These are 4 enormous trees in Rock Creek Park, but they are super cool because all 4 of the trunks here taper into one single monster momma trunk about 6 feet above the ground. They’re like 4 Siamese quadruplet trees each doin’ their own thing.
This morning I had the honor of attending the funeral of one of my co-worker’s mother. Her mother served as an Air Force Military Nurse and was given a full military funeral at Arlington National Cemetery. It was a truly amazing and moving ceremony complete with the horse-drawn caisson, the bugler playing “taps”, the honor detail folding the flag, and a twenty-one gun salute.
This photo is from a trip we took to to the cemetery but in honor of Memorial Day the Army (I believe) has placed a small American flag in the ground in front of every single tombstone in the cemetery. To put it in scale for those who have not visited, Arlington National Cemetery is the resting place of more than 290,000 of our country’s bravest and covers an area of 624 acres. That is a lot of flags.
The follow-up email from Jackie on yesterday’s post:
well i guess my letter to the man worked. i was contacted by the nationals organization today and a very polite young lady named gwen informed me that what we experienced on tuesday was completely abnormal. she was working that night and agreed that it was absurd. she said that there was a lack of communication and the issue was being resolved. as a consolation to my complaint she has offered me 2 free nationals tickets to any game. since you all had to listen to me bitch (and even posted my bitching) i am offering up the other ticket to whoever gets back to me first. it is for any game, so we’d have to figure that one out.
i guess my faith in the nationals organization has been restored and i thank traci for fishing my hat out of the trashcan at the navy yard metro station. i will wear it cocked to the side proudly again!
oh and there was still no resolution about the hot dogs or peanuts though. she said i’d just have to tough that one out……
There was also a response from Fenty’s people:
Dear Ms. Abraham:
Thank you for writing. This letter is in response to your email received on
May 22, 2008 regarding your negative experience purchasing tickets at the
Washington Nationals stadium. I apologize for any inconvenience this may
have caused you.
Unfortunately, the Washington Nationals does not fall under the purview of
the District Government. You would have to contact the Nationals directly
to lodge you complaint.
Write the Nationals:
Washington Nationals
Nationals Park
1500 South Capitol Street, SE
Washington, DC 20003
Call the Nationals:
202.675.NATS (6287)
Again thank you for writing. Please feel free to write again.
Sincerely,
The Mayor’s Correspondence Unit
Dear Mayor,
I was so excited when major league baseball came back to DC. I applauded
when the former mayor Anthony WIlliams held up his new Nationals jersey
for all the country to see. I was delighted everytime I read about the
progress being made on the new stadium. But last night, I tried to go to
my first Nationals game against a city I hate- Philadelphia (boo eagles go
Skins!). Anyway, I got there about ten minutes before the game started
(7:15) expecting some sort of wait as the game was just starting. What I
encountered were lines everywhere, no one being able to purchase tickets
because every computer was running off of one server, and no one explaining
the situation to anybody! I waited in line for 45 minutes and moved maybe
4 people. I decided to just leave, as I was getting no where except more
and more aggravated. This left a horrible taste in my mouth for the whole
Nationals organization and I told numerous other people waiting in line
that it was fruitless and to just go home. I am no stranger to waiting in
line for things (I come from the era of MD basketball at Cole Field house),
but this ordeal was just horrendous. Also, there were no vendors anywhere
outside the stadium, as I think maybe a hotdog in line or a bag of peanuts
would have made my wait not seem quite so unbearable.
What is being done about this situation?
Thank you for your time,
Jackie, long time fan, first time quitter.
