Signalized?!

Originally uploaded by tbridge.

Tiff and I did go hang out with Wayan down at the Fox & Hounds on 17th tonight, partaking in their incredibly crowded patio and deliciously cheap beer, but it came time for us to scurry back across the Potomac before the night watch looked upon us Northern Virginians with significant disdain and clapped us in irons.

We headed to Listrani’s in Courthouse and dealt with the incredible mess that is parking on Friday a night. The pizza, as usual, was excellent (clearly these are a people that understand the proper proportion of cheese.), but as we were headed back to our car, we ran across this new sign on Wilson Blvd just west of Veitch.

A signalized pedestrian crossing?! Are we making up words now?

you should be here now

Its patio party time right now in DC. Where are you? Outside and drunk?

You should be!

photo courtesy of Kanko

If you’re planning on coming out to peep at the blossoms this weekend you might want to make it Saturday rather than Sunday. As early as 7am on Sunday there’s going to be a good amount of street closing and parking prohibited in preperation for the Cherry Blossom 10 mile run. Among the closings and restrictions will be Independence Avenue, Rock Creek Parkway, Ohio Drive and Memorial Bridge. The route map for the run can be found here, but you can be sure an area around that will also be highly congested if not closed off. You can try to get before the closings for spaces at Hanes Point or the like, but volunteers will be arriving as early as 6am. (they have a 6 am too?)

No, really, seriously, it’s a great day to be an Oriole.

Anna Benson caught her husband Kris cheating on her. That’s the reason for the divorce.

Oh, damn I wish I was a ballboy in Baltimore…

What’s bad for Kris Benson could be good for new teammates Miguel Tejada, Melvin Mora and the rest of the O’s. Anna Benson once vowed to sleep with every one of her husband’s teammates if she caught him in the sack with another woman. “I told him, ‘Cheat on me all you want.’ If you get caught, I’m going to [have sex with] everybody on your entire team,” she told Howard Stern on his radio show in 2004. “Everyone would get a turn.”

Cynthia McKinney may be in an awful lot of trouble for striking that police officer early in the week. See, the Capitol Police are putting out a warrant for her arrest now. She could be facing a felony count for assaulting an officer. All because Rep. McKinney left her pin at home. McKinney has said she regrets the incident but I’m pretty sure she hasn’t apologized, because the original incident according to Lloyd Grove was:

Rep. Cynthia McKinney’s “original” statement about her run-in with a Capitol Hill officer said, “It is… a shame that while I conduct the country’s business, I have to stop and call the police to tell them that I’ve changed my hairstyle so that I’m not harassed at work.”

And those guys at Wonkette have figured out that she cannot be arrested while Congress is sitting…

Oh the crazy controversies…

patio party day

It is Friday. It is a beautiful spring day. It is patio party time!

Make your plans now, experience says places with patios will be packed by 5:01pm. Us here at Metroblogging DC are headed to the 17th Street strip. There, patio bars are aplenty.

I should know, I have patio party time there often.

photo courtesy of -bartimaeus-

C’mon Gurus, you’re my go-to source for so many things, where’s your annual outdoor bar listings? We’ve known for days that the weather was going to be wicked awesome and you give me… sports bars? Yeah yeah, I’m happy about GMU too, but that’s tomorrow’s beer! Am I going to have to rely on the lame list on the AOL city guide? The Reef? Carpool? Cantina Marina would beat either of those, and that’s just off the top of my head.

photo from the 2005 debut

Then you had better practice your moves today, because auditions to be a Redskins cheerleader start tomorrow. The requirements are deceptively simple for what’s gotta be a hard (if not the most mentally stimulating) job – be 18, in good health (ahem), have your own transportation, a high school diploma or GED and be either in school full-time, employed at least part-time, or “have a family.”

Don’t count on the gig to pay for those implants, though – the $75 per game they pay doesn’t stretch far. It’s probably not a good way to get close to that player you’ve had the hots for either. Officially at least, fraternization is forbidden and violating that rule will get you canned.

As far as the rest of us, April 8th is the day to pencil into your day planner. That’s the final day of auditions, which are open to the public and at the Tyson’s Corner Center. Don’t forget your bib.

Back when the Orioles traded for Anna, er, Kris Benson in January, I predicted either a complete nutjob, or the happiest Orioles clubhouse ever. Well, turns out the whole thing’s a wash, as Anna Benson filed for divorce. However, this does mean that all of Baltimore now actually has a pretty solid chance with Anna, especially if you’re a ballboy.

Wait, you haven’t seen Anna yet? Pity.

The O’s are in town tonight at RFK, and tickets are still available if you’re interested.

You, Me, EKG

Today I went for my annual physical, and as you can see, even got an EKG. While discussing my adventuress with alcohol and wounds from dancing with toro El Tamarindo my doctor, Dr. Bruce S Rashbaum, said I have a heart murmur. I was stressing about it until he told me to chill and said I am HIV-free.

Discussing my joy to be virus clean, Dr. Rashbaum took an odd tangent. He said that HIV today is not like it was 10 years ago. Now it’s more a chronic disease than a killer, diabetes not a death sentence. Wait, check that.

He said that if he had to pick between the two, HIV would be easier to manage and live with than diabetes. That somehow a blood sugar deficiency is worse than an immune deficiency.

Now that is a novel statement, what with all the sex = death hype that HIV gets in this town. Might Dr. Rashbaum be on to something here, or should I be worried about that murmur more than he let on?