From Arlington Alert:

The Arlington County Police Department will close several streets in the Clarendon, Courthouse, and Rosslyn neighborhoods on Saturday, May 10, 2008, for the Battle of the Boulevard 10K Race and the annual Neighborhood Day Parade.

The Battle of the Boulevard Race and after-race activities will begin in Clarendon, at 9 am and finish at approximately noon.

The Neighborhood Day Parade will begin at Court House and proceed up Wilson Boulevard at 1 pm. It will end at Irving Street, at approximately 3:00 pm.

The streets that will be affected are listed below.

From 6 am to 3 pm:

*Clarendon Blvd. from Washington Blvd. to Highland Street
(Clarendon Blvd. will have a sound stage set up on it, from 7 am to 3 pm. The road will open when the stage is removed)

*Wilson Blvd. from Washington Blvd. to N. Highland Street

*N. Highland St. from Clarendon Blvd. to Wilson Blvd.

From 8 am to 11 am:

*Wilson Blvd. from Highland Street to Rt. 110 North @ I-395

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It was late last night as we got off the Metro at Courthouse after the Nats loss. The Vicodin I’d taken to dull the pain after my wisdom teeth came out was wearing off, and frankly, in that situation I get might grumpy. Having only had a yogurt, I pulled into the Wendy’s at Courthouse & Wilson for a Frosty.

Now, the Wendy’s closes its dining room at 10 or so, but their drive-thru is open until 2 in the morning. Which is great, if you have a car. But as the picture here demonstrates, about a half dozen people last night took it upon themselves to just walk up to the window. Sure, two of them waited in “line” between a few cars, but the rest showed up unbidden, and the wait while they placed their orders was 10 or so minutes, holding up the rest of the line.

Folks. It’s a drive-thru window. It’s not a walk-up.

Drive thru walkups — Originally uploaded by tbridge

A man leapt to his death from the 4th floor interior balcony at the DC Superior Court building this afternoon around 3:30pm. The lobby of the courthouse is still closed and considered a crime scene. If you have business at the courthouse this afternoon or tomorrow morning, be prepared to use the alternate entrances to the building.

If you’re a potential juror tomorrow, talk with Juror Services to find out if you’ll be needed for duty tomorrow.

My preferred marriage officiant

Looking to get married in DC, today’s lunch hour was spent researching the DC marriage requirements, and the Betrothed Butterbean and I have a problem: identifying our “wedding officiant”.

Now if either of us were remotely religious, or felt comfortable with paying a random stranger, finding a registered DC officiant wouldn’t be that hard. But we’re picky.

We’re wanting to be married by a friend or family member but the DC Superior Court says:

Religious celebrants and judges other than those of the D.C. Courts must be authorized by the Court and registered by the Marriage Bureau in order to perform legal marriages in the District of Columbia. The full name of the intended celebrant must be given at the time of the application for verification and placement on the license.

So that means we not only have to get someone we know registered with the marriage bureau, we have to do it before we can even get a marriage license, and who knows how long that process takes!

Do you?

It’s almost worth not getting blind drunk on Friday nights so you can be up early enough to hit the Arlington Farmer’s Market on Saturday mornings. It’s held right across the street from the Arlington Courthouse Metro Station (N. Courthouse St. and N. 14th St). The Market is open from 8am-12noon (but it’s hard to find parking after about 8am).

Unlike most grocery store food that comes from South America and has been in a warehouse for a few months, the vegetables found at the Farmer’s Market were picked at the peak of ripeness by local growers and brought directly to the market. If you can’t taste the difference between naturally ripened and chemically-ripened fruit, you owe it to yourself to buy some of the produce they’ve got there and learn. In the last few weeks I’ve gotten some of the best blueberries, cherries and blackberries I’ve had in a long time. They also have some delicious baked goods from local bakeries.

