Tag: dc

  1. Weekend in review: Persephone's Ball 2007.

    16 April 2007

    A couple of weeks ago Lyssa and I hooked up with House Eclipse to buy seats at a second table at Persephone's Ball 2007, the annual fundraising dinner held by the Open Hearth Foundation in their effort to set up a community center for the pagan community of the Washington, DC metropolitan area. They've been at this for almost ten years now; I've been keeping my eye on it for about five but this is the first time that I've ever participated in one of their functions. We weren't sure what our schedule was going to be like on Saturday …

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  2. This says a lot about life these days.

    09 April 2007

    A semi-common sight in DC are street musicians, people who stand on street corners or sit just inside the entrances of Metrorail stations and play instruments of one sort or another. Every once in a while you'll see one within spitting distance of an office building, something that has become a bit more rare since 9/11 since physical security has become such a big deal in this country. Most people don't even stop to listen to them because they're too busy doing what they need to do to keep their lives running smoothly, which seems to consist of running …

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  3. Snowed in for the second time this month, and this time it's not so bad. (out of order stream of consciousness post)

    25 February 2007

    I knew that something was going to happen when I spoke to my mom, and she mentioned getting ready for an ice storm in Pittsburgh on Saturday night.

    That meant only one thing: It was headed toward DC.

    Early this morning, I was awakened by the sound of snowflakes merrily ticking against the window above the bed that Lyssa and I share. Some time after we went to bed last night, the ice storm arrived in DC and the snow began to fall.

    And fall.

    And fall.

    The local weather report says that we're looking and three to six inches …

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  4. Post-ice storm vehicle repairs.

    20 February 2007

    In my almost-but-not-quite-there state yesterday, I managed to get the TARDIS down to the dealership for repairs. As I mentioned earlier, in the ice storm in DC last week, I managed to damage a couple of components in the undercarriage of my car.

    First off, my car was about six thousand miles (!) overdue for maintenance and winterisation, which I take the blame for because I could probably have done so back in December of 2006 before the holiday season really set in. I know that my car was overdue for an oil change as well as a basic go-over. Due …

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  5. Yeah, it is Valentine's Day, isn't it?

    14 February 2007

    As one would surmise, it's Valentine's Day, so Lyssa and I had planned to go to a local restaurant (the Sweetwater Tavern) for dinner to celebrate after work tonight. Little did we realise that it would turn into something of an adventure right from the outset.

    As I wrote earlier today, DC was hit by what was considered a major ice storm last night, and temperatures continue to fall. Not only does this mean that roadways transformed into ice skating rinks (which eventually caused the shutdown of part of the outer loop of the beltway today due to a multi-car …

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  6. It seems that we got very lucky last night

    14 February 2007

    Around 0000 EST/EDT today (just before going to bed) we lost power for a couple of minutes. The UPSes in the apartment took up the slack, but it's always worrisome when it's cold as all get out and the power dies. It came back on a few minutes later but not everyone was so lucky around here - over 120,000 homes are still without power due to the ice storm last night. MAT (Maryland Authority Transit) has shut down for the day due to the ice.

    I can see out of my office window that at least one school …

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  7. You know it's bad when the federal government has a longer delay than the schools.

    14 February 2007

    DC is a winter wonderland - as the title implies, the US government is on a two hour delay following an all-night ice storm that's left everything buried underneath an inch of solid ice. The beltway, from my vantage point at home, is moving at a nice clip for a change, but that's because there are so few cars on it this morning; normally it's bumper to bumper now you can actually see measurable gaps between them. As you might have guessed I'm working from home today because I can't make it to the Metro station without risking life, limb, and …

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