Has anyone else had this problem? We will keep you posted if she receives any sort of answer…
Because Saturday was such a beautiful day we decided our mid-day time would be best spent indoors at a beer festival. This was no ordinary beer fest though, oh no, this was Savor: an American Craft Beer and Food Experience. Savor hosted 48 craft/micro breweries from all around the good ol’ US of A as well as a great sampling of food that was meant to complement the various styles of beer. Held in the very impressive gala space at Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium at 13th and Constitution Savor made for a somewhat “high brow” festival, I suspect that was their goal anyway. The crowd was about 95% male and many from the brewing industry were present. And yes, the guys (or at least one guy who is burnt into my memory) who write for the beer magazines/websites are exactly what you would picture: about 90 lbs over weight, wearing a food stained polo shirt that is trying its damnedest to cover the gut but is only maintaining a half tuck, some scraggly unruly facial hair, and a beer belly that even Homer Simpson would be envious of.
Throughout the weekend Savor held 3 sessions and hosted over 2,100 people. Despite the large crowds it was not hard to work your way up to the various booths to get a sample. Patrons were provided with a dainty 2 oz glass for tasting and many of the representatives from the breweries had pretty liberal pouring policies. Each brewery had 2 beers to sample, so 48 breweries at 2 beers and 2 oz’s equals 192 oz of beer for sampling. This works out to 16 twelve ounce beers and at $85 per ticket we have an approximate per beer cost of $5.31……so it would have been just as costly to belly up to a bar for a few hours.
I’ve always said “the sign of a good beer festival is when you take a nap (read: pass out) afterwards and when you wake up have no idea if it is AM or PM”. Using that as the rubric I would consider Savor a smashing success because I hadn’t the faintest idea if it was morning or night when I woke up at 8 (PM).
Good Morning Washington. Fortunately for the peddlers (myself included this AM) the rain this morning was not the deluge that the doomsday weather forecasters were calling for. I do think they have some strategy in their predictions though. If they told you it was going to be pleasant out and it drizzled everyone would be upset. If they tell you the whole city is going to flood and it drizzles everyone is relieved. Tricky tricky. Now I just need to keep my fingers crossed that the sky doesn’t open up during the 5 o’clock hour for my commute home this evening.
While out on a run during lunch yesterday we noticed that Fort Reno park, directly adjacent to my office, was surrounded with bright orange snowfencing and was being heavily guarded by police, sirens and all. Strange, we thought, considering this is a very popular public park where just the day prior I had seen a group of give or take forty high school age kids involved in flag football, and where the general Tenleytown dog owning populous takes their dogs to play. Point is the place is always filled with kids and dogs. Oh, and there is a below ground reservoir in the park that feeds much of upper Northwest DC. A quick Google search later and I discovered that the park has been closed indefinitely due to high levels of arsenic (up to 25 times the EPA’s “safe” level). As you can well imagine the very do-goodery, socio-political active residents in Tenleytown are none to happy about this. A few years ago similar levels of arsenic where discovered in the Spring Valley neighborhood, just a little way to the west of Tenleytown. You would think that this would have sprung up earlier given a known contamination hot spot not more than a mile from the park.
One of the biggest concerns that area residents appear to be voicing is a concern about the potential cancellation of the annual Fort Reno concert series. This series has hosted some big names in the DC independent/punk music scene over the last 20+ years and for many people it has become a staple summer activity. Hopefully this will resolve itself or they will only quarantine the arsenic area not the entire 33 acre park. All this talk of arsenic reminds me of the distinctive Mr. Yuck stickers that my Dad used to have on stuff in the garage.
Fort Reno is the highest natural point in the District and was the site of DC’s only Civil War battle. I think the tower in my picture has something to do with that…
Juxtaexposed.com, keeping you informed of yesterday’s news.
I love old signs that are still around, especially funny ones. This applies to anything with “-est” statements. “Coldest beer in town!” or Danny’s Sub Shop “Greatest Hamburger in the World.” Completely unverified statements do make really great slogans. Makes you wonder, hmmm, do they really have the coldest refrigerator?