One of the best parts of the Farmer’s Market is that it’s also pretty cheap compared to supermarket chains. That 4lb zucchini I’m holding only cost 50 cents! You can’t beat a deal like that. By the way, if anybody has any good recipes that call for 4lbs of zucchini let me know…

Sure, there are a number of other comparable Farmer’s Markets in DC; the Alexandria Market on Saturday mornings and the Dupont Circle Market on Sunday mornings for example, but the Courthouse Market has the distinct advantage of being right next to my house.

It’s a packed house over here at Ireland’s Four Courts as Liverpool and AC Milan face off in the finals of the Champions Leagues. Milan’s up 1-nil at the half, scoring a goal on a deflected penalty kick, causing half the bar to cheer and the other half to groan.

The last time I saw a pub this packed at half-past three was the World Cup. Irish accents, British accents, American flat vowels, they’re all here, along with the rapid patter of Spanish and Portuguese.

Skip out on the rest of the day and head here, or Lucky Bar, or Elephant and Castle and catch the second half.

Perhaps if Wayan’s couch guest is still looking for a place to stay, he should take a gander at HotPads.com. HotPads appears to be a mash-up between google maps and wikipedia, offering a user-friendly at-a-glance look at available housing options inside the beltway.

Users can customize their search requirements by zip code, city, county or state, using a variety of variables. A quick Georgetown search turned up not a whole lot, whereas a quick search of my home zip code turned up two rental possibilities.

Looking for a roommate? You apparently can use that feature too, although it turned up zilch for me. This appears to be a great tool for relocation professionals who know naught about the new city they’ll call home. Doing a quick search of cities such as Seattle and Boston turned up a whole lot of useful information.

These three Notre Dame former college roommates moved to the D.C. area and created HotPads in early ‘05, relaunching the site last month. The best thing about HotPads? It’s totally free.

Between HotPads and The D.C. Crime Map newcomers to D.C. can learn much more about prospective neighbours before they even put down a deposit. Say ’sayonara’ to moving in sight unseen, suckers.

When I first moved here, it was Ningaloo, and I played pool on the tables there in the summertime, drank beer out of pitchers and flirted with the bartendress. Then it was closed, and it eventually became Dr. Dremo, or just Dremo’s. Good beer on tap, old video games, interesting interior decor, and famously, no air conditioning. Now they’re down to what could be the last days of Dremo:

Dremo’s lease runs out at the end of August ‘06. The developer’s plans are up for review at two Arlington county meetings: project planning meeting Sept 5 ‘06 and the county board meeting September 16 ‘06. We are guessing we are safe until Sept 16th. If the plans are approved, then the sale will take place and we will have to get out. What we don’t know, is when we will have to get out. It could be Sept 1st, it could be January 1st. We don’t know.

It would suck to lose such an august member of the Beer Bar Family in the DC area, air conditioning or no, just to put up yet more condos. Please go out and support Dremo at the Arlington County Council Meeting on the 16th.

Anyone who knows me, knows my love of Ray’s The Steaks. Even though I’m a little upset with them, I’m sure one cup of Crab Bisque all will be forgotten. Now, though, there’s a deal in place at the Arlington Ray’s that is one that absolutely, positively cannot be missed. According to Jason Storch of DC Foodies, Ray’s will be offering a $20 Bistro menu that includes a cup of their phenomenal soup or a salad, and a choice of their Hanger Steak or Salmon, all served with their famous mashed potatoes and creamed spinach.

When you see Michael, tell him Metblogs sends their love. There is no finer steak in town that Ray’s, get out there before the wait gets too bad.

Ray’s The Steaks

1725 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA

photo courtesy of David et Magalie

DCFoodies reported on Saturday that Ray’s the Steaks has re-opened! As a considerate reporter (and not at all motivated to make sure there was a seat for me) I waited until I could go and verify this myself yesterday. Sure enough, Ray’s is open for business at 6pm every Tuesday through Saturday with a new no-reservation policy. Show up, smile and be seated as soon as there’s a spot.

This was my first Ray’s visit and I was not disappointed.
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