Yep, it’s pretty windy out there, and dammit, it’s cold to boot. 18F here, -5F with the windchill. This is the kind of weather that has me thinking that California may be a better place to live by far. But, not quite as a nice a scene in Modesto, if you know what I mean.

Crime Cameras Go Live

DC Police cameras in high crime areas are live, and the Police are pulling their best Big Brother impersonation together. Wait, you thought this was a repeat? So did I. Except that while 73 cameras were live in August of 2006, no one was watching them. Sure, they could use the footage after the fact, but now they’re watching the cameras feeds live. Most creepy from the Post article was this line from Chief Lanier: “I’d love to have the whole city wired like London.” Chief, technology is no substitute for officers in the field, don’t treat it as such.

GW Finalizes Development Deal for Old Hospital Site

The three-acre Parcel 54 area of DC, near 23rd & I Sts NW is the site of the old GW Hospital, and will soon be the site of 842,000 square feet of office, retail and residential space. The space will include a grocery store, amongst other retail options, as well as 1,000 parking spaces that will be much needed.

Obama vs. Clinton Tomorrow in DC!

Two Senators are facing off on the ballot tomorrow, fighting it out for the nomination of their party for the presidency. Elections across the DC area take place tomorrow, and the polls in Virginia put Sen. Barack Obama up on Sen. Hillary Clinton by 15 points at the moment. In addition, John McCain and dark horse candidate Mike Huckabee are also on the ballot for the Republicans, but the split is far wider between the two.

Wayan’s DC Photos

Good morning random Foggy Bottom resident. This is how you’ll find you car this morning - covered in Epoch Times newspapers.

I don’t think that the papers are a specific sign to you, its just the GW student body’s way of saying that school is back in session.

If you live in Foggy Bottom, you’re used to sights like this on a Saturday already. The visualization of a long, Friday night drunk-a-thon in odd street litter the following day.

Enjoy, and please, do recycle.

Wayan’s DC Photos

I can understand the State Department wanting to keep a low profile, what with its shoddy Bush-led foreign policy. And I can even appreciate it not wanted to broadcast its location too far and wide.

But I have to say this crosses the line: erasing your name from the sign out front.

While they might fool a few folks by scrubbing off the white paint on the 23rd Street sign’s letters, there’s no mistaking the third largest federal building in DC. Not even re-naming it the Harry S. Truman Building will hide the block of ugly.

Nor will it stop visitors from being confused on which entrance they need or deter taxi drivers from going for one more zone, 23rd being one block past Zone 1.

Its only gonna make me want to call in my favorite sign-maker.

(I had to get “Foggy Bottom” into one more post…)

I’m heading back home after two weeks of work and fun here in our Nation’s Capital. I got to see the things I wanted to see most of all: The National Air and Space Museum (both parts!) as well as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States of America.

Have you read the constitution lately? It’s not long. Read it. Pay particular attention to Article I, Section 9: “The privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it.”

Just getting some soapbox time in before I go.

Ciao, Cheers and Aloha DC!

Kind Princes Can Often Find Gorgeous Secretaries.

Anyone? Anyone?

Friday, after my lovely afternoon at Fort McNair, I returned to the office and had to run an errand to get a particular piece of equipment from the nearest Home Depot. I found the Rhode Island Ave. location and got quick pointers to the Metro and off I went.

First I have to say: nice Metro DC! Carpeted, cell phone reception, AIR CONDITIONING! (It’s really not a dry heat out here.) Plus all the travelers are so polite, standing on the right of the escalators, waiting to the sides of the doors to let folks out before moving all the way into the center of the car. I’m really impressed!

So I got out to Home Depot, which was luckily close to the station, and the item I need is not available for sale because the sales rep is gone for the day. He leaves at 3:00pm (it was about 6:00.) I’m standing there going “Are you FRAKKING kidding me?” I need to spend about $350 on a specific thing (a Hilti Laser Range Meter for crying out loud) And the Hilti sales rep is the only guy with a key to unlock all his miracle treasures to sell to us common people. There was no way for me to part with $350. Crap and damn. So I schlep back to the Metro and exit at my stop: “Foggy Bottom”

Second I have to say: Any city that has a neighborhood called “Foggy Bottom” is okay by me. And that it turns out to be my stop? Even better.

Follow me after the jump for the Shining Beacon…
(more…)

One of the things I love about living in DC is that I can go over to the Watergate just about any day of the week — yeah, that Watergate — and do my groceries at “Senior Safeway” (also known around this time of year as the “Student Safeway”), a relatively mundane grocery experience in the shadow of historic intrigue and infamy.

Now, however, a new Watergate shopping experience is open to Washington:

It’s a massive liquidation sale! While the hotel closes up for renovation till 2009, they’re getting rid of surplus desks, chairs, chests, armoires, sinks, tubs, toilets, cutlery, glasses, plates, pillows, four-poster beds and more, all worth anywhere from singles to thousands of dollars, heavily used by hundreds of guests, going for bargain prices. The sale runs every day of the week, Mon-Sat 10-7 and Sun 12-5, and there’s a $10 entrance fee to deter non-buying gawkers, but hey, isn’t it worth a Hamilton for the chance to get a piece of history? Or maybe a used desk for cheap? I saw a bunch of people carting off armchairs from there just this afternoon. Word is the bargains aren’t so great, but hey, Watergate!

Go for it! I know I will. Anyone been there yet? Score anything good?

More on this from WaPo, DCist, and DCBlogs.

Speaking of lining up in Trader Joe’s, I’m really wondering what’s up with this laminated printout stapled to their “Artisan Breads” sign, where people in line can read it as they shuffle down the queue. It’s the full text of a New York Times article entitled A Long Line for a Shorter Wait at the Supermarket, praising Whole Foods stores in Manhattan for their single-queue system, and at the same time disparaging Trader Joe’s.

Now, here in DC we know that the Foggy Bottom TJ’s uses the single-queue system, and last I checked, the Whole Foods stores in Tenleytown and Clarendon do not, so why post this competition-lauding story for TJ’s customers to read? Is it there to prove the author Michael Barbaro wrong? Or just to prove that the single queue system is superior regardless of what store it’s applied in? Or to highlight some kind of contrast between Trader Joe’s stores in DC and NYC? Or did some disgruntled shopper pin it to the back of the sign where the cashiers wouldn’t notice it?

Someone ask the cashiers at TJ’s about that, because I forgot to yesterday.

Loose something?

Walking my Betrothed Butterbean to work this morning, I found a note on the sidewalk. A note that seems like it might be important to someone.

Do these scribbles look familiar to you? Like maybe from a Women in Government meeting? Were you so engaged in “leadership through education” that you dropped your to-do list?

If so, or you know who did, please drop a note in the comments section. Give me an identifying scribble or action item, and I send a scan of the whole long-ass list to you asap.

I only want to know why you need to get dance lessons to figure out when the next meeting will be (Aug 27 or 28??).

Saw this heartbreaking sight on my way to the Foggy Bottom Trader Joe’s yesterday afternoon. There isn’t even a note on the windshield, so whoever snagged onto this poor guy’s bumper must have run off. Our deepest condolences.