This morning I fought off my hangover with an hour and a half photo walk-about in NoMA. This developing neighborhood gave me plenty of “urban decay” fodder. The favorite thing that I came across this morning was this converted school bus that now serves as a mobile ribs stand. This was parked in a liquor store (which also has a very funny sign) parking lot right next to the Metro/AMTRAK tracks and I have a feeling that this must be delicious. The bottom right corner of the sign says “I’m as good as the best and better than the rest”. It is on the sign so it must be true. My job site is just on the other side of these tracks so once I get the courage up I’m going to give it a shot. I’ll be sure to report back, this might just be the next big thing in…ummm…food that is served in a ghetto rigged yellow school bus…or something.
Here are the rest of my shots from the stroll.
It’s official! We are both participating in the Nation’s Triathlon as part of Team in Training, which supports The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) in finding cures for cancer. Our goal is to raise $2400 each by race time in September, so we will need all the help we can get! If you want to support us, you can donate online at our training pages:
Merriam Webster defines Neutral as:
1: not engaged on either side; specifically : not aligned with a political or ideological grouping
2: of or relating to a neutral state or power
3 not decided or pronounced as to characteristics
4: produced with the tongue in the position it has when at rest
While I don’t know that these definitions apply to the Swiss Embassy Residence in NW DC, the designers responsible for this elegant structure most certainly managed to make a dynamic composition using neutral colors and basic forms. Designed by Steven Holl Architects and completed in 2006 the Swiss Embassy Residence takes on the iconic form of the Swiss Cross and sets up dramatic view from its back patio down to the Washington Monument.
The primary elements of the buildings are rough formed charcoal colored concrete walls, structural frosted channeled glass, and more traditional clear glazed windows. The materiality was chosen to evoke images of the dark stones and and frosted tips of the Swiss Alps. Unfortunately I can not speak from experience to opine if this was successfully done but the whole structure did feel vaguely alpine.
I attended a garden party tonight here for the American Institute of Architects DC awards ceremony. My time at the Residence ended before nightfall but as I understand it the character of the building changes dramatically at night when the openings behind the frosted glass walls begins to glow and the massive, dark concrete walls fall out of site. The Residence can’t be more than a mile from my apartment so I think I’ll make it a point to swing by an try to get a glimpse one evening.
The Swiss Embassy Residence is located on Cathedral Ave NW between Conneticut Ave and Wisconsin Ave. It is easily visible from the street and worth a look if you are in the area.
Here are my other shots from the event.
Tonight we finished the infrastructure of my display at Artomatic. I was unable to get to the site selection process early enough to get one of the true walls that were reserved for the 2-D artists and was asked to be “creative” with my display area. I ended up grabbing a smallish wall that was divided a 10′ wide window. After looking at things for a bit I decided that there wasn’t going to be enough true wall area to display my photos how I wanted to….so I decided to build more. After toying with the idea of a rather complicated wire/tension system I opted to go with a grid of 2×4’s which seemed a bit easier. Lori was so excited that we finished the wall that she decided to do some star jumps.
But as with any issue that involves change and money, there has been opposition from both riders and cabbies to either system. The drivers argue that they will be making much less $ with the new meters. The Washington Post even created a taxi fare estimator under the new and old systems, so you can calculate your routes to see if you will save money or have to fork over more. I guess in the next few weeks it will be interesting to see how many taxi cabs are complying with the new law. By June 1st, the city is supposed to start fining those cabs that are non-compliant — $1,000 bucks for no meter.
The main point here is that every taxi that passes will continue to HONK at me and every other pedestrian as they drive by, as if we are all simultaneously unaware of both their presence and our own needs for a taxi at that exact moment. uh- Hello! That’s why people put their hands up if they need to flag you down. One hand up and waving in your direction–I think that’s universal for “I need a taxi.” Walking down the sidewalk and not looking at you–well that’s just called being a live person with legs. The greatest comedian ever Mitch Hedberg said this best: “I think we should only get 3 honks a month on the car horn, because people honk the car horn too much… 3 honks, that’s the limit. And then someone cuts you off, you press your horn, nothing happens. You’re like, “crap, I wish I wouldn’t have seen Ricky on the sidewalk” “
And so the same would go for taxis, only 3 honks a months and the city would be a little quieter.