
Busted Ass Bus, courtesy of tbridge

Lately, strikes, cuts and hikes have one thing in common in transit around here. More specifically, the Fairfax Connector, Maryland budget woes, and VRE fare hikes.

Fairfax Connector: Today is Day 2 of the bus driver strike, where drivers are holding out for a new contract with better pension and health benefits. The old contract ended on Sunday.

Yesterday, the first day of the strike, saw 16 routes get canceled and eight others put on a reduced schedule. Servicing over 20,000 commuters a day, the strike only affects the routes serving southern Fairfax County as the striking drivers are from the Huntington garage. The Herndon-based drivers are under a different contract so there is no reduction of service from routes originating there.

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Arlington, The Daily Feed, The Great Outdoors
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Unwed Mother Mantis

Praying Mantis = good luck!

This praying mantis was sitting on the railing of my deck as I was coming in from picking peppers in my garden. What a nice surprise, I thought. I have always associated mantids with good fortune. As I looked closer, I noticed that this one had an engorged abdomen and appeared to be ready to birth a giant-ass egg sack.

I can’t wait until next spring, when the little ones appear and eat all the other insects and spiders. Maybe that’s weird for a vegetarian to admit, but it’s true. This is one of those things that gives me hope about the coming autumn and winter.

Even though things wither and die as the days grow colder, like the poor little unwed mother praying mantis, I know that in that egg sack little critters are quietly awaiting the spring and will slowly mature until they burst forth to eat all the darned spiders, who are probably just as fertile and ready to lay eggs right now.

Whatever gives us the hope it takes to push through the cold weather and emerge on the other side of the cold is worth latching onto. For me, it’s the arrival of mantis season and the hope of no spiders.

Arlington, Essential DC, Talkin' Transit, WMATA
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Transit: Memorial Memo

Photo courtesy of tsmyther
Pentagon, courtesy of tsmyther

The Pentagon will open the first of three memorials for the victims of the September 11 attacks on Thursday. The memorial will be available to visitors 24 hours a day.

A dedication ceremony will be given tomorrow morning; the site will open to the public in the evening.

If you’re planning on driving / commuting near the Pentagon tomorrow, there’s some things you need to know.

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Arlington, The Daily Feed
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My Neighbor, Li’l Abner – an Update

My Neighbor Across The Street IMGP1950

Honestly – it looks like Dogpatch across the street. The dumpster disappeared quite a while ago but in preparation for our big-ass storm we are getting even as type this, my neighbor erected a couple half-ass erosion prevention screens and ran his drainage hoses from the basement outside. And he left a bunch of extra hose there for good measure.

The erosion screens laid down when the rain started and are now allowing a steady stream of brown water to run across them. D for effort, F for trying to fix it.

Twenty bucks to a bucket of muddy runoff says it will look like this long after the storm passes.

What’s your neighborhood look like?

Arlington, The Daily Feed
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Arlington Water Main Break

Arlington County Alert system just put out the following warning:

There is a large water main break at N. 26th and Old Dominion Drive.  Water pressure will be very low or none at all. Traffic may also be impacted while the break is being repaired.

Google Map view of the break…

If you are a Marymount student – I wouldn’t expect there to be water any times soon…

Update:

Arlington just posted this update:

The water is back on for residents in the area of the Old Dominion (at 25th Street) water main break. Some residents will still notice lower water pressure and crews will continue to work to restore full pressure. If residents notice discoloration of the water, they should allow the water to run until clear.
Traffic may be diverted in some area, particularly Old Dominion Drive, pending repairs.

Arlington, Featured Photo
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Yep, it’s Autumn, or might as well be

Cucumber from my Garden IMGP1602 copy

I know the season has not quite changed yet, but to me it’s already autumn. The garden has stopped producing, and it was a bum crop anyway this year. Pretty much all I got were some freaky cucumbers (another example here) and a handful of tomatoes that started to grow and then got stolen by some animals who apparently loved my garden as much as I had hoped to.

On the bright side, I was able to get some rosemary well entrenched in place of a dead shrub and with luck my grapes will really take off next year. They say the third year is the magic one, so I hope to have a better report then. The roses did very well in their first year and should winter well in our mild climate.

It’s about time to slow down, pour a glass of wine and make a toast to the passing of summer and the coming of autumn. Who knows – next year at this time we may be celebrating a bumper crop of whatever I plant and snacking on grapes, whose perfume will waft gently on the cool evening air with the promise of a late, delicious harvest.

What culinary delights are you still enjoying from your garden?

Arlington, Crime & Punishment, The Daily Feed
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Warning Signs

Please Remove All

Electronic Items

From Parked Cars

Nothing like coming home to a Police warning. When I called my condo association, they said that the car bandits are running rampant in South Arlington, and that they were targeting cars with GPSes or iPod hookups. So, beware South Arlington.

