The last round of car thefts in Prince Georges County happened in Clinton, Maryland – only about a mile away from my home in Brandywine. The most publicized of the 4 recent cases in Clinton and Brandywine involved thieves driving away in a car with a 3 year old girl inside. Of course, they did stop as they were speeding down the road to let the girl out. Nice, car thieves with half a heart.

Car theft has become such a problem in Prince Georges County that we even get the honor of being called out in a Wikipedia entry on auto theft, which can be categorized as either carjacking and joyriding (since we need to classify things). According to statistics published by Prince Georges County, 2/3 of the auto thefts in Prince Georges County are joyriding incidents, with cars often recovered quickly and the other 1/3 are categorized in the carjacking category, with cars being sent to a chop shop for parts. A friend of mine has had his car stolen 2 times, both times at the Greenbelt Metro station – in each case, it was a joyriding incident. I drove him out to pick up his car from a Hyattsville impound lot on his second theft – they stole the stereo and there were several empty bottles of Courvoisier in the back seat of the car. Prince Georges County has taken steps to reduce the number of car thefts (such as bait cars, etc…) and have resulted in a 10% reduction in auto thefts in 2005, but we still have a lot of work to do.

So I’m turning 33 in Feb – the 9th to be exact, and I need your help: how should I celebrate this day? I’m used to being out of the country on my birthday – say a birthday boy on a boat, but this year I’ll be DC-bound. Work and all that.

So help me – what should a joe-cool urban guy like me do on my b-day in DC? A par-tay in DC? Or an old-skol bowling alley? Maybe something different? And would it be better than a DC Libs get together?

Agh, the stress! It makes me want to be twenty-nine for the fifth time.

Help your elder out, would ya?

Yesterday morning there was a serious fire at the Falls Church Presbyterian Church on Broad St. in Falls Church. Flames leapt from the trashcans between the buildings into the building itself and the church was nearly lost. The FCFD were amazing in their response and saved the church from what would be a fiery destruction. The choir room was a total loss, including the piano, and the back stair will need to be entirely refurbished.

Church met this morning in the Falls Church Community Center, on a gym floor with the baskets raised, and never have I seen a tighter community. They had received offers from Dulin Methodist, Presbyterian and several other faith communities nearby to help host a service, and that warmed a lot of peoples’ hearts this morning as we all sat in the gym, working with an electric piano and an altar that folded up and went back beneath the bleachers when we left.

We collapsed the piano, we folded up the chairs and stacked them, and got the facility ready for the 11:30 basketball game.

I saw wet eyes today, but I saw more hope and adaptability and perspective than I’d seen recently. Pitched during the sermon today, and in the bulletin, is a mission trip to New Orleans to help them rebuild, and Pastor Tom Schmid reminded us how lucky we were to have only lost a choir room.

We are, however, looking for a choir room in Falls Church or Arlington, with a piano, for rehearsal this week, and maybe next. If you know of any, please let me know.

bye bye bling bling sidewalk

Originally uploaded by DCMetbloger.

Check this out: the bling bling giant sidewalk – the one fought over by locals and the tivoli developers – is on its way out.

I checked behind the construction screen and a nice car free DC sidewalk is about to replace the much disliked car park & pick up curb cut.

“This is Lisa Simpson and when I grow up I’m going to marry her!!” What better way to kick off the weekend before Valentine’s Day than proving to the one you love just how big of a geek you really are?

Fantom Comics is celebrating their grand opening with a Simpsons Trivia Contest over the weekend of February 11th and 12th. To enter, visit their site and fill out the entrance form. The Grand Prize Winner stands to take home over $500 worth of merchandise – just don’t try to split it with anyone named Martin or Millhouse. They’re located at the Tenleytown metro stop above the Best Buy and The Container Store.

So here’s a bit of easy trivia for you – what occupied that building before the days of comics, containers, and computers?

it looks like the crazy weather we’ve been having is confusing the cherry blossoms. (at least i think these are cherry blossoms, can anyone definitively identify these buds?) i love cherry blossoms — in fact they are one of my very favorite things about living here — but there is something quite sad about seeing them in january.

i hope this doesn’t mean we are in for a sub par cherry blossom season this april. so far there’s no word on the 2006 bloom from the national park service, but i promise to keep close tabs on the cherry blossom beat.

I remember a couple of years ago, during the whole saga with the DC Snipers, how police patrolling in Montgomery County stepped up rather mightily. Late that fall, it was not uncommon to see your friendly neighborhood squad car all over the mean streets of MoCo.

Understandably so, since they were on the lookout for a suspicious white van from which the crimes took place. I recall one late night when I was driving home taking the beltway and I-270. I saw no less than a dozen trafffic stops. I had two theories, one being that they were leaving no stone unturned and snagging everyone who so much as sneezed the wrong way. You could have called it the upcounty dragnet. My second theory was that with just about every badge on call, someone had to pay for overtime and extra runs to the donut shop. Manhunts don’t come cheap.

Then tonight, in the 10 minutes it takes me to get home from the beltway up Georgia Avenue I saw FIVE, count `em, five stops by the po-po. Something about babies shooting babies that just gets them all riled up. So if you got something to hide, especially a piece, don’t come riding through the `burbs. Hey writing tickets has got to pay for all those gunlocks.

more hellers treats

Originally uploaded by DCMetbloger.

How tasty does this look? A whole gingerbread house just waiting for you to destroy one bite at a time.

And how cool was the way I made this post – direct from cell phone to DC Metblog, without a laptop involved. How sweet is that? As sweet as the icing on the gingerbread house, which can be yours for just $50.

Out and about in Clarendon this morning, looking for a spot of lunch before engaging in rampant consumerism, I walked past the hollowed out corpse of Virginia Hardware, which sat between Fillmore and Highland on Wilson Blvd in the heart of Clarendon. There was a new liquor license application, and a hiring sign…hmm, what’s this? Ri Ra? In Clarendon?

Holy crap, that brings the Irish Bar total up to four along a short span of Wilson Blvd. There’s the venerable Four Courts, the new Kitty O’Shea’s (formerly Joseph’s), and Molly Malone’s (formerly Taste of Casablanca) and now that adds Ri Ra (formerly Virginia Hardware) to the mix.

That’s a lot of craic, kids.

No, Mr. Barry, it’s craic, not crack. As in, “good times”, not “drug you smoked a lot of.”

01282006.jpg

Originally uploaded by DCMetbloger.

Hellers Bakery – the new and improved one that is – is cranking out Valentines Day cookies and cakes already. Check out this tasty treat staring Disney’s mice and get your own soon.

It’s just too bad I’ll be outta town on Feb 14.