Arlington, The Daily Feed
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Missing Person in Arlington’s EFC Neighborhood

Missing person info from the Arlington Alert system:

The Arlington County Police Department is asking for the public’s help in locating a missing woman and her grandson. 60 year old Lansen Li was last seen at approximately 8:30 a.m. on August 15 when she took her infant grandson, Jeffrey, for a walk. Ms. Li frequently pushes Jeffery in a stroller through the Arlington-East Falls Church neighborhood. Ms. Li does not have any medical problems, but she left without any identification or money. She also did not pack any supplies for the baby, including food or diapers.
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Arlington, Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
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Free Gelato!


mounds of gelato
Originally uploaded by roboppy

Last night at Dino, Tiff had hazelnut gelato that she said “gave her life new meaning” (look forward to our review coming later today) and made her a gelato fan for life. Today, with thanks to James Liu of DCist for pointing it out, there will be free gelato for all. In fact, for each of the next three days, Ciao Bella will be giving out free gelato. Here’s the deets:

Today:
Alexandria Harris Teeter (4641 Duke St) from 11am to 2pm.
Arlington Whole Foods (2700 Wilson Blvd) from 4pm to 7pm.

Tomorrow:
Harris Teeter on Glebe (600 North Glebe) from 11am to 2pm
Harris Teeter on Harrison (2425 Harrison) from 4pm to 7pm

Friday:
Balducci’s in Bethesda (10323 Old G’town Rd) from 11am to 2pm
Harris Teeter in Pentagon Row (900 Army Navy Rd) from 4pm to 7pm

Dude. Free gelato. Go for it!

Arlington, The Daily Feed
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Arlington County to Smoke-Test Sewer Lines

In case you were wondering what that smoke coming from the sewer was, it’s intentional. The county is looking for leaks. From the Arlington Alert system:

Starting Tuesday, August 12, Arlington County will test its sanitary sewer system with smoke to detect leaks and cracks.

The testing, which will last through Monday, September 15, will be conducted from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the area bounded on the north by Route 50, on the west by S. Wakefield Street, on the East by S. Highland Street and on the south by 22nd Street South.

Residents can expect to see workmen in their neighborhoods, and may see white smoke rising from the sanitary sewers, residential vent stacks and open drains. The smoke is odorless, harmless and does not stain. This is the fourth consecutive year the County has used such testing to detect defects in the sewer system.

For more information contact Allan Rowley with the Arlington County Department of Environmental Services at (703) 228-6542

Arlington, Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
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No Touchy at Murky Coffee

No touchy!

For those of you who haven’t seen previous posts about Murky Coffee, it does get mentioned here from time to time, as it turns out. The latest thing I can say I love about Murky is this sign I had probably seen a hundred times and not given any thought to. It both tickled and admonished me, delivering efficient coinciding messages. The biscotti are a favorite of my Lovely Wife and she claims they are right good. Me, I am not such a big fan of the hard anise-flavored breads. But my real question is whether I can get it iced. I thought about asking but then thought better of it.

Arlington, The Daily Feed, WTF?!
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Four Mile Run Stream Full of Shit Again

Another sewage spill into Four Mile Run Stream. This seems to happen every few months. What the heck is going on and why can’t Arlington’s seem to fix the real problem here?

From Arlington County Alert:

A sewage spill into Four Mile Run Stream near Westover Park is affecting waters and parks all the way to the Potomac. Residents are advised not to fish in or have any contact with the waters – including wading or swimming – until further notice.

So it’s not even safe to swim or wade in shitty water? Thanks, Arlington County, for telling me not to wade into sewage but not fixing a repeat problem.

Arlington, Food and Drink, The Daily Feed, WTF?!
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Peanuts in the Men’s Room

Peanuts in bathroom sink

I wish the title of this post were a metaphor for something instead of a real description. When I was at the Marymount University library yesterday, I found peanuts in the sink, on the lip of the sink and on the floor. They led in a haphazard way to one of the stalls, where apparently someone had been a bit hungry. Dear Toilet Muncher – bathroom eating is bad enough, but if you are going to snack in the loo, can you at least be clean about it?

Arlington, Food and Drink, The Daily Feed
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Welcome to Murky. You Don’t Get it Your Way.

I am at Murky Coffee, where I just heard a conversation in which the barista told a guy that he was not allowed to pour his espresso over ice.

“But that’s how I want it,” the guy said.

“You can’t have it over ice. It ruins the quality of the coffee. It’s also against our store policy,” the barista said. After the customer left the counter, the barista was fuming and told his coworker, “I almost told that guy not to come back.”

Thanks, Nick, for hiring such helpful young people who uphold basic tenets of customer service. Where would the world be if customers could get what they wanted? This young fellow did a good job protecting the ignorant customer from cold espresso.

Barista guy – get over it. It’s just coffee, not a matter of safety or health, and the guy knows how he wants it.

Arlington, People, The District
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Why I Love DC: John

Let me be honest. I never meant to come to DC, let alone stay here.

I came here in the fall of 1995 as a college freshman. I had hoped to get into UVA’s architecture school, but I got into Catholic U’s program instead. I spent the last five years of the millennium in Northeast DC, rarely venturing outside of the typical college student haunts. Making the typical student mistakes; getting off at the GMU stop on the orange line when trying to go to a concert at the Patriot Center. Driving to the Southeast end of Pennsylvania Avenue at 11 at night because of shoddy directions. Going to Rumors. That’s just the tip of the iceberg